Make sure the toe bindings are lined up together, one foot in the middle and we're ready to

put the skis on. Now bear in mind at this stage, depending on the snow, you might find

you have snow stuck to the bottom of your boot. You can either give it a tap with a

ski stick, a scrape, place the toe under nice and straight, look behind, make sure it's

lined up and give a good solid push. You're in.

So you've got the skis on, now just spend a few minutes on the flat before you even

start sliding, just getting used to the feeling of them. Don't have to lift them up,

just slide them forward one by one maybe walk backwards and forwards a few times just to

get used to it. So it's now time to ski down the hill but before we do that we have to

get up there. There is no point in facing up the mountain and trying to walk the way

you want to go. You'll simply just slide backwards and look like Michael Jackson doing the moonwalk.

What we want to do is get our skis sideways and across the hill and then just gently using

your knees and ankles roll the skis onto their edges and start to step up.

We've made it to the top of the slope, its now time just to simply slide down. Use your

poles for a bit of balance, step around, feet hip width apart, skis parallel. Very important:

head up and look where you're going. Anybody who has ever taught a child to ride a bike

knows the problems, as soon as they look down they're going to loose balance and fall over.

So check the slope and just gently start to slide. A couple of pushes with the poles

and just stand as normally as you can.

Ok perfect. Now I've chosen this slope so that I naturally come to a stand still.

Look for a slope with a flat part at the bottom, or even a slight up hill, so you're not going

to panic about feeling like a runaway train. Avoid sticking the poles in to try and come

to a stand still. Literally stand still on the skis, let them get on with it.

If you're doing this without your poles it doesn't make any difference. Just relax and

let the slope naturally slow you down and come to a stop.