Verbier 07 Course Diary...

Friday 15th December

Firstly, I would just like to say that we're having an awesome time here. Nick and Lucy, our chalet hosts, are both absolutely lovely and Lucy is an absolutely fantastic cook so all my plans of getting trim have gone out the window. The chalet itself is fantastic and the surrounding views of the mountains are breath taking. We've also really enjoyed integrating with European Snowsport and have been welcomed warmly.

This week has been formation week for ES so we've been training with the instructors and have gone to several parties where we've been meeting other seasonaires. As of yet, there hasn't been masses of snow so unfortunately we've only been skiing on two different runs, however, the rest of the resort is opening tomorrow and we have a day off so we're going to go exploring.  

During our first week, we were trained by Roddy (a BASI instructor) and all of our skiing came on 1000 fold. I for one never realised that skiing was quite this technical and how badly I was skiing before. I never actually used carving skis to their full potential. Using a multitude of fun exercises, we began to discover the imperfections in our skiing. For example, Roddy quickly realised that I was leaning back too much when I ski and he showed me some great exercises that would help me to correct the problem like trying to carve backwards and by making me lean as far back as I could and as far forwards as I could whilst skiing. 

Last Saturday, I went to a thermal Spa in San Maurice with Mike and Mary which was absolutely amazing. It was 30ChF for 3 hours and there were saunas, a massive outdoor heated pool, aromatherapy rooms etc so was a great day out. Overall, so far we're all loving every minute of being here! Thanks for this opportunity.

Alex Skinner

Tuesday 9th January

Since our last diary entry a number of weeks have past, with many hi's and lows for all of the group. The festive period was celebrated in true British style, by consuming silly amounts of food and alcohol, and then larking around with some locals and an inflatable guitar(seemed amusing at the time!). The new year saw a spectacular celebration on the streets of Verbier, with music, fireworks, and over 20,000 people to see the new year in with.

Of course not all of our time has been spent partying! We have also been shadowing the ES lessons in order to gain experience in different teaching styles, and make up the 70 hours ski school experience needed for our grade 3 BASI qualification. At the moment we are training all day everyday with Roddy and a former olympic bumps skier called Laura. This has proven extremely tiring, and everyone has been hitting the sack early recently.

We are due a visit from the Peak Leaders crew any moment now, so we look forward to getting to know some of the people that have provided us with such an opportunity (had to sneek a little brown nosing in....right?!). No honestly, the course is fantastic and we are all being thoroughly looked after and having a jolly good time! Some more than others, as there has also been some romance within the tight unit known as the 'gappies', which I shall tell you more about in my next entry!

Tommy Cragg

Tuesday 16th January 2007

Since the brief visit of Nick, David, and Annie from Peak Leaders, the team have been having intense bumps training with Laura Donaldson, former olympic mogul skier, and top instructor. This particularly pleased 'ol boy' Mike, as he could mince around with his feet together all day long!! A massive night out on Saturday saw a magnum of vodka sunk, and Ben pulling all sorts of shapes on the dance floor, amongst other things (cough,cough...Lizzy). Training all day this week is already starting to take it's toll on the 'gappies', although there is always time for some apres ski darts. Until next time.......

Tommy Cragg

Friday 26th January 2007

Hello all! After a massive dump of snow 2 days ago, a few of us decided to go to Bruson which is the opposite side of the valley to Verbier and is reached by a short bus ride from the train station in Le Chable. Its a large off piste area with lots of tree skiing. Although there are some awesome pistes over there, we decided to go for a few tree runs as the pictures show.

We warmed up on some powder just off one of the main pistes and then quickly made our way to the trees following some tracks. One of the great things about Bruson is that no matter which route you take through the trees, u come out on a path that takes you back to the main pistes and lifts. Being my first tree run, I was quite nervous but excited at the same time but Ben (a pretty experienced off pister) gave me some pointers and off we went.

It was an awesome day topped off by Fajitas back at the chalet with Lucy. Shortly, we are off out to go and watch The Yellow Mike Band up in Pub Mont Fort to celebrate Australian day. Last night, to celebrate Burns night, I had my first taste of Haggis which was surprisingly nice but I still couldn't get it out of my head just what it was. :S  

As many of you will've heard, James Blunt came to Verbier to open the new Attelas chair lift. I did the sad thing....took lots of photos and got a few autographs. Gotta be done really! Also saw James Blunt in Cas Bah that night on the dance floor which was pretty surreal to be honest.   Anyway, more importantly, our 2 week assessment starts on Monday with Alan Bunyon (please excuse the spelling) which we are excited about but are also quite apprehensive. I think we are all ready and, looking back, have all come on a huge amount. Hopefully, with some rest and this nice new snow, there should be a lot of new European Snowsport instructors. Well, thats all for now from us here in Verbier but I hope everyone in England is well!  

Alex Skinner