Fernie 11-Week Ski and Snowboard Instructor Course ’09 – Week 8
By Tom Gibson
The week started bright and early on Monday morning like every week! After our community teaching weekend we all were now ready to start preparing ourselves for our level II exam, which was only 2 weeks away!
We gathered in our groups to discover our instructor for this week. Over skied “the man”, yes, Jens! The man born with skis on! The lessons this week were, well, interesting but very good for our skier development. With guidance from Jens we all felt we improved during the week. However, one thing left us all confused: what does Jens eat for lunch? Every afternoon around 2 o’clock will now be remembered for being “Jens o’clock”. This is the time when the group’s skiing ability was worked by Jen’s ‘different’ yet, interesting drills and tactics!
This weeks social event was night skiing in Pass Powderkeg, Alberta, followed by a drinking session in a very Canadian bar. The night skiing was really good and a new experience for most people. However, the highlight of the night was, strangely, the bus journey home. After a few jugs of Kokanee Gold in the bar we all headed for the bus, stopping at the liquor store for supplies on the way. The ride home was more like a moving rave. This made for some sore heads in the morning and some memories to recall, mainly by looking at photos and trying to remember when it was taken.
Sore heads and hangovers or not, it was Red Mountain weekend. We all packed our stuff and headed for Rossland, stopping over at Creston for a tour of the Kokanee brewery on the way. After looking how the beer was made it was time for some tasting, which seemed to wake a few people up. We finally arrived at Red, proving the coach trip down worthwhile! We had heard that the accommodation was good at Red, however we were not expecting the luxury we were about to walk into! As we opened the door most of us were lost for words as we wondered if this was really our room. To say it was luxury is maybe a little bit of an understatement. So we quickly got to work filling up the fridge with beer and then hit the outdoor hot-tub. To top this all of it started snowing! Good times. After a few beers we headed down to grab a bite and meet the Red NonStoppers, sharing a few beers and tales with them along the way. Then it was back to lodges for a night of drinking in the outdoor hot-tubs.
We woke up early Saturday for the first day of skiing. Sore heads soon disappeared as we got skiing and sampled what Red had to offer. After a day skiing it was back to the hot-tubs to relax those skiing muscles. However, with all this fresh snow falling, it would be rude not to make the most of it. Out came the snow shovels and we proceeded to make ourselves a delicious kicker right outside the room. After a bit of time making the kicker it was time to enjoy our work, helped by a bit of Dutch courage! Sunday morning came, and so did the snow to make for an awesome powder day! After nailing a couple of warm ups, we hit the tree runs and then the terrain park. We were really impressed at what Red had offered us, maybe my best skiing weekend ever! Right on!
Post a comment:
