Slope safety: what I check before we start

Safety is not an extra part of a ski lesson. It decides the pace of learning, the quality of exercises and the student's responsibility on the slope.

A lesson starts with organisation

The most common mistake is poor organisation: the wrong place for practice, no warm-up, a route that does not match the level or missing dangerous spots.

Before a task, I explain where we practise, where we stop, which way we go down and what the student should not do without a signal.

I match the task to the student

Knowing an exercise is not enough. I need to watch whether the student is afraid of risk or takes risk too easily. Both situations change how I run the lesson.

Safety checklist

• the student knows where to practise and where to stop
• the task is not above the student's ability
• I know how to call for help in this place
• the group has a safe stopping point