BARILOCHE 2019 – WEEK 3
Powder! A massive snowfall over night and clear conditions the next morning meant that the Peak Leaders were treated to some true Patagonia powder – and they made the most of it!
Skiing variable snow is a key part of the level 2 exam and so practicing it is essential. That’s a good excuse anyway!
The snow was amazing and everyone wanted the chance to ski the untouched powder. It was getting tracked out fast so the Peak Leaders quickly got involved! Here’s Brad jumping into a perfect powder stash at the top!
This week has been a mixture of training and shadowing. Shadowing is a pre requisite of the BASI level 2 exam and the Peak Leaders have an amazing opportunity here to actually be gate keepers for a real FIS (highest level) standard slalom race!
Being a gatekeeper means that each person has to monitor about 5-6 Slalom gates. If the competitor goes the wrong way round one then they have to spot this and mark it down on a clipboard.
If the skier makes a mistake they are disqualified from the race and it is important that the gatekeepers note this.
This all seems complicated but it’s really not as most racers just ski out of the course if they do miss a gate.
All of the Peak Leaders did an excellent job and the massive bonus for being part of this event is to get the feel for a high quality slalom race and hopefully be inspired by some amazing skiing.
After a full on week the trainees can look forward to a quiet weekend. However it’s always fun to learn a bit about the local culture, especially as we’re so far from home and so each year the Peak Leaders have the chance to discover more about the famous Argentine Tango.
This involves learning about how the dance evolved and why it became so popular. Then the teachers perform some routines and invite everyone to learn some basic steps.
Well for all the boys the steps were very basic however Sofia, who had done a lot of dancing back home in Sweden, impressed everyone as she picked up the dance routine really quickly and progressed to more complicated dancing in no time!
At the end we were treated to some modern Tango and shown how the genre is performed nowadays ending with an Argentine flourish!
