BARILOCHE 2017 – WEEK 5
Week 5 on our 9 week ski instructor course in Bariloche, Argentina has been dominated by continued heavy snowfall, the BASI Alpine Level 1 assessment and tango lessons to celebrate!
This week we welcomed the arrival of two very experienced BASI Trainers, Jim Lister and Emma Cairns. We couldn’t ask for better qualified trainers to run the BASI Level 1 and 2 assessments out here in Argentina. Emma knows the programme better than anyone having trained Peak Leaders trainees for the best part of the last decade here in Bariloche, in Saas Fee and Verbier in Switzerland! Jim’s CV reads quite well too – he’s the Chairman of BASI! So I think the trainees are in good hands….
The BASI Alpine Level 1 assessment runs for 5 days, Monday to Friday. During the week the trainees are continually assessed on set criteria in relation to both their skiing and teaching abilities. This is what our Argentinian trainers have been working to improve over the past four weeks, preparing the group for this stage.
BASI Trainer, Jim Lister, had this to say about the week on the mountain:
“Despite enduring the extreme weather of the Patagonian mountains, all candidates came out of the end of the level 1 course with high spirits, high morale and really came on well, fully prepared for the level 2 course starting in a week.”
– Jim Lister, BASI Chairman and Bariloche Trainer
Up at Cerro Catedral the snow has been unrelenting. It snowed heavily last week and would continue to lay a deep blanket of ‘Oro Blanco’ (White Gold) throughout week 5. Nobody’s complaining!
After each day of training on the mountain we have lectures back at the hotel reviewing the day’s training, looking at video analysis and preparing for the upcoming teaching sessions the following day. Outside of training our team leaders this week, Rory and Matteo, brought back the well missed Peak Leaders quiz.
It’s only been a week since we attended a wine tasting to celebrate the success of A-Level results and now we’re already back out with cause to celebrate.
All the trainees are now qualified BASI Level 1 ski instructors! So I’ll now refer to them in these blogs by their proper title of ‘instructor’.
To celebrate we went for a treat – tango lessons! Ned in particular has been keen to learn the local dance (probably to improve his chances with the local ladies). Let’s say some of the instructors are naturals and others could do with a bit of practice….
We rounded off a busy, yet successful, week (as you do) with a First Aid course at the weekend. The instructors are now qualified, educated and Peak Leaders CV’s are being received by ski schools around the world. It’s all falling in to place!
