After two weeks of training, it was time for us to take our BASI Level 1 Exam. The first ski instructor certification.
The week started on Sunday evening when we had a meeting with our two BASI trainers, Peter and Henry, to go over what we should expect in the coming week and to sort out the skiing groups.
BASI Level 1 exams
As it happened, the weeks exam was not all that different to the training we had been doing so far, both in feel and content – it still felt fairly relaxed and we again skied morning and afternoon in two separate groups, normally stopping only for lunch (and the occasional coffee break!). Each evening, we had a session to both review how the day had gone and to help us prepare for the next day. This was particularly useful on the Monday and Wednesday evenings, as once back in the chalet we had to plan a short twenty minute lesson to give to our groups during the next day. We also had a small bit of reading to do from our BASI manuals each night, along with a few questions to answer to get us thinking about what we had read.
The week went by pretty quickly and when we finished the exam on Friday, we were told we had all (thankfully) passed. After a brief chat with our trainers about what we should be working on individually as we start looking towards level two, it was off to the Pub Mont Fort to celebrate!
Stephen Biggs, 21
Altitude Gap Course 2013-14