By Adam Gedge
This week was the beginning of week 2 of my AMP (All Mountain Pro) course. This was to improve skills skiing all the over the mountain to generally be a badass skier!
During the day, we got to the bottom of a run called “Skydive” and it was funny because I realised that I haven’t made a snowman yet! Everyone else agreed and we made a great 5ft one. Then Rich a freestyle guru of the mountain suggested jumping over it. We were clearing the whole snowman while pulling off some cool moves too!
Tuesday was pretty similar but this time we were jumping over bushes which was about 10ft high! I did the most hilarious double eject on my skis and face-planted really badly. It didn’t really hurt but because it was on camera we could watch it again and again. Hilarious stuff!
Wednesday on the hill again delivered one of the scariest moments out here. Our entire group was in the path of an avalanche! Mark in our group looked up and saw an avalanche coming off the headwall and made us all look. It was coming right for us!! We traversed across the hill to the high ground and saw it stop about 25m away from us. It was insanely scary to see this cloud of snow come towards you but we were all alright.
Thursday was ace with a huge dump of snow. This was our last day of lessons that week and everything we learnt was coming together. It was an awesome day just munching up the snow all day, epic Fernie stuff!
In the evening we played street hockey which was cool, proper Canadian stuff going on there! My team came 2nd so I guess we did well! That led on to a wicked game of beer pong, and you can probably guess what happened next.
Friday with a hangover led to an intense first aid course. I’m now a First Aider so I can save you all!!
The weekend for me was really chilled out with some nice doses of free skiing. It’s annoying though because I always have the stress of deciding which runs to ski! What a week! NONSTOPSKI whoooooo!
READ WEEK 9
The weather continues to be kind to us here in Banff and the snow is just amazing. Great conditions for working towards the level two exams.
Saturday was spent down in Calgary, shopping at the Chinook Centre, visiting the Canada Olympic Park, watching the Flames play the San Jose Sharks at the
Saddledome and finally ending up at Cowboys.
READ WEEK 9
by Mr Oliver Roberts & Mr William Jukes
With the shackles of CASI 1 cast happily aside, it was time once more to relax, spread our wings and ride like the wind. But already our target vectors have been reset, now aiming at CASI 2, for the majority and freestyle for the alpine jib monkeys.
Lady Fernie has served up a varied meteorological smorgasbord, from the sweet delights of champagne powder to the acrid horror of heavy rain. The snowpack nevertheless remains in fine fettle.
Life off the slopes continues to offer up a plethora of pleasures. This week we broiled ourselves in the local sauna, hotter than a camel’s back and steamier than a Swedish kettle, and grinned like Belgian chimps as we dangled from the Amazonian rope swing. All this exercise left our bodies chiselled like Greek gods, glinting and rippling in the soft evening light. We were ready to take on the Griz. For this weekend was dedicated to paying tribute to the town’s legendary bear who dresses the mountain each year in its thick white gown. Thursday evening was spent adorning the Nonstop bus with assorted Mardi Gras regalia (imagine the Venga bus and times it by 9) The following night the wagon set off on its flamboyant pilgrimage along Fernie’s main street. One man, a hero with fire in his belly took the party by its horns and, parading down the street, magically crammed 64 % of Fernie’s local population into the bus. Filled to the rafters it lurched, bumped and ground down the street to the sound of dirty bass and with the aroma of fun gushing from every window. Debauchery continued throughout the night and into the weekend.
Now that our heads have cleared we are all looking forward to another epic week. And let us just leave you with final nugget of wisdom from the ever relevant Ray Mears “He who snares, wins ” . Amen.
READ WEEK 8
Melissa joined us this week and was lucky enough to experience slightly warmer temperatures and fantastic powder snow. The main reason for coming though – to chaperone the 18 year olds on a heli-skiing trip. I think Melissa and Grant must have the worst jobs in the world!
READ WEEK 8
By Matt Brosnan
Welcome to week seven! It’s been another amazing week skiing in Fernie! Seven weeks in and there’s still runs I haven’t discovered before!
It’s the week after our Level 1 instructors course and we’ve all been ripping it around the mountain, glad that we no longer have to snow plough and demonstrate skills and can finally ski Fernie like it deserves.
Nearly everyone was up for the opportunity to go head to head and race on the electronically timed race course set up for us! Many rematches and vendettas are still on the cards for the next race!
Plus I won a prize… get in! While everyone was winning prizes for their racing powers, I won a baseball cap for guessing my time improvement between race 1 and 2! Who’d have thought guessing 1 second would win me a cap- yeh!
Then there was the Griz day celebration street parade. To be honest, it was a drunken blur of prancing around in front of our decorated bus dressed in a jester costume (god knows where it came from though). Good times!!
And with the weekend came my opportunity to lose my backcountry virginity to Fernie’s equally virgin fresh snow! Spending the day hiking up and through the backcountry of Fernie was awesome enough, the views were stunning, but the best was still to come… fresh first tracks down the sweetest deep powder! Awesome. An amazing days experience!
And on that note, roll on week 8… I can’t wait!!
READ WEEK 8
Tom | March 12th, 2006
