RED 11 Week Instructor Course 16/17 - Week 2

Manny is one of the gang on our 11 week instructor course in RED Mountain. He’s from Australia and came to the heart of British Columbia in search of steep and deep to improve his all-mountain skiing and gain his instructor certifications. Here he’s guest blogging on his second week in the mountain town of Rossland. 

It’s amazing how quickly a place can grow on you. It’s been nearly two weeks since we arrived in Rossland, and although we have only scratched the surface of the experiences that the town and the mountain have to offer, at the same time there is a strange familiarity, as though we’ve lived here for years. A large part of this is due to the friendly and hospitable culture created by the locals.

At the beginning of the day the bus comes past our stop at 0835 sharp. If we miss it, or if there is no room on the bus, it’s an annoying wait until 0935 for the next one. But fear not, because in Rossland, hitchhiking is commonplace and fairly safe, and you don’t have to wait more than about two minutes before a friendly local will pick you up and take you to the base of the mountain. Once we arrive and begin our lessons, those of us with backpacks typically leave them either in one of the lodges, or anywhere else we feel like on the mountain, and can be 100% confident that they will remain there untouched until we arrive to collect them. Contrast this with some places in Europe, where the locals would steal the shirt off your back if they could!

This week eight of us participated in an Avalanche Safety Training course which was a lot of fun and very informative. The so-called slack and backcountry around Red Mountain offer some truly breathtaking terrain and great skiing, but skiing beyond the resort boundary doesn’t come without its dangers.

And so for those of us who have an interest in doing some backcountry touring in the future, it was invaluable to learn about and play around with the three essential items required before venturing out of resort boundaries: probe, shovel and beacon. We also learned about the different types and sizes of avalanches, how to interpret daily reports and forecasts from Avalanche Canada, how to analyse the snowpack, how to assess terrain and plan our trip so as to avoid avalanche prone areas, and how to conduct a search for victims. 

However, by far the most important lesson learned was that touring with skins is undoubtedly easier than snowshoeing, as evidenced by Justin, the lone snowboarder of the group, who suffered in silence with a snowboard on his back as his snowshoes sunk knee deep into the fresh snow during our hike up to Wolf Ridge at the end of the course. But it was all worth it for the view from the top.

And as it turned out, I think he had the last laugh anyway – I was a bit jealous seeing how smoothly his board glided through the fresh pow on the way down! 

We’re fortunate to have a great group, and it hasn’t taken long for all of us to bond, despite our different ages and nationalities. On Saturday night we had a “potluck dinner”, hosted by Jane (one of the other Nonstoppers and bloggers) and attended by all 13 of us. It was great to kick back with a few drinks, enjoy each other’s “signature dishes” and debrief on the week’s events. We even had a few rounds of one of my favourite games called Mafia, which seems to have been a hit! This coming week is set to be another cracker, with another 4 days of tuition, a tech session on equipment maintenance, and the annual Rossland Winter Carnival from Thursday to Sunday. Can’t wait!

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