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...
