VERBIER 2019-20
My name is Juliette, I am from Amsterdam, and I decided to do the Altitude Futures Ski Instructor Training Course as part of my gap year after graduating from my Bachelor. I have been skiing with my family every year since I was young but the thought of spending 10 weeks in the mountains sounded incredible!
BASI Ski Training and Verbier Coaches
After we had met the coaches (Sammy, Adam and Ross) the night before, we went up the mountain the next morning at 9 am. We started our training with Ross the first two weeks and immediately got to work. Starting off our training with some nice warm ups and team building activities to proper skiing. I can tell you that the first few days I felt those legs burning!
Our ski instructor training in Verbier was every weekday from 9 to 12 and then from 1 to 4. Occasionally we would have the afternoon free and of course the weekends are free as well where you then had time to discover the 4 valleys and the off-piste trails that Verbier has to offer.
Along the course we also got to train with Sammy and Adam where our favourite days were without a doubt the powder days. We would do freeride competitions without poles with fresh snow coming up to our hips! On more usual training days we would get individual feedback on our every run which helped me make incredible improvements. Practising short turns, long turns, bumps and all the aspects that come with proper good skiing really helped me progress so much.
BASI Level 1 and 2 instructor Exams
The exams were in continued assessment so a BASI examiner would asses us for a few days. Skiing and most importantly, trying to show your best skiing was definitely challenging but I feel we were prepared in every way for it thanks to all the training.
Teaching / Shadowing
As part of our course we had the opportunity to follow along a ski instructor at Altitude for 2 weeks. During this time, we were able to see how the teaching went into practice. I had an amazing time and enjoyed coming up with fun activities for the kids! It was also so rewarding to see how much they had improved by the end of the week.
Accommodation
Altitude organized a fantastic chalet for us! There were 7 of us in the chalet which was obviously a lot of fun and got to know each other very well. During the week we had an amazing cook cooking for us every night. First we had our favorite Ozzie Claudia who took such great care of us and made every meal feel like home and then we had James who made the absolute best brownie I had ever tasted!
Recommend the Altitude Instructor Course?
I would without a doubt recommend this course to anyone who loves skiing and wants to have an amazing experience meeting new people and just having a good time! The coaches were not only amazing skiers but made the course so much fun!
Next to skiing and training, Verbier also has so much to offer; from the Boss des Bosses event and the Extreme Verbier Freeride World Tour to of course the incredible apres-ski and night life.
Many many thank you to everyone at Altitude for making this an unforgettable experience! I enjoyed every day of it and wish I could do it all over again!
