Saas Fee Ski and Snowboard Instructors Course – Week 2 Blog

Week two of the Saas Fee Peak Leaders Instructor course was another full week of blue skies and amazing snow … the perfect week of training before BASI Level 1. Everyone was excited and motivated for the beginning of the second week of training with European Snowsport.

This week on the hill was action packed with technical training improving piste performance in particular and everyone’s first shot at teaching a lesson. The first week of training covered all the basics and now the guys had a stab at putting them into practice … some went slightly better than others! This was a very important step towards becoming instructors. Delivering a session to their peers can be daunting however there were some pretty impressive lessons for their first time.

Julian, Emma and Graham reassured them that it is better to learn from your mistakes, even when Louise and Sophie both didn’t notice losing one member of their group. Other comical moments on the glacier included when Peter tried to pull off a slick ski instructor move only to wipe out Nick in James’ lesson, and Max skiing over the whole group while trying to stop! So an action packed week of improving all round towards becoming an Instructor!

The celebrity spotting on the glacier this week was as good as last weeks with the trainees being in awe of many world cup athletes. The favourites of last week were chatting to Fanny Smith (Skier Cross athlete) on a lift, watching the Women’s British Freestyle team tear up the park, and getting some tips from the Swiss Ski Team technician on how to make their skis and snowboards faster!

 

As the stunning summer weather continued in the village the trainees took full advantage of that and hiked up to a glacier lake one afternoon with a picnic and some slack lines, basically walking a tightrope of an inch or so thick. George was the clear winner at this ski orientated balance training … the boys think it’s due to all his yoga practice. On the way down through the forest some of the guys were reenacting Lord of the Rings, singing away and pretending they were in the mystical land of The Shire. Max Kelly’s professional singing was superbly carried around the mountains as they descended back towards Saas Fee.

 

The weekend before the Level 1 began saw a bit of a front coming in to the Saas Fee Mountains, which was very exciting … at last a foot of powder snow! Perfect timing for their level 1 to look like heroes skiing and boarding ripping it up! This time next week they might have their first Instructor badge!

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