"The ski school has given me back my passion."

Practice early if you want to become the next Ramon Zenhäusern. Those who make their first turns on snow with the snow sports school of the Moosalpregion can count on the skills of skiing cracks. This also applies to Ines Lengen, the head of the snow sports school.

The Moosalpregion offers optimal conditions to learn skiing or to improve your technique. Together with a ski instructor you will spend a perfect ski day in the Moosalpregion, adapted to your skills. Steep slopes for experts - wide areas for beginners. But all beginnings are difficult. Do you still remember your first turns in the snow? Ines Lengen does...

"I want to get up there - and I want to get up there now!"

Was it childish stubbornness or an early fascination with skiing? What is certain is that the skiing story of Ines Lengen, the ski school director of the Moosalpregion, begins in early childhood. It's 4:00 p.m. Closing time for the slopes. The lifts are at a standstill. Young Ines doesn't want to believe the slopes have closed - and goes on a rampage! She rages until the ski lift employee shows mercy and allows the ski lift to continue running for a quarter of an hour. Just for little Ines. "Chumm, de gang no grad emal embrüf", she remembers his words.

Back then, skiing times were different from today, says Ines. We skied with a lot of youthful exuberance right up to the front door: "Sometimes we even shortened the ski with the saw to ski snowy slopes with it." A film plays in her inner eye: How Ines, together with her school friends, made the slopes unsafe, roared down slopes and explored the forests of the Moosalpregion on skis. It became clear early on that the current ski school director not only had a passion but also a talent for skiing, and she began to train in earnest.

"I lost a family."

Ski racing gets a big place in Ines Lengen's life. She has goals: To win races! During three years Ines Lengen, at that time still with her maiden name Zenhäusern, skis in the C squad at SwissSki. The successes were convincing. Then follow five years in the B squad with many European Cup races - but also with a lot of bad luck due to injuries. "The pressure to succeed increased enormously during this time," Lengen recalls. At the same time, he questions the meaning of top-level sport and life after sport.

In 2003, at the age of 25, Ines decided to say goodbye to ski racing. A difficult time for the Bürchnerin, who now lives in Embd: "It felt as if I had lost my whole family". With these words, Ines recalls the emptiness after retiring from racing. "For years I spent more time with the people from racing than with my own family. And from one day to the next, those people are gone from your life."

During this difficult time, Ines not only lost her skiing family, but also her passion for skiing. "For two years I didn't want to have anything more to do with skiing," recalls Ines Lengen. But then came the turning point: A red ski dress!

From racing to ski school

Ines has never lost the perfect skiing. After her racing career, Lengen is training to become a ski instructor and also a ski school director. In the red ski dress of the snow sports school of the Moosalpregion Lengen feels comfortable. "Through the ski school, I have found the passion, the heart and the joy of skiing again." In winter, Ines finds it hard to be at home. Winter lures her to the slopes as often as she can. Ines, like the other ski instructors in the Moosalpregion, likes to pass on this passion to other skiers.

For the ski school director, the winter season already begins in mid-summer with preparations. During the main season, up to 13 ski instructors are on duty in the Moosalpregion. "I have to organize enough ski instructors already in the summer months." The snow sports school of the Moosalpregion offers private lessons, group lessons or first attempts at skiing in the children's paradise. Regardless of which offer you choose - skiing should be fun: "For me, a perfect ski day doesn't just include skiing," admits Ines. "A visit to a sun terrace or a fine lunch in one of the mountain restaurants in the Moosal region really make the ski day perfect."

We bring fun with

At the snow sports school of the Moosalpregion, ski lessons with the very little ones are high on the agenda. The children's paradise right next to the ski school office is ideal as a learning area. Parents can drive by car directly to the edge of the children's paradise. During lessons, they can keep an eye on the little ones from the sun terrace of the adjacent restaurant. "I myself have sent my children to ski school," says Ines. "Children just react completely differently when parents are not there. They focus much more on skiing." And ultimately, children would also behave completely differently if they ever fall down. A fall doesn't immediately become a drama.

But ski lessons also pay off technically. "If you get a good foundation in skiing as a child, you take that skill with you through life." The wrong posture over the ski takes the joy out of skiing. "We at the Moosalpregion Snowsports School want to do just the opposite: teach fun skiing!"