BASI Trainee Ski Instructor training: Day 5

Today was a glorious day, sunshine, perfect snow and no wind. We started the day with some runs under the three man chair above the gondola. We worked on elements of the Central Theme, first our basic parallel, and then our plough parallel. After a few runs of this we cut across to skier’s left towards the drag lifts. We then spent most of the morning working off of the shorter drag lift; there’s a nice blue run there and after some video sessions of our plough parallel we began to focus on carving.

First we did some simple exercises to make sure that we were carving properly. Point straight down the fall line, run for a little and then do a single long carved turn to the left. This was enough for Julian to separate us into two groups, those that carved and those that skidded. Those of us that were carving then repeated the exercise in each direction for a couple of runs before being told to start linking turns. There followed a couple of very nice, fast, runs of carved turns, some of which were videoed for later analysis. The snow was ideal, the pitch was good and it was quiet which made the runs a lot of fun.

Today we planned to stop earlier than usual so that Julian could come back to the hotel and write up our reports. Because of this we had a coffee break late in the morning and worked through to a late lunch. After coffee we did some more carving and then started to work on the bumps to skier’s right of the longer drag. The bumps weren’t very big and the snow was quite soft, so they were reasonably easy even though it was a steeper run than we probably needed. I was told to absorb the bumps more, but to be honest they weren’t really big enough to bother absorbing (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!). After a couple of nice, videoed, runs down these bumps we moved lower and found some more bumps on less steep terrain. Here we practiced absorbing the bump and extending down the backs of the bumps to maintain constant contact with the snow so as to control our speed. One more bump run down towards Viento Cero amd we stopped for lunch and Julian headed off.

After lunch Neil and I did a couple of runs. We had planned to do a couple of runs and then go for a beer (which would have been my first actual apres ski of the trip). Unfortunately after a run down under Condor II we took the T-bar and then Condor III and started to head home, cutting across by the sextuple and then down the off-piste to the track that took us to the black mogul field that leads down towards the “CVC gathering place” and then home. The black moguls were nice and soft and a better shape than yesterday, these reminded me that I tend to think of mogul skiing as more a case of pulling up my feet rather than absorbing, these needed the feet to be pulled up to ski them properly and the skiing felt good. By the time we got back to the ski locker it was time for the bus, so no apres ski today…

We get our assessments at around 6.30 tonight and after that we party. Neil has a rather complete itinery for tonight; starting with a beer at the hotel, then steak and chips at the “greasy spoon”, on to Pilgrims, then South Bar, then The Roxy and finaly ending up in Rocket. I wonder how far we’ll make it, I wonder how far we’ll remember getting… Still, rest day tomorrow and I haven’t had a drink for a week…