Ski Instructor Course, Saas-Fee Week 2

We’ve just completed the second week of Peak Leaders’ 10-week ski instructor course out here in Saas-Fee, Switzerland! The time has flown by during another action pack 7 days of training, exploring and learning.

Let me start by introducing you to some of this year’s instructors:

Mikey

Although he was the only person to arrive on twin tips, Mikey has since taken the plunge and moved to all-mountain (big boy) skis. Within a few runs, he was seeing a huge progression in his skiing ability, no longer hampered by his equipment. Loves football, slept all weekend…

Benji

This week Benji requested a special mention in this blog so here you go! He moved from bright coloured ski attire to all black in preparation for the upcoming BASI assessment. It’s possible that this change has come about because he feels that if he dresses like a ninja, he’ll ski like a ninja! To be confirmed…

Rosie

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@rijsamuels is always ready for a ski ⛷ ❄

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One of this week’s team leaders along with Richard, Rosie smashed her chance in the spotlight with a fun pub quiz! Maintaining control over 15 rowdy, beer-fuelled quizzers is no mean feat. I salute you!

The weather has really been on our side again – blue skies and grippy snow on the glacier (averaging around -4 degrees celsius) making for amazing training conditions day in day out.

We’ve spent the first two weeks training for the BASI Level 1 assessment which will happen during week 3. For the uninitiated, BASI stands for British Association of Snowsports Instructors. They are the national governing body for snowsports qualifications in the UK and provide courses, assessments, qualifications and licences to budding ski and snowboard instructors around the world, and we work with BASI on all our European ski instructor course(s).
The group has been receiving top class coaching from our ski coaches, Emma and Jake from Element Concept – a Verbier-based ski school.

Emma is a BASI Trainer (the highest level of certification) and has been coaching Peak Leaders’ courses for many years. She has a ridiculous amount of knowledge regarding the ski industry as a whole but more specifically within the ski instructor course pathway.

Jake is a BASI Level 4 instructor and has been working with Peak Leaders over the past few years on our Switzerland courses in both Saas Fee and Verbier. The pair recently got married (#powercouple) and are here with the world’s cutest dog, Indy!

Everyone’s skiing has come on leaps and bounds since the first few days. If the first week was a ‘warm up’ then the second week has been a brilliant chance to make some big steps towards the goal of becoming a ski instructor.

Our time off the mountain was well used again this week. On Monday we had a pub quiz run by Richard and Rosie. Louisa cheated her way to another victory as usual. Tuesday and Thursday saw the return of fitness sessions with Jake, this time, we ventured up the Parkour course in the woods to combine various workouts. Some of the guys are really getting into the fitness sessions this year including Jon who is really working hard to become fit and healthy.

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Happy days on the glacier #gogglebuddies #saasyay

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We squeezed in another game of football on Wednesday, had a few indoor sessions of video feedback with Emma and Jake, improved our CV’s, learnt how to service ski equipment correctly and even had a visit the co-owner of Element Concept, Guy. He came across to give the group the benefit of his knowledge regarding recruitment in the snowsports industry.

Friday was spent in various bars around town so Saturday was chilled, to say the least. Some chose to catch up on sleep or have a lazy day, Sula and Louisa ventured across to Zermatt for the day before a big group of us headed to Saas Grund to watch an ice hockey match. We were lucky enough to score the only VIP tickets in the ground….

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Peaceful weekend in the #mountains

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Chilled weekend in #saasfee

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Next week (week 3) will see the arrival of the BASI examiners, so by Friday 7th October we’ll have newly qualified ski instructors striding into the bars of Saas Fee.
Wish us luck!