The snowsports membership organisation, The Ski Club of Great Britain, has announced a partnership with renowned ski school Evolution 2, to offer a new instructor-led guiding service for their members in France.
The partnership, which will operate in 11 French resorts, will see instructors from Evolution 2 offering a regular ski programme of at least three sessions a week designed to suit a variety of member standards, adapted to their needs and snow conditions. As fully qualified instructors under French law, they will be able to lead, guide and instruct.
The Ski Club operated its own unique Leading service – a group of volunteer members who ski and socialise with other Ski Club members – in 11 French resorts until last year. However, because of the recent, and well-publicised, court case surrounding the legality of the Leader’s volunteer status in France they have been unable to continue to operate this service. Last season the Club replaced this with Ambassadors – Ski Club Leaders who socialised with members in resort but did not ski with them.
There will be no changes to the Leader programmes that the Ski Club operates as part of their Freshtracks holidays and in the other 17 resorts across Europe and North America.
The Evolution 2 instructors assigned to the new service will complete training on the SkiClub’s purpose, values and commitments as well as the logistics of running a session and what’s expected from members and the Ski Club. They will both ski and socialise with members, running regular social hours in all resorts and events in the more popular ones. This retains the value and benefits of the Ski Club Leader programme previously run in France, with the additional benefit of skiing with a qualified instructor.
The new instructor-led guiding service with Evolution 2 will be rolled out in Alpe d’Huez, Argentière, Avoriaz, Courchevel, Flaine, La Plagne, Méribel, Les Arcs, Tignes, Val d'Isère and Val Thorens.
The new programme will be funded by the Ski Club. Members can secure their place by paying a nominal booking fee of £10 for the half day session’s and £20 for a full day. This will contribute towards the additional administration costs in providing this service to members.
Frank McCusker, CEO of the Ski Club said: “We are delighted to be partnering with Evolution 2 to offer this new instructor-led guiding service for our members, bringing back the ‘skiing with the Club’ element which we all know is a highly regarded member benefit. Evolution 2 is a renowned ski school with an excellent reputation that shares our passion and vision of creating the best on snow experiences for our members.
“A huge thank you goes to our Club Leaders who provided the Ambassador service in resort last year with the spirit that we see in all our Leaders. We are determined to continue to fight our status in the French courts but we see this as a hugely positive solution in the interim for our members to enjoy the full benefits of the Ski Club.”
Hervé Favre, Founder of Evolution 2 commented: "Evolution 2 and the Ski Club of Great Britain have known each other and worked together for many years and so we are delighted to be working even closer together on the new and exciting look of The Ski Club in France. The changes facing the Ski Club’s Leader service in France may be a departure from the norm for many members, but it provides an excellent opportunity for members to improve their skiing and mountain safety awareness through the wisdom and knowledge that will passed onto them from our Evolution 2 professionals.
“This new instructor-led guiding service provides another great reason for UK skiers and snowboarders to join the Ski Club and take advantage of this unique opportunity. We can’t wait to start welcoming Ski Club members in France this upcoming winter."
