Verbier Blog 2010

February has not only bought a new intake of trainees but the biggest snowfall this season…..50cm in just 48 hours!!

It’s been a couple of weeks since the new trainees arrived and this year arrival day fell on the same day as hoards of British and French families arrived for the dreaded half-term week. Nevertheless, the weather was pretty good and the trainees, who are now quite used to worming their way through a queue of people, all made the most of the great snow and intense training.

The first week, although fairly intense, is seen by the trainers as an opportunity to ‘break the trainees in’ and get them back to match fitness. During this week there isn’t a great deal of feedback or focus on drills and exercises; the focus is more on getting fit and finding your feet. Sandy, Matt and Dave, the ISIA/ISTD trainers that run the course, are all very experienced at generating confidence and enthusiasm throughout the group. They’re also very good at whipping a bit of discipline into the trainees who, as you can imagine, find the temptation of Verbier’s après ski and vast array of expensive nightclubs all too much.

Despite a fairly relaxed first week the majority of trainees spent their first weekend at the mercy of Flora and Richie, our legendary first-aid guru’s who were flown-in especially from the UK to run the two-day course. I really don’t know how they manage to do it but they manage to make 16 hours of first-aid fly past…….well almost anyway. Unfortunately for Flora and Richie some of the guys had partied fairly hard on Friday night and by Saturday morning were feeling a little precious. Much to the amusement of the other trainees resident gangster and London hard man Jake ‘the snake’ Leefield had to leave the room when Flora started showing a few pictures of bloody injuries.

Anyway, after two days of First-Aid the guys were pretty keen to get back on the slopes and focus on their level 1 examination. As the trainers had been pretty lenient during the first week the second week was a bit of a wake-up call for most. Short-turns, carving and central theme were the main focuses and all of the trainees responded well to all of the exercises and feedback given. It’s amazing to witness the amount of improvement and progression that has happened in just one week! I have to say that after the past two weeks all of the trainees look strong enough to pass their level 1, if they can stay focused!

As a reward for all of their hard work the big man upstairs decided to give us 50cm dump of fresh snow over the weekend, and as you can imagine that meant lots of powder for those trainees that didn’t get too involved on Friday and Saturday night. Needless to say there were a lot of frowns on Saturday morning……but a lot of smiling faces that evening!

The trainees begin their BASI level 1 on Monday so make sure you stay tuned!

Tom

The last week has been a very intense experience for the trainees as they've had to take their skiing to the next level in order to impress the BASI trainers. For the trainees nights in the Apres Ski Bar have been replaced with nights spent in their rooms writing lesson plans and burying their heads in their BASI textbooks. All of the trainees are responding really well to the training with the BASI trainers and the vast majority have hit their peak at the right time.......fingers crossed for Friday! The snow at the moment is great; the pistes are very grippyand the snow in the off-piste has a good covering; which means that conditions for the trainees are very favourable.

Last day of training with the ES trainers.

It hasn't all been hard work though; the weekend arrived with a foot of fresh snow on Friday evening which provided a well deserved respite from the training. Saturday was an epic day for those trainees that could drag themselves out of bed. Despite a few nasty hangovers I headed up to Savoleyres with a few trainees to make the most of the Verbier's great tree runs. On the way up the two George's who were in very high spirits managed to pole dance in the Savoleyres bubble, the photographic evidence is below! Although the morning was cloudy and the light wasn't great we definitely made the most of the snow; praise must got to Jack who's confidence was must have been sky high that day because some of the lines he was attempting looked practically impossible......on a few occasions he had to be dragged out of the foliage by the lads. That afternoon the cloud lifted and the whole mountain was skiable which made for an epic powder day.

The cloud lifting over Les Attelas

With only one week remaining until the end of the course the next few days are 'make or break' for a few of the trainees.......I'm sure they can do it, especially as the conditions on and off the piste are so good. Friday night promises to be a massive occasion for everybody but I wonder how many trainees will get heavily involved when the snow report says we're getting 30cm of fresh snow on Friday night with blue skies on Saturday morning!!!!

Tom

 Since the trainees completed their BASI level 1 a few weeks ago there’s been no hold-up in the training regime…..even Christmas day saw a number of trainees shadowing lessons on the mountain! So, what have the trainees been up to over the past few weeks?

The minute that the level 1 exams had finished, with 94% of the trainees passing, another aspect of their training began……First Aid. A 9am start on Sautrday morning didn’t win me any friends but once the team begun the training with Richie and Flora they seemed to enjoy and excel at what they were doing. I don’t think Richie and Flora had ever met two people quite like Ella and Alex, the self-proclaimed (Jedward) twins. I think at times Flora struggled to get a word in edgeways.

Anyway, with the First Aid training finished the guys and girls resumed training with their ES instructors. Training moved away from being focused heavily on the central theme, the key focus of BASI level 1, to involving more of the five strands and higher-end skiing and snowboarding. Week four was much the same but for some of the trainees there was an opportunity to fit-in some shadowing. Shadowing is a mandatory requirement from BASI and involves following an instructor and their clients around the mountain so that trainees can pick-up different teaching methods and gain more confidence. Special mention must go to Alice Banks (Banksy) who was highly commended by her instructor and 5 year old clients, the ES Penguins. In another group one half of the Jedward, Alex, saw the financial rewards of being an instructor with a 50chf tip from the father of a little terror that she’d made allies with.

Although the majority of trainees followed ES instructors some of the trainees shadowed and helped-out instructors from Les Elfes Activity camp. As the majority of children were in their teens this proved a quick learning experience for the guys, needless to say their experiences didn’t discourage them too much!

On Friday we celebrated Christmas!!!! Together with my lovely assistant Spike I cooked up a Christmas dinner for the 24 trainees that had stayed in resort. Despite having problems fitting 23kg of Turkey into the oven and having never cooked for so many people it all went surprisingly well and the food tasted like it was supposed to…….with the exception of the stuffing. I believe two of the girls even commented that it was the best Turkey they’d ever eaten…….but I won’t reveal their names incase Mum gets too offended and decides not to cook Christmas lunch for them next year.

Dara doing the honours.

Boxing day was a rather more chilled-out affair, for me at least. A few of the trainees shadowed and a few of the trainees took advantage of the good light and dusting of snow, but I think it’s fair to say that the majority spent the day nursing a hangover.

The week that followed Christmas was spent shadowing. A few lucky trainees, namely Callum and Andy M even had the chance to shadow some freestyle, freeski coaching. Well-known British Freestlyer Andy Bennett even made an appearance which was great for Andy M, a member of the GB development squad for Freestyle. Andy M, spurred on by Andy B, was seen spinning 720’s off the kickers and getting all sorts of technical rail tricks on the boxes. For the other trainees the shadowing might not have been quite as exhilarating but they all learnt some valuable lessons and picked-up a few ‘tricks of the trade’.

Oli getting inverted.......and staying inverted!

The end of the week climaxed with New Years Eve 2010. After a hearty meal of Chille Con Carne those that could walk out of the front door headed down to Place Central where thousands of people gathered with Champagne and Fireworks……possibly not the safest combination. If you’ve never been to Verbier on NYE you won’t understand how busy the place gets; picture thousands of inebriated Brits, Dutch and Swiss dancing to cheesy music, climbing lamp posts, dancing on balconies,  launching snowballs and fireworks at anything that moves. For this one night Verbier is more like London during the Blitz than a classy Swiss Ski resort. Anyway, after the countdown all the trainees went their separate ways; some of the ‘high-rollers’ made their way to the Farm Club where they rather regretted paying the extortionate entrance fee and drinks prices to hang with Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice. The rest of us slummed-it in the Casbar and Wonderbar….where we didn’t have to take-out a bank loan to have a good time or worry about spilling drinks over members of the Royal Family……. Did we Charlie! Surprisingly a fair few of the keener trainees turned-up to shadowing on New Years Day; I’d like to say they’d been to bed and were well-rested but the reality was that they’d probably worn their ski clothing out that night and made a quick detour via the ski lockers after leaving a nightclub at 8.45am.

Place Central at Midnight.

The rest of the weekend was far more laid-back; Saturday night involved finally getting the opportunity to open our Secret Santa presents! Presents ranged from Alcohol to cuddly toys to handcuffs and everything in-between. There were a few teary eyes in the crowd including George Magill who wasn’t overjoyed by the Barbie Doll he unwrapped and Andy Moss who couldn’t even crack a smile for the Swiss Flag come tea-towel he begrudgingly turned into a bandana. On Sunday full training resumed as the festive period was well and truly over……if only the Apres Ski Bar wasn’t so much fun!!