VERBIER 10 WEEK SKI INSTRUCTOR COURSE 2015: BASI LEVEL 1, AVALANCHE TRAINING AND FIRST AID (WEEK 3)

Posted: December 23, 2015

Week 3 of the Verbier 10 week ski instructor course and the group have completed the first of their exams: BASI Level 1. Here’s group leader Charlie with the update…

BASI level 1 exam week

Tom Waddington, BASI trainer, keeps a close watch on the groups progress

Week 3 meant the start of the BASI level 1 exam – each student gets several chances to demonstrate their teaching ability and is continually assessed on their skiing technique.

The exam is both a learning experience, with students continually encouraged to show development and improvement in both their skiing and coaching ability, an assessment with a Pass/Fail mark.

Throughout the week the team had an opportunity to show Tom (the BASI trainer) exactly what it is they have learned so far on their journey to becoming ski instructors with Peak Leaders.

Teaching and technical skills

While not being assessed, the team get a chance to practice delivering lessons to their peers – getting used to speaking in front of people can be just as important a lesson as knowing how to perfectly demonstrate the dreaded “snow plough”!

Practice makes perfect …

The lessons cover everything from a basic introduction to ski equipment to the beginning stages of parallel turns, and will provide the foundation for our group to happily teach all abilities in the future.

And the work doesn’t end when the pistes close.

Each evening the team get together with BASI trainer Tom to go through video feedback and receive a comprehensive breakdown of their lessons – meaning everyone gets a chance to listen in to how others have performed and learn where things can go wrong, and right.

Sunny days on the lifts in Verbier

Avalanche training at the weekend

Even with blue-bird skies and fantastic views for lunch (and on every lift!) by the end of the week and with the results in, everyone was finally ready to unwind and enjoy a rest day before Sunday’s avalanche course with Graham Frost of Frost Guiding.

The training with Frost Guiding covered how to search for a buried skier with transceivers and poles, and also how different weather patterns can affect the avalanche risk and an introduction to reading mountain terrain.

Learning about mountain safety with Frost Guiding

Remembering week 1 first aid training

Unfortunately, even the most well qualified of instructors sometimes meet with accidents – as was discovered by one of our team.

Proving that when an unstoppable force (Peak Leaders very own Billy Sims-Hilditch) meets an immovable object (a poorly placed rock) one of them must give; and poor Billy found himself receiving first-class first aid and medical treatment courtesy of his course-mates and Sion hospital.

Though released that very same evening, Billy is now sporting an unfortunate broken collar bone, bringing his skiing season to an end.

Billy will be staying with us for Christmas and New Years Eve, so we’re all focussed on making it a great one for him.

We wish you all the best for Xmas and NYE from a very sunny, if a little less snowy, Verbier!!!