Banff 11-Week Ski and Snowboard Instructor Course ’09 – Week 1

By Harriet Bingham

I’m having such a great time out here! The skiing is amazing and everyone is improving daily, the groups are of 8 and all the people in my group are really cool.

After I left my family at the airport I met a big bunch of people who were also on the course and got settled in to the long flight. The bus journey at the other end was pretty long as it was SNOWING so much but we got there eventually and given our room cards and food. Our rooms are really big which helps if you aren’t used to sharing!

group

The first day was just spent buying all our equipment and having a tour of the town which was a bit daunting as I had no idea about skis and things but we were given a talk that really helped and they guided us in the right direction, we also got this pro deal thing which meant we got to demo anything and then order it.

The early mornings are pretty taxing as breakfast is at 7 every morning then we have to catch a bus to either of the three resorts, sunshine (which is never sunny but gets the best snow) Lake Louise (which is beautiful and has the most amount of skiing in one resort in Canada, my favourite) and then Norquay which is pretty small and we go there once a week for training, its pretty steep but we do race training there which is cool!.

Social side is really good there are lots of bars and pubs in the town and a couple of good clubs including the hotel bar which has the cheapest booze in town!! Once a week we get a meal out on the town in a different restaurant each week which is really nice.

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