The course is underway and as always Whistler is awesome.

The guys arrived to the house and got settled in, and for those coming from further away this was a good time to chill for an evening and start to clear the jetlag cobwebs.

The next day bike were being built and clothes unpacked. We had a little tour around Whistler with all the main attractions pointed out and noted. We picked up season passes and then had a casual few laps in the park. For most it was the first time in Whistler and riding these Whistler trails so every lap had the added bonus of being the first time on each trail, which has to be one of the best aspects of mountain biking!

That evening we had a session with Mark, the CTC course conductor. The following couple of days were a mix of riding trails around the valley and riding the bike park. We rode some pretty sweet rock rolls, learnt some jumping and drop technique and got up into the higher-up runs in the “Garbanzo Zone’.

The weather has been a little erratic for the first week! 30 degrees more than once and the park was getting dusty then some really chilly days with even a fresh blanket of snow on the higher peaks. This combination of rain and nice weather has been pretty much perfect though and has kept the trails in great condition.

We fit in a game of Frisbee golf also and as always a great way to walk around the forest, have a few drinks and chill out.

The past few days have been spent learning some of the basics of instructing and guiding. We have learnt some fundamentals for good teaching and group management, presentation skills and learning styles. The crew have learnt how to introduce a good “neutral position’ and progress a beginner riders’ braking and cornering. They have also begun to “guide” groups down trails, and have had plenty of practice within our groups.

We also have started to progress our own riding, and in particular focusing on cornering. Developing this cornering technique is so valuable and getting into this early-on will give us lots of time to progress this. Soon we will be controlling drifts and carving burms like a boss!

Time tomorrow for some assessment of how what we have done so far. Good luck gang!