Norquay's closing weekend.

This weekend will be Norquay's last of the season, marking the end of an incredible 6 months. Although I'm not leaving immediately it feels like the end as the place where I've probably spent more time than anywhere else (possibly including my house . . . okay probably not my house) shuts. 

It's been an amazing last weekend so far, two blue bird days and a pretty cruisey time for me working on the lifts. Hopefully tomorrow will be much the same, and then we'll be having a few beers at the staff party afterwards. 

Level 2 and the wolf.

My level 2 retest went really well and, as I mentioned in my previous post, I passed it.
We also had Warren Jobbit ski with us for the morning of the second day. He was there to get some video for next year's Level 2 standards video, so, having passed, I may be in the video for next year's courses which is pretty exciting.

Today as Dave and I were walking home from Town Noel came out of his house to tell that there was a wolf hanging around at the top of our street. So, naturally, Dave ran in for his camera and we got some really good snaps, and an impromptu walk up tunnel mountain. Here is a selection of the snaps we got:

The wolf:

Dave tracking some wolf tracks: 

Taking in the views:

All in all, a good, last minute trip!

I passed my CSIA Level 2 Instructor course.

You heard.

This week just gets longer and longer.

Today at work I sold $600 of lessons over the next 3 days, which means that this week I'll have sold $900 in total.
Obviously, that's really good, because I'll definitely have full days of work and I get commission on the lessons. However, it does mean I'm going in on Sunday, which was gonna be my day off, and then I'll be working Monday and Tuesday on the lifts so I'll have done 13 days straight of work by Wednesday. I'm gonna be tired as hell by then but my next pay cheque is going to be pretty sweet, I think.

For now, onwards and upwards with another 5 days of work!

Photos

Here are some photos from the blue-bird day we had at Norquay today. The sky was the rich blue typical of Alberta and the sun shone all day.
Here are Tate, Coo and Phil who I went skiing up Big Chair with, Banff sitting in the valley behind them.

 This is another view of the Bow valley from the run we took off big chair.

 This is the view from the top of Spirit chair, with Rundle Mountain in the distance.

Lots and lots of work.

After a fairly diminished pay cheque for the last pay-period I've been racking up a lot of hours this week. I've worked one shift on the lifts and one shift in the evening at tube town. I've also been working at ski school and had 10 hours of lessons last week, plus 2 today to start the new week. I was also named pro of the day, because in the last week or so I've sold about 5 more private lessons to students I've had who've really liked me and wanted more lessons with me. So, not only was it cool to be pro of the week but I'll also get commission on all those lessons which will be another nice boost to my pay cheque, plus I got a $20 tip off one my students' parents both yesterday and today.

Working with the lifties has, however, meant that I've basically got no days off this week, as ski school is still busy at the moment because it's spring break, and I'm also going in a lot to take the requests I've had! So, my next day off is next Sunday (1 week from today) and today was already my fourth day in a row. So, a 10 day week for me this week!

I've been teaching some pretty funny kids and having a lot of fun over the last few days. I had two sisters, Alexis and Victoria, who were big Harry Potter fans and so I made up a couple of Potter-based games that helped them work on balancing over the down hill ski and they / we had a lot of fun with it. I also had two 3 and 3/4 year olds, Sophia and Colburn, who were also fun to teach. Sophia had some trouble turning left and at one point she ended up in the deep snow at the right hand edge. As I picked her up, turned her round and started sliding across to get her going she started laughing and clapping her hands. She obviously had more fun skiing with others than trying by herself. Still, by the end of the lesson she was turning both ways which was very cool. Colburn was pretty good throughout the lesson, apart from at one point sliding down into the top of the terrain park, which meant we had to go through it, obviously avoiding the jumps. As we were about to get going Colburn said, "Can you help me now?!", after I'd helped Sophia down to where he'd stopped, skiing backwards in front of her holding her hands. Sophia then piped up and said, "no help me!" At this point Colburn grabbed hold of my hand, "no help me!". Sophia countered by shuffling closer and grabbing hold of my leg, "help meeeeee!" I took me a minute or two to get untangled and convince them that they could both ski by themselves.

I also went out skiing with Gord yesterday and we worked on some stuff to help me get ready for my level 2 retest, and after that he told me this morning that I had been skiing at the level 2 standard which was naturally very good to hear.

Tomorrow I'm back on the lifts then I've got another 5 days in ski school.

Ahhhhhh, here goes.

Have you been avoiding me?

Yup.
Sorry, Blog, for my prolonged absence. I decided to wait to update until after my level 2 course had finished, and unfortunately I didn't pass and subsequently didn't really feel like posting about it.
That being said, I did pass half of it. The course is in two parts, a teaching / assessing part and a skiing part. I passed the teaching / assessing part but no the skiing, which was really quite the bummer.

That being said, half is half and better than nothing, and I can keep that pass forever and ever, so that if I do a retest I only have to be assessed on the skiing half and not the teaching again. Hopefully I'll get the chance to do this in April. With that in mind, I've been out practicing a lot lately to try and be ready for it. I went out for a session with Fred, one of the level 3s at Norquay, and my friend Phil, who is training for his level 3, although he probably won't take it this season. Fred explained a couple of things to me that I'd been pretty confused about and we had a really good session so I feel a lot better about things after that. He also said that he thinks my fail for the skiing part must have been pretty boarderline, as he said that, judging by my skiing today, I was pretty much at standard.

In other news, I'm going to be working a couple of days a week as a liftie, probably for the rest of the season, which is good because ski school is slowing down and so this will keep my pay cheque pretty sweet and help me get through the rest of my time here.

My life is like ooh, ah, ooh, ah.

Today was so good.
After a pretty lazy day off and some good football at the high school yesterday I got the 9.35 a.m. bus to Norquay. I took my snowboard boots and from about 10.00 till about 12.00 I went snowboarding. First I went over to mystic chair. I went down imp (blue) and knight flight (blue), then got the chairlift back up and did banshee (blue) and the bottom of giver grandi (blue), went up again and did the top of giver grandi (black - probably the equivalent of a difficult European red) and black magic (black) before heading back over to the lodge. I then did a few laps of the park before lunch which went really well.

After lunch we had level 2 ski-instructor training with Gord which also went really well and I got a lot of positive responses from the boss and so I'm pretty confident for my level 2, which is good considering it starts on Monday!

After that I got back on a board and hit the park for a few more laps and absolutely smashed it. It's interesting that I've taken to free style on a board way easier than on skis. I find that I'm way more confident and able to do much cooler stuff on a board than I dare to on skis. It feels a lot more natural than trying grinds and stuff on skis and I rocked it like a boss.
My trick repertoire is now:

50-50s on boxes.
50-50s on rails.
Back-side board slide on boxes.
50-50 to backside board-slide on boxes.
Straight air small jumps.
Indie-grab small jumps.

I was talking to Matt A, the senior snowboard instructor at Norquay (also a mate) and he said that I should have no problem with level 1, and I'm feeling increasingly confident for my skiing level 2.

OH YEAH!

Your 8 weeks are up.

This weekend marked the last installment of the weekend 8-week programs.
It's been really good working with the same groups on Saturdays and Sundays for the last month and a bit and I definitely felt like I'd gotten to know the kids in my Saturday group really well. They were all very sweet and said they'd miss me and didn't want the programs to end and gave me lots of hugs. Jenny's Dad, Dan, who was also one of the chaperons for the school, said I'd done a really great job and they'd all had a brilliant time, and he bought me lunch which was really cool. Other than that, however, I got no tips, which I wasn't too bothered about until I heard that a couple of the guys got about $150 in tips between their different kids. Just the luck of the draw, I suppose.

My Sunday group were less sentimental, all of them saying they wouldn't miss me apart from Anna-Maria, who said she would, even in the face of the others saying they didn't care. Typical, fickle 5 year olds, right?
Nonetheless, their parents all seemed very pleased and told me they'd had a really good and that I'd done a good job. Hugo's Dad said that, despite seeming like he hated skiing sometimes, Hugo had in fact really liked me and enjoyed himself. Still, no tips. Such as life.

Things are slowing down a lot now and so there are a lot less shifts on the mountain. It might be time to start looking for a part time job on the side, which I can then carry on with once ski school closes.

85 cent day.

Having been drafted in yesterday, I spent today working. It was 85 cent day, which is a promotion that has been put on a few times this year as part of the celebrations of Norquay's 85th year. By the way, I learnt today that Norquay is the oldest, longest running resort of North America! Pretty cool. We were also offering $85 2 hour private lessons (for 2 people: add a 3rd for $30), of which I had 2 as part of my 5 hour day, completed by a 55 minute special at 9.00 a.m.
The two hours I had in the morning were with Sharan and Kaitlin, mother and daughter, who said they wanted to build up skiing double blacks. Naturally, hearing that at the start of the lesson was awesome and so we spent the whole two hours ripping around on Mystic riding bumps and tree lines (Sharan - the Mum - didn't do the trees, but Kailtin wanted to and she did well). We finished off the lesson by going down Sun Shoots, a double black, and so they were really pleased they managed to do what they set out to, which of course made it very rewarding for me.

I then had two hours with brother and sister Bennet and Alexandra who were good fun. We skiid off Cascade (on the green runs) and built up to a bit of parallel skiing, and at the end of the lesson their Dad gave me a $20 which was, of course, an excellent end to the day.

I then did a couple of laps of the terrain park with Will, my sort-of-housemate (he used to be in our flat but now is downstairs). He absolutely nailed a 540 off one of the medium jumps which was wicked to see, although it did cast something of a shadow over me nearly landing a 180. I landed it fine, but I only managed about 160 degrees of spin.

All in all, another great day at the office.

Back in the country.

We had another quiet day in terms of lessons on the hill today.
Max, Alex, Daniel and I were sent to help ski patrol remove and roll up some B-netting (the netting they put up along the edges of runs when races happen). It was kind of annoying, pretty cold and tough at times but we made the best of it and had some fun, especially considering the huge amounts of snow just off the side of the run that we went jumping into.

The day ended in amazing fashion, though. We got permission from ski patrol to go outside the ski boundary and we hiked over to a place called the South Bowl. Needless to say, in was incredible. Only 2 people had been there before us all year and that was ski patrol. The powder was incredible, it was about waist deep and, because it's outside the boundary, there was no snow pack underneath meaning it was just deep, deep soft snow. We stuck to the edges, near the trees, to avoid setting off avalanches but nonetheless it was incredible.

It was a little sketchy at times, when we were on our way down through the trees to the ski-out and it got pretty skinny. Despite that, and a bit at the start where we ended up doing a lot of hiking and weren't quite sure where we were going, it was awesome and, if I get the chance, I'd definitely do it again.

So, my first endeavor into some back country skiing was a veritable success.

Just another day at the office.

Today we had a lovely, spring-feeling - 29 on the hill, which meant that, much like yesterday, a lot of those who had booked lessons didn't show up, so I got to ride all day.
My best runs of the day were 3 laps of Big Chair that I did at the end of the day. As we pulled up to the chair we heard that Gun Run, a double black, had just been opened, and so Alex, Yannick, Kelly, Iona and I all jumped on, with a few of us keen to hit the newly available powder. As we got to the top of the lift I saw a bunch of snowboarded lining up to go down Gun Run, and so instead of waiting for the others and giving the boarders a chance to tack out all the snow I just zoomed straight off and down Gun Run, where I got an awesome line through fresh snow.

As I arrived back at the top of Cascade chair and was about to head back to Big Chair, I heard Gord (Ski school director, my boss) call me as he was just getting off the chair,
"Where're you going Jon?"
"Big Chair."
"Awesome, come with me!"

Gord Then took me to a run off the North American Basin where no one else had been and he and I swept through making the first tracks of the day, despite it being about 2 p.m. We did two laps, and so I basically got half an hour of private tuition from my boss which was awesome.

It's a hard job, but someone's got to do it.

The snow report says we've had 2 cm. . . yeah, we've had more than that.

Today was one my best days at work ever.
At the morning meeting I was told that I had an all day discovery lesson (for absolute beginners) and so by 9.05 I was on the slopes and I made the day's first tracks down a couple of the black / double black diamond runs off Mystic chairlift.
Upon my return to the lodge for my lesson, I was told that in fact it had been recorded wrong and the lesson had been booked for March 28th, not February 28th. So, I spent the whole day going out and skiing in between hourly check ins, none of which yielded any lessons. There were very few punters on the hill because it was pretty cold (low of - 23) and snowing all day, plus it was a Monday, so I was constantly finding more fresh powder: I don't know what the official figure was but in places the snow was knee deep.
My top 2 runs of the day were:
1. A run down through the trees between two runs off Mystic chair which was awesome.
2. Going down the shoulder at the edge of Rob's Run (a black diamond - the equivalent of a European red) where the combination of the actual depth of the snow, the steepness of the pitch and my hard-charging meant that the snow was effectively waist deep as I went down, which was amazing.

After signing out at 1.00 Yannick, Yannick (two German guys in ski school) went out snowboarding. We went over to mystic and I made it down my first black diamond run on a board without having any real falls . . . that is to say, I fell once, but it was just as I starting going and it was because the front of the board went from sliding to dead stop under all the snow.

All in all, it's pretty incredible that I get paid for days like today.

Tonight I'll go play football (proper football mind, the English kind) at the high school and then back to work tomorrow for, hopefully, some more shredding!

Sunday always comes too late.

My lessons today went, on the whole very well. I had a bit of a hiccup with me A.M. minit mites, whereby after 2 runs Sophia, who it turned out only wanted to have a little snack, went from laughing as she skiid down and having a great time to sitting down on the slope, bawling her eyes out and asking for her momma, which is obviously the method of communication she thought most appropriate, rather than, "can I have a snack?" Other than that, the mini mites did a great job as usual and we got some good skiing in.

I then had a 2 hour private with a 6 year old called Emily, who was a good skier and who did really well, but who was very quiet, so the 7 minute chair lift rides got a little awkward. Excluding this, and to be honest I think I did quite well at keeping conversation going, the lesson was really good and she said she enjoyed it so our lesson next Sunday afternoon should be similarly successful.

I'm working for the next three days as well, but I don't think a few beers this evening could hurt.

Saturday, wait

The penultimate week of my Saturday program went really, really well.
None of the boys turned up which was a shame, but Emma, Rachel, Jenny and I did some really good skiing. They love going over little bumps and jumps and going down all the little tracks through the trees dotted around so we had some fun with that. In afternoon we got over to Spirit and Mystic chairs and went down some nice blue runs which was a really big achievement for a group who hadn't been able to stop on the magic carpet when I started with them.

Next week there's going to be a bit of a party with some music and stuff for the end of the programs which should be a lot of fun. On the other hand, it seems I'm going to have to write some report cards for the kids which might be a bit of a drag, then again Jenny's dad said he'd give her some money to buy me lunch next week to say thank you which is really nice, and who knows, I might get some tips off the other parents.

Tomorrow, another week of my Sunday morning mini-mites.

Friday, I'm in love.

Today was the fairly lazy day I predicted. I was exceptionally successful in buying a new ski coat which is awesome, it's a yellow and black north face coat which came with a reversible liner jacket and together they're really warm. It cost me $220 in all, which was after 30% (also known as $90) had been taken off in the sale.

I also went up Sulphur Mountain with Dave, my housemate, and his cousin, Sebastian Monster (yes that's really his name) who's visiting at the moment. The views were breath taking and they got some spectacular pictures, which you can expect see some of soon.

Onwards to the weekends and the next installment of my 8 week programs.

Thursday doesn't even start.

Today I went on another awesome road trip with Jeremy and Jon Kress from ski school. The three of us went to Castle Mountain, another BC ski resort where we get unlimited free reciprocal lift passes.

The day was almost a write off because it was absurdly cold. As we waited for our lift passes to be printed we heard ski patrol come over the radio saying it was - 45 with the wind chill, and a liftie told us that at the start of the day it had been - 60 at the top of "red chair", which goes up to all the best, steepest terrain, and which remained shut all day.

Nonetheless, we made the best of it and still did some pretty hard charging and got a lot of good runs through the shoots, over jumps and cliffs.

Tomorrow I'm going to be having a pretty chilled out day off, not least because it's going to be around - 25 / - 30 again.

Wednesday break my heart.

Wednesday was pretty awesome, we'd had some snowfall which made for good conditions and I got 4 hour of lessons plus I set up the magic carpet which gets me another hour's pay.

My 4 hours were with 2 British Children, Erin and Finlay, from The Wirral, who were a treat. Finlay made me laugh when he responded to the offer of hot chocolate with, "I'd rather have a cup of tea. I do love a cup of tea" in a little 6 year old northern accent.

They both seemed to have a good time and they definitely improved so it was a very successful day.

I also got a great run down Lone Pine, off Big Chair, after my lessons. The snow was great up there which made for a great run down despite my legs being pretty tired after the 4 hours of teaching.

Tuesday,

Today I only had 2 hours of lessons but I had a really good session with Dale, Georgia and Keely. We skiid the Sun Shoots, a double black run off Mystic Chair and then we went up Big Chair and came down some more steep terrain off there. 

This week I've felt like my skiing has been really good and really technical. A lot of the time I'm guilty of sacrificing good technique for speed but lately I've been slowing down and thinking about skiing properly which has yielded some good results. 

Hopefully I'll making a trip to Panorama, another ski resort around 2 hours away, with Jeremy on Thursday, so if that happens it should be really good. For now, I'm going to see Gnomio and Juliet tonight, which I'm sure will . . . pass the time, and then back onto the mountain on Wednesday and another week with Meadow and Wyatt. 

Monday you can fall apart.

Today I had a very busy day on the hill. It was family say so naturally a lot of people were up for their holiday and there were a lot of lessons going out. In the end, I had 6 hours of teaching, and as it's a national holiday I get 1.5 X pay, so it'll be a nice little boost to my next pay cheque.

Most of my lessons went really well, with the exception of one. I had a 2 hour private with some Russians, 3 adults and a 2 year old, to be precise. When told that we don't give lessons to 2 year olds, they said he was 3, then they said he was 4. Nonetheless, he couldn't speak English and he didn't seem to like me. Another relative was also there, not on skis, trying to help him. At one point, she was trying to pass him over to me to ski down the small hill with and he was refusing to come with me, so he just fell over and started crying. I tried to pick him up but he wouldn't let me help him and continued to cry. The other relative there walked down and I thought she was going to help him up and talk him round, but instead she produced a camera and took a picture of the bawling child. After 20 minutes the mum and child dropped out of the lesson having realised that it was pretty much impossible for me to teach him. I then carried on with the two guys but the kid's Dad also dropped out after about an hour had gone by and I only carried on with the last bloke for around 20 more minutes, so the lesson finished 45 minutes early.

All in all it was a really good day though,  I even got a great run down Big Chair in.