Our French ski instructor course gets its powder fix - big time!
We’ve just caught up with the guys on our French ski instructor course in Serre Chevalier to see how the last couple weeks have gone. There have been some reports of epic snow coming through, particularly over the last couple of days, but let’s rewind a couple of weeks to 7th Dec...
It had been snowing constantly for the previous 24 hours, but that didn’t get in the way of pre-season fitness training! The guys found themselves hiking up a very snowy mountain. Ryan was up for the challenge:
“I set off and immediately realised that this was a lot harder than last time, either slipping with every other step or dragging your feet through deep snow. Nonetheless i put my all in to it and got to the top 2 minutes slower than last time, but feeling a lot lot worse, nearly being sick and coughing so much because of the cold, I felt like I’d just smoked a packet of cigarettes.”
The run down was a lot of fun, playing around in the snow. It all took a bit of a turn for the worse though, when Adam slipped and ended up sliding into some woods and taking quite a big fall. Ontop of his shoulder injury from last week, his back and hip were now worse for wear! After a check up at the Doctors, thankfully nothing was broken, he was just battered and bruised. This is a tough programme, but Adam seems to be taking it to the extreme!
Following a couple of days break to recover, and a short break to the UK for Ryan, the crew were prepared for another day back on their skis.
There was no easing in, as usual, the instructors were keen to push the boundaries of their comfort zone, as fast progression is key in this course. They were taken straight into the off piste, where they did lots of laps over varying terrain.
“It was great and also very tough, there was a lot of powder on top but not far underneath were lots of icy boulders in places so you didn’t know what to expect with each run, I think we both did pretty good though, with only a couple of little falls. The best thing about skiing like this is that; watching 30 skiers and 5 instructors go down at speed before you, it looks so easy, so your confidence grows and you go for it, not wanting to be left behind or look like an amateur.”
After lunch, they split into groups to do avalanche safety training and learn more about their ARVAs / transceivers, probes and shovels. Vincent buried a bag with a transceiver in it for the others to find, which Ryan and Bez were straight on to it, but Adam’s signal was a little confused by somebody wearing an ARVA on a passing chairlift!
Even though the powder was getting deeper, the next day was a day of focussed technique training. The pistes were covered with deep snow, which made controlled short radius turns very tricky.
“We were then told to ditch our poles and balance with our hands, one like you were in a stick up, one like you had your hands tied behind your back and one like you were showing off your fancy new nails. However it really did start to work, we were not doing it all the time but each of us did have mere glimpse as to how we may be able to ski in the future. It was, as always, a really tough day but so exciting as to how good we will get as you can see and feel how much you improve in just one day!!!”
The next day, they were all let off the reigns in some really deep powder. They headed straight to the highest point on the mountain...
“Our instruction was to line up at the top of a very steep bit of off-piste, which must have looked so cool from below, 30 skiers with their tips over the edge of a 50 + degree drop down the mountain. After a few seconds Vincent went for it and all of us followed. It was amazing, so much untouched powder, what a way to start the day. Something I’ve always wanted to do but have only seen in ski films is, when the skier is coming down the mountain in so much powder that it flies right up and over their face so you can’t really even see them. I got my wish with the first or second turn this morning and it put me in a great mood for the rest of the day.”
That was barely the beginning though...
“As we looked down the piste to where we thought we were heading, Vincent disappeared to the right of us under the rope and down another very steep part of the mountain. We couldn’t believe he had just gone down there but as always everyone followed and down we went. I have to say that this was the first time skiing when I have felt like I was skiing on clouds, no pain in the legs or feet anymore, just floating down the mountain effortlessly, obviously trying to avoid hidden dangers as one of our instructors fell into a gully, at least we’re not the only ones!
“Another absolutely amazing day where we learnt so much about skiing off-piste, I nearly feel like a veteran of it all, although I don’t think we’ve really seen the start of it all yet. Bring on tomorrow, I think the quads have got another day left in them before they give up.”
The snow just carried on coming! On the morning of 16th they woke up to about another foot and a half at the resort base, which probably equated to even more up the hill. Visibility was poor though and there were a few issues with goggles steaming up. It seemed like one of those days where there was just too much snow!
“The piste we went down though was just as hard as the off-piste, so much powder it was crazy, Marine told me that this was the slalom slope that we would be training on, which was unbelievable because it felt like we were nowhere near a piste.”
It was an exhausting day, and the guys were actually looking forward to a bit of a break:
“I am now absolutely knackered, as is Adam who is fast asleep next to me as I write this and tonight when we should be out for a few beers as it’s the weekend and we’re skiing with Christian starting Sunday, so we can’t go out tomorrow night, we will be in our PJs with a bottle of wine and an early night, can’t wait!!!”
The snow has carried on coming and coming, so stay tuned for more powder stories from our lads in Serre Chevalier.
