French ski instructor training week 2 - still hard core!
We rejoin our 5 Brits, as they continued their pre-season training in their second week, before the snow came. Their aim is to enter the French ski instructor system, which is no mean feat. Over 18 weeks, they’ll be put through their paces, in preparation for the notorious “Test Technique” slalom speed test.
To catch up, read the week 1 blog here.
Here's how week 2 went, with quotes from Adam and Ryan:
Week 2
The second week started in a very similar fashion – loads of fitness training, running and playing games.
Starting to realise that our instructors Vincent and GG are the biggest kids on the course and all they want to do is play, I hope though that I’m as fit as them when I’m their age. They're fitter than me now, so I've got a long way to go! More walking up mountains tomorrow, going there expecting a hard day this time, I won't be fooled again!!!”
Unfortunately they were fooled; the treks were getting longer steeper and tougher!
“I could see GG constantly looking up the mountain seeing if he could find a route between the paths instead of following them. I was walking beside him most of the time and when he looked at one point I looked to him and said “no GG” to which he laughed. We then stopped and were told to take off some layers and we normally know what this means, (that we were wrong again, no easy walk, should have known). We left the track and headed into the woods and started climbing what can only be described as a never ending trek of pain. It was so steep and pretty thin, so you could not even zig-zag as GG says to make it easier. Whenever you thought you were nearly there you then saw the track go on for even longer. Was hard work but we finally got to the top. After this it flattened out and we were walking through the woods with one of the most amazing views I have ever seen to the left of us.”
The next day Adam and Ryan experienced mountain biking... Serre Chevalier style. It was the hardest part of their training so far, according to Ryan:
“I have to say that this was the most soul destroying, relentless exercise I have ever done, I don’t know if it was because I was tired but every time I got to corner and saw that it carried on climbing and climbing and climbing, my heart sank. I was determined not to get off and walk, but others were and seemed to be going no slower and I couldn’t see an end in sight so I gave in and walked for a bit.”
And it didn’t get any easier on the way down...
“As soon as we started to go down we could see how steep it was, how sharp the turns were and how dangerous the falls were if we were to come off, which Bez (little James) did right in front of me, because of the reversal of brakes! He’s also a good mountain biker, so this did not make me feel any better, within a couple minutes we were off the bikes, carrying them along a very narrow cliff edge and over a waterfall, being careful not to lose the bikes, or our lives.”
It was a challenging day, which was followed by another new experience the next day. They gave cross-country “Ski de fond” a go, where you scoot along in soft boots and inch wide skis. It’s a tricky thing to pick up, with lots of falling over involved:
“We got a little better but then we came across a slope, now this slope was only about 2 meters off the ground and about 2 meters long but we were scared. Now me and Ryan skied the Swiss wall earlier this year which supposedly 1 person a year dies on which was pretty scary but I can confidently speak for Ryan when I say that we were both more scared of this little slope than the Swiss wall. Me and Ryan were some of the last few to go but were not feeling confident as about only 2 people had managed to stay on their feet but guess what, both Ryan and I fell over!!! As the day went on we both improved quite a lot but the thing was you got a little better and a little more confident then you fell over lost all your confidence and were straight back to square one again.
"All in all it was an extremely tough day but one of the most rewarding and so much fun to just get some skis on again.”
After a gruelling week, it was on to well-earned break:
“Another week done and was definitely in need of some rest and rest we did. Friday night we just went over to James's apartment where we had some chilli that Ryan cooked and then just played some poker. On Saturday we decided to all go for a little drive around the towns looking at skis and other equipment that we are going to need. We then went towards the Italian boarder where we had some lunch which was very nice indeed.”