Whistler 07 Course Diary....

7th Heaven

boarders lesson

heel toe

Tuesday 16th January 2007

On Monday night we went to the Crystal Lounge for a kareoke night, we had some truly amazing performances from Nigel and Pat, when i say truly amazing i mean interesting. Its amazing what fresh mountain air will do for a hangover, and the next morning everyone was up and at it. When i say most people i mean about 3 people. In my group we went back to snowplough, which is funny when you haven't done it since you were ten years old, but i think our instructor Gib found it as boring as everyone else and broke it up with some steep runs and moguls. Learning loads, both about ski technique and how much you can get away with drinking and still ski pretty well the next day.

Claire Morgan

the hike

the reward

Roberto & Dave ready to rock & roll at the roundhouse

edge gluing

finished product

Patrick & Vicky

Saturday 20th January 2007

A message from the team leader:
 
"The end of the second week arrived with a great night out starting with Apres Ski at Merlins' pub.  Beautiful weather on Saturday meant that several people took a couple of hours to enjoy a leisurely ski around Whistler and Blackcomb.  In the evening we visited the Prior Ski Factory where we were given a tour of the workshops and saw how they build their skis and snowboards.  The appeal of having custom graphics made specifically for your own board or skis was clearly a winning formula, and I suspect some people may be returning to the Prior Factory in the next few weeks!  Saturday night saw several folks enjoying the nightlife of Whistler and Sunday, appropriately has been the rest day!"
 
Charles

Thursday 25th January 2007

Its the third day of our exams and everyone is getting nervous about the final day. Today we concentrated on the teaching aspect of the course, it involved making sure that our demos were perfect, showing that we can assess a skier accurately and use a 'drill' to try and help improve a skiers: stance & balance, edging and pivoting.

As much as everyone was worried about the final day, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves even though they knew the instructor was watching their every move... Unlike monday and tuesday, we didnt have any theory lessons so we were able to finish at 3pm rather than 5pm. However many people didn't want to stop skiing as they wanted to be out in the sun!

Overall today was not as nerve racking as i thought it would be, many people feel positive about tomorrow. Hopefully everything tomorrow will go as well as it did today, fingers crossed that we all pass!

Bryn Lee

Monday 29th January 2007

It’s the first day of our four day level 1 assessment and everyone met up at the GLC at the base of the Whistler gondola to register for the exams. It was only when none of the examiners turned up for the 8.30 meeting time that we all realised we were supposed to register in the Roundhouse on the mountain itself (which is a 20 minute ride up the lift). Ooops – does that mean a blanket fail across the board? Anyway, we manage to sign up ok and at 9.30 we and our counterparts from Base Camp and International Academy were split into seven groups of around 8 people and assigned a course conductor.

The first day was all about ski improvement but we were all painfully aware that we are being assessed on our skiing over the full four days so were on our best behaviour and trying to round out those turns to perfection, baby! At 3 o'clock we all met up at the Whistler Kids learner centre for a two hour lecture as part of the course. Everyone agreed it was tougher than expected and no one knew how they had performed so I guess it’s fingers crossed time and a matter of (snow) ploughing on with it.

Jeff West

Wednesday 14th February 2007

After a few days off from the level 1 exams which nearly everyone passed, we enjoyed a few beers and some food in town over the weekend.  The start of this week gave us a few new dumps of snow which were very welcome.  We are now enjoying some much more exciting skiing after all the snowplough turns we had to do last week!  Everyone is enjoying themselves on and off the slopes and last night we had a great time at an 80's night in town.  Some of the clothes actually belong to people on the course!  Avalanche awareness training for some people tomorrow.

Tom Parfitt

Monday 19th February 2007

My first full week of skiing!! Finally, after weeks being stuck in the house being pretty ill, I managed a whole week of training and even got up on Saturday for Avalanche Awareness. My group had little Francois this week and I loved it. Snow wasn’t that great; was very hard so tough on the legs. Saturday brought extremely strong winds and an early awakening that didn’t feel so good; a small group met at the bottom of the mountain for a day learning about avalanche safety (see photos). We learnt how to find buried buddies with the help of tracking devices; trying to find them before four minutes was up! We dug a pit and looked at the different layers within the snow and the difference in snow crystals; both factors which affect the likelihood of avalanches.

While skiing around the mountain we took a look at potential areas of danger around us and talked about other factors which contribute to avalanche risk, like terrain type and weather. It was all very interesting and the most useful tip of the day was ’if caught in an avalanche….swim!’ Came off the mountain feeling quite proud of myself after skiing with better skiers and managing to keep up. After a busy week, I had a chilled Sunday. The girls went into Whistler to eat and have a look around the shops. We all came home with girl boxers with ’Whistler Ski Bum’ written on them; the highlight of our day!!

Harriet x

Tuesday 20th February 2007

Today the boarders got up as usual, ready to hit the slopes for 9:30. The morning was excellent as every one was excited about riding in the fresh powder we have been waiting for over the last month. After a couple of runs we headed down to Merlins for lunch and a couple of drinks as we were going cross country skiing with the instructors in the afternoon.

The X-country skiing was a laugh everyone went in different outfits ranging from swimming trunks and tights to all in 1's. To finish off the skiing we had a relay race around a track, but to make it even more interesting we had to down a pint before we could go and then another before the next man in our team could head off. All together was an excellent day and can't wait for tomorrow.

Marc Weinberg

Thursday 22nd February 2007

Today was one of the best days on the slopes to date. We took the lift up Whistler mountain, and after a little hike and a breather at the top, we headed down the Flute Bowl. With the whole group riding together there was a mix of skiers and boarders which just added to the buzz. Everyone made it down in there own fashion, some taking further leaps, others choosing a more cautious approach . Jumping down from the cornice was so fun that some of the boarders hiked up for more.

The snow was incredible, and it was one of the best runs I’ve ever done. To top the immense powder and empty space, there was and fast pace tree run that followed. Keeping up with the group did give some of us thigh burn but after lunch at the Roundhouse everyone was ready for more. This day has been so fun dispite the windy weather. My confidence and love of powder have grown, what more can a skiier ask for.

Sarah Durber

Wednesday 28th February 2007

Today my ski group entered into an annual competition, The Whistler Technical Champs. We entered the amateur category and our instructor, Francois, entered the open category. The competition was in 3 parts, bumps, short turns and GS racing. We were marked by 3 judges for technique in the bumps and short turns and race time in the GS. The bumps were tough and there were quite a few wipe outs, all caught on video which we watched in the bar afterwards accompanied by lots of cheering.

Out of 39 amateur men taking part, one of our group won first place and a new pair of Head skis in the process. Well done Tom! Furthermore, Francois won the open competition and collected a cash prize which was subsequently spent on beer. A successful day!

Patrick Adey

Friday 9th March 2007

This weekend was the group's trip to the city of Vancouver, although for a few who are low on dinero it was another weekend in the Whistler 'bubble'. A few of the mob went down on friday afternoon to have an extra night in the city, which was very messy......... Some even told stories of meeting hot females at the bar, then having them flirt with the bar tender to provide them with tipples such as Jaeger Bombs, and one thing leading to another, pulling them.......hmmmmm these stories or story were very dubious seeing as the person in question claimed she was "HOT" but unfortunately, no one else saw her, so make of it what you will!!!! Jack you know what we think..........

The rest of the group who travelled to Vancouver, left on Saturday morning on the 8:30 bus. The journey flew by which was surprising seeing as it took us 6 hours to get from Vancouver to Whistler on our first day here!!!! Once we had arrived, we walked to our hostel, which was a typical hostel, but the area was, how should I say...........a seedy version of Amsterdam.

Once rooms were sorted we all ventured out into the streets of Vancouver to find food and wonder aimlessly into shops. I went with a few to a place called Roxy's where we enjoyed a wonderful spread of full fat onion rings, steak sandwiches, shepherds pie and other sorts, almost like the scene out of Hook, the one with all the coloured foods, you know?? AMAZING!

Then people split up further and I strolled around with Oly and Toby, through shops, malls, random streets, even pondering whether to go down a back alley, but upon spying two dodgy characters decided we valued our lives a little too much!! After spending a good 45 minutes in a sports shop laying with pretty much everything, we headed back to the hostel to put our best attire on and hit the night ahead of us.

We all headed to Roxy's again for a bit of munch and more beverages. People accordingly got a little inebriated and as always cant remember what they did, or more to the point who they did....!!! Some chose to go and queue for clubs, but spending 3 hours queing, decided to leave the queue and head to another watering hole where they susbsequently spent $170 on Jager bombs alone..........Chumps!

A few then headed to the hostel to try out the amazing looking beds..........only to be woken up by a certain person in my room, bring back a randomer from the street who went by the name of, 'Teriake' or 'Toomankekeke' I forget. Furthermore, this girl then went about asking people in rooms for a certain accessory to use...........no need to explain! Exciting night!!!

The next morning, people wondered around waiting for the bus times. A few left on the 1 o'clock bus, others including myself caught the 3'oclock bus after stuffing our faces at Denny's.....although we had a slightly shifty looking character as our waiter, funny guy!

A few of the guys spent an extra night in Vancouver as they wanted to watch an Ice Hockey match, which I heard was very good, but unfortunately there were no big fights, which I understand is why many choose to watch the sport........if it was me.....a refund perhaps???

All in all the weekend was pretty fun and Im sure those who journied out had a good trip.

Good Times!

James Whaley

bus trip

compact accomodation

Wednesday 14th March 2007

Thursday night is hockey night down at the local ice rink, and Jo, one of our instructors, and her team were taking on the might of the Blackcomb Killer Bees. In a thrilling match, the Bees pulled the game back to 5-5 from 5-1, but MoeJoes held on and scored in the final minute to win 6-5. This last minute win was obviously done for the ever vocal (Peakleaders) crowd, bringing a sense of normality with the common footballing chants being applied to the ice hockey stage!!!
 
For some strange reason Ian, Bryn and Duncan saw Friday to be an apt day to don their one piece'rs and set out to skiing the mountain in what can only be described as a "gay manner". Completely oblivious to the bemused on-lookers they continued to prance and whistle renditions of "whistle while you work" and "the great escape" much to our amusement but confusing to passing boarders who were heard as saying, "They're whistling....and they're in one piece'rs...must be for money"

Faced with the latest round of exams and testing this week, we thought we'd take time out from our busy schedule and partake in our new found passion of bungee jumping...Ian thought that he'd get it out of the way first, but realised soon that throwing yourself off of a bridge isn't as easy as it may seem. Everybody who "wanted" to jump did so in some form or another with some requiring a convenient prompt in the right direction. Credit must be given to Tim, who after doing the waist jump thought it would be smart to jump off relying on what can only be described as shackles around his ankles. His trust in the equipment dropped when asking the bungee employee, "do the (ankle) straps ever come off?" to which the employee replied "errr...about once a week....we're due one this week mind!!" Irrespective of this, Tim proceeded with the jump, and carried out every young boys dream in recreating the Bond Jump off the dam in Goldeneye, putting the rest of the guys to shame and proving that he has the biggest balls!!!
 
Toby Ruddle

Friday 23rd March 2007

The snow turns to rain, the powder to ice and the frenzied powder monkeys desert the slopes to let the bears come out to play.  We are but shadows on a sunshine day.  We, who have danced our way through creamy powder, carved our tracks with precision, pivoted our feet and flexed our ankles down the steepest terrain, angulated around the sweetest curve, plummeted down the severest triple black, yes, our time has come to an end.  We must retreat from our alpine kingdom to leave perfect tracks melting in the spring sunshine.
 
We have been blessed by friendships, tears of joy, scandal, hot gossip, perogies, temper tantrums, mood swings, saunas, singing in the shower, open mike sessions and sensational skiing.  Who can ever forget the cheesy all-in-one ski outfits of Bryn, Ian, Duncan and James?  Nigel's buck naked early morning strolls?  Vicky's epic cliff rescue and dog collar? Mike's narrow escape from death?  Ben and Pat, Australia's answer to Beavis and Butthead, with their incessant bickering, Jack's renditions of Disney classics,  Marc's eternal search for the Pussy Cat Dolls, Sarah's struggle to live amongst commoners?  The Michelin star Whistler Cooks, Roberto's snake hips, Charlie's Inter-Flora catastrophe, Lizzy sucking pop through a straw, Nicks classic backflops, Gib's stand-up comic and part time ski instructor, Claire's harem, Nicks Love doctor, I could go on, but...
 
Over the last 12 weeks I have done intensive research to compile the Whistler Peak Leaders social rich list.  I know you are dying to hear the results, so here is the shortened version:
 
1.   Harriet (Heiress to Henry-Lloyd)
2.   Sarah (owns Putney, but 'discussing wealth is like, oh my god, sooo offensive')
3.   Lucy (owns half of Scotland and lives in a castle)
4.   Patrick (owns Fulham and uncle is billionaire)
5.   Jeffrey (made a packet property dealing)
6.   Ben (must be worth a fortune as he's tighter than a camel's backside in a sandstorm)
7.   Bryn (looks and sounds posh, but wears it well)
 
34.  Charlie (sounds posh but has no assets or money)
35.  David (lives on a boat in Yorkshire)
36.  Matt (drinking problem and drops his h's)
37   Nigel (common as muck and lives in a terraced house)
38   Big Tom (linked to the Whistler shooting and 1 above)
 
Regard to all and have a nice life...

Nigel Cass

Whistler 06 Short Course Diary....

Tuesday 21st November 2006 - Charles (Charley), the course mentor is already out in Whistler and sends this initial brief report:

Plenty of snow fall today so conditions on the hill should be very nice.  I'm hoping to steal a couple of hours up there in the next day or so.

Thursday 24th November 2006

Well, today was our first day on the mountain, and we all had to get used to this huge amount of powder and being on our skies again. Last night the instructors, Wayne (ski) and Peter (snowboard), dropped by at our place to say hi, accompanied by the ski/snowboard school deputy manager, and we were all very excited to get started today.
 
This morning we left at 8:15 for Blackcomb to meet up with our instructors and get up the mountain. It was still snowing and we saw that there's a huge amount of snow on the slopes already. When we got up, Wayne explained us that we were using today to warm up a little, do some exercises so he would have the opportunity to check our skills.
 
We had a great day, and I think we all really enjoyed being on the mountain again. At the end of the day, when we walked back to our house we were all kinda tired of the very active day of skiing. Tomorrow morning we're going up at 8:30 again to continue with Wayne. I'm really looking forward to it, we have a great team here and already having lots of fun together.
 
Cheers,
Pepijn (18 from Holland)

Thursday 24th November

Despite a few sore muscles, we all made it up Blackcomb mountain for Day 2 of the short course's instruction. Once again we were greeted by fresh snow. It seems to just keep on coming!

In the skiers group we spent the morning doing more technical ski improvement with Wayne.  We did a series of exercises in one long run and then when we got to the top we did it all again, but this time without our poles.The afternoon was spent exploring more of the mountain, including a double black stretch of moguls and our first taste of tree skiing. Lots of fun!

As an Aussie skiing in Canada for the first time, I can't believe just how much snow there is here already, and how soft it is.  Moguls are a lot more fun when they're not hard and icy...

I'm not too sure what the snowboarders got up to - but they were certainly in the bar at the bottom of the lift well before we got there, and I think they fitted in some snowboard shopping as well.  The Friday night apres-ski started early in the afternoon and for some continued long into the next morning.

Ella

Friday 1st December

I am Greg from Australia and I have come here to improve my skiing and qualify for my level one.
 
Well the last couple of days have been nice and cold and to keep warm we have been carving it up through the trees and soft fluffy powder. Our course is going very well, the instructor is as the Canadians would put it " Awesome" and all in our group are improving dramatically. The snow here is very plentiful and we are all having a great time skiing the Mtn.
 
The group of people in the house are a great bunch of people from many different parts of the world and we have been doing leadership/get to know our self exercises. It was very interesting learning how we are perceived by the people around us.
 
Last night the temp came up 10 or 15 degrees and it snowed about 30 cm overnight.  This made for a great day out on the Mtn. Our instructor took us to some awesome places to take advantage of the fresh snow. Not long now until our exams. We are all working hard and having a great time learning new techniques, lets hope this leeds us all to success in our tests.

Saturday 2nd December

What a wonderful start this morning, the best day ever since we started on this course. Bright and sunny..... and is only -11C compared to the last two days which was -28C at the top of the mountain.
 
In the skier group we spent about an hour doing the mock teaching, in order to experience what it is like to become a ski instructor in the near future. The rest of the day we just  ski around and explored different terrains in Blackcomb, mostly off piste tracks on puffy powder snow  and bumps.
 
After the course, both the skier group and boarder retired in Merlins (The Bar....) 
 
To be continued......

Karen Lam

Tuesday 5th December

Hi I'm Amy 21 from England, I have come to improve my skiing and gain my CASI level one. I've really enjoyed the depth of the instruction we have had from wayne (our instructor), our whole group have improved so much in the short time that we have been here already. However, with the exams looming, today, i found myself getting a little stressed about my left hand wedge turns....you may laugh, but you wait!!! We do do other more impressive things like jumps, bumps, skiing on one leg and dance moves on skis!!!

Trying to deconstruct my last 19 yrs of ski experience has proved a challenge, and one that I have enjoyed....but at times a little daunting. However, as wayne pointed out we can only do so much in the time we have, and we are all giving 150% so that is the main thing. Also any of you reading this who are thinking about getting new skis, I love my Burnin' Luv K2s they're 'awesome'!! And yes a helmet really is essential, as Haddie already proved on the first day, and Karen, although walking at the time but that is besides the point!! Also if anyone has Wayne winding them up in the long course, an excellent way to annoy him is to say "and that", you will understand when you get here, or switch his boot liners round, or perhaps put soap instead of wax on someones' skis hee hee :O) 

Bye for now xx

ps by the way after returning from a challenging day skiing you may think we might go to the bar....but no...no...tonight we had to do our 10min presentations for our SNSC award...which actually weren't that bad!!

Monday 11th December

Today was the first day of the ski exams. We all had the feeling we started off well prepared and ready to get our level 1. The weather was a real bad, though. It was really windy up the mountain today and it snowed heavily as well. We had to pull up our jackets as far as we could to keep it a little bit warm.
We were excepted to meet at the Roundhouse (top of Whistler) at around 8:45. When we arrived, a little bit late, we saw that it was really busy up there, a lot of people are taking their exams this week. Half an hour later we were all outside looking for our examiners. Most of us were split up and divided over several groups.
 
Everything was quite like any other day we had with Wayne, except that it wasn't Wayne teaching us. We worked on some stance and balance and later we moved on to pivoting and edging. We practised hockey stops, wedge turns and more. With all the snow coming down and the terribly strong winds we were glad when it was 11:45 and we went in for lunch.
At around 1 we put on our soaking jackets and hats again for 2 more hours on the slope. More exercises we had done plenty of times before with Wayne till 3. Then we skied down to mid-station for our indoor session. We discussed the 5 basic principles of skiing using a textbook they handed out to us and did some exercises. We were finally warmed up when we had to go outside again to go home, in the rain..
 
Even though we didn't do much new today, it was a good first day of our exams and we're all pretty confident about it. Hopefully it'll be less windy the upcoming days so we can fully enjoy all the new awesome snow.
 
Peppi

Thursday 14th December

It has been a tough week for us both mentally and weather wise... (Strong winds, heavy snow, low visibility) Since, we are having a 4 day exam for the skiers. Due to the miserable weather conditions at the moment, the Gondola is running at a snail pace. We have to start extra early in the morning, in order to be on time and meet up with the other people for the exam. Skiing for the the whole day and followed by a 2 hour lecture, we are all basically tired out by the end of the day. We are doing our best despite the bad weather conditions. Today is the third day of our exam. By this time tomorrow, we could potentially be qualified ski instructors. Fingers crossed.
 
Karen Lam

Tuesday 19th December

Finally last day of the boarders exams.  After having a couple of warm up runs and checking out the powder we started teaching our lessons, in the sunshine and did a couple of runs CASI style riding! After a grooling two hours we headed in for lunch then we had to teach our second lesson of the day.  We finished early giving us a chance to get in a few runs and have a shower before the presentation to find out how we did! all the work paid of and i'm now a Level 1 Instructor!!!!

Thursday 21st December

News from Whistler;

100% pass rate for the skiers

...more photos to follow!!