Skiing

I offer ski coaching in Champoluc, in the Monterosa mountain range in northern Italy and in Avoriaz in the Portes du Solei, France. You can book me for private coaching sessions by the day in Avoriaz and Champoluc or join me on one of my ski weeks in Champoluc.

Private coaching is ideal for those who are keen to improve their skiing skills, build confidence in a personal and focused session. Your own skiing goals will help influence the coaching and where we ski, I will help you recognise what you wish to achieve from your skiing.

There’s a lot happening each winter in Champoluc, more details from Monterosa Ski here.

My skiing weeks are great fun and excellent for developing your skiing over the whole mountain. You will learn how to maintain a focused mind set, believe in your skiing capabilities and reduce your over thinking.

We ski together for 5 days, learning in the companionship of others and savouring the wonderful slopes and views of the Monterosa mountains.

Private Coaching

For skiers who want private coaching John can be booked by the day. Most skiers will have skied for at least one week previously. If you are a blue piste skier John can help you improve your skiing and build confidence. Red piste skiers will be able to explore the entire Monterosa ski area in one day. Black piste skiers can take on the extensive off piste available in the vast Monterosa.

Mindful Skiing ‘Freedom’

The Mindful Skiing ‘Freedom’ experience is offered by the week and daily, to suit your available time. These are for all levels of skier and well suited to the piste skier who is open to different ways of experiencing skiing and seeks to think less, build confidence. And improve their skiing. Hire John for an individual or a group at a time and date which suits your schedule. Let us know your requirements through our contact form and we’ll see if John is available when you wish.

Off-piste ‘Further’

Our off-piste ‘Further’ weeks where the group, a maximum 8 people, are led and coached to take in the entire Monterosa lift accessed back country. We ski from a height of just over 3000m to the village at 1600m, so big vertical descents are a daily occurrence. These weeks are pre-booked and cater for singles so you will find like-minded buddies to go off piste with.

Ski Touring ‘Journeys’

Our Ski Touring ‘Journeys’ are week long and take place in the main touring season, April and May. The Monterosa range is well known in touring circles and there are numerous high Alpine Refuges which cater for the journeying skiers. Using skins and some uplift we travel through the mountains with overnight stays in mountain Refuges. There are two of these weeks planned for Monterosa and one week in the Valmalenco region of Italy.

Approaches

Adventures in Skiing by Paul Unwin

John Arnold has been teaching, guiding and exploring skiing for thirty years. A fully qualified international ski teacher and coach his experience covers all types and levels of skiing.

John is also a qualified meditation and mindfulness teacher.

It is this rare mix of skills, and passions, that defines Further.

“I first met John ten years ago. He was leading a motley gang of medium experienced skiers on their first off-piste adventure. Within hours it was clear he was something special as he had us skiing through a rock cave, sliding down a gulley, and all of us emerging bonded, elated, excited…”

A day, a long weekend, or a week with John will take any level of skier to a new and unexpected standard.

John Arnold’s methods – although firmly based on a deep practical knowledge of all types of skiing – are exciting and different.

“We were skiing when the fog suddenly came in. Everything – including our skis – disappeared. Laughing John gathered the ten of us together and declared that we should ski with our eyes shut! We couldn’t see much anyway, he grinned. So, we all skied down a few hundred meters with our eyes firmly shut. John didn’t just use the fog to help our confidence he also used it to teach us to ski with what we felt…”

John’s teaching is based on feeling at one with the mountain, the environment, and the ‘inner skier’ skiing from the ‘inside out’ as it were.

Rather than encouraging his skiers to focus technically, everything John teaches is about ‘opening up’, enjoying the unique wonder of the mountains, and doing that from a profound sense of calm and relaxation.

“I’m sixty and only first went on skis when I was forty. It very soon became clear that my husband and two children were braver, better, more adventurous skiers than me… or so I thought. And every time we went on a skiing holiday I dreaded it more and more.

Then one afternoon I joined a class John was taking. I was nervous as the others all seemed so proficient but John managed to get us all together and without my noticing it changed my skiing for life. Two days later I was racing my husband, eagerly looking at the snow reports and trying to work out when we could ski again… “

DIFFERENT, FROM EXPERIENCE

John’s methods are different but they are also rooted in experience.

He has some very simple core beliefs:

Skiing must be fun.

Skiing must celebrate being in the mountains.

Skiing can be a challenge, but only to take the skier further; not to make anyone uncomfortable.

Skiing is a journey.

Skiing is a sport but with John it is also a unique pleasure. John’s focus is to liberate his skiers and encourage them to engage their body, mind, even spirit. This is not earnest but playful and fun.

“We were once skiing in a small party with John. Gradually we noticed other skiers joining our group. By the end of the day, ten skiers – all of very different standards – were with us. John felt like the pied piper.”

As fun is so high on John’s agenda, even technical exercises – when to change weight, for example – are playfully taught and, for the more adventurous, going deeply off-piste is very carefully managed but in the same spirit.

John talks of the mountains as a beautiful playground. His knowledge of snow, history, the region is second to none. Often, he will stop, get his skiers into a huddle, simply to breathe in the mountain air or admire a stupendous view.

John will ski almost anything. A back route into the village can be as much fun as couloir only accessed by a hike. Because of John’s experience he guides skiers who either are very experienced or new to off-piste routes with genuine care. He pushes, encourages, but never intimidates.

Every day with John is a journey. Even very new skiers will soon find themselves going further afield. By travelling, by enjoying the journey, John is not only teaching the skier he is also celebrating the whole mountain, the whole skier.

HOW?

John helps his skiers engage their bodies. This can be simple exercises on the slopes: they can be tactile experiences – consider how the snow changes under the ski, listen to the sound it makes, feel the vibration as the pressure on the ski changes.

They can be physical exercises: play with shifting weight back and forward, side to side. Enjoy edging the ski, trying simply skiing in a straight-line. There is much exploration, connecting with what the body is doing and going gentle on over thinking. His instructions are aimed at telling you what do rather than how to do it.

He will encourage the skier to understand and to be curious, to embrace the effects of body actions and mind attitudes on performance. For the beginner, this can be as simple as using the skis edge, for the most experienced it will be a challenge to long entrenched habits.

Whatever else, John’s strategy is to encourage his skiers to understand, to feel and become aware.

“I had been skiing for many years. My default position was to have my knees bent, my weight held by my haunches. Suddenly John showed me – helped me discover – that skiing would be easier, more enjoyable, simply by straightening my leg into a weight change. Simple? Sure. Effective? Transforming.”

John is also interested in the mind and spirit. When the snow goes, he leads mountain yoga, meditation and mindfulness courses.

On the slopes, with skiers, John encourages a sense of being ‘in the moment’. This is practical rather than whimsical.

So, John will talk about breathing, he will talk about allowing the mind to focus, he will talk about freeing the skier from distraction.

“We were skiing with John in a blizzard. Everyone was tired, cold and possibly a little frightened. John got us together and grinning asked us to simply trust him and focus on ourselves. Breathe, be calm, enjoy, was all he had to say. It wasn’t major, it wasn’t radical but when we got to the tiny log cabin-café we were heading to everyone felt happy, and relaxed.”

Further skiing weeks are offered throughout the season based from Champoluc in the Monterosa Ski. John can also be booked by the day or multiple days for yourself and your friends.

Get in touch directly if this is your preference and you will soon begin and adventure…an adventure that will take you and your skiing further.

Private Coaching Mindful Skiing ‘Freedom’ Off-piste ‘Further’ Ski Touring ‘Journeys’