Course host Adam recounts the Fernie fun from last week.
So the Level 1 exams are over and everyone's been celebrating, getting into the community spirit and walking on water... what a week!
'Level 1, Level 1, Level 1!’ – February 19th – 21st
After 4 weeks of hard work it was finally time for the CSIA and CASI Level 1 exams. The exams run over 3 days and are a mix of riding and teaching. They are more than just a pass or fail and are fantastic courses that everyone walks away from as a better skier and rider. To be honest the result is not everything, it is a great achievement simply to complete the course. I think Gavin summed it up perfectly last week when he said: 'regardless of whether we pass or fail we’re all winning because everyday we get to shred a wicked hill in an amazing part of the world.' Gavin, you are very, very cheesy - but completely spot on!
After a couple of nervous hours sitting in the Cornerpocket waiting for results, it was time to celebrate. Special mention has to go out to Paul Sadler who was positive he had failed, so made a bet with someone that if he passed he would run around, outside, naked and that if he failed the other person would. To Paul’s complete shock he PASSED! But he only partially completed his bet by getting cold in the snow in nothing but his longjohns. That kicked the party off at Cornerpocket, then it was off to the lodge for some dinner before heading to the Royal to party the night away. The Royal was kind enough to host our Level 1 Party along side their very popular ‘Name That Tune’ (NTT). NTT is a huge night at the Royal on Thursdays and it is simply a trivia night but based solely on guessing song titles and artists. If you dress up you get a free shot and this week some of the guys went as Superheroes… I’m pretty sure that the following morning there weren’t too many feeling all that Super.
‘Castle Mountain Day Trip’ – February 23rd
Castle Mountain is like the resort time forgot. It has a two-man chair to get you to the top and that chair certainly isn’t in any rush, which is actually really nice because it goes at a pace that allows everyone to get to know their chairlift partner a bit better. That rare feeling of time standing still and the opportunity to get to know everyone better is what makes Castle so special. When we go there, everyone tends to forget about the normal distractions of modern snow resorts, such as fashions and trends and just get back to loving the sport.
Castle is also famous for its unreal terrain. Plenty of shoots, drops and steep and deep runs. The Griz must of known we were headed for Castle because the group was greeted with plenty of fresh snow – 77cm over the past seven days with 24cm coming the night before.
On the way home Dave took the group site seeing. They stopped for photos at the The Burmis Tree which lived for approximately 700 years and now is held up by rods and brackets. It is said to be the most photographed tree in Western Canada (random statistic for someone to have calculated!) and is a really beautiful site.
The group then stopped at Frankslide, home to one of Canada’s worst ever landslides. It occurred in 1903 when Turtle Mountain crumbled and completely covered the small town of Frank, which, to this day has never been uncovered.
The last stop was Crowsnest Lake where the group got the chance to walk on the frozen lake. A very cool experience as most have never lived in an area where temperatures get so low that lakes freeze to a thickness that can safely be walked upon. All in all, a completely random yet highly interesting group tour - that's how we roll over here.
For those that didn’t make it out to Castle, they got to enjoy the 56cm that had fallen in Fernie this week - bi-winning!
‘Community Days in Wapiti Ski Hill’ – February 23rd – 24th
Wapiti Ski Hill is located about 50 minutes from Fernie, in the town of Elkford. The hill has only a T-bar and about eight runs and the special thing about it is that it's a community run hill. They have only one paid employee with everybody else acting as volunteers. That means their ski patrol team, lift operators, shop keepers and rental staff are all volunteers.
Community Days at Wapiti have been happening for a few years now. It is an event organised by Nonstop and Wapiti; once our nonstoppers have gained their Level 1 Instructor Certification we take them out to Wapiti to give free lessons to the kids in the Elkford area. It’s a great opportunity for the Nonstoppers to gain some practical teaching experience and a great way to give back to a community who don’t have the facilities we're lucky to have in Fernie. For some of the kids it is their only chance of a lesson all year. It wasn’t just the kids being taught new things, our new instructors quickly realised that getting their Level 1 was the easy part, actually teaching a group of excited kids and not losing any of them turned out to be the hard part! At the end of the day, however, all kids and instructors made it back in one piece and with huge smiles on their faces.
All this and it was a powder day in Wapiti too!
Well it has been another great week but unfortunately we had say goodbye to a few Nonstoppers as their 5 Week Course Instructor Course had come to an end. I just want to take this opportunity to give a big shout out to those Guys and Girls: Safe travels where ever you may be heading and come and visit us soon!
Happy Shredding!
