Banff 11 Week Ski Instructor Course ‘06 – Week 10

This week it was the turn of the skiers to go into the backcountry. After meeting our guides, Todd, Jessie and Tim, we headed out to Bow Summit.

Gearing up at the base with skis, skins, avalanche equipment and most importantly, lunch, we split into three groups and headed upwards – a long, long way upwards! An hour after skinning through the trees we popped out above the tree line and made our first descent through the fresh, powder snow – wow! Just a shame we seemed to ski down so quickly, before we knew it
we were hiking back up again.

That evening we resided in Mosquito Creek Hostel a very quaint cabin in the woods. With no TV or music we had to make our own entertainment which involved board games, charades and finally a relax in the sauna (with a cool down in the snow!)

Warning – to anyone who knows Lizzy, don’t ever challenge her to a game of Trivia Pursuit – you will lose!

The next day we awoke to fresh snow and a beautiful blue sky day. This time we skinned straight from the hostel up to the mountain behind. It seemed to be hours before we reached the top and made our first decent but it was more than worth it. Some of the guys even said it was better than heliskiing in terms of quality of snow and terrain and the views were just spectacular.

After the long trek up, half of the group decided to return to the hostel and the other half chose to do another run.

Later that afternoon fifteen weary people returned to Banff for a rest before level two exams started.