It’s been a fun week of training with the focus at the beginning of the week on our ski development (read lots of bumps, moguls, using ski edges and a scary odd cliff) but also lots of carving, fast skiing and fast paced short radius turns on the groomers.
The end of the week we focussed on teaching and, as Pete and I have already passed that part, we were used more often as students for the others to practice on. It’s always good to hear different approaches and see different drills and tactics used – things we can use in our teaching in the future.
The “kids” (as some have started calling us mum and dad) get a bit bored with the pace of things in the teach sessions which often ends up in them messing about, pushing each other over, hiding each other’s skis and poles etc.
On the plus side, we have had a few bluebird days this week with blue, blue skies.
This is great for stunning photos but unfortunately we have also had high winds that have removed a lot of the powder leaving hard, compact and, in places, icy runs. This makes high edge and fast carved skiing quite tricky – it certainly gets your adrenaline going as you slide on an unseen patch of ice and then get grip as you find the next patch of soft snow.
So in an effort to get more snow we paid a visit to the Ullr Bar to pray to Ullr, the Viking God of snow. The snow hasn’t materialised yet but at least the beer and food was good.
On Tuesday night we joined the group at The T Bar for musical bingo. It was a fun night with lots of singing, dancing on chairs (not allowed) and mixing with others (not allowed to switch tables under covid rules).
It did result in Charlotte being asked to leave the bar which was even more funny as she is one of the more sensible ones. It would be interesting to see what the T Bar would be like in normal times with its dance floor and no maximum on 6 sitting together. Maybe another year …….
I also had the joy of getting stuck in the lift (it has been broken more often than it works). I had just collected a takeaway dinner (kindly delivered from Fuze by Rik) and James and James were coming back with their dinners (pizza and a steak). The three of us started eating our dinner in the lift while I could hear Pete’s traumatised cries down the lift shaft to not eat his dinner too. He was very relieved when we got out about 10 minutes later and he realised the boys had their own food and were not eating his tea !
Over the weekend we tried to resist the temptation to do loads more skiing and rest our legs a bit. On Saturday we headed down to Invermere (joined by Cameron) and had a pint at The Station Pub overlooking he lake.
Happily fueled we walked across the lake (how mad does that sound) to Windermere (3.5 miles) to a Mexican restaurant we found online with great reviews. It was run by a Mexican family and lived up to our hopes. The food was yum.
Then we found a slightly shorter way back, only 2.5 miles, and walked across the lake as the sunset. Just beautiful!
We weren’t too sure about all the noises of the ice cracking and moving but no one went for a swim, so all good. All finished off by a few beers in the Ullr Bar and then a few in the common room with all the gang.
Sunday we did some gentle skiing and practicing and then five of us went to The Elkhorn Cabin on the piste for a raclette. It was very civilized, and the food was fab.
Once we got into the pace and realised it is very French – you need to show some patience waiting for your cheese to melt, we loved it. Good things come to those who wait – like lots of melted cheese ! The gluewien was pretty good too.
Now we are all set up for our last week of training and ski development. Eek!
