After two very productive and lucrative weeks of teaching and ski school related work, it is of course, back to training. Not normal training however, but being taught by ex GB ski racer, Sega Fairweather who has given up racing to pass on her passion for skiing to others. We have also been lucky enough to be coached by Remy Guillaume-Gentil who is an incredibly experienced skier who has skied around the world and is fantastic at sharing large amounts of information without making it boring or tedious.
Piste Performance ISIA course
Before skiing with an ex pro racer everyone on the course was fairly happy with their skills, we all knew we had lots to improve on but were at least feeling that we were getting somewhere. However piste performance with Sega is a completely different experience from normal training. Focusing on very specific aspects of your skiing, you start to build up confidence in skills you never even realised you needed. This really helps when you look back at your normal skiing. Being able to watch and be involved with someone who is such a skilled skier lets you see what you should be doing, so you can incorporate it in your own performance. Through 3 days of high intensity piste performance training it is incredible to see the amount of progress that is achieved. By the end everyone felt very happy with the way their skiing had dramatically improved.
Mountain safety training
After the good dumping of snow that we greatly needed it was the perfect time to refresh and progress with our mountain safety. For a lot of us this is a subject we find very interesting and take very seriously as spending a lot of time on the mountain it’s very important to respect the dangerous environment that we work and play in. Remy is very up to date with his understanding of mountain safety and is very enthusiastic about sharing this. We spent a mix of time on and off our skis looking at the areas we ski in a whole new light and digging snow pits. It was very interesting relating the weather we had had to the current snow pack and seeing how it had affected each layer of snow. As well as being a great teacher he is also great at guiding and we all saw new parts of the mountain we had not yet been to.
BASI Level 3 training – Week Overview
Over all a very mixed week but an incredible one all the same. With great instructors and skiing with some of your newest but best friends creates a brilliant environment for learning. Everything we have learnt we will use in our everyday skiing and teaching, the week helped us not only to become better skiers but safer ones too.
Author
Ed Miller
Photographer
Jake Gifford
