French instructor course week 1 - the pre-snow training begins

For the ‘11/’12 NONSTOP added an exciting new course to our portfolio, where we are giving a select few the opportunity to get started in the French ski instructor system – something that most people believe isn’t possible as a foreign national.

This ground-breaking course proves that it’s not impossible, but it’s certainly not easy! We have 5 candidates who are going to be put through the paces in a grilling 18 week training programme, with the aim of being transformed into ski athletes, ready to pass the notorious “Test Tecnique” speed test!

We’ll be reporting every week over the season to let you know how they’re getting on, but if you’d like a daily update from the guys, check out: www.skiformationtraining.com

Adam, Ryan, James B, James F and John have already been in Serre Chevalier for a few of weeks now, working on their pre-season fitness (with some crazy sounding French trainers). We’ll be catching up with how they’ve got on over the next few days. Here’s a summary of week 1, before the snow came (Including quotes from Adam and Ryan):

WEEK 1

After a day of settling in to Serre Chevalier and the village of Chantemerle, the guys were introduced to their French training partners and instructors, who they’d be spending a lot of time with over the next 18 weeks. After a bit of admin, the “crazy” mountain-guru instructors, Vincent and GG, put the new trainees straight through their paces. Over the next few days they did loads of running, circuit training, hiking, swimming and playing football, tennis and volleyball. Here’s a great exert from Ryan’s “hiking” experience:

“It was a cold start but after they showed us what we would be doing we knew we’d warm up pretty quickly. They pointed at a very high and very steep mountain that we would have to hike up as quickly as we could and we would be timed so to put our all into it. Everyone set off at 1 minute intervals and soon we were all on our way and within a few minutes all sweating in the morning sun and puffing and blowing our way up the mountain. After a little over half hour I made it to the top and I was shattered, as was everyone else by the looks of it. Turns out I put in quite a good time with Adam just a few minutes behind. We then had a small hike to where we would have lunch with a great view of the valley towards Briancon. A few of the guys were having a bit of an ice bath in a trough so I thought I’d give it a go.... coldest water I have ever been in and that was only my legs, so god knows how Adam felt yesterday jumping in the lake.

"Finished lunch and started off again uphill for a while and according to the GPS on my camera we were at just over 2000 metres before Vincent and GG stopped and told everyone to put their gloves on. It wasn’t cold so a little bit confused, but they said it was to protect them if we fell over, they then pointed at what we were about to run down!!! Adam and I thought they were joking, until Vincent started running down the steepest hill I’ve ever seen anyone run down, but straight after, all the Frenchys started to follow. Adam and I followed GG down and had no choice but to go for it as there was no stopping. For the next hour or so we ran, skidded, and tripped down the mountain until finally we hit a road. Learnt a new word for the day too; ‘CAYEUX’ which we learned very quickly meant ‘ROCKS’ before having to dart behind the nearest tree so I wasn’t killed.

"They’ve definitely thrown us all in at the deep end and definitely no easing into it all slowly. All in all an amazing day and as Adam put it ‘that was the stupidest, craziest, most dangerous, but most fun thing I’ve ever done’ and I would have to agree!!”

This kind of “hike” became a common occurrence. Two days later they found themselves trekking above the snowline to ‘Notre Dame de Neige’ at 2310 metres.

“‘AMAZING’ views but short lived as Vincent wanted to stop for lunch below the snow line in the sunshine. We now know that there is no such thing as descending a mountain slowly here, you have to run, apparently it’s good training for the legs, but mainly for the mind! We stopped for lunch in the sun halfway down the mountain before carrying on at full speed back to the bottom. Of course there was still time for an ice bath, which now seems to be compulsory, however this time it was in a strong flowing river rather than an icy lake! It does seem to help though and now we kind of look forward to it.”

The guy’s really earned their weekend break, which involved bonding with their new French buddies at a house party:

“...and as one of them put; “I sink it eez vary important zat we drink togezer!” and I agreed, the best way to break the ice and get to know the rest of the people on the course was of course to try and prove ourselves at drinking!!”

They all had a great night, by all accounts!