How are ski levels graded? What Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced and Specialty each mean

The short answer

Green runs are nursery terrain, red is intermediate difficulty (the intermediate grading at Japanese resorts), black runs are steep, narrow or full of terrain changes, and ungroomed means snow no groomer has been over. These four levels match the FUYU courses page exactly. If you are not sure where you sit, there is a two-minute quiz on that page.

Take the two-minute quiz

Skiing and snowboarding use the same four levels.

Which lesson each level maps to

Beginner: first time on snow

Intermediate: ridden before, want to link it up

Advanced: riding smoothly, want it steadier

Specialty: working on a specific technique

Why we grade on what you can do

FUYU grades on the technique a student can actually produce, not on how many times or how many years they have ridden. Of two people who have each ridden three times, one may still be working on braking while the other has started changing edges.

The grading is a broad direction, there to let your coach understand you faster. In practice we often see students who need to shore something up before moving to the next stage, or the learning goes sideways. So you do not need to worry much about which level you are. FUYU lessons are private, and the only thing that matters is your goal. We match you with the right coach based on that and on your experience.

How a coach works out your level

When you book, our team does more than find you a time: they write down where your riding is at and pass it to your coach. You can describe your situation to them directly, and before booking you can also send a clip of yourself riding for a coach to watch. That is the fastest way.

On the day, your coach starts reading it from the warm-up and a few questions: the notes from our team, how you ride warming up, and what you want to achieve all go into the plan for the lesson.

How long a level takes, and where people get stuck

The further in you go, the longer it takes. Skiing needs mileage and it needs an understanding of the technique. Some people also need to get out from under the mental pressure, and a coach can help with all of it.

The two places people get stuck:

• Early on, the edge change. Beginner to intermediate is where most people spend their time
• Later on, the steeps. Once the edge change is there, carrying the same movement onto a steep pitch takes time too

That effort shows up in the lesson.

Will my own guess be far off what the coach decides?

Usually not by much. Understanding a movement and producing it both take time. Even if your estimate is off, there is no risk of being taught the wrong thing: the early fundamentals can always be rebuilt, and the further along you are the more a coach has to give you. Put the fundamentals in properly and the rest flows.