ISIA Training

Ski conditions in Verbier are great, with lots of fresh snow today the pistes were soft and powdery, and slowly but surely the trees are filling in.  It's still an avalanche forecast of 3/5 and with the recent new snow accompanying strong winds it will be interesting to see what the affects of this are.


This ski season I am hoping to complete my ISIA ski qualification.  Under the BASI / British system, the ISIA stamp is also the Level 3.  To complete this you need the following:

• Level 1
• First Aid
• 70hrs ski school experience
• Level 2
• 200hrs teaching after Level 2
• Common Theory
• Mountain Safety
• Second Language
• Coach Level 1
• Second Discipline Level 1
• ISIA teaching
• ISIA technical

So that makes a total of 47 days of compulsory training and assessment if everything is passed first time.

However it's not just the compulsory courses that will get you anywhere close to the level required.  Over the last four winters I have skied, taught, ran, and read in preparation for my ISIA and am still yet to be 100% ready for the last two exams.

In March I will be sitting my technical and teaching exams, the last on the long list and the ones I know I will find the hardest.  This week will be my last work free one to train in (excluding the optional BASI performance training course the week before the technical exam) and here are some of the things I have been up to:

Monday - shake down day in resort, having been away for three weeks I took the chance to build some leg endurance and work on a few of the things that I had changed and focused on in January.  This was mostly pressure management in the piste performance strand.

Tuesday - focus on piste performance short turns.  Improving body position, pressure control and early edges.  Also working on getting every turn right from the offset, keeping a rhythm down a pitch and through several pitches varying in angle.  Really driving the ski and standing on it early too.

Wednesday - bumps, bumps, bumps.  Focus on the adaptablility of movements to match the terrain, maximum ski to snow contact, linking rhythmical turns in varying corridors from zip line to medium length turns.  Moguls are going to be the hardest part of the exam for me.

Thursday - a bad weather day today so my main aim was to 'try to replicate what I can do in the sun in the fog'.  A tall order but we got there.  By the end of the day I had some good revelations about pole planting and body position.  Now I need to make my pole plant stronger, in the correct place, keep my shoulders stiller in the shorter turns, think more about my body position - not opening up and launching it down the hill!, and more.

So... not a long list at all then!

A windy day in Verbier

The snow in Verbier today was good on the pistes, fully tracked out off the pistes and full of lovely small moguls.

However, upon arrival at Medran I discovered that the lift to Ruinettes was closed due to the wind.  I headed to Bruson in the morning and Savoleyres in the afternoon.  The lower lifts in the Verbier sector reopened later on, but it was still pretty windy on the tops.

Snapshot from the website at lunchtime

Aber falls wander in Snowdonia

Aber falls, or Rhaeadr fawr in Welsh meaning 'big waterfall' is one of the largest waterfalls in Wales at 37m high.  Located just off the A55 near the village of Abergwyngregyn in the northern Carneddau, it provides good access into the surrounded mountains as well as several easy walks.  The area has been inhabited by people since the Bronze age and has a great archeological history as well as being know for the falls itself.

Afternoon light walking towards the falls

As you walk along this section of the North Wales National Trail there are many other things to see from huge number of lichen covered trees to the wildlife and birds.

Crazy looking trees along the route

One of the steps to becoming a qualified mountain leader is learning more about the environment.  This can be the plants, fauna, rocks, history of the area you are in, and more.  During my assessment a few years ago I realised how lacking my knowledge was, however it has only been over the last two years that I have really yearned to learn more about the plantlife and rock formations in my 'office'.  Not only did I know I had to learn more for my work, but I started to find things really interesting, just the other day I discovered that heather has a mycorrhizal relationship with fungi (this means that it has a mutually beneficial relationship with a fungus, the fugus provides minerals and water from the soil, and the heather provides sugars produced via photosynthesis).  

Facts like this entice me into wanting to learn more about things we see everyday out in the mountains beyond knowing that 'that is a tormentil, not a buttercup' 

Lichen on a tree

This lichen above is a foliose or 'leafy' type of lichen, beyond that I have struggled to completely identify it as lots of them look the same.  My best guess so far is some kind of a caperata lichen, but I honestly have no idea.  Lichens, like fungi are notoriously difficult to identify.

Fungi on a new wooden seat

Not long into the walk and you catch a first proper view of the falls.

Aber falls

In the summer the pools provide an exciting wild swimming spot.

Aber falls - you can see how tall the falls are in comparison to a person.

In the winter the falls rarely freeze, but if they do offer some good ice climbing. 

Close up of the pool at the bottom of Aber falls

On the way back to the car park I spotted the tree below with a giant hole in it, and was curious to discover what had caused it.  It's a tree hole or tree hollow, usually caused after an injury to the tree, such as a branch falling off.  After this fungi and bacteria get in and start 'attacking' the tree forming a hole.  This then provides a great home for birds and insects.

A hole in a tree

Some of the bird life we saw...

A robin

A huge bird's nest

Everywhere you looked were old trees and evidence of the more recent coppicing of alder, used for a time in charcol production.  Mosses and lichens cover lots of the trees, indicating that the air is not polluted and the environment is humid.

I love this moss and lichen covered tree

Cool hawthorn silhouettes before sunset