The 40 years of the ESI in 10 key dates!

1/ April 1977: Creation of the French Federation of Ski Instructors (FFES): The instructors behind the creation of the Union want a different system that integrates young instructors and that evolves with customer demand. Schools on a human scale that favour listening and flexibility. Pierre Cornillat is elected president of the union.

The first ski schools in history are : Ski school Flaine, Fantastic ski school Avoriaz, Top ski in Val d'Isère, Snow fun in Val d'Isère.

2/ Winter 1984 : The ESI union counts 15 ski schools in France.

3/ Winter 1985: Promulgation of the mountain law, the winter sports market is booming. The vast majority of ski resorts developed and modernized. Skiing vacations became accessible to all.

4/ Winter 1989: Only two years later, the ski schools are multiplying at great speed.
The union already has more than 50 ESI schools! The schools were called SEI (Ski School International) at the time.

5/ Winter 1992 : It was the year of the mythical Albertville Winter Olympics which marked a whole generation of snow sports enthusiasts.
Pierre Cornillat decided not to renew his mandate and Philippe Camus was elected as the new President of the Union.

The number of ski schools continues to rise, the structures adapt and take the famous Internet turn.

6/ Winter 1998: One of the major steps in the evolution of the ESI. Adrenaline Verbier becomes the first ESI ski school in Switzerland.

Change of the name of the schools from SEI to ESI. The Union counts more than 1200 ski instructors!

7/ Winter 2000: The name "International Union of Ski Instructors" is adopted. The Union thus becomes the SIMS with its headquarters based in Albertville.

8/ Winter 2011 : A major advance in the development and recognition of the ESI label. Blue becomes the official color for all international ski school instructors.

9/ Winter 2015 : Christophe Chaudieu is elected as the new president of ESI. The ESI network is now 95 ski schools in France, Switzerland and Italy with over 2000 ski instructors at your service.

10/ April 2017: ESI celebrates its 40th anniversary with more than 30,000 Fans on social networks and 500,000 clients each winter!  

That's it for this quick overview of the history of ESI, we look forward to seeing you in 10 years to properly celebrate 50 years of the ESI blue spirit!

We would also like to thank you, our loyal customers! For 40 years now, more and more of you have been supporting us every winter and daring to be different!  We hope that many more of you will be satisfied with our philosophy of teaching skiing, more human and more modern, where learning to ski rhymes with pleasure and personalization!

See you soon on the slopes.