St anton Blog 2010

After a fairly green couple of weeks the snow has arrived in St Anton and the group is now working hard for their Anwarter exams.....

What started out as a quiet beginning to the week, has rapidly become an intensive and very busy Anwarter course. Snowplough drills, avalanche training and Ski touring by moonlight with Schnapps and hot punch after a 2 hour climb set us up for the week, followed by snow and some of the lifts opening to the relief of management and Skischule Arlberg. Meanwhile, we have settled into the intensive instructors course, which is entirely in German (of course), but we are nevertheless a bit worried about how well we will do in our theory exams, and at the same time a nasty bug has struck several members of the team. But, the group dynamic remains excellent despite some highly perfumed, personal sartorial items arriving in the post from the UK.

by Chris

4.12. - 7.12.

The Anwarter Course began on the Friday with the group turning up at the meeting point for the start time and realising that we weren’t the only ones on this course. The other hundred and fifty or so of the trainees came from all over the world including Denmark, the Netherlands, Poland, Australia, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The spoken language on the course is German and many of us were worried about how we would cope with the level of German required; especially in the theory sessions. Despite some lows due to our incapacity to do a simple snow plough turn and understand even ‘good morning’ most of the group are understanding more and more as time goes on but it is by no means easy with some lectures going by without anyone understanding anything.A classic moment was Joe being asked by his instructor in front of the entire lecture theatre in a talk when most of us only recognised every third word:  “Verstehst du Josef” to which his reply was simply “Ja”.

The day begins at eight before the sun rises with an hour and a half of theory before everyone hits the slopes to start the practical exercises. These seem to vary between instructors but most seem to consist of endlessly doing the snowplough and ‘Alpines Fahrverhalten’ on slopes that would normally fly by in the blink of an eye. Highlights include Ben being told by our instructor, Eva that she would like to take a picture of his ‘Alpines Fahrverhalten’ to show future students because it was so perfect and Philip being asked one day why he was so good at ‘kurven’! Most of the time, however, we are told we can always improve, whether it be at the snowplough or when taking the warm up; often a “nicht schlecht” is a reason to celebrate. The evenings have been much more restrained than in the last few weeks with most people far too tired to go out, especially with the prospect of a seven o’clock start the next day, and most electing to cram in as much German and ‘Schussfahren’ exercises as possible! After such hard days, supper was always looked forward to but often made more exciting by Dan drinking a shot of vinegar and Joe M and Ben bringing up some pretty filthy areas of conversation.

by Nicholas
 

It's been all systems go this week! With the Anwerter completed everyone has relaxed a bit more and the team have had 5 more days training with Ski Schule Arlberg, finding more about the mountain and how everything works within the ski school before they start instructing tomorrow.

Also this week we've had a bit more time to do things together, so we went to the local sports centre to do some bowling. It's a bit different from your usual ten pin bowling, it's more like pub skittles. We refered to it as "euro bowling". It was quite complicated to keep score and there were lots of rules, but luckily it told you the speed you bowl the ball so we ended up having a speed competition. The top speed was by myself, clocking in at 47.1 km/h, followed closely by Will who got 46 km/h.

On Wednesday the ski trainers took us over to Lech and Zurs, which are little towns a 10 minute bus ride away. The towns are very picturesque with some very inviting pubs and restaurants. One of the restaurants had a traditional Austrian game called "Hammerschlagen". The game consists of all the players hammering a nail into a log with the wrong end of a hammer and whoever loses has to buy a round of drinks. You definitely need a steady hand and good hand eye co-ordination to make sure you don't have to buy the round.

Again with more time on our hands we could get some serious fun in. So on Thursday the ski trainers, Ollie, Fossi and Gerhard organised for everyone to go night sledging. I think the best way to explain how fun it was is by looking at the picture below.

With a couple of days left before starting work it was time to get  the coverted blue jackets and sallopets. Everyone was struting their stuff, and I have to say I felt very proud.

The final thing to do was to move into the Skilehrer, ski instructor, house. The accommmodation is twin rooms with en suite and a kitchenette. The location is good also with only a 10 minute walk away from town, maybe 15 if there is lots of snow. Everyone is now settled into their rooms and are very excited about the season ahead.

Well it's time to say good bye from me for now, but the team have got the rest of the season to enjoy each others company. I'm sure there will be much merriment through the season and beyond.

Good luck with the rest of the season team and make sure that you earn that blue jacket, I know you'll do a great job!!!

Alles Gute,

Sam

 P.S. There are now a couple of videos I put together on the facebook group and a few more photos, click here to enjoy!