RED 11 Week Instructor Course 16/17 - Week 9

A busy week on the RED Mountain instructor course with freestyle training, Level 2 preparation and a weekend trip to the powder covered Fernie. Here’s James’ story from the week.

Week 9 started with the end of our Level 1 park course, learning to slide rails, riding switch and jumping 180s everywhere. I’m not really a freestyle rider, but keen to learn. I generally don’t jump but we were hitting this steep natural feature and I was getting about 10 feet in the air and somehow landing without too much trouble. The nine weeks training thus far has paid off!

With epic snow across the resort, we were working on our advanced riding technique for our upcoming CASI Level 2. Hiking to the back of Granite Mountain we explored the relatively untapped steeps on the far side. We came across a lovely cabin in the woods, it felt like Hansel and Gretel. We lost one of our riders, but I found him, somehow he found himself in a comfortable hole.

On Wednesday evening, we had a tech session with Mark Impey on communication in teaching for both boarders and skiers. This was a great learninf expereunce and will no doubt help us all in our CSIA and CASI Level 2 exams.

The week finished with one of the highlights of the season, a weekend trip to Fernie. Fernie is about five hours from Rossland and the home of Nonstop in Canada. We took the whole day to travel there on Friday, going some of the way by ferry across the beautiful Kootenay lake, fed by the Kokanee Glacier. We were guided around Fernie’s steep and deep on Saturday and it was a great adventure. Just so much snow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that much! Fine restaurants, lots of nightlife and tons of snow, it was only a taste of Fernie.

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Come to the winter wonderland of Rossland and refine your skiing or snowboarding skills on the challenging slopes of RED Mountain. There seriously couldn't be a better place to do it!

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