Welcome to Saas Fee
Posted on November 4, 2011 at 2:39 pm

The September start for the Peak Leaders course in Saas Fee  But the timing of this course gives the trainees the best chance of going on to find a job for the coming winter.

For the first two weeks of the Peak Leaders course it still felt very much like summer. In the town temperatures reach mid twenties by the afternoon, which means there’s plenty of opportunity to enjoy all the summer activities available in mountains. The mini golf seems to be the favourite at the moment, which brings out everyone’s competitive streak!

However, each time you go up in the lift it is like jumping forward a few months to winter. September seems to be the tipping point in the mountains here, as the freeze/thaw cycle of the summer gradually gets buried under fresh snow.

The ski training first concentrates on creating good foundations, from which to build up to the more high performance skiing – the goal for the end of the course. Because the group has a wide range of abilities and experience, everything needs to get stripped back to basics. It can sometimes be hard to unlearn bad habits but it’s a process which soon shows signs of paying off.

Next week the trainees will be undertaking the BASI level one exams. This is a standalone qualification for teaching in the indoor and dry slopes in theUKhowever most people (and certainly our guys) are using it as a stepping-stone to the level 2, which is widely recognised throughout theAlpsand the rest of the world.

They will be asked to demonstrate their teaching skills on the basic progression needing to guide first time skiers up to parallel turning. New snow this week has made conditions on the perfect and we are hoping for a clean sweep!