RED 11 Week Instructor Course 16/17 - Weeks 10 & 11

The final hoorah. It’s been a phenomenal season and RED Mountain continued to deliver the goods with some spring fresh! A big congrats to all the new Level 2 instructors, growing our Nonstop community once more. Here’s Manny’s final take on the winter.

In the blink of an eye, 11 weeks has passed and the time has come to write one final blog and say goodbye to Rossland and RED Mountain. The last couple of weeks have been so busy, I had to skip week 10 and jump straight to week 11.

The moment of truth arrived as we had our Level 2 CSIA exams. Us skiers were fortunate enough to have a 100% pass rate, and it is safe to say that we have all noticed significant improvements in our skiing over the 11 weeks. Moreover, the technical knowledge we have acquired from this course has provided a foundation for us to continue to work on our own skiing into the future.  As the saying goes:  give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.  Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.

Over the past week it truly felt like spring had arrived.  As the rain and warmer weather set in, we watched as the snow on our roof gradually receded and disappeared, the trees turned green, and squirrels and birds began to appear on the slopes.  But then on Friday night after our exams, the weather turned cold once again, and RED received another glorious 15cm overnight.  And so if our season here was a theatre production, then Saturday – the final day of skiing for some of us - was the encore.  We were absolutely amazed to be skiing light knee-deep powder in the morning down tree runs we thought were well and truly finished for the season. 

That afternoon, the sun came out just in time for the slush cup, as we saw many of the town’s finest (and craziest) skiers and boarders straight line down a quarter of Red Mountain before hitting a kicker and attempting to skirt across a giant pool of water.   Some wore spandex, some wore costumes, some wore nothing much at all!  The atmosphere was infectious and summed up what Red is all about – rocking your own style, having fun and not taking yourself too seriously.

Following the slush cup, our host Paul rented out a cabin on the mountain for the evening for an end of season get-together.  It was so nice to kick back with food, drinks and good company - some of us taking to the sleds and going for a few very amusing group rides up and down the hill, others enjoying the warmth of the fireplace and candle lights inside the cabin.  We had an award ceremony of sorts, watched a couple of videos containing footage acquired over the 11 weeks, and had the opportunity to express our gratitude to our host Paul and the coaches.  All in all it was a perfect finale to a perfect season.

I sit here at 1am on Monday morning, having just returned from one of the last group gatherings at our local – The Flying Steamshovel – where we enjoyed some drinks, pool and Neglan.  A few of us wont see each other in the morning and have already said our goodbyes, and I am dreading the final farewell at breakfast tomorrow.  As my mind spins and I think back on all the great experiences we’ve shared on this course, it hits me just how special these past 11 weeks have been.  Not only have we had amazing snow conditions for the vast majority of the season, but for a group of such different ages and different backgrounds, we’ve had a great group dynamic.  The mountain and the town will always be here, but it saddens me to think that our group – the 2017 Red Mountain nonstoppers - are unlikely to all be here at the same time again, living together in the same houses, living “the local life” which I feel like we started but have had to indefinitely postpone.  But I like to think that we will keep in touch and I really hope that some of us will cross paths again in the future.

This has been a truly unforgettable experience for me and one which I will look back on with fond memories for years to come.  If I could do it all again I honestly wouldn’t do one thing differently.  But now, like numerous Nonstop “alumni” whose reviews I read while considering this course, it’s my turn to say to prospective participants “Just do it!”

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