The final teach exam.  Everyone in the group had a chance to teach 1 of 4 different skiing techniques.  Fast track to parallel, intermediate parallel turns, terrain adaptation, or short radius turns.  Even though we have had 4 days of training and assessment, nothing quite prepares you for being up in front of the class and Tobin, teaching something properly for the first time.  We had to show that we understood what we were teaching and accurately describe the situation to the class and demonstrate accurately within the appropriate terrain.  We then had to observe and assess the class with the objective of giving the students a feeling or drill to improve their skiing.  For the most part everyone achieved this with varying success.  Some performed the teaching aspect and skiing well, some performed well only in the skiing or only in the teaching.  We did have to pass both to get the Level 2 qualification.  Over the entire group everyone except 4 passed.  There is statistically an 80% pass rate for a CSIA Level 2 course, which was actually more than our 71% of success.  However for those of us from Section 8 all passed except for 1.  It was a fair, honest and tough course.  I would have been disappointed if people had not failed.  It would have degraded the quality of the Section 8 and CSIA courses.

We celebrated in style, at the local mountain pub initially and then at Nigels place down in Courtenay.  It was a night to remember, the last celebration for the last achievement of the course, so there was no chance of sleep.  It all started out quite tame and cheerful.  Tobin and Mike gave out our completion certificates and Section 8 graduation caps.  There was a lot of hugging and a lot of semi sober heart to hearts.  Then there was Quanilla. Quanilla is a healthy mix of Tequilla, maple syrup and quarter cut fresh limes.  It tastes amazing but gets you well on your way.  The hugging continued and so did the heart to hearts which slowly progressed into a collective comfort of nakedness.  We all got naked.  There are pictures to capture the memories because I can’t remember a thing.  I slept the whole next day and night.

On Sunday we headed to the west coast of Vancouver island, Ucluelet.  Mike, our house dad for the season, owns a hostel, surf shop and his wife owns and runs a female clothing store.  Ucluelet isn’t the easiest place to run a business out of but my god it is a sweet lifestyle out there.  It was a beautiful warm day when we arrived so we took advantage of the weather and stayed outside basking in the sun.  The following day a storm came through so we strapped the surfboards to the van and went storm watching at the local beaches.  Sideways rain didn’t put us down it was still a beautiful place to be.  Tofino, the neighbouring town, has been developed enormously with 5 star resorts and boutique local produce.  It’s the place to be in the summer.  Similar to Byron Bay in Australia and I guess Queenstown/Wanaka in New Zealand.  Ucluelet’s more of a Raglan in New Zealand or a Margaret River in south western Australia.  It is a stunning place and definitely somewhere to visit if you are in this part of the world.

A few of us headed down to Victoria for the night after our Ucluelet trip, to see some of the lads off.  Victoria is the capital of British Columbia and reminds me a lot of Wellington or what I think Melbourne might be like.  I wouldn’t know I have never been to Melbourne.  But it’s what I think, which is what you are subjected to every time I write one of these blogs. Full of old historical buildings  dating back to the founding days.  A large music scene and all the outdoors adventure things that those adventurous individuals are into.  Another great place to be.

My time here on Vancouver island, doing the Section 8 course, and seeing British Columbia in general has been amazing.  Much to the credit of the Tobin, Mike and the locals on the island.  Their generosity and support have been nothing short of amazing.  I have never met a more giving and excited group of people.  The lads on the course are some of the most genuine and honest people I have ever met.  There was a little worry about living in such close quarters with 12 other guys and it hasn’t been without its trials and tribulations, but I wouldn’t change a thing.  Im stoked, absolutely stoked about the experience I have had.  One for the books.  If you the reader are hesitant about what to expect, expect nothing and you will receive everything.  Expect everything and you won’t fall far from the mark.  Live large.

Section 8 for life!!!

I went outside last night at around 10pm to find wet sticky snow dumping.  We knew a storm was brewing but I thought that this was it, so another thick and heavy day to look forward to in the morning.  I went back out at after a movie around 12pm to find all our tracks covered and around 30cm of fresh light dust like snow, massive visible snowflakes, all in the space of 2 hours.  I went to sleep a happy man.

This morning we got up early to catch the first chair with the snow school to enjoy the powder and get some fresh tracks.  This didn’t go down too well with some of the veterans of the snow school who reserve exclusive rights to the fresh snow as a privilege for their service.  It was all a bit of a misunderstanding, we meant no harm, we just wanted to cut some sick lines in before we were back on course and teaching fast track to parallel.  I guess you got to give the old cobber’s something to whinge about aye.

We stuck in the same teams but we had Tobin for the day.  We all took turns teaching one of the steps in the progressive fast track to parallel.  The steps are:

• Initial Assessment – When you meet and greet you client and ask them about their previous skiing ability, back ground (what sports they have done, what is their average day like), are they comfortable and warm, what they want to get out of the lesson.  This helps to gauge their probable ability and where their minds are at so you can pick the right terrain and plan the lesson.
• Mobility – Get them walking around in their boots and then on one ski. Grow confidence in the client because having these things attached to your feet can be a bit disconcerting.
• Sliding – Getting the client to slide in a straight line to get the feeling of moving on both skis.
• Turning – Getting the client turning a single turn in one direction then repeating in the opposite direction.
• Linking Turns – Much like the title, having the client turn in one direction then the other, linking turns.
• Progress to parallel turns – This is probably the hardest part of learning because it involves the skier bringing both skis together and committing to the fall line of the hill without that support that was originally there when the skis are in a wedge shape.

The lesson is supposed to be fun and entertaining for the client and give the skier the ability to go other places on the mountain.

I went to lunch to find out that the other group a skied nothing but powder all morning, shredding fresh lines all over the upper faces.  I was disgusted, livered you might say.  Here we were on the flats, braving the cold and doing the most mundane, teaching intro skiing to each other.  Mind you, fast track to parallel is pretty much what we will be teaching for the next few years so I shouldn’t really complain.

In the afternoon we got our fair share of shredding by teaching each other terrain adaptation and assessing each other’s technique in the powder.  I’m satisfied.  Tobin even gave us the choice of deciding what we would teach tomorrow in the final assessment.  Or though I feel like it’s a trick to put us in a state of comfort and then slap us in the face with something completely random and unforeseeable.  We shall see tomorrow.

It snowed through most of the night but thankfully it was a few degrees cooler so it was nice and crisp by the time it touched our skis.  A few degrees are the difference between getting absolutely soaked and staying relatively dry, at this time of year.  We stuck with Darrin again today and continued with fast track to parallel.  He gave us some scenarios that we had to overcome as instructors such as language barriers, acting as if we had no idea how to ski and only to follow exactly what was said by the instructor, demonstrating drills based on what skill needed to be improved.  Again there was a lot of standing around and talking but every time someone was on the verge of hypothermia, Darrin would give us something to warm us up.  There is a lot of material that needs to be covered.  A huge part of instructing is guest services.  The client should feel that their needs are catered for and that the instructor is meeting their ideal expectations.   As the size of the group grows the harder it is to give to individual feedback to the students.  Fortunately snow schools usually group clients by their indicated skill level.  But here arises another problem, perceived ability verses actual ability can often be quite different.  So the instructor has to be aware and apply the appropriate terrain and give the appropriate instruction to the group so the instructor can view all the students independently.  But you know, if you as an instructor don’t assess and find a symptom of a skill that needs improvement then have another run to work it out.  I imagine there would be pressure initially on a new instructor to figure things out quickly, this is where patience needs to come into it and allowing yourself enough time to identify flaws in a student’s technique.

Doing this course has put all from Section 8’ers at a huge advantage, we have spent the past 11 weeks working on skill and technique improvement and doing specific drills and identifying feelings within the body that are appropriate to focus on a certain skill that needs improvement.  We have 5 people not from Section 8 who have joined us for the course.  Some are instructors and some are doing it for personal reasons but the understanding is quite different between us and them.  This is not to say that they aren’t of the standard or aren’t skilled skiers in their own right, they just haven’t technically sound skiers heckling them 5 days out of 7 for the past 11 weeks.  It’s been so good for us.  There has been high times and low times but always progressing.  I’m so stoked and I feel fairly confident, as do the rest of us, well most of us, that we will pass this course.  The teaching aspect starts tomorrow and its spewing snow from the heavens.  Not the best conditions to work with.

Our afternoon was considerably more tedious, spent doing a more technical fast track to parallel.  Fast track to parallel is essentially used to teach a client who has little to no experience, how to ski first with wedge turns and then progress into parallel turns.  The thing about wedge turns which makes them quite easy is that you are always on your edges so you can apply more weight on one ski than the other so you can turn.  However it’s a very unnatural position so you want to get the skier out of that necessary technique as quickly as possible.  This will often depend on the skier’s athleticism and ability to understand instruction while discovering new feelings while skiing.  When skiing parallel the skier is going from edge to edge but with a neutral, evenly weighted stance in between edges (on the flats of the skis).  You can’t simulate this with wedge turns so this is why the CSIA created the modern day fast track to parallel.  So it is a fairly essential part of teaching someone to ski.  Or though it is interesting to learn these things and progress out knowledge, it sucks doing it when it’s just below freezing and you’re wet and cold.  It’s hard to warm up when you stand around and chat a lot even though it is needed. This leads me to the acronym I so wanted to share.  CSIA – Canadians Speaking In the Alpine.  My god they love to talk.  I asked a 1 question, 1 question!, to an older chap on the lift the other day and he spoke for the whole 10minutes of the lift ride.  All I said was ‘how do you like those skis?’  For your own sake, only ask if you really want to know the answer.

• Stance and Balance
• Timing and Co-ordination
• Pivoting
• Edging
• Pressure Control

Timing and co-ordination encompasses the 4 other skills, knowing when to apply which skill as you are skiing and when the terrain changes.  The Level 2 course is all about guided discovery.  Darrin gave us tips to understand what we needed to improve on and for what reason.  For me I need to extend my legs at the start when committing to the fall line of the turn (start of the turn) and slowly flexing throughout the turn while angulating my body over my downhill ski to stay centered and balanced.  This is because I angulate too early in the turn which makes it hard to angulate throughout the turn.  My long turns are stronger than my short turns.  The first half of the course is dedicated to improving our skiing ability while learning how to identify problems within our own skiing and everyone else in the group.  By the end we have to show that we can identify a problem in someone’s skiing and give them a feeling or a drill to correct that flaw.  Day 1 of 5 done.

Tonight was the playoffs of dodgeball.  We have only won 2 games the whole season but apparently every team makes it through to the playoffs for a chance to make the final.  By the start of the game we only had 1 girl to play with us so we played 5 against 6 and won the first round.  By the second round we were at full force.  We had a strong team this week but everyone definitely stepped it up.  It was tit for tat for the first 5 games but they quickly got away from us to a score of 3-7.  It looked like we were in for our usual performance when the score arrived at 4-9.  The end was nigh but we kept at them.  Focus and adrenaline took over as we clawed back game by game until it was 9-9.  By this time the next teams had arrived and the other game had finished and joined into watch.  An astonished sound come over the crowd as one of the spectators held up the scoreboard for everyone to see.  One of our best payers got out straight away but there was some confusion going on so the game was restarted.  We absolutely dominated them, taking down their best player right off the bat and proceeded to sniper them one by one.  Just to top off our epic performance we won with a solid catch.  We were and still are ecstatic.  A Hollywood finish, one for the books, a great last game with all the boys.  We drove away reciting the lyrics, in a grosse medley, to Queens ‘We are the Champions’.  Yes we are that cool.

Part of the Section 8 experience is the ‘Helmet’.  The Helmet is awarded to someone every week for failures or deeds performed beyond the norm.  Most often it’s given to people for some hilariously ridiculous habits that they have or for a spectacularly funny situation that happens while we are out on the snow.  There are caution tape tassels attached like pig tail ribbons for those people who wasted at least an hour of our powder riding time looking for lost skis.  Not cool. A computer mouse, for a certain individual who spends the majority of his free time playing computer games, clicking furiously at the screen.  Sometimes it’s the only noise you hear in the house, click click click click….. click.  You get the idea.  There is now a cluster of junk taped to it.  So 11 weeks in to the course and it has now been passed on to me for continuous habit of mine.  I tend to flap my feet around in the air when I’m unbalanced in a jump.  I have apparently perfected my own move called ‘the running man’.  To be fair I can actually land it.  It is pretty old school, I think Wayne Wong would be proud.  Regardless, the lads find it extremely comical.  So the torch, as it were, has been passed to me.  A pair of little wire legs are mounted on top amongst the clutter of crap.  Its seriously uncomfortable and a bit of a distraction but the rules clearly state that the helmet must be worn.  I have one more day of wearing it and that just so happens to be the first day of the CSIA course.

This weekend has been quite eventful.  Last night (Friday) the Rocky Mountain Rebel Music group played at the Waverley.  They are a scar/dub/reggae band with about 9 members on stage.  Very cool, very talented and they are playing again in Victoria on April 10^th with New Zealand’s own, The Black Seeds.  I’m definitely going to have to make the trip down for that.  Today was the Redbull Buttercup.  A bunch of boxes and rails were set up so snowboards could do their best butter tricks.  For those who don’t know what a butter is imagine a snowboard buttering a piece of toast then replace the toast with snow and boxes and rails.  Get it?  So tonight there is another party going on up the mountain.  Goodtimes!

First run of the day was under the chair that takes you to the top of the mountain, the eagle.  There were still lines from the less crowded stormy day before and it made it so much better to be able to see clearly where you were going and what you were riding into.  As Darren West (Level 4 instructor and or Level 2 examiner) so aptly but it, your first run sets the tone for the day.  If you have a shit first run then it’s hard to bring yourself out of the poor technique as the day wears on.  Today’s first run was pure bliss.  Tobin wanted to teach during the morning but it wasn’t to be.  The snow patrol finally got their act together and the Boomerang (backside of the mountain, double black runs galore) opened around 10:15am.  The Boom was untouched from the day before because the avalanche danger couldn’t be neutralised.  Everyone filed in from the right side as they traversed from the Eagle chair so the main way down was well tracked out but no one had touched the right hand side.  So the morning was spent getting a face full of powder, untracked runs, hoots and hollering through the trees, and unparalleled chute drops.   The banter you hear from the chair as you ride down is unrelenting.  Powder days seem to bring out the in child in everyone.  It’s hilarious.  The chair went crazy when we all watched a skier huck a 25ft cliff drop.  It was seriously impressive.

Since we have spent such little time on the teaching aspect of the Level 2 examination we begrudgingly left the boom to catch up with Darren West.  Darren is very experienced and a wealth of knowledge.  We only did 2 runs but we discussed loads on the simplicity of taking a lesson (over complicating things is a common tendency).  So the key to a good lesson is:

• Introduce yourself and identify the skill level of the group and what they want to achieve in the lesson.
• Pick a piece of terrain (run) that is presumably below their skill level – set them up for success.
• Display what it is that they want to achieve with a brief explanation then have the client ski down past you, so you can watch them from different perspectives.
• At this point identify one of the skills that the skier needs to work on.  The skills are:
  • Stance and Balance
  • Timing and Co-ordination
  • Edging
  • Pivoting
  • Pressure Control
• Create a drill or get the client to feel a sensation that corrects their technique.
• Finally, mileage.

The key to good lesson is to make it fun for the client and keep up the tempo so the client doesn’t get bored.  Simple

Oh, it’s snowing again!

More and more snow fell and the winds started to pick up to a -20 degree windchill.  These conditions scare most people away but it is seriously the best time to shred, no one’s around, it’s the afternoon and there are still fresh lines to be found.  We were fixated by this line that ended with a tree jib at the end of it.  A tree jib is when you tap you skis against a branch or part of the tree.  We murdered the powder jump and it took more than one us out Everytime, which is hilarious if you watching from below.  It’s a super soft landing so it’s snow big deal if you bail.  We took on a tight chute on the wind exposed side off the top of the mountain.  Rocks and branches were exposed and that was before Tobin dropped in first.  By the time I went down there was only one clear path and required some pretty knarly jump turns and some unintentional side slipping down the icy hard pack.  But it was loads of fun.

I’m wreaked!  With so much adrenaline pumping through you during a run, you are unaware of the injuries that you have until your home sitting on your bed writing a blog.  Great times.

The afternoon was spent focussing on another aspect of the Level 2 examination, introduction to bumps (moguls).  There is a proper technique to bumps, you have to be able to quickly adapt to the bumps because no two are the same.  Where you turn on the bump, maybe you need to jump over the bump and land on the down side of another, and picking your line knowing where to turn before you arrive at the bump.  You really need to think several bumps ahead so you are always aware of where you are going.  It requires fast movements, quick thinking and confidence.  I think most of us are of the standard or higher.  No worries there.  To help assist in the movement Tobin got us doing jump turns on piste runs, which is really hard, but idea was to get the body moving in the rhythm that is required.  When skiers jump its easy to see where there body is positioned.  It the tails dip then the skier is too far in the back seat (aft position), if the skis dip forward they are too far in the fore position.  My body is going to hurt tomorrow after those ones.

Dodgeball tonight and we successfully lost 10-3.  At one point it was 7-0 so we managed to delay the inevitable by a about 10 minutes.  That’s not pessimism it’s the truth, we played with people who were injured and there was a general lack luster approach.  Perhaps our mind was on the light fluffy snow that was getting heavier and heavier as the night wore on.  I don’t think there’s going to be any teaching tomorrow.  Why waste a good POW day.

DAY 1

We had packed the cars the night before so we could just get up and go, bright and early at 5:30am.  However when we awoke we quickly discovered that Mt Washington, and most of the island, was being assaulted by a blizzard of epic proportions.  Snow had buried the majority of our entrance to the chalet and knee deep snow covered the car park.  The cars themselves were virtually buried under snow so putting chains on was a bit of an ordeal.  Being a group of young proactive males we quickly jumped in and got to work digging out as much as we could.   The snow was blowing in so hard that you really had to keep shovelling to keep up with what was falling.  I love these conditions, there’s not much you can do but the fact there’s so much snow is incredibly exciting.  We finally got the cars out and to the edge of the car park only to find that the roads hadn’t been cleared.  Probably should have checked that before we started out.  So we arranged the vehicles so that we could have a quick escape if the snow cleared or the snow plow turned up.  We got wind from some of the workers on the mountain that the roads were closed and the plows were focussing on the highway which was struggling with the amount of snow that they were getting.  So we weren’t going anywhere.  Shortly after the power went down and we were again informed that it wouldn’t come back on until 4pm the next day.  Mt Cain was so close and we were so excited to be heading to this infamous backcountry playground for the week.  The conditions had been so extreme at Mt Cain that they had to evacuate everyone and close it due to the extreme avalanche risk.  The day was right off and we would have to do the AST Level 2 at home.

DAY 2

The snow had persisted through the night and into the day.  What was about 70cm of snow had turned into over a meter.  Strange snow though.  I had been told that Mt Washington was notorious for super saturated snow that was thick and heavy to ride through but I thought I had experienced it already………. apparently not.  Niko took us through some of the myths and facts about avalanches and asked us to figure out what we wanted out of the course.  I generally try to not have expectations when going into something foreign and new.  What can you expect really? You don’t know.  Here are some little facts that might interest you.  Avalanches are scaled much like earthquakes with each size a magnitude higher than the previous.  Size 1 is up to 10,000lbs of snow, so a couple of pool tables.  Size 2 is up to 100,000lbs of snow, so a tennis court or two.  Size 3 – 1,000,000lbs and so on and so on.  A size 5, the largest, has the ability to reshape the landscape but rarely occurs.  A size 5 in the European Alps (I think) a few years back killed 15,000 people in the valley.  Basically when there is a series of snow falls and the snow layers are weaker below due to temperature and water content then the snowpack becomes unstable and is either triggered naturally or from external forces.  In the afternoon we skinned up on skis and looked at some snow profiles on the windblown side of a slope and then on the lee side.  It was 20-50cm of boot penetration on the windblown side and around 120cm on the lee side.  Snow dynamics are pretty cool.  We topped off the day with a run from the top of the hill down some fresh heavy snow.  It was a really nice run but the snow was so strange.

DAY 3

Niko had quickly sussed out work habits and realised that utilising the morning inside was in our best interest because as soon as we are back at the chalet after skinning around for a the afternoon we tend to nod off and sink into the warmth embrace of the couches as he’s trying to sum up and teach us things.  There’s a particular glazed look that seems to wash over everyone’s eyes.  A look of total comfort and relaxation and you know that nothing is registering in our snow mushed brains.  After discussing the dynamic nature of snow and avalanches, and trust me its dynamic, we headed up to the top of mountain to look at some snow features.  We found deep fresh snow that we could easily slip and some wind blown over hangs also known as cornices.  Ryan and I broke the cornices with a few jumps and accidentally got caught up in each other as we dropped down.  I had visions of us skiing uncontrollably down the slope and having to hike our way back out through chest deep snow, or worse causing an avalanche.  The fear quickly subsided as we came to a stop a meter down the slope. It was probably a bit melodramatic of me.  Having braved the wind snow and cold for a couple of hours we retreated back to the warmth of the lounge and the comfort of the couches.  Niko took us through some of the techniques for forecasting the avalanche conditions based on past and future weather reports and current snow pack conditions.  To be honest it’s extremely confusing because there are so many variables that come into it. It takes years and years of experience to become a confident and accurate forecaster.  Niko admits that after 30 years of doing it he still makes the odd mistake.

DAY 4

We had high hopes of skinning over to the Backside of the mountain but it was not to be.  The avalanche danger was too high. Niko was actually the man who ran the snow patrol back in the day, 80s I think, and according to the man the avalanche danger wasn’t too high but there just wasn’t enough patrollers to check, maintain and open the entire mountain.  So we skinned round the mountain just out from the boomerang and looked at some interesting snow.   There’s a particular type of crusty snow called facets that form when there is a high temperature gradient, from warm to cold, where the cold temperature creeps through the porous watery snow crystallising everything.  The re-crystallisation of the snowpack creates a brittle weak layer deep in the snowpack and can often be the weak basal fracture plane when an avalanche slips.  Pretty cool stuff.   We skinned back to the top of the run and had a little ski home.  Niko did take us through the flattest traverse possible much to the snowboarder’s frustration.  It’s never fun getting off your board and walking through crutch deep snow.  The afternoon was spent planning our touring trip around the sunrise side (southern) of the mountain and avalanche rescues.  We found some snow boulders that had been pushed around by the plows and kind of simulated an avalanche deposit.  So the steps to a go rescue are:

• A leader is nominated or self-decided
• Leader nominates someone to speak with witnesses to find how many people are buried
• Leader nominates someone to stand alone and check everyone’s beacon so that they are on search mode receiving a signal not emitting one.  If this is not done someone could forget and everyone will be registering a false signal
• Leader nominates searchers and probers and diggers.
• Searchers fan out 20m of each other (depending on how many people you have at your disposal depends on what search pattern you use)
• First person to receive a signal announces this so probers and diggers can assist
• Isolate the signal by doing a circular pattern around the best signal result and start probing
• Once  probed leave your probe there to mark the spot
• Dig out from below the probe (if the person is 2m deep then start  digging from 2m vertical down the avalanche slope
• Dig in a train like fashion with the best and most vigorous digger at the front while everyone else behind shoving away the debris until you reach the victim
• Initiate first aid immediately if alive

We managed to screw it up a few times, but our own perseverance and drive to succeed allowed the process to consolidate so by the end we were pretty efficient.  The biggest issue is multiple burials, because there are multiple signals being picked up.  But a good result at the end of a long and physical day.

DAY 5

Our fifth and final day of the course.  Today was the assessment day, the day where we had to display the knowledge to guide us through the back country.  We drove down the mountain to around 1000m elevation, located ourselves on a map and discussed our approach and the possible threat of avalanches that we may encounter due to the terrain.  Generally speaking, if your you are less that 22.5 degrees when you are looking at the top of a snow covered terrain feature then you are probably not with the avalanche run out zone.  A good trick is to place one arm straight and the other pointed at the top of the terrain feature.  Someone next to you can read the rough estimate of the angle created between your arms.  Less than 22.5 then you’re all good.  As we made our way round the southern part of the mountain we paid close attention to the aspect which we were travelling around.  The aspect being what compass direction the slope was and how was it affected by the unrelenting snow fall over the past 4 days and nights.  Quite often we came across terrain features that were more than 22.5 degrees to the top, but they were deemed benign due to the self-regulating nature of the slope.  The snow pack had triggered natural avalanches recently so the chances of another avalanche occurring were slim.  There are situations where a secondary avalanche will occur after an initial slip.  Quite often they will slip as the first avalanche occurs but in the event of a person being buried the second slip is often initiated by the rescuer who rushes in to save his/her friend.  I can only imagine but it would be a very confusing and an emotional time for anyone.  We continued skinning around and up the mountain setting off mini avalanches along the way to test the stability of the snowpack on different aspects.  Finally ended up on the north east face (aspect) where several avalanches had occurred and skied down on our skins for a better look.  It sucks skiing on skins, don’t do it.  After a brief discussion we planned a route to an interesting saddle further up the mountain, an ideal spot to ski from and enjoy some untouched snow.   The route is decided based on areas that won’t be too unstable.  So an area that is close to terrain anchors like trees, away from steep convex rolls (ideal avalanche trigger spots) and always travelling safely as a large group, so separating everyone into groups of 3 or 4 and travelling with a safe distance apart.  Also never switch back above another group because you could set off an avalanche and take them out.  How bad would you feel. It’s really hard leading in deep steep snow, blazing a trail definitely is an art in itself.  But it was worth it, we had less than 2 minutes of sick turns on heavy but supportive snow.  It is such strange snow.  We followed the valley out to a side road and got picked up.  Back home we gave Niko some feedback and had a few laughs with him reminiscing about the week just been.  It was pleasure meeting him.

All in all it was a fantastic week of learning.  I think I’m more aware of the dangers and probably less tempted to go hit that sick patch of deep corniced snow that hangs way outside the ski boundaries.  Any avid mountain goer knows what I mean.  But I’m glad I now know the truths and falsities of avalanches.  It snowed in total over 2 meters this week!  That’s about the average snow base in New Zealand on a good year!  The climate and geography here encourages snowfall sooooo much.  This is apparently a low snow year.  Who would have thought it?