January 10th – Having met Melissa at Heathrow the group set of on Air Canada 851 bound for Canada. On arrival at Calgary airport we were greeted by Grant, the course director, and took a bus to Banff, home for the next 11 weeks. A quick look around our lodgings and first night enthusiasm kicks in as everyone hits the bars ignoring the jet lag!
Buying day allowed essential equipment purchases and then it was time to get on the snow. First week with the instructors allowed everyone to find their feet before instruction began. Non stop snow provided great conditions at the three resorts, Norquay, Sunshine and Lake Louise. Our first day at Sunshine had the best powder the area has seen for over 5 years! Boot fitting, technical sessions and an avalanche awareness course provided necessary knowledge for the course and beyond.
Wednesday night at Wild Bills allowed many of the seasonaires to display their hidden talent for line dancing – I wonder if the enthusiasm was due to the free snowmobile trip up for grabs!
A great first week!
READ WEEK 2
By Shane Shortman
Monday was another fun day on the slopes and in the evening we had a technical session where we received tuning advice, learning about waxing, edging and general equipment maintenance.
Tuesday was also another day of instruction whilst Wednesday (normally a day off) was spent at the fire station working towards our Wilderness First Aid Course.
Thursday and Friday were also days on piste improving our stance and balance whilst the weekend acted as our deserved rest and a time for us to spend a little longer in bed!
READ WEEK 3
By Shane Shortman
Having arrived last Thursday, we’ve already spent a few days together as a group but I’m still a bit hazy on names. After two days of mountain orientation Monday was our first day of formal instruction. After splitting into boarders and skiers, we headed up the mountain for our third powder day since we arrived – what a start!
Due to the amount of snow fall overnight we ended up just mainly exploring, skiing hard and enjoying the epic conditions. Tuesday was spent working on stance. Wednesday we headed to the local town of Trail to the Aquatic Center for a well deserved soak. Thursday and Friday were both fun instructional days with more fresh snow each day. Friday night was the first part of the Avalanche Course which continued for the rest of the weekend with much time spent digging snow pits and learning about avalanche risk.
An action packed first week.
READ WEEK 2
Tom | January 17th, 2006
