Final Farewell
Posted on December 15, 2008 at 11:14 am

Well friends,

We’re down to our final blog entry for a while from Saas Fee and what a ride it’s been. I am still looking at the calendar to see how our ten weeks in Switzerland flew by so quickly.

The last two weeks we’ve been doing our BASI 2 exams with Steve Rickets from BASI. The guys had a great time with Steve and the final results of the two weeks presented themselves with eight people passing and two of the guys just knocking on the door with a few things that still needed doing. A great result. Well done to all the guys and to Steve, Roddy and Loz for putting in such a big effort, everybody worked really hard.
 

The last nights festivities were with a Mexican theme. Patrick cooked some amazing Tortillas and guacamole. We had an award ceremony with certificates of excellence and Swiss cups going to people for different achievements. Patrick made us a present of a bottle of Grapa which looked like Moonshine with no label on it. Shots were had and the night begun. All in all a great night , some amazing dance moves and interesting drinking games. Another celebration was going on as Steve Rickets our course assessor had just completed his 100th BASi course. More champagne was brought out. Congrats Steve.

That brings us to the Peak Leaders course it’s self. So many people deserve a big thanks you for making such a course possible. The amount of work that goes on in the background is enormous. David and Annie Hughes for starting up such a company that gives people an opportunity of a lifetime to come to these special places in the mountains and have an experience that you will never forget. Mhairi Hughes for putting the Saas Fee idea together and her continual support through out the programme. It certainly made my job a lot easier. The ladies in the PL office in Scotland, Claire, Lorna and Barbara . These ladies were real problem solvers to any background issues that may have arisen and all with great enthusiasm and good humour. Then we move to the trainers.
 

Roddy “ Hot Rod “Willis. I cannot believe how lucky we were to have a guy like Roddy working on the course. If we take away the NLP practitioner and superb coaching skills. You only have to see him ski to realise how good he really is. From the many conversations and cups of tea in late night Saas Fee it was very apparent how motivated and how much he cared that everyone on the course did the absolute best that they were capable of. Roddy also committed a lot of his own free time to the guys so they could succeed.

A really big thank you must go to Lawrence” Loz” Jones one of our racing coaches in Saas Fee that worked with the guys on race training days and really opened the door to make sure the Peak Leaders crew found jobs in the best ski schools with the best long term opportunity. Loz was also a key figure in making sure the guys that took ski school jobs were hooked up with accommodation for the winter. This only scratches the surface of the things he did for us out there.
 

The Rossi family from the Park Hotel were the perfect hosts to us, located right in the middle of town we couldn’t have asked for better accommodation and food. There was no problem that was too big or didn’t have a quick solution from Patrick and Jutta. It would be ambitious to think that over the 10 weeks on the nights off coming back from the disco that nobody would forget their keys or make a little more noise coming in than they should. Patrick would be at hand what seemed twenty four hours a day and all in the best humour. The staff in the hotel also were excellent and friendly.

The biggest thanks has to go to the course participants. Kyp, Chris, Jenny, Bryony, Jill, Hamish, Amir, Ben, Jamie, Cookie, Matt. You guys are ace. It made my job so much fun to do. Everybody gave it a dynamite approach and worked hard on all aspects, from the ILM to the skiing to the extra course activities. It was a real pleasure to spend time with you and hopefully we’ll get to hang out sometime soon somewhere on the planet. I think it was on the last night when we were all dressed as Mexicans with big moustaches and big cardboard Sambreros as the party went on that I realised how much I would miss you all. It’s been a blast, Keep in touch and the very best of luck in what ever life puts in front of you.

Cheers Dave