Choosing a resort
The best resorts for beginners are those that have wide gentle slopes which are easily accessible or that have specific designated areas for beginners. The latter means you won’t have crowds of skiers passing you at breakneck speeds and knocking your confidence while you are trying to learn the ropes.

Lessons
There is no doubt about it ski lessons are indispensible, good tuition can help enormously with both your technique and confidence on the slopes. Most resorts offer a variety of tuition so you can choose from one-on-one lessons, group lessons or ski clinics. Which one you choose depends entirely on how frequently you want a class and how much you want to spend. Most resorts also offer specific ski schools for children. The worst thing when you are learning to ski is miscommunication so it is advisable to choose a snowboard school which English-speaking instructors.

Preparing for your holiday
Skiing is physically demanding and to help prevent injury on the slopes you should begin to prepare your body, by doing exercises, well in advance of your holiday. Your legs are going to be under a lot of pressure when you’re skiing and squats are a great way to strengthen your leg muscles in preparation for this. You can also increase your endurance by cycling. While most gyms off special ski holiday classes focused entirely on preparing your body for skiing. It can also be beneficial to use a local dry-ski slope so you can learn the basic techniques of skiing so that you’re not completely dumbfounded when you hit the slopes for first time.

Sound easy? Unfortunately when many first-timers start to move their skis towards each other they then cross on top of each other and you end up in a tangled mess on the floor. Just remember practice makes perfect.

Stopping
Once you’ve mastered the snowplow it will hopefully be easy to stop. The snowplow controls your speed, the more parallel your skis are the faster you will head down the mountain faster. Therefore in order to stop you just need to make a wide snowplow with slightly more tilt on your skis.

Falling and getting up again
It is inevitable, you will fall! But when you do, don’t get disheartened it happens to the best of us. Try to fall backwards or uphill, in other words try to land on your bottom, it will cushion your landing. Next comes to tricky part, getting back up again, especially if you are trying to get up with your skis still attached. Tuck your skis as close to your bottom as you can and then push yourself onto your feet from a squatting position. It is exhausting and can be frustrating, so if you are really struggling get a friend or instructor to help you.

Turning is hard to explain because it is pretty instinctive. However there are some basics to help you get started. Firstly you will need to turn with more weight on your outside foot, so if you want to turn left put your weight on your right foot. Secondly make sure you turn your body in the direction of the turn. Sound complicated? It is actually much easier than it sounds.

Using the lifts
Getting to grips with the chairlift can be nerve-wracking for any beginner. The best lifts for novices are gondolas and high-speed chairs that virtually stop to allow you to get off.  Drag and T-bars are a complete nightmare for a beginner.

This is a guest article by Bethan Borrett who is passionate about winter and summer sports. She writes for several ski websites including catered ski chalets and last minute ski deals.