How It Started 

Alan’s ski career started by going up instead of down, as his initial job was teaching climbing and mountaineering in Wales – teaching has always been part of his life, as he started out as a school teacher even earlier on. From Wales, Alan made his way to the Alps where he realised that along with climbing, he had to learn how to ski and this is when his career in skiing started. As Alan said, “back then there weren’t a lot of people who knew much about the sport, so when it came to learning how to ski I bought books about skiing and pretty much taught myself”. Once he was back in the UK, he became one of the first instructors to work with the newly formed English Ski Council at the time when it was founded in the 1970s. 

From that point on Alan’s passion for the sport simply started growing and hasn’t stopped yet. Nowadays it is quite common to find British instructors working in ski resorts around Europe but it hasn’t always been this way. In fact, when Alan decided to move to Courchevel, France, it was quite a bold move, given there were just a handful of British instructors working there at that time. His move to Courchevel wasn’t the only bold move Alan made at that time, along with his good friends Sue and Kenny Dickson, they opened the first-ever British Ski School in “Les Trois Vallèes” in 1991.

After 8 years of successfully running his ski school in Courchevel, Alan once again changed his path and decided to move to Tignes, another popular ski resort in France. His motivation behind the move was the desire for the off-piste instead of the usual two-hour lessons, Alan says he wanted to take his clients on off-piste excursions and day tours which is not surprising given he had spent his earlier days mountaineering.  

How It’s Going

Alan is still heading to Tignes every winter to meet old clients and friends, teach, and enjoy the town which is now his second home. It’s also a great advantage that the season is longer in Tignes which means he gets to work for longer during the season. From school teacher, to ski instructor for the past 30 years, Alan’s passion for teaching is reflected in his clients’ reviews and their loyalty, in fact, when he moved from Courchevel to Tignes, some of his customers at the time changed resorts along with him. This really resonates with us at Maison Sport, we always say the right instructor can ‘make’ a holiday, so it doesn’t come as a surprise to hear of customers following their favourite instructor to a new resort.  

Alan knows how to stay up-to-date with today’s technology and uses Maison Sport as his booking platform for his career as an independent instructor. Every year he can decide to come and go from Tignes and simply block out the dates where he won’t be there so as to not get any bookings, which is perfect for a free spirit like him. After over 21 years teaching, he has also built quite a long list of regular customers that probably also book him directly and on top he gets plenty of new clients every year too. Alan’s Maison Sport’s calendar easily synchronises with his personal calendar to make sure he knows exactly what is going on on the platform and in his personal agenda, all from one place. Maison Sport reduces the time you have to spend organising your agendas, giving you more time on the slopes, and honestly, who doesn’t want that?!