Freeskiing in Fernie: Interview with Loic

During the 15/16 winter season we were privileged to welcome Loic, an Armada-sponsored freeskier, onto our 11 week instructor course in Fernie. Loic had long wanted to do a full ski season and after finishing school saw it as his prime opportunity to do so. He viewed Fernie as the ideal place to challenge his big mountain skiing whilst also getting some focussed coaching from a more technical standpoint as part of the Nonstop course. We caught up with him to get his thoughts on his season.

You were a pretty damn good skier already, sponsored by Armada. What made you come on a Nonstop course?

After school I decided to do a gap year. I thought it was my chance to finally ski more than three weeks a year. I found Nonstop and thought they had the good balance between learning and skiing for myself.

TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOUR NONSTOP COURSE EXPERIENCE? WHAT ARE THE DAYS OR EXPERIENCES YOU PARTICULARLY REMEMBER?

I definitely remember the heli skiing day! It was just unreal – a bluebird day and 35cm of fresh snow. Another amazing experience was the trip to the Boulder Hut in the Purcell backcountry. It was my first time ski touring and I fell in love with it straight away! The terrain was epic, although I did have to be a bit sensible.

Another highlight was an awesome filming day I had in Fernie with a coursemate Red Evans on the camera! It was just perfect! All my ideas, everything I wanted to try came off. 

What was it like focusing on the technical and performance aspects of skiing that you need to be an instructor, rather than just freeskiing?

I never came to Nonstop with the mindset that I wanted to become an instructor, but it never hurts to go back to the basics and fundamentals of ski technique. If the basics are good, you can progress a lot quicker and transfer the skills to more challenging terrain!

What was the terrain at Fernie like?

I loved the headwalls – so much fun and I could push myself skiing them, especially the Timber headwall and the Currie headwall was awesome too.

YOU MADE AN AWESOME SEASON EDIT. WAS IT FUN FILMING IN FERNIE?

Thank you! There are some really cool areas in Fernie and around the resort. Of course the headwalls are challenging and cool to film on – Timber and Currie in particular. Mammoths Head is one of the coolest areas ride in Fernie! There are so many different options to charge and film! I definitely want to come back to ski more lines off it. Here’s the season edit I put together…

What are your plans for the future?

Of course I want to ski as much as possible and have fun on the hill. I want to film even more and challenge myself with steeper and scarier terrain. I have some cool stuff coming up with my sponsor Poederbaas, but I can’t tell anything about that yet! Keep an eye out..

Try Fernie for Yourself

If you want to experience the big mountain playground that is Fernie, and learn to take on its steep and deep, join our 11 week ski instructor course or 11 week snowboard instructor course. We have loads of other perfect for gap years, so be sure to check them out!

Gap Year Courses