I did warn you!

I did warn you about this, I reckon you will be lucky to get a post before I’m home after this one. No I’m joking you should get at least one more between now and then. To make an excuse though, it’s been hectic round here with plus wind chill locking us up for almost a week, doubling up lessons the week after and totally shattering everyone making last week our first normal week of training and personal development just in time for this week, the dreaded first week of exams! So enough of the excuses I should probably get on with this.

As I said it is now exam week and everyone has improved greatly in the short period of time some better than others, me included I need to keep practicing but I have still improved hugely as a rider. Anyway it’s the night before the first day of the 3 day exam for my level one and to free my mind of teaching theory, snowboarding progression, tasks, tactics and Acronyms I’m doing this.

I left off having been drunk at however many thousand feet, landing, travelling more by land and settling into my temporary home in Jasper. The Day after was an early start and after being jetted half way round the world and not having really slept in a good 24 hours or so people just wanted to sleep and didn’t really want a day of admin. But that wasn’t a choice available so we rolled into breakfast ate, got dressed and piled into our ‘luxury’ transport for the following 11 weeks, A Stereotypical yellow American School bus, and drove off into the early morning dark. The drive was uneventful with everyone just trying to see through the windows which were frozen inside and out! About half an hour later we arrived at the hill still in semi darkness and headed to the bar, for a presentation and introduction to course leaders, instructors, ski patrol and others, not an early morning pint. After a couple hours we had been told loads of information about the course the mountain and other bits and pieces, that I won’t bore you with, and sorted out our season passes for the lifts and finally seen the mountain in all its glory. What a view snow covered peaks in every direction freshly groomed runs leading up the mountain and a view of the valley below us, and then the penny dropped, I was in Canada about to become a Snowboard instructor.

We then headed back down to town for a bit of free time followed by a tour of town and the shops, we would receive discounts in for the duration of the course, Finishing in Downstream the bar considered to be the CRA’s (Canadian Rockies Academy, who runs the course) local, for a Free Drink. This led to getting pretty sideways and pulling a blank in what happened towards the end of my first full day in Canada.

The next day came and I was feeling pretty special but with breakfast in me, a nice plate of eggs, bacon home fried potato, pastries and toast accompanied with coffee, juice and water I was ready for a day up on the hill. Everyone piled into the bus up to the mountain when we got there we were met by the instructors and roughly divided out to ride in groups to assess what level everyone was at with their skiing and riding. The day progressed nicely on and we were divided up again into more permanent groups based loosely on ability and rode the day away being given the occasional pointer and task. By the end of it I was pumped and ready for the next day as we were to be let loose to just ride.

As soon as the doors opened at the base chalet the next morning away we went free to roam the slopes, tree runs and jumps that Marmot Basin had to offer. First run was straight to the top and all the way down and how amazing it was to have real snow and a whole mountain under my feet doing a run that went for ten minutes not 10 seconds, Like the Local Indoor centre back in Hemel. Eventually the day came to a close at the hill all exhausted but still covered in grins we headed back to the hotel. After dinner we were told a big storm was coming in and they weren’t sure of the situation up on the mountain or if the lifts would be open the next day, not what we wanted to hear ahead of our first day of Lessons.

So the next day came and the mountain was shut due to it already being minus 20 and the temperature likely to drop below that through the day, Bummer. Next day was the same but Matty had managed to change one of our classroom activities at short notice so we rugged up and braved it out into the minus 40 temperatures of the outside world to take part in an avalanche awareness course at a local teaching complex a short fridge on wheels drive away. There I learned loads and was really keen to head back the next day as once again the hill was due to be closed due to -40 plus wind chill. The next day we braved it out again jumped back into the yellow fridge on wheels and headed back to the avalanche course centre. We finished off the teaching side and then were told we would be doing an activity outside (GULP!) but to be safe we wouldn’t be outside for more than 10 minutes as frostbite would kick in within twelve. Now believe me when I say we all rushed through this part of the course and did everything we could at mach 5 to get it over and done with as soon as possible. Now I Don’t know if you’ve been out in -40 with a wind chill taking it to closer to -60 but it freezes your eyes together if you blink to slow and your nose freezes up due to the moisture your breathing out, it’s not fun so we were so glad to get back inside and warm up.

That Night Matty passed out the message he had arranged a trip to Edmonton for the following day as the hill was likely to be closed again. I wasn’t keen on spending the money on a 4 am start, 10 hours of bus journeys and a place full of shops with temptation to spend my limited budget so bailed with a few others. Next morning when we woke good news met our ears ‘the hill was partially open’ so later in the morning when the local bus began to run a group of us headed up to rid us of the cabin fever slowly taking us over. It was still around -30 the snow wasn’t great and most runs were closed but it was still so good to be up on the hill not in the hotel we didn’t care and still had a blast.

Anyway that’s enough for this post will move onto the first week of lessons in the next one.

Peace N