The Weekend, end of formation and Xavier de la Rue's new movie

What a weekend...

Saturday:
Formation ski school training in the morning, home for lunch, working in the afternoon, ski tour race in the evening.  Today the bus timetable in town was extended so there's no need to wait ages any more and you can do you food shopping after work and avoid carting it up the hill!

Sunday;
Last day of formation for the 13/14 season, telemark training all morning, home for lunch, working in the afternoon, Xavier De La Rue movie in the evening, late to bed having forgot to do my washing!

Monday:
Lie in, woohoo


Ski conditions on the hill are still relatively ok.  Verbier was 13 degrees C today, and the slopes on the Savolyers side look barer than ever.  Piste conditions remain similar to last week and the pisteurs are putting in lots of hard work to keep them going, with snow machines on most nights and shifting the snow around to repair areas in need.  However, Chassoure Tortin is now closed, and many parts of the piste now have rocks and grass showing through.  (I still can't understand why so many people are skiing around on fat skis with ABS bags on though.  What do they know that no one else does? - maybe we don't need an answer to this one!)

And some positive news, snow is forecast for Thursday.

View detailed snow forecast for Verbier at:
snow-forecast.com

Quick review of the cinema screening on Sunday:
First we were treated to a preview of his steeps movie that is in the last stages of editing.  This was incredible and, dare I say it, more exciting than anything I have seen yet, even some of the Andreas Fransson clips.  Truly mental and 'bringing freeriding to the steep slopes' the highlight was a descent of the Lenzspitz, a ski that I dream of doing one day.

Next up was Mission Antarctica.  This was a film documenting Xavier and friends trip to Antarctica to explore and board some steep lines.  Not quite as exciting as the Steeps movie, but awesome.  Super scenery, filming and animals, as well as some good riding.

Formation Day 6

Yesterday was day 6 of our formation.  The snow conditions have not changed much in the last week, and we are all praying for more snow soon.  Eagerly checking the various forecast sites each evening it looks as though we have a 40% chance of a few cm's of snow next week.

Post by Adrenaline, école de ski et snowboard.

(photo from Day 5)

Our coach for most of this week is Seb Mayer, http://arcteryx.com/Athlete.aspx?EN/SebMayer  Arcteryx sponsored pro telemarker, freerider and top instructor.  Yesterday we had a change for one day, and Marina from the ESI school, Arc en Ciel, based in Nendaz http://www.arcenciel-siviez.ch/en/winter-program-the-team-pxl-56_57_13.html came over to talk to us about teaching children, in particular 2 - 8year olds. 

This was super as she is really experienced with this age group, we all learnt loads, and were able to pick her brains on the best ways to introduce skills.  A chance to spend the day playing loads of games with our ski poles, hoops, cuddly toys, cones and pieces of string made a change too!  One of the group favourites was using a piece of rope to act as a mouse tail behind you, turning across the slope and seeing if the kid behind you can grab it.  Some people tried skiing with an edgy-wedgy at the front of there skis which was very amusing.  (an edgy-wedgy is a piece of plastic or elastic that you use to connect the two skis together at the front which helps smaller children make a snowplough).  By the time the day ended my brain was knackered from taking in so much information, so it was back home to refuel with some freshly baked banana bread.

La Formation

Most of the ski schools have a formation week at the start of the season.  For us it's a 9 day long training week, a chance to sharpen up our technique, share teaching ideas and get to know our colleagues.

Day 3 complete, with technique in the morning - shorts and longs, all on video so we can't deny any faults! and teaching in the afternoon - intro to snowplough turns today.  After the afternoon I can say that one of the things BASI do get right is the emphasis and time spent on the snowplough and early progression within your level 1 and 2 exams.

On to the snow conditions...

Throughout the morning the snow is grippy and good to ski on - if you stay above Ruinettes to avoid any small rocks in the piste.  At the moment it is not too busy, and most people are skiing in a formation or ski school training group, so you merely have to wait for them to pass and have the piste to yourself.

The afternoon, is a little different.  Lets just say that the piste turns into a mesh of rocks, moguls and ice! It's good training but I wouldn't choose to ski it!

Over the weekend we skied a few itineraries:

• Tortin-Chassoure - good snow, but pick your line carefully to avoid the rocks.
• Mont Fort - surprisingly good, nice sized moguls, quite soft snow and grippy.  This was a great run, and it enabled me to see the view behind to check out the off piste conditions - still lacking in snow, however there were a few tracks here and there, and some coming from the Rosablanche too.
• Tortin Gentianes remains closed, and you can definately see why from the Telecabine - it has very little snow cover.

Quite a few people have been booting up Mont Gele, and skiing lines off piste everywhere, but in general there is still limited snow coverage, so those that do either have rental skis, are lucky or know the lines well and have good reactions!

There have been lots of promising looking snow clouds in the sky, but, with more sun forecast and the temperatures set to increase, the pistes are only set to get worse.  Trail running here I come...