I'll keep it short and sweet

I will keep this post short as i am running off battery at Calgary Airport.
I want to make sure i have battery for the flight home and incase i need it at the other end for any reason.

Any how the day has sadly arrived that i had to leave Fernie. The coach trip was a little emotional as we left but it seemed to go fairly quickly one the way to the airport.
We have checked in and am now awaiting the plane to arrive so we can get on it!

Anyhow onto more important issues; yesterday was D day or Dean Day as we got to know it.
I wont beat around the bush, I did it!
It was very tense but i passed the skiing and the teaching (teaching i thought was borderline), but who cares i got the outcome i wanted. It took a while to sink in infact i dont think it has yet!

Anyway i am on way home now so will see you peps very soon.

Laters

A good day on Level 2

That's now four days of the dreaded five completed. I have had Dean and Jens for two days apiece.

Today like the other three wasn't too bad. I had a chance to practice my teaching a bit more today and it needs practice - more than i will get on the course that's for sure. I didn't do to badly overall and got some constructive criticism to work with from Jens so that should be OK tomoz. We will see ahy. I feel fairly confident about my skiing as i am being pushed for performance which is not part of the Level 2 standard.

After seeing an outsider called Richard pass his teaching today when we all thought he was deemed to fail it gives me a bit of hope. He really was not that great and his skiing wasn't up to par either but he already had that so he now level 2 qualified - crazy!

I am also keeping fairly chilled about the whole thing which is good, and just trying to relax and do what has gotta be done.

This means that i have only got about 4-5 hours left skiing now for the season and that's on course so it won't be amazing skiing, not that it could be in these tropical temperatures anyway; we are skiing in 15C to 21C every day these last 5 days. Its truly silly.

In a little over 17 hours i will know the final standings and find out whether my season will bring me the result i want!

Here's to hoping ahy!

Laters people.

Well thats Day 3

Well that was the third day done and dusted. I still have no real idea of how i am getting on, however in my feedback session this evening Jens did say to me that my skiing is on standard and if i keep up what i have been doing then i should pass the skiing section. It just depends on the teaching coming up tomoz and Sunday - arrrgggghhh!

Other than this though nothing much else to report, we went to the Curry bowl for dinner tonight and then came back and chilled for a while. I had to say gdbye to Will, which was sad as i had become quite good mates with him in the last couple of weeks, with him being in my lessons and then the first part or my Level 2 course.

Any hows hope alls well back home cos it aint long till i return doh!

Laters people.

No news is good news right?

Well i have nothing new to report from yesterday. The Course went into day 2 and came out not knowing much more - my skiing has changed and Dean pushed me for performance today. I cant interpret this to say i am doing OK or not. Tomoz the teaching starts so here's the bit i aint looking forward to! Oh well let see what happens.

One thing that did come out of the day was Will passed his skiing by the skin of his teeth and so now has level 2. Also it was Dangerous Paul's last night so that was a bit sad to say goodbye as i have been with him since day 1. Oh well that's what happens at the end of the course!

Laters peps.

One Day Down, Four To Go

Apologies for not posting yesterday - time just ran out.

It was the NonStop fancy dress day and the last full day for a large number of people.

In the evening we had our farewell dinner which was a bit sad but we had a great laugh with some awards and prizes being given out. We also watched some videos and slideshows containing pics of our time here. It was amazing to see the changes and remember some of the crazy shit that has gone on. I hit bed fairly early though as i started the dreaded Level 2 today.

It was an early start to register and then get underway. The skiing conditions this morning were some of the worst i have skied since i arrived - it was like skiing on concrete!
Any how the day went by and to be honest although my style of skiing has been changed drastically again, so far it doesn't seem to be going to bad. I haven't done the teaching part yet, that is later in the week and the bit i am not looking forward to.

After a quickish tech session and a one on one with my instructor we returned home this evening to a very empty lodge. Brendan left today so i now i have a room to myself - yeah! Alot of others have left as well and it seems really wierd to be honest - like a ghost town! Any how i went out to Boston Pizza with what remains of the gang for dinner, and then came back and did my reading for course tomoz - whoop!

Laters peps.

I didn't come skiing to get sunburnt!

What a day in more ways than one!

Firstly it was the last day of our Race Coach Course.
Thankfully there wasn't quite as much theory to be covered today and we got out on the slopes within an hour i think. This was kinda good and kinda bad cos we had been told yesterday to pick which level we thought we were from a rating system and then pick an exercise to cover and demonstrate to the class.
I though after my abismal day yesterday in the classroom that i should show some effort and not be timid by getting my exercise in first. So i did, i thought it went ok but my assessor didn't do what i asked - while everyone else did - this worried me but i thought he is French Canadian so maybe he didn't understand? Anyway that got that out the way! phew. the plan of going first backfired though when others got away with doing nothing as they had the same drill! Oh well.

We broke for an early lunch and went out again for a ski off after wards to allow our assessor to decide whether we were good enough to pass. After a run of short radius, medium radius and mixed radius turns we hit the griz bar to wait for the enevitaable and get sun burnt in the ridiculous weather - about 14C, as it wasn't worth continuing to ski it was rubbish. Eventually it came to that time and we were handed our results - Whoop Whoop - i passed just Level 2 to do now.

When we returned back to the lodge me and some of the gang hit town in tshirts to do some browsing for hotdog day. The temperature and sunshine is wierd.

We had dinner in a big congregation about 6.30pm and chilled for a bit after that playing games you usually play on the beach in the summer!

Later in the evening me and Marky went down to the river to do some night photography. Wicked, it was nice although only a couple of the photos are worthy.

That brings me to this very point; goodnight peps, speak again soon - i'm into my final week!

Where did my weekend go?

Well i say where did my weekend go - did i actually have one in the first place? errr NO!
After feeling absolutely wrecked from winter camping getting up yesterday morning bright and early to start my Race Coach Course was not a welcome sight! But i managed it along with the others that were up for it!

We registered with the external examiners and got on skis not long after. this was actually because they had forgotten to bring the books up from their hotel and so needed to fetch them. After a mornings ski improvement or more as i like to call it (in prep for level 2) - detuning, we headed in for lunch. They certainly made it short and sweet - no doubts there! The reasoning for this became clear after lunch as we entered a 1hr and a half tech session. To round off the day we did some more skiing and wrapped it up with a little more indoor theory - long day. Last night not alot happened for me - but that was cool - i needed an early night.

This morning wasn't quite so bad and my cough, cold and ulcers didn't seem so bad - deceiving little buggers that they are! To be honest later in the day i was in agony! Oh well i manned up and got on with it!

Unsurprisingly we started off this morning with yet more theory - yahoo! What a tit i made of myself as well, when all i needed to do was paraphrase something for the class i just seized up and couldn't say anything. Not good. I felt like a right imbecile. Two hours of theory anyhow, then we went for a ski.

We did some crazy sh1t today - i don't think i have ever skied like this before; very fast and not turning much down the hill - wicked what a buzz. Sorry mum but i love skiing on the edge - its so much fun; if you don't fall that often, you ain't trying!
A little more skiing this afty before another hefty theory session at two hours, hard work to stay awake!

The bus ride home was a welcomed end to the day to be honest. I was rounded out with a trip to A&W's awesome food providing joint - not! Then a return to the lodge and a chat with some of the gang.

Thought for the day: do i actually want to teach skiing? hmmmm

Laters people

Winter Camping

Yesterday was probably my most varied day i have had.

Lessons didn't go to well in the morning, Jens kept having a go at my skiing and to be honest made me feel like sh1t. It seemed like there was no way i would ever pass Level 2 next week.

I was well down beat for most of the morning, wondering also whether i should go on the winter camping in the afternoon of if i needed all the instruction i could get.
Anyways we finally broke for lunch and went to lizard creek. After a mass luncheon a few of us just chilled out in the lounge before we headed off for winter camping.

We met everyone @ 3 @ the bottom of the timber chair. We headed up not long after with huge bags and loads of gear. Then it was a short ski to get out of bounds and an absolutely exhausting hike to the area where we were building our caves. Then we started the building or more like digging actually cos that was what it was. We started the process by flattening/trampling a circle about 10ft across. Then piled alot more snow on top to make a dome. Meanwhile John dug a pit about 8 ft deep at the front to start our entrance. One we had gone far enough down we started to dig in and then up - all bloody hard work. Over the period of 5 hours we went from a flat piece of ground to a cave about 60cm tall, 6 ft wide and about 6 ft deep. I have never dug so much in my life - it was like building a sand castle the size of a large car!

Eventually it was finished and we joined everyone by the measly fire to try and warm up a little. In the end though we just hit the sack - literally. To be honest i didn't sleep to badly. The only issues i came across was the fact that my pillow rolled away in the middle of the night.

We woke up early this morning to see what was happening - Louise had had a very cold night and was like an ice block unlike me and John who were fine. It was fairly chilly and so getting changed/back into selopats and jacket in a space as small as i described was a challenge. Also our boots had quite literally frozen and getting them back on took ages and is not easy when you cant sit up and only lie on your side.

Any how after about an hour of faffing we got to the point where we had skis on and were ready to go. Feeling like a Sherpa with a huge bag on my back we skied powder covered steep terrain back to the piste. Once on there it was great as no one had been done the run yet so we had virtually fresh tracks - wicked!

Strange as it sounds i would do the whole thing again it was great fun!

At this point breakfast was in order and so we hit the day lodge for some much needed nourishment. I indulged myself with waffles, syrup and cream - yum. After breaky we got the bus back to the lodge where we freshened up and chilled out - i was absolutely cream crackered. In the afternoon i went for a ponder to town and did nothing else - just rested knowing that i had my coaching course starting tomoz.

Will let peps know how that goes.

Jens master to Jens disaster

Well what a mixed day i have had.

It started off this morning with quite a good time. After the first two days of Jens being really hard and no one in the group really happy with the instruction things started to improve today. We have had quite a big dumping of snow over the last two days, quite possibly the best skiing days of the year so far and we haven't been able to free ski in it!

This morning however Jens started to chill out a bit and let go - he got us skiing some awesome tracks and jumping off cat tracks - it was wicked.
Sadly however it wasn't to last and this afternoon he went a bit mental with the syncronised skiing competition we did.

I will round up quickly because the mentalness of the last 12 days or so has kicked in and time is very short, days left are limited. i am finishing this post about 6 hours after starting it.

There was a fashion show tonight for hot dog day (retro day) with some wicked clothing modelled by instructors and nonstop staff, it was hilarious - picys will follow; i seem to always say that!

Just had to pack for winter camping and is now very late - sleep deprivation is a big issue!
Will be sleeping in a snow cave on the mountain tomoz could be interesting as well as cold. will let you know. With that in mind there will defo be no post tomoz - hope to catch up with you guys again on Friday.

Speak soon