Teaching the Rents

Sorry for not posting yesterday, just with the rents being here and it being Dads bday time ran a little short.
It was the first day on the snow yesterday with the rents and i was teaching them how freaky - it just doesn't seem right telling my parents what to do. I have to say though that they progressed well.
In the evening we went to Corner Pocket - a nice restaurant on the mountain for Dad's bday. To be honest it was scrumy especially the scallops.

Today i went to the rents hotel for breaky and we made some calls home. Kinda forgot my boots so we had to go back to the lodge to get them after breaky. We were up on the hill for about 11 and went straight into lessons with the rents. Mum seems to have picked things up a bit quicker than Dad - no offence thats just how it is! They are both improving though and its quite challenging for me cos i have to constantly assess, evaluate, create drills and evaluate again and do more drills as nesscessary. They seem to be geeting it though and i pushed them a bit harder today and both of them coped fine.
Any how this evening we had dinner at the lodge and went to the hockey game - Mum loved it although she was disappointed as there were no fights!
I know have to do a bit of reading in readiness for tomoz so that i know what i am teaching the rents.

Laters people.

Heels over Head

What a day this was setup to be. It started off by making contact with the rents a couple of times and finding out that the road had been opened and they were setting off. It then turned slightly downhill when my boot liner for my right foot refused to go in and took me forever to sort out both at the lodge and at the ski hill.

When i did finally get underway i just went for a nice easy run and saw on the way up the Deer chair a run which had hardly been touched, covered in powder - i had to lay my mark so i went down skiing what can only be described as heaven!

With air temperatures around -20C without wind chill i warmed up before lessons started in the Day Lodge.

Anyway lessons got underway with Simon as Colleen was ill, which was awesome cos i really like his teaching style. We skied powder and trees all morning - beautiful!
Just before lunch though the day changed for good. We were travelling along a traverse to get to a run, but it is very rocky in places - skis and rocks dont miss btw so i tried to avoid one particular patch. This is where it went wrong; badly wrong, although my memory of the event is vague i have been told that i tried to get back onto the traverse path but never made it! Instead i went backwards down what was described as a very steep slope, the first thing that came inton contact with this slope was my head or helmet and then i somersaulted backwards losing a ski in the process again smashing my head on the snow. I then ended up lying faceup in the snow not at all with it; i briefly tried getting up and realised i couldn't - that was when my instructor became alittle worried and rapidly came and joined me. After doing the first aid course at the weekend i realised that i had suffered big concussion and was entering shock - not good, i was also very concerned over my neck and back.
This meant that the next 40 mins were taken up by ski patrol being called and them placing me on a spinal board and into a sleigh (better known as a blood wagon!). I then endured a 10 min ski down the mountain in the freezing cold and wet and before i knew i was being lifted into the back of an ambulance. From here i was carted to hospital to be checked over and xrayed. Nothing happens rapidly over here and the hospital was no different. Fortunately about 3 hours later i had the all clear and was picked up by Jenny our ski host and taken home to the lodge with no more than a raging headache!

I made a call to the rents and agreed to meet them for dinner. We did a little shopping and returned to their hotel for a very hot indian where i relayed the days events to the rents as mum looked on in disbelief! Oh the things parents think you are doing when you aint!
Anyway good to see the rents and looking forward to skiing with them tomoz.

Laters peps - my head hurts it needs a rest!

Oh the Irony

Right so it hasn't really snowed since i got here and the week it does happens to conincide with the rents arriving. That's great in the bigger scheme of things cos we will have nice snow to ski, but it has caused one problem. When it snows here it snows hard and unlike Europe the transportation system isn't top notch, which means that the only access road is so exposed at a point called Crowsnest Pass that they have closed it because of visibility and high winds. Parents arrived at this point about 20 mins after it closed - it hasn't been closed once in the 7 weeks i have been here!
So they are stuck there only about 70 km's from me!
How bloody annoying; the chances of this happening are over 1 in 3500! Oh well, i will give them a ring in the morning and review the situation.

BTW the skiing was awesome today and weather was blizzard like.

Laters

Pow Pow Beautiful Powder

At last, we have only been here about 7 weeks but it finally snowed in reasonable proportion on Monday. Enough that we could actually measure a mere 12 cm. Everyone at breakfast was like little kids - so excited! When we did hit the slopes the skiing was superb. Apart from the incident where i collided with Amy on the first run, the day was brilliant; skiing powder on piste and in the trees Awesome - that was so what i came here for and we have got a small taste of it.

The day also had some other good news; Brendan had been let go from hospital briefly for a visit home. It was only brief though as he had to go back to stay the night however.

Today (Tuesday) we awoke to a similar scene as the morning before with snow falling. There wasn't quite the hysteria that was there the day before, but excited people certainly were.
After my morning warm up run i decided to use my normal skis as it was quite icy on the lower slopes but that was a bit of an error as we just ended up skiing powder virtually all day; it was good practice though. Also for the second time on this course, whilst being videoed today by Colleen i stacked it - beautiful - it was quite nice though as there was a foot or so of powder to land in!
Other than this the day was wicked but hard work - skiing powder is hard going. There was also a large number of crashes and drop out today on the course as a whole but i am glad to report me and my group all came through unscathed.

This evening i went climbing for something different to do and it was nice as alot of people didn't bother because they were recouping from today or preparing for tomoz with more snow forecast.

With all the snow, parents have time it well - they are here tomoz and cant wait to see them, hopefully they wont get stuck at Crow's nest pass just east of here, which closes under heavy snow with avalanche warnings.

Not looking forward to tonight as Brendan is now back in the room but on a drip every 4 hours this means i am gonna get woken up at 12am and 4am great - me not a happy bunny!

Anyways laters people.

Three days in one

OK so the title of this post is probably a bit misleading but i have three days to write about and only have time for about a quarter of a post!

So a brief catch up of whats been cooking this weekend.
Friday started of fairly relaxed and i certainly didn't rush to get up after the late night before. My intentions were to spend the day doing the reading for the first aid course i had today - oh how that went out the window.
I ended up browsing round town with the boys and falling victim to the sales. Knowing i was going cat skiing on Saturday i couldn't resist the mix of Passing Level 1, the big discounts and a pair of skis i loved the look of. oops!
For those wondering why - they are a different type of ski for skiing different types snow and doing tricks on, there is logic to my madness honest - lots of people have two pairs!
Anyway the only other thing that happened on Friday was an evening of hockey which was good despite the Riders losing 4 - 3.

Saturday was something entirely new. An early start was followed by a 40 min bus ride to the Fernie Wilderness Lodge. Here we were kitted up and grouped into our Cats. The process is slow to get going as the cats only travel about 5 km an hour and are very bumpy. It takes about 45 mins to get to the mountain. When we arrived on the mountain we did a quick avalanche transceiver test and then travelled another 15 mins to the top of the mountain. Here we unloaded and following our guide let loose in the back country, skiing the amazing terrain. During the day we did about 8 - 9 runs down different areas - it was superb, the powder was not at its best but the experience was still awesome. There were some spectacular wipeouts from everyone involved, some made it onto video or picys. When i get them i will upload some for you to see. Even with breaking down and not having great pow pow its an experience i cant wait to repeat.

When we did get back to the lodge later in the evening i just chilled and did the reading for the first aid course i had today.

On that note today has been fairly straight forward; i woke early for a Sunday and slowly ate breakfast happy and content that i had just had to walk down the corridor to the training room. How wrong i was, i read the note again @ 7.55 to discover that it was actually at the college so we bombed it downtown to get there and made it by 8.15.

The training went from 8 till 5 but was actually quite good fun and very useful, the instructor was very good as well. Happily at the end of the day we had an exam which i passed and can now add trained emergency first aider to my list of qualies. Two in a week - cool.

Anyways peps dinner was from the Macy D's tastealike and a bit of hockey followed. Then i wrote this and am now sleeping in prep for tomoz - the start of Level 2!

Laters

No Post

Sorry people there is no mail today. I have just not had time to deliver it. There is news in the mail and it will come - hopefully tomoz. Lots to update on and possibly some picys too. Hopefully tomoz as i say - all depends on how the first aid course goes. Till then, laters.

Mixed Emotions

What a day to say the least.

It was the final day of our level 1 assessment - oh my god it had arrived already!

To say the least i was more than a little nervous.

Anyway off we went and got underway; Chris was really good - he tried
hard to put us at ease it worked some what. It wasn't that far into the
morning before i had to do my bit of teaching - the bit of the
assessment i was really not looking forward to.

I seemed to do OK with my teaching bit and only got given some
constructive points at the end as to how to approach things - it was
certainly better than the day before!



We broke for lunch and i was fairly happy at that point - things had gone OK.



After lunch we reconvined to pick up where we had left off and i was
expecting to have to teach again at some point in the afternoon -
slight nerves again! What am i doing trying to do this for a job?? The
afternoon passed by and before i knew it we were mucking around doing
360's and sking backwards - i had not had to teach again! Chris being
the type that he is likes to finish early and so we did - we went
speeding past a couple of groups on our last run which left them
bemused as it was the last thing that they expected to us to do - we
knew we had finished though they didnt - brilliant!



I went for a couple of runs after we wrapped up before heading to the bar to await our results.



The time seemed to go well slow while we sat around waiting for our results.

Bout 5.15 we were all called down to the Day Lodge below the Griz bar
and stood in groups. Then we were given the dreaded envelopes

I opened mine to find a CSIA badge - that was all i needed to see - i
had done it - i was now a CSIA Level 1 Ski Instructor whoop whoop!

The elation was brilliant - the moment was one i will remeber for a
long time to come; the four days of hard work had been worth it.
Handshakes and hugs a plenty we were well happy.

Sadly not everyone passed - some expected it and to others it was a
shock - kinda felt a bit for them but i am here for me and as harsh as
it sounds as long as i do what i need, thats all that matters - i cant
ski or teach for anyone else!



Back upstairs in the Griz it started to get messy and the legendary
event of table sliding took place with a few brave souls. This
basically involves striping naked and sliding down a 50ft table covered
in beer! Brilliant. I will leave the mind boggle over the other details.



The bus came to get us about 6.30 ish and here the news wasnt so good.
When Jenny eventuallly managed to quieten down 60 ish drunk people she
passed on the latest news about my roomy Brendan. The new on him had
kinda got worse - although stable he had contracted Meningitis to go
with his Pneumonia. This had inplications for everyone particulary
those who had been in close contact with him - like me! This lead to an
hour or so of chats and screening back at the lodge. Eventually after
all this i had dinner and just wanted to chill - but the OGS had a
PARTY!



So off we went - i actually drove Brad's car there so that he didnt
have to walk - he was the one who injured himself back in Kimbelery and
i was the only sober one so nominated driver.

AFter the biggest party at the OGS there has been i headed home about
1.00ish - i was knackered from the week, and hit bed on a day of random
yet brilliant emotions.

Level 1 - Day 3

Well i slept well last night except it wasn't in my bed or even in the lodge.
I moved out and slept in the spare room at Louise's house as Brendan was well ill and i did not want to catch what he had.

This meant an early start to today as i had to walk back to the lodge to get dressed and ready for skiing today but i managed it. Skiing today wasn't to bad - however my teaching was a bit rubbish! This Level 1 malarkey ain't to easy - it seems to have caught everyone of guard. In fact is being a ski instructor worth all the hassle? Anyways i managed to do a bit better today and hopefully tomoz will bring a welcomed relief and a pass - we will see!

Anyways when we got back this evening Brendan wasn't in the room but we had a tech session to go to so this took priority; quite long and quite boring but eventually it finished. I returned to the room to find Brendan not around and thought i had better find out what was the status quo being his room mate.

I managed to see Adam at reception who then told me that he went to the doctors this morning who sent him straight to hospital with pneumonia! Not good; yet someone else in hospital! He has been keep in over night for observations. Someone else had surgery today on his left knee after destroying it on Friday in the powder, so the total is going up. All this means i have a room to myself - kinda weird!

Anyways people by the time i next post i will have news of whether i have passed or failed my level 1 which may change my plans for the next few years - kinda crucial day tomoz then i guess.

Laters,
J

Avoid the lurgy and try and pass Level 1!

OK, so that's day 2 of Level 1 complete. I have to say though it ain't going as positively as i was hoping.

Things aren't generally going to bad except i keep being pick up on my stance which isn't a good thing, considering this is an ongoing evaluation. What does slightly bemuse me is that the other instructors haven't told me this or tried to correct me in previous weeks. The issue that i am having is that i have to change it to how he wants to show the assessor that i can, but it is very hard when it feels so wrong!

Just to add to this slightly crap day, i have had to 'move out' of my room as Brendan has gone down with a virus so i am trying to avoid this at all costs especially over these two days - i do not want to screw my Level 1 up over a virus that someone gives me! I may already have it but i am gonna give it my best shot to avoid it. With this in mind i am probably gonna try and sleep elsewhere tonight, maybe at Louise's house where there are spare rooms. Its a bit of an extreme thing to do i suppose but i just wanna be cautious especially this week.

Anyways on a lighter note i am just waiting for some people to join for dinner as i am starting to get hungry. I have some videos and pictures which i will try and get posted later this week so you can see a bit more of Fernie! Hope everyone is OK back on the rock and anywhere else you are reading this.

Laters people.

I've been a good Boy!

Sorry guys; i haven't been posting much of late but there is reasoning behind my case.
As my mum will be proud to hear i have been putting homework before computers!
I may not always have done it in the past but i am setting out to correct my wrong doings!

With this in mind the lack of posts in the last few days isn't because i have forgotten its just that all the spare time i have had has been taken up reading the Manual. It may well be the case over the next few days as well as my course progresses. We get given reading to do each night for the following day.

In general though the assessment is going OK so far - not to difficult but semi challenging at the same time - trying to change my stance which i have been told was OK? - weird but nothing seems to make sense; one person tells you one thing then the next another!

One other piece of news is that the trans Atlantic voyage that i was considering is a no go. Went to a meeting for it today all eager to sign up and give it a shot but the dates don't work. I need to be there in Antigua virtually the day our course ends and as i am staying a week then it ain't gonna happen so i have passed after thinking on the logistics of it all - oh well, next time! Might please mother though!

Right that's it for today, catch you dudes later.

A so so day

As i have the time i though i would write this post with more than an hour of my day left!
I have had another good day skiing but am absolutely knackered - this week has been very intense with a lot of skiing and some serious mileage clocked up.

This morning we did some more teaching practice and i felt a little more comfortable today doing explanations in front of the class.
After lunch which we had as a group at Lizard Creek Lodge - very nice btw we went up the mountain again to do the facelift in Lizard Bowl again - the same one we hiked up yesterday but actually using the drag lift today. It was so violent that my arm nearly went up the lift with me not attached to it. Anyways when i did reach the top there was some nice powder skiing to be had, but its a bit of a trek for such a short run.

One other notable from today was i started to feel instructor like as i actually took two kids up a chairlift - yes mum a bit of responsibility! It was kinda wierd talking to them as they came out with some classic quotes about numbers and populations of Calgary where they both came from, loved it though and i got them off safely which was the main thing that worried me the entire way up!

Just finishing this now much later than when i started it and gonna get my stuff ready for photography tomoz. Laters people.

What a wicked day!

To be honest today was probably one of the best days i have had since i got here.
Everything seems to have just been brill.

It started off with the usual issue of getting up which seems to be getting harder and harder the longer this week in particular goes on. But with breakfast and all that rubbish out the way it was awesome.

We started off our lesson this morning with a lesson! We had to take our class in pars and teach them something - scary. Somehow me and Rich did manage it although i did cock up slightly - i suspect more practice at this needed and will come tomoz.
After this though we went off skiing and practiced our free skiing which was lot more fun and we made good use of the powder - some of the runs were superb. I also feel i am really starting to improve particularly off piste and in the bumps.

After yet another lunch at Kelsey's we hit the slopes again for an afternoon of free skiing. We started off by hiking from the top of Bear chair to the top of Facelift, which is an absolutely knackering 330ft vertical - rents i will show you when you come!
From here we hit some beautiful powder and had a wicked afternoon skiing bumps powder and anything else the mountain could through at us.

On return home it was an early dinner as we had a social to attend just over the road in the form of curling. Its so cool - i want a curling club in Jersey! Its so hard to do but when you get it right its so competitive and fun that i want another go. We had a great evening and i would class it as a rousing success although what some of the others got up to was interesting!

I have included a little movie from when we were mucking around at the beginning for your enjoyment.

Here's a couple of pic's while i think of it from the facelift earlier today, and one of the curling rinks.

Homework - what!

I will make this post fairly quick simply cos i am knackered.

The last two days have been absolutely ridiculous skiing. But strangely i have been loving it. Ron has been taking us through some of the stuff we need to know for our level 1 next week and i am getting happier about the skiing part - it is the teaching part that is worrying me slightly - actually alot.

Anyhow on a lighter note, this afternoon we did some more free skiing ie skiing steep terrain with trees and powder and it was awesome. They opened up one of the bowls and so skiing the powder was challenging but fun. The other thing that i have improved on in the last couple of days is skiing bumps - i am actually starting to really enjoy it - despite the fact that i Sh1t myself sometimes when i look at the steepness of the run.

This evening i had a quiet one to start doing my homework; reading the CSIA Manual and recoup a bit after a hard days skiing.

Laters people

Its that damn thing called time again.

Sorry people it has been a couple of days since i last managed to get a post written.

Time just seems to disappear far to quickly round here. I cant believe i have been gone over four weeks already. Scary ha!

Yesterday i had my first 1 - 2 - 1 with Colleen. The hour and a half went really quickly but i felt i learnt so much and picked up some useful info.

It was also the first day with my new boot setup - which was a little uncomfortable but i was told to expect this so i will see how i go over the next couple of days.

I finished early yesterday to enable me to get my parcels from the post office before our tech session.

The tech session was on our level 1 which scarily is only a week away.
To be honest quite boring!

The dish of the day was bangers and mash - not bad.

To finish the evening we hit 'The Pub' for a few drinks pool before hitting the pillow.

I will fill you in on today, tomoz as i am knackered and need bed soon!

A chilled weekend

After a mental day on Friday i decided that i would spend the weekend doing the chores and getting a few things sorted.

I started off Saturday quite chilled although i was woken up earlier than i would have liked as Brendan didn't have a good night with the pain in his chest. He ended up going for a visit to the hospital.

Meanwhile i decided to get my boots seen to as i have been feeling a bit of movement in my left boot in particular. A trip to ski base for some custom foot beds (innersole) i hoped would solve the problem. They required a few hours to tidy them up so i popped into Overwaitea (that's the local super market!) to get a few essentials. Walked home and had a quick chat with dad then headed back to pick up my boots.

Brendan had returned by this point with a lot of drugs and the news of having a broken rib which explained his discomfort.

The evenings entertainment was the Ghostriders playing Creston Thundercats followed by chilling out in the rec room.

Today once again i was awoken by Brendan fairly early but it meant i git on with the chores. I got on with the washing while talking to rents and Han. The rest of the day was very uneventful.

We went to Macy D's for dinner and on the way saw some deer in the road on the way. Later it was another trip to the rec room for some pool and fusball.
We tried a movie but didn't succeed as we had no sound so i gave up wrote this and hit bed!

Laters people

I'm Coming Back to Canada!

Bit of a strange title but i have just filled out my Bunac Application for a working Visa for next year and got acceptance via email straight away. SO one way or another i am gonna be back here next year working doing something - aaarrrggghh! Freaky

On another note today i was on the Avalanche Safety Training field day. The morning was pretty easy going - skiing around and having fun in the couple of inches of pow pow that had fallen over night, and continued to come down.

The afternoon however was another cup of tea. I am not sure i have ever been so physically exhausted in my life. Digging all the pits for snow observations and tests then doing the find and retrieve exercises using beacons in waist high snow was physically knackering.

Just chilled this evening after all this, and watched National Treasure 2 in the Movie Room.

On a slight downer casualty No. 2 of the course took place in Kimberley yesterday. After catching an edge and sliding at high speed into a Floodlight with his knee Brad is out for the rest of the trip and has a year of recovery to look forward to. I kinda know what that is like!

Laters people

Carving up Kimberley

It was an early start today for our trip to Kimberley Alpine Resort.

All breakfasted and on the buses by 8.00 we were on our way no long after.
The trip lasted an hour and a half, and to be honest being cramped up that long aint exactly comfortable.

Our lessons took place as usual just in different surroundings. The view from the mountain though was stunning - you could see the whole of the rockies across the other side of the valley.

The skiing today was absolutely brilliant though - the rolling hills are superb for carving at high speed down - awesome! I loved it and so did the rest of the group!

The ride home this evening was interesting with crowd surfing pile ons and other crazy stuff going on in the bus - good fun.

Other than this though we were all so knackered that we just headed for bed - ready for tomoz.

I get it now!

There might be a lack of snow but i had a fantabulous day!

What didnt make sense at all yesterday made alot more sense today.

I am making this a short post because to be honest i am knackered after todays racing salom course. It was also very hot today - not good - exactly what we dont need.

Anyways off to Kimberley tomoz so somewhere different to ski.

Hitting bed early as we have to get up early.

Laters people.

I've been framed!

Well not alot to report today it was another day of skiing!

What wasn't a surprise was that we had no more snow over night and we had a sunny day.

The reason for the title was the fact that Tuesday is our video analysis day. So today Colleen videoed us doing some different types of turns. Yesterday we started to pole plant properly, so i wanted to get this right for the video. Sadly it all went badly wrong and while doing the short quick turns i pole planted in the wrong place and planted my face in the snow - on video!
Brilliant.
Will have to try and get a copy for the £250 they offer on You've been Framed!

Apart from this we tried some other stuff to do with Pivoting and turning but i just could not grasp it! Better luck tomoz hopefully.

This evening i had climbing again which was great fun but bloody hard work after a hard day skiing. After that i returned home and chatted with Steve and Captain Moscow aka Ross for a bit before writing this and going to bed with a stinking cold still hanging over me and my Roomy; Brendan - hopefully it will go by tomoz (fingers crossed). Will let you know.

Laters Peps

We had snow!

OK so it wasn't much but anything at the moment is welcomed!
It seems to be getting harder and harder to get up now days - another issue of not enough hours in the day!
With the layer of snow hitting the slopes this morning was well nice and quite strange as there was no constant grinding of skiing on ice!
We also had a new instructor this morning - Colleen, what would she be like?
To be honest we were all expecting her to be quite laid back and technical compared to Bruno last week. How wrong we were! She threw us in at the deep end and we had a wicked day, apart from my mega wipe out - which i don't even no how it happened - but that shin bang came back right away!
Apart from that the day was fairly chilled, dinner was interesting though fish with a strawberry jam! RANDOM
Late now - Laters peps