Sunshine - Monday, December 29

Today we got an earlier start, catching a 7:55 am shuttle to Sunshine. I started the day skiing with Pat and a fellow named Dave. We did a little tour of the mountain starting on the Angel Express chair and then skiing into B.C. on the Continental Divide before heading over to Standish. Pat and I then took a hot chocolate break to warm our tootsies. We had great timing beating out the lunch crowds.

The two of us then continued on to the Wawa chair - by far my favourite area of the day. It was lower and more treed and thus warmer. The snow there was fantastic! We skiied next to the trees in soft, soft snow. At noon we met up with a couple other High Parkers, Bruce and Craig. They decided to ski with us instead of the snow host they were about to join. After showing them the best runs on Wawa, we made our way to Goat's Eye. Enroute we ran into four other HP'ers who joined us for a couple runs. By then Pat and I were ready for a late lunch, once again managing to evade the crowds. We sat out one run and then rejoined Bruce and Craig to travel back to revisit some of our favourites of the earlier areas we had skiied before doing the ski out to the bottom of the mountain (perhaps better termed the human pinball machine run).

As you have probably already surmised from all the skiing I got in today, my newly adjusted boots felt fantastic! The cuffs have never felt better. My feet felt great all day. The only remaining issue is that my toes are freezing instantly because the toe beds are too tight. So it was back to the boot fitter after skiing today for one (hopefully last!) adjustment.

Tonight there was a group dinner planned for us at the Elk & Oarsmen - another good opportunity to meet people and swap ski stories. Tomorrow it looks like we will be heading back to Lake Louise. Best rest up!

Lake Louise - Sunday, December 28

I knew we were in for a good day today when I opened our hotel door to find fresh snow on the ground and plenty more coming down. A huge group of us boarded the 8:40 am shuttle to Lake Louise. I was the only one who wore regular boots and carried my ski boots and it was a decision that paid off in spades as the latest adjustments made to my boots are not working out at all.
Most of us began the day with a guided tour by a snow host as a way to both familiarize ourselves with the mountain and find others at the same level to ski with. I joined the highest group they had - one they termed Double Blue. There were 6 of us from High Park in the group as well as a woman from Blue Mountain whose daughter lives here. The host took us to a few different areas and showed us some Black runs we could do later in the day.

After lunch the 6 of us headed out for a run that I somehow ended up leading. After that run, two of the group decided to leave us and we were four - Pat, Richard, and Edit (pronounced Ed eat), and me. We got a few good runs in. The best was probably Paradise Bowl. It's too bad that the visibility had gotten poor by that time. I begged off a run earlier than the others as it felt like my right boot was taking a bite out of my leg.

I got on an earlier shuttle than the others and saw a huge (maybe 30?) herd of elk on the way back. After making a quick stop to drop off my skis I continued on to a ski shop to try my luck with a boot fitter there. I chose a shop that advertised guaranteed boot fitting and asked the young guys at the front if they would recommend a "kick-ass boot fitter". Simultaneously they answered "Kev" with thick Aussie surfer accents - more like Keeeeeehhhhhv. I ended up working with Kevin for two and a half hours!!! He moved over a couple buckles, blew out the back (an unusual area to blow out) where the back of my leg below the calf did not have enough room, removed some of the padding that had been added and wasn't doing me any favours, added heal lifts to give my calf more room, and blew out the area around my forefoot which will keep my toes warmer by giving me some more room there. The lesson here: buy boots that most closely resemble the shape of your feet and then have an expert boot fitter make them match your foot shape exactly. I can't wait to try out my re-worked boots tomorrow at Sunshine!

I didn't get back from the ski shop until 7:15 pm. Luckily I had called Pat to let her know I was okay and she invited me to a dinner that a group had set up for a nearby Greek restaurant. I got ready and out the door in 15 minutes (*new record*) and met them there. It was a fun group. Now I am totally ready to hit the hay to save some energy for tomorrow.

Banff - Saturday, December 27

Today was a LONG day. Dad and I woke at 2:00 am for him to drive me to Winnipeg to catch my 7:00 am flight to Calgary. We made good time, arriving at the outskirts of Winnipeg at 5:00 am. I found out later that Dad was back home asleep by 8:30 am. Good job! I cat-napped a bit on the drive in, again on the plane, and a little on the shuttle to Banff. As I got to Banff at 8:30 am I took a 9:30 am shuttle rather than wait for the group to arrive at 12:30. It turned out to be a great decision. I arrived in Banff at 11:15 am, a full five hours before the group.

During my time this afternoon I unpacked, got organized, went for a walk around town, had lunch at a local pub, and spent some time in our hotel's lovely outdoor hot tubs. It was basically a day of apres-ski without the ski.

This evening once the group arrived we met up for appy's and dinner at Wild Bill's. It was good to get to know a few more members of the group. Everyone is nice. What would make the week perfect is to have at least one really good friend with me to know I have someone I can ski with and go to dinner with, and so on. My roommate Pat is nice. We walked down to dinner together and on the way back stopped at Safeway for snacks. Sunkist Mini Bites (100% fruit and veg's) totally rock! Taste like candy. I can't stop drinking water here. It is so much drier than Manitoba. My hair is totally staticky.

OK. I just re-read what I have written so far and the random thoughts I'm now generating tell me that it's time to get some rest. I'll be sure to post after my ski day to Lake Louise tomorrow!

CSCF Update - Dec 13-14

In the xmas rush, I haven't had a chance to post before now. I hope I can do the CSCF Update justice by memory because it was an awesome two days! Every CSIA instructor could benefit from doing this update yet I so seldom see anyone I know from the instructing side there. My friend Michelle who just got her CSIA Level 1 last season came this year and her feedback was that with her limited experience with the CSIA and CSCF, the CSCF sure seemed a lot more fun!

I would guess that there were about 50 people participating in the update. Groups are completely random. You ski with whoever sets off with that instructor. Michelle and I stuck together. We were the only instructor-types in our group. We had the opportunity to ski with four coaches over the two days which is fantastic to get exposed to different coaching styles, information, and ways of presenting it.

The first morning we were with Larry. (Sorry, I don't know last names!) What I took most out of the morning with Larry was skiing the rhythm of the hill. It was a new and fun way of skiing for me. While I was quite familiar with skiing the same speed the length of the hill by shortening the radius on the steeps it was quite another thing to look ahead and play with rolls and dips and go where the hill wants to take you. It made the same run feel completely new and exciting every time depending on the path you took. A great trick to make Ontario hills exciting! Larry also informed me that my 120 cm poles are 5-10 cm too short for me and that as a result I am skiing with my hands too low. This after having just lamented having to buy new boots and two new pairs of skis this year. Looks like I'll be shopping for poles over Christmas. Mmmmm.....new Leki's!

In the afternoon we skiied with Matt Distefano. I had heard rave reviews about Matt's coaching over the years so I was excited for a chance to ski with him. Matt took us through the five fundamentals stressed in coaching - active balance, mobility, weight over outside ski, pole touch, and separation. God, I hope I got those right! Weigh in if I didn't. Unlike the CSIA where I can refer to the manual I find at CSCF training that I am trying to memorize everything as I don't have as source to go back to and check. The good part is that if I get it right, I hold onto and retain it forever. The bad part is that there is nowhere (that I know of) to check if I remembered it correctly.

I had a new experience in Matt's group. We were working on lateral balance (my favourite!). I was having one of those runs where you are feeling really good, testing out my new Head Speed GS skis, when I was suddenly flying through the air sans skis. As far as falls go, it was a good one. It was spectacular for spectators and I didn't hurt myself a bit. I had no idea whatsoever what had caused it though. When I skiied down to the group Matt made me feel a lot better by telling me that I had "booted out" - gone inside so far that my boots actually grabbed the snow and released themselves from the bindings. Cool! The next run the whole group wanted to watch me to see if I could/would do it again. I figured it was a fluke the time before and tried to hold nothing back. I could tell I was a bit slower and more hesitant this second run but I still managed to boot out with one ski. This time it was video'd so I could see it myself. Now that I have found out how far is too far my next challenge will be to bring it back while not sacrificing performance. Hmmmm....

There was an excellent dryland session after we got of snow led by Pierre Ruel. Then some great apres-ski and hot tubbing for Michelle and I before we met up with friends at Twist Martini Lounge for dinner and drinks. Dinner and the company were fantastic. Luckily noone was up for too crazy a night.

The next day we started off with Keith. Conditions were changed so we were advised to put safety first. With Keith we got a lot of mileage in. He had us doing laps and called us over to stop only if he had something to tell us. After my boot outs the day before,I had forgotten to unlock my hip and move my body up and down the hill to build momentum. It felt much better once I made the change.

In the afternoon we were with Sarah. We did a lot of fun, wacky things with her to shake things up - mixing turn shapes, pole planting differently than we usually do, and follow-the-leader. I want to make sure to introduce some of these tactics in my teaching this year to shake things up with my athletes.

All in all, it was a fabulous couple of days. I learned a ton. I love that the CSIA and CSCF seem to be getting closer every year. Both have been empasizing mixing up turn shape and trying fun techniques to take us out of our box. I can't wait to apply all that I have learned!

Course Conductor Training - December 6-7

One of the things that was exciting about getting my Level 3 before the start of the season is being able to become a Level 1 Course Conductor. This weekend I did my first on-snow course conductor training. About 60 Level 3's were there. I was happy to see quite a few familiar faces - Rory, John, Phil, Sasha, Anik, Pam, Dave, Mark - among the Level 3's. I knew most of the Level 4's from training to get to the Level 3 standard.

The first day I was put into a group of 6 with Ian Kirkpatrick from Horseshoe. I had never skiied with Ian before. What impressed me most about him was his enthusiasm. Even in the cold damp day, it was really infectious. He also had a really nice touch on the snow. My group consisted of John Fortin from Craigleith, Andrew from Alpine, Lianna from Devil's Glen, Sean from Snow Valley, and Larry. I'm not sure where Larry teaches - he was sporting a course conductor suit.

We worked on ski improvement in the morning and then got into teaching fast track to parallel (FTTP) in the afternoon. What I worked on personally was not edging too early in the turn. Edging too early gives me nowhere left to go at the end of the turn. It is also not easy to emulate and does nothing to work on my pivoting skill. I was really getting it by the afternoon and felt a lot smoother by consequence.

For FTTP I led the session introducing the class to mobility. Not having taught many never ever's, the exercises I used are ones I remembered from my own Level 1 course! What really worked well was having a mix of experience levels in the groups. The rookies brought a fresh perspective while the experienced course conductors (CC's) had a lot of great ideas from courses they had taught.

The drive home Saturday night was exhausting. What took me an hour and 15 minutes on the way up took me 3 1/2 hours to get home. There must have been an accident earlier on the 400 or 401 as the 400 to get on the 401 was backed up almost all the way to Major Mac. Sunday morning was especially treachorous getting back up to MSLM through blowing snow and snow-covered roads. Next time I think I'll splurge on a room in Barrie!

We stayed in the same groups for Sunday but changed instructors. This time we had Doug Leeming. Sunday morning was spent on class management, safety, and lift operations. It was a COLD morning for standing still looking at lifts but Doug moves it along as quickly as possible and kept it interesting and interactive.

Sunday afternoon was the most fun. We focused on fun tactics with which we can arm our Level 1's. We did things like Follow the Leader; finding loose snow, jumps, and natural ramps; synchro; skiing backwards; 360's. Wicked fun! I really enjoyed the run Andrew lead us as it was fast, fun, and challenging with little verbage.

All in all, it was a great experience. I learned a lot and got great feedback on my skiing and good feedback on my pedagogical skills. It was fun skiing with a strong group of skiers that had all achieved the Level 3 standard. It reminded me of when I first started training for my Level 3 and found this whole new group of people with similar skills and objectives. I guess at each level you get to, there is always a new group of people there already to welcome you. And what a fun new group to be a part of!