Getting Qualified in the Wonderland of Banff

Our early season 3 week ski instructor course in Banff, Canada is a great way to kick off the winter and set yourself up to work for the rest of the season as an instructor. George joined our program to achieve his goal of getting his ski instructor qualifications, as well as having an all-round blast. Read about his experiences on the course...

It dawned on me in a dingy London pub enjoying a much needed drink after a gruelling day staring at a computer and getting stressed. Sitting here now with mountains and clean air outside of my window, it amazes me how I let those computers stress me out. Anyway, my colleague and I were discussing what most twenty somethings discuss whilst drinking and sharing stories: travelling tales. He had spent a season in Banff as a ski instructor after finishing the three week course with Nonstop and was making me extremely jealous. As you can expect, he had me hooked on the idea straight away and before I had even finished that first beer, I had decided that I wanted to spend a season in Canada.

Most of my skiing experience was gained whilst on university ski trips and if you have ever been a part of one of those then you will appreciate my need for some high quality ski coaching. I spent six months saving for the course and as the trees shed their leaves in rainy England I left to shred the ‘Champagne Powder’ of Banff.

One plane and Greyhound (Canadian bus) trip later and I was in the Rockies. The night was brisk, the snow was falling and I had finished my rationed supply of Poutine flavoured crisps… when in Rome and all that. I had staff accommodation organised through Nonstop and entered my quaint little wooden house on Beaver Street (I have since realised how lucky I am to have accommodation pre organised given the difficulty of finding a house on your own in Banff). The first night was spent sharing beers and backstories with my housemates who were all on Nonstop’s three week instructor course and I immediately felt at home with my new season pals. 

After exploring the town, which included climbing the mountain behind our house, it was time to start the course. The first port of call was an equipment talk with our instructors to make sure that we all had the right gear and a short tour around the town. The instructors seemed super clued up at the talk and they continued to share their wisdom later that night over a welcome dinner.

Over the three weeks the course was spread across Sunshine Village, Lake Louise and Norquay which, combined, is the largest ski area in North America! The first week was spent at Sunshine Village and truth be told, when that first lesson came around I was a little nervous. However, within the first 10 minutes my instructor, Anna (aka Nonstop Mummy) immediately put us at ease by playing hot potato with a glove – one of the first lessons as a ski instructor is to make sure your clients have fun, even as adults! By the end of my first two days I had already improved my skiing ability considerably. The instructing was different to any I had previously experienced, our technique was broken down in to bite size elements which made learning a lot easier. After all, the end goal for most was to instruct new skiers and so we needed to make sure that we had an understanding of every element of skiing.

Outside of the lessons Nonstop had organised a load of social activities. From ski tuning talks to curling at the Rec Centre in Banff, we had it all to look forward to. Apart from the obvious socialising at the local bar with the course mates, my highlight of the first week was definitely the Banff Hotsprings. We all hired retro swim suits and spent the evening relaxing our ski muscles and fooling around in our 50s swimwear – absolute bliss. Before I knew it the first week was over and if I had learnt anything, it was that I was going to get a lot better at skiing, and have a bloody good time doing it.

With the arrival of week two came the introduction of Lake Louise. It was a pretty awe inspiring resort with some really challenging terrain to enthuse a little more confidence in our ability. We were given a different instructor (Charlie) who gave us a second opinion on our technique which was great. We were taught some new methods of teaching beginners which included procedures such as judging the correct terrain in a lesson and even learning silly phrases for the correct posture on skis (i.e. don’t sit on the toilet!). A lot of the focus of week two was on refining our skiing and making sure that we were showing concrete signs of acquiring the correct instructor technique. The use of video analysis in lessons massively helped in this respect. This was our last opportunity to prepare ourselves for the exam in week three and we tried to make the most out of the time with our coaches. My little Nonstop notebook was populated with many nuggets of wisdom!

As I had come to expect from Nonstop, outside of the lessons in week two we had a great mix of fun and informative activities. At the start of the week, after a short Banff style woodland trek, we visited the local ski tuning shop. There we learnt how to properly maintain our skis, equipping us with professional knowledge to pass on to our clients as ski instructors. Later on in the week, Nonstop had organised a midweek drink at the local micro brewery with instructors that are currently working in the industry. We shared delicious beer and the instructors passed on their wisdom and experiences from the ski industry. Personally, I found it extremely useful to channel all of my questions and concerns with regard to employment as a ski instructor.

As the week drew to a close I not only felt that my skiing had massively improved but I had also created some great ties with course mates and instructors alike. Arriving in a new country 5,000 miles from home is pretty daunting to say the least but meeting like-minded people when you get here makes the time fly. All I had to do now was look after myself in preparation for the exam which, unfortunately, meant limited off-piste skiing for the time being!

The CSIA Level 1 exam was a three day course at Mount Norquay in which both our skiing technique and instructing ability was assessed. I’m not going to lie, the thought of a three day course was pretty terrifying and different scenarios played on repeat in my mind over the days prior. However, the great thing about training and taking the course with Nonstop was that we remained in the same groups we had trained with over the past two weeks which that put me at ease a little.

The Rockies had just experienced an unusual cold spell and as day one of the exam came around, temperatures were at a bone chilling -30. Ideal for a 100% outdoors practical exam (not!). OK, I’m being overly pessimistic, we were allowed to shelter in the warm lodge every hour or so to thaw the feet so it wasn’t all that bad. In fact, looking back, day 1 and 2 felt very much like a normal ski lesson with a load of teaching tips thrown in for good measure. We covered areas such as how to structure a lesson, how to control a class and the body parts to look at when observing a student skiing. All of this combined with tips and drills to improve on our own skiing made for a very interesting and rewarding couple of days. The role of the first two days was to judge our skiing ability but it felt like supportive advice more than anything and I came out of those first two days feeling pretty confident.

Being the final day, it felt like day 3 was crunch time. The focus was on our teaching ability and we practiced our teaching techniques on each other all day. With the examiner saying very little and observing quite a lot, I couldn’t help but feel like this was more of an exam! Still, day 3 equipped us with the crucial experience of actually teaching another individual. That’s not to say we didn’t have fun either, in some instances the task was to teach a group of children and in the absence of actual children we had to improvise – being a kid on a ski slope is fun I tell you (animal toys may have been included)!

Before I knew it, the Level 1 exam was over and despite braving minus 30 degrees  I couldn’t help feel that I had strangely enjoyed it. Maybe it was the friends that were in it with me, or the charismatic Canadian that was our examiner (big up Traci G) but I couldn’t wait to teach a lesson. During a nervous hour or so waiting for the results I reflected on my experience over the past three weeks. The dream I’d had in that dingy London pub was finally coming to fruition in a majestic exposed beam ski lodge at the top of a Mount Norquay. I had met some great people, pushed myself well outside of my comfort zone, improved my skiing more than I could have ever imagined and most importantly, come out smiling. The smile got even bigger when we found out that we had passed. I felt a sense of achievement that I had not experienced in a long time. I had done it! I was officially a qualified CSIA Level 1 ski instructor.

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Inspired by George's story? You can do it too! Check out our ski and snowboard instructor courses, get your CSIA or CASI certifications and spend a season in the powder of Canada.

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