Week 1….
Posted on December 2, 2009 at 10:01 am

We all arrived safe and sound by Saturday just in time to watch the All Blacks thrash England in the rugby.
 

Unfortunately we arrived in a snow-less and warm St Anton (not a promising sign). On the Sunday Kaspar took us on a long hike up into the mountains and forests around St Anton where we had the finest in barbecued cuisine aka frankfurters and bratwurst etc. The next few days we had sport in the mornings and German in the afternoons with some interesting role plays from Joe M and Dan. Due to the severe lack of snow St Anton unfortunately couldn’t open on the Friday so our free skiing day was cancelled however we were able to go to another resort in the Kaunertal on the Saturday so we haven’t completely missed out on skiing. Kaspars birthday celebrations that evening were also great fun with Jaegermeister flowing in all directions. We’re all looking forward to the mountain opening on Friday.
 

Time to say good bye
Posted on December 20, 2008 at 11:24 am

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!

Anwerter Completed
Posted on December 15, 2008 at 5:38 pm

We’re chilling out today, feels like the first day off in ages, and it’s been well earned. The majority of the group are wearing permanent smiles having found out the results of our level one test yesterday. Some are smiling for other reasons…..Barbara has been the shining example in our group, studying like a trooper all week and getting some of the best marks in the practical and theory parts of the test.

Trev gave some much appreciated bachata lessons in the breakfast room on Sunday, and seriously impressed the girls with his fluid hip-flicking. The light relief was definitely needed, after a week of training and lectures we were completely exhausted and many hadn’t washed since the last blog, one head of hair in particular has not yet been washed this season.

We tried out snow foxes, bikes, boards and blades some of which were much more fun than others. Zoe had a little trouble turning her snowboard and rather than fall trying, decided it better just to glide off into the distance! Up until now every day has been punctuated with learning German and practising various Stand Uebungen -who knew that schussing could be so complicated? I think most of the group are looking forward to getting back with the old instructors for the next five days of training and doing something other than snowplough and kurrrrrrven.

Things in the village seem to be picking up and the last of the shops have opened for the season. Bus loads of tourists have been deposited so St. Anton is going to be a lot busier from now. The snow is abundant and the sun has been making occasional appearances so spirits are high. Talking of spirits, the bar staff have been keeping the team well entertained, and in return Liz has been entertaining them with true Scottish flair. Tonight will perhaps be a little more subdued in comparison to last night and Sam has organised some bowling for tomorrow which is bound to provide another occasion for hilarity- something thankfully present in abundance on the course thus far!

Ashley

P.S. Don’t forget to checkout the Facebook group by clicking here!

Training for the Anwerter!
Posted on December 5, 2008 at 9:10 am

Everyone’s well into the swing of things over in St.Anton on this years Peak Leaders course, the training began last Saturday and with all the amazing skiing talent ready to hit the slopes for training, the question was: how hard can it be?

Well…erm…quite hard! We were split into 3 groups by our experienced instructors (Gerhard, Fossi & Ollie) off we went into the Austrian wilderness. Everyone was struggling to understand the German being spoken, and after going right back to the basics, as well as feeling and looking like complete fools; we re-learnt the, now infamous “Alpines fahr-verhalten” [basic alpine stance]…it’s so infamous an adaptation of it is slowly sneaking onto après ski dancefloors across the town. As the week progressed the constant technique drilling eventually started to pay off and everyone’s skiing improved, we even got a chance to test some of this seasons skis for free!

Into December and day 4/5 of training were the most enjoyable…well much more for some than others! Much to the disgust of the 2 other groups still plugging away at the technique, and after a fresh dump, Instructor Ollie (snowboarder Sam was keen too tag along!) kitted out his group with avalanche equipment and transceivers (which were still happily flashing along at lunch along with the smug grins on faces) and hiked a short distance to some fresh tracks up Schindler Spitz on a perfect day….you get the picture…we still haven’t heard the end of it, with it normally being described as “the best day of their lives!” Day 5 and everyone had a crack on snowblades as part of the course; there were plenty of memorable face plants through the day as we came to terms with the fun short ski, although special mentions go to memorable stacks over the week frin Nick “180” ??? and Trev “pow maestro” ??? .

So having been told our skiing will be fine for the Anwerter training (the Austrian instructor exams) everyone’s started to worry about the German side of things as you are required to (try) and teach in German, handy phrasebooks have been provided by the ski school so everyone’s slowly becoming more confident!

Well the training ended yesterday, and with a day off today before the Anwerter starts tommorow morning at 8.30am (we’re not used to seeing this time of day), belated birthday celebrations were in order on the Wednesday night…no more needs to be said! Everyone’s chilled out today…with plenty of sore heads (one strapping young man sleept on the breakfast room floor), a few of us went up for a few runs and everyone started to gear up for the hectic 10 days of the Anwerter Exams!

Next time you hear from us, we’ll (fingers crossed) all have passed our instructor exams…and all be wearing the blue and yellow jacket….it’s all about the jacket!

Will

P.S. Don’t forget to check out the Facebook Group, Peak Leaders St. Anton 2008, for more pics and vids!!!

Open Day in St. Anton!
Posted on November 28, 2008 at 6:43 pm

So, almost 1 week in, and we’ve had a busy week with some people doing leadership training and everyone doing German lessons. The German is slowly coming together. Everyone has got “bend zie knees” in a German accent down to a fine art, so, pretty much fluent. Thursday was the last lesson so we got Eva, the teacher, a couple of bottles of wine for her great efforts and in return she taught us how to sing happy birthday in German for Gavin’s birthday.

That night we had another nice meal at the Museum and Gavin got a nice surprise from the staff

Today was the opening day for St. Anton and first day of skiing for the team. We were at the lifts at 9am-ish, but there were a couple of delays, obviously I don’t want to divulge any names, so let’s just say a certain girl on the top floor of the hotel. Now just to put all the mums at ease there haven’t been any injuries.

Everyone had a good day finding their feet again! Having been to skiing lessons when I was younger, I remember thinking that my instructor was infallible, a God on snow. Although, seeing the plethora of stacks on display today, in no way will anyone think that when we take over! A special nod to Davey P’s off piste effort today. He was looking a million bucks………and then he put his skis on in the morning! After that he was doomed to fail.

Overall, a fantastic day of skiing with some great views and everyone is now anxious to get started with the training, which starts tomorrow

Cheers

Nick P.

St Anton gets started….
Posted on November 24, 2008 at 4:17 pm

Well it’s been a busy time in St. Anton for the past couple of days with everyone arriving in good stead and spirits. Some of the group came on the night of Saturday 22nd, so on the Sunday we were able to have a look around St. Anton. Also due to the amount of snow that has fallen a few of us went for a small hike up the front face of the mountain that day to get a warm up run before open day on Friday 28th.

By Sunday evening everyone had arrived and we went out for a team meal at Maxa Million, where a few of us unexpectedly ate fillet of kangaroo. The evening was a great success, with everyone getting on great.

After a good nights sleep we had the briefing, telling the team about the outline of the programme, safety and of course a snowman competition. Everyone did a really good job but the group with Dave P, John, Gavin, Matt, Mike and Dave B won it by a whisker with the classic snowman.

That afternoon it was time to get our heads down and do some German with Eva, a local teacher, at the high school. It was a refresher for some and totally new to some but we all learnt something. So I think everyone is going to be practicing tonight with the staff at the Museum Restaurant, our 6 nights a week restaurant.

The past two days have been great and with the stunning in St Anton I can only see things getting better!