For those not used to skiing or coming from countries without cold winters, you will need to wear considerably more clothing than you would perhaps be accustomed.
Wearing lots of layers is best as these trap warm air between them. Having lots of layers will give more options to adjust to changes in the weather. If it is warm you can shed a layer or two, conversely if it gets cold you can add layers.

It is best to avoid fabrics like cotton that absorb lots of water. Fabrics saturated with water will likely freeze on very cold days and water takes considerable amounts of energy from your body to heat. Wearing such fabrics will result in feeling much colder and could eventually lead to conditions such as hypothermia.
Instead wearing fabrics such as merino wool or synthetic fabrics like polypropylene that absorb less water will result in you staying drier and warmer.

It is best to start with thin base layers next to the skin. These wick moisture away. On top  of this base layer use heavier mid layers, then fleece, down or synthetic equivalent garments and finally waterproof & windproof shell jacket and ski pants.

Hands should be kept warm with either mittens or gloves. Mittens are warmer than gloves, but gloves give more dexterity. Whichever you decide they should be good quality and have good padding to provide insulation for the hands.

A helmet or hat is needed to cover your head. We would recommend a helmet as this will also provide a degree of head protection in the event of a fall.

Sunlight will reflect off the snow, so sunglasses or goggles are essential to provide eye protection. For the same reason sunscreen is also very strongly recommended.

Lessons are sold on a first come first served basis (like hotel rooms & airline flights).

For busy periods such Xmas, New Years and Chinese New Years holidays booking well in advance is highly recommended.
These periods sell out quickly with many of our guests booking up to a year in advance. Around 80% of our lessons for these periods are already sold by late September.

For non peak holiday periods we tend to still have availability closer to the lesson period, however prior booking is still recommended.

We tend to sell out quickly and walk in guests are often faced with us already being fully booked.
During the off peak parts of the season, we do sometimes have some limited availability for guests turning up at the start of their holidays enquiring about availability. However if you want to ensure that you get your lessons then prior booking is definitely advised.

In a lesson with only one individual, the lesson is delivered at a pace and in a manner tailored to their specific needs and wishes. In particular the terrain can be chosen to optimally allow them to acquire the skills being developed.

As the number of individuals increases in the lesson, so the lesson increasingly becomes a compromise of what is best for the group as a whole.

With this in mind, lessons with lots of people work best when the group is as homogeneous as possible. Similar ability, goals, speed and experienced at skiing similar terrain and pitches.

Once you start having differences in goals, ability, speed, comfort level on slopes etc the lesson starts to become less enjoyable for everyone. The greater those differences, the greater the impact on the participants.  In lessons where there is a split in terms of ability, the instructor must for safety reasons base the whole lesson around the person with lowest level of ability. An expert skier/ rider can get down an easy slope or reduce speed to match a slower individual. If however you take a beginner and try to force them down a steep run or increase the speed beyond what they are technical able to cope with, the risk of injury to that person escalates at an alarming rate. For this reason, the instructor will stay on the appropriate terrain and at an appropriate speed for the person/people in the group with the lowest ability. The instructor would then have to give tasks to those of higher ability to occupy and challenge them at slower speed and shallower slopes than they would normally prefer.

The more advanced members of the group often get frustrated at the slow pace and the less advanced members start to feel pressure from the advanced members frustration, feeling they are expected to hurry up or offer to ski/ride steeper terrain . This does not create the best learning environment and these mixed ability lessons only work if the advanced members accept they will need to ski/ride at the speed and on the appropriate terrain for the others.

For the reasons above, we would normally attempt to discourage anyone other than close family/spouse/ best friends etc from taking lessons with a large split in ability. Obviously, In some cases such lessons do work well and if that is really what you desire, then once we have forewarned you of possible difficulties in this lesson type we will of course allow you to make such bookings.

Another option when dealing with a split in ability would be to book a longer lesson and split the time between the ability levels. This then would allow the instructor to focus solely on the individuals presently being taught and use appropriate terrain, pacing etc. For example if you had booked a 5hr lesson, the first timer in the party may take the fist couple of hours to get started and moving. The expert and the intermediate skiers or riders could use this time to warm up. The expert could go for an hour get some pointers and then let the intermediate skier/riders  take the last couple of hours. This is an example and you may wish to split your lesson time differently. We allow up to 5 people in a lesson.

The first things to consider when thinking about ski lessons are firstly your desired goals for the lessons and secondly your budget.

Children and adults tend to have differing preferences for delivery of information and pacing of the lesson.
Adults tend to want detailed explanations of what they attempting, the benefits and how to go about achieving success at the task. They want to attempt, and get frequent feedback on perfecting the task at hand.
Children on the other hand tend to get impatient with lengthy aural communication. They prefer to be given a task and learn by trial and error while attempting the task. They like to keep moving and want the lesson to be dominated by practice time.
This difference in desired communication styles and pace of delivery can often lead to frustration for the individuals involved. Children often get bored in lessons geared towards adults. Conversely, adults often leave lessons focused on children with many unanswered questions feeling they didn’t learn a great deal.
To add to this confusion, children go through stages of development as they grow in terms of their physical, mental and emotional capabilities. A 13 year old would want a very different lesson to a 3 year old of the same ability.
In order for your lesson to be successful you then need to consider the goals of the individuals involved.

Goals

People book ski and snowboard lessons with very different desires.

For example: Is the primary goal the acquisition of skills or perhaps something else like a family experience?
Some parents want to hang out in a lesson with the primary focus of watching their kids progress, others want to have the whole family become as proficient as possible.

If learning to ski or snowboard is the primary focus then optimally the fewer people in the lesson and the closer they are in age and ability the better.
Children and adults should be in separate classes and everyone should be in either individual lessons or grouped in the same abilities.

In the situation where the parents want to make it a family experience and care less about learning and progression, a family private would work.
The parents and children share the lesson and everyone accepts the diminished rate of skill acquisition as the price to pay to enjoy each others company.
If your kids enjoy doing things with you and are patient in nature this could work well, if however your children easily get bored hanging out with you then this is not your best option.

Budget
Once you have decided what your goals are, next you need to consider the budget you have set aside for the lessons.

If learning is the primary focus then, in an ideal world taking lessons individually is the best option.
This allows the lesson to be focused solely on the individual and their desired goals, the delivery and pacing of the lesson is then tailored to the individual.

Although optimal, this however can prove costly if traveling with a large number of individuals. If taking individual lessons is outside of the planned budget then the next best thing is to organize the party into groups of individuals of the same ability and similar ages and goals.
Each specific group then takes a lesson to work on their needs. If this still falls outside the desired budget then taking a cheaper longer lesson and then splitting the time between the various groups could work. For example: Grandma who is a beginner does the first hour, the intermediate kids do the next two and the adult experts do the last two hours of a five hour lesson.

If the primary focus is being together in a family unit then you can just organize lessons based on the time frame desired up to a maximum of 5 people in the class.

Skiing and snowboarding although sharing many characteristics are two separate sports.

Combining them in a lesson would be similar to taking a golf lesson and having someone with a tennis racquet and  balls turn up (Again there are similarities… both involve hitting a ball with an object).

We do have instructors qualified to teach both (just as there are some golf coaches who can teach tennis). In the tennis/golf analogy, you could hit a tennis ball with a racquet around a golf course. In the same manner skiers and snowboarders can ride together down the slope and enjoy each others company.

The problem in a lesson environment however comes when the instructor needs to present a skill to develop. The instructor will do this by describing the desired outcome and combine this with a visual demonstration. Even if the instructor can ski and snowboard, they can physically only wear one set of equipment at a time (either skis or a snowboard). If they wear skis then any skiers in the group will benefit from both aural explanations and demonstrations, whereas snowboarders in the group will only be able to get an aural explanation as the instructor will be unable to perform a snowboard demonstration on skis. If the instructor is wearing a snowboard then the snowboarders would benefit from explanations and demonstrations and this time the skiers will be disadvantaged.

As one group (skiers or snowboarders) are disadvantaged by sharing a lesson we try to discourage people from booking such lessons. Obviously we understand there may be situations where someone wants to accompany those in the lesson on different equipment but doesn’t necessarily want to be taught themselves.

Off-piste refers to terrain with un-groomed snow both outside and within the ski area boundary. It refers to snow that has been left in its natural state and the conditions vary depending on the recent weather conditions and volume of skiers and boarders that have been there before. You could get conditions ranging from powder to icy. It is these variations in conditions and the challenges associated with successfully navigating them that makes off-piste skiing and snowboarding fun for expert skiers and riders.

 

Off-piste within the ski area boundary

Terrain within the ski area is controlled for safety by ski patrol.
The work carried out by ski patrol significantly reduces the risk of avalanches off-piste within the ski area boundary.
The off-piste within the ski area boundary is patrolled by ski patrol and they will come to your rescue should the need arise.
Most travel insurance policies for skiing also cover you for accidents, medical and rescue costs for incidents that occur within the ski area boundary (Check your policy).

As a ski school operating on the ski area, we are able to offer lessons to develop skills for off-piste skiing/riding and take you to off-piste areas within the ski area boundary. These skills will allow you to deal with off-piste snow both in and out of the ski area.  Our current insurance policy however,  does not cover us to take you into the back-country. If you wish to go back-country, we recommend contacting back-country guiding companies.

 

Off-piste in the back-country
Back-country refers to off-piste terrain outside of the ski area. This terrain is not controlled by ski patrol and has substantial avalanche danger associated with navigation through such terrain.
Appropriate avalanche specific equipment should be carried in case of an avalanche occurring. Knowledge how to use this equipment is essential and people venturing into back-country terrain should have attended training courses to gain the knowledge needed. Individuals and groups that haven’t attended such courses should seek qualified back-country guides to lead and navigate them through the terrain.
Even those with the necessary knowledge and experience should consider using local guides to guide them as detailed knowledge of the terrain, preceding snow pack & weather conditions for the entire winter season preceding your trip is required to make better decisions regarding the condition of the snow.
Most insurance policies do not cover skiing and snowboarding in the back-country, unless you specifically seek insurance that deals with it.
Ski Patrol also will not rescue you from outside the ski area and rescue costs for search and rescue parties, helicopters etc can run into substantial amounts that you will be required to cover if your insurance doesn’t.

Back-country skiing and snowboarding is very rewarding and worth investing the time and effort required to gain the skills and knowledge.

Going into the back-country should be a serious undertaking and we strongly urge that you seek advice from reputable guiding companies. Many exceptional guiding companies are available with highly qualified and experienced guides. These companies will also be covered with the appropriate insurance.

Once you decide to book having first confirmed with us that we have availability for your lesson/s at a specific time & date.
Our next step is to arrange payment. This is normally done by us sending you a request for payment through Paypal.
Once you receive this request, you will be able to either pay by credit card without having to sign up for Paypal, or if you do sign up then you will be given a variety of payment options that are available to individuals with Paypal accounts.
Once we receive payment your booking will be confirmed and we will send through your lesson confirmation.

We prefer to use Paypal because of the security it gives our customers. Paypal is a major international company that specializes in online payment and so needs to take cyber security very seriously. Their team of experts constantly monitor and update to ensure that your online payment is as safe as possible. This allows our customers to benefit from Paypal security and have a safer experience than a cart attached to our website.

We also can accept bank transfers if for some reason you would prefer that over Paypal, however in this case we would expect customers to cover the transaction fees.
We do not accept cash for lessons booked in advance.

For those walking into our office attempting to get lessons at the last minute.
If we do have lessons available, we do have a credit card terminal in our office and can take payment by card or cash. Our office is located on the top floor of the Kitanomine Gondola Builing and is open 08:30-16:00 during the Furano ski season