Week 4 and winter has already begun! The snow was falling, Marco came to town to teach the guys some freestyle skills while Emma and Jake start training everyone towards a Level 2 standard!

Before we look at how the week went, let’s meet some more members of this year’s group:

Josh

With a background in freestyle through downhill biking, Josh was always going to enjoy the freestyle training this week. Maybe we’ll see Saas Fee feature soon on Josh Jones TV (google it).

Will

At 6’7”, you wouldn’t expect Will to be as sporty and agile as he is! But alas, he’s full of surprises – especially during the freestyle sessions with Marco. Maybe this photo doesn’t quite do him justice….

Jon

Jon is our one and only Dutch person on the course (one Jon is enough!). He has decided that one or two weeks of skiing a year just aren’t enough so has chosen to relocate his life to the mountains and enjoy the perks of being a ski instructor! Good choice.

For those of you getting excited/apprehensive about whether the coming winter will be another late starter or a snow-filled season from the gods, we have good news! A lovely big storm brought plenty of fresh snow to Saas Fee on Friday which means that the ski area here is now open all the way to mid-station – 2 weeks earlier than last year! Winter is definitely trying to take hold and we’re only halfway through October!

After last week’s success during the BASI Level 1 assessments, week 4 has been a chance to catch a breath before cracking on with training toward the Level 2 standard with Emma and Jake. To kick the week off, we had the privilege of some freestyle training with Marco Eydallin. Marco has been coming across to Saas Fee now for 4 years and without fail delivers an enjoyable introduction to freestyle for all. This gave a few of the instructors a chance to shine and try to push their comfort zones!

Everyone learned something new whether it be how to ski switch, do 360 spins on snow or even 360s on kickers! Mikey and Josh were in their element while Timothy and Louisa really committed to the challenge. Everyone survived which is the important thing, although Timothy did try to go to the moon via a rainbow box at one point!

While training with Emma and Jake throughout the week, a few people have had big breakthroughs in their short and long turns especially Richard and Jon. With the mountain being open to mid-station so early we now have longer, more progressive ski runs to play with. An ideal situation for the next few weeks of training!

The snow conditions are fantastic! Ideal for this time of year and we couldn’t hope for a better pre-season course. A few of the group have already received job offers for the winter season with more still to come!

Off the mountain, we learned that it’s possible to run a quiz without any actual questions, Tom is a force to be reckoned with at Scrabble and 3 nights in the pub makes you tired. On Friday evening a few of us ventured out to the local cinema in town for a snowboard movie premier for the Wild Cats movie. It was a tricky choice between the after party in Popcorn or an early night knowing that there was going to be a powder day on Saturday! Oh, and we made a nice new friend in Happy Bar, lovely chap.

Next week (week 5) will see a visit from Les Elfes International, a Verbier-based ski school who regularly recruit our instructors for the winter season directly from this course. We’ll continue with Jake’s fitness sessions, continue to progress training towards Level 2, take part in an Avalanche Awareness course and begin shadowing instructors on the mountain.

If all this chat has further tempted you to book a course with us, why not check out our Verbier option, which starts on the 27th November. You’ll be trained by Emma and Jake, and also, like Saas Fee, there’s jobs on offer for the REST of the season with Les Elfes.