Shadow on a Cloudy Day

In mid-April, many of the instructors here at Sunshine Village go home. After Easter, there just aren't that many opportunities to work, since most of the visitors we have are locals who just don't want to spend most of their day in a skiing class. We're normally left with a scattering of senior folks or part timers who would be here right to the end anyway. As for us desk staff, the number of days per week we work drops and we can take as much time off as we want (within reason). However, occasionally there will be a school group or random influx of students who want lessons, and on occasion we sell out of instructors. My plan is to be available on those days to instruct if required, which will supplement my normal work on the desk as well as keep me amused when we end up REALLY quiet. This is what I took my Level 1 for...

But in order to teach lessons, you need to be 1) qualified (done), 2) approved (still working on it) and 3) be capable of providing good lessons (i don't know yet!). It's the latter that I worked on for most of Saturday, by shadowing one of our more experience instructors as he taught a Discovery skiing lesson for people who have never done it before. So I was up early enough to be outside the OSL by 9:45 and be allocated who I'd be shadowing.

After all the pupils for the Discovery package had sorted themselves into their groups, Chris, the instructor and I took one to go get their rentals. This was a group of Scottish friends, two of whom had been married the day before and were on their honeymoon, the other couple who were accompanying them on their holiday. None of them had REALLY skied before so it was back to the start, which is particularly good since this is exactly the sort of lesson I hope to teach, being just a Level 1 skiing instructor.

After kitting them out with their equipment (I looked after 2 while Chris looked after the other 2), we found a nice flat-ish area of the Village to set them going round in circles on (no skis, 1 ski, other ski, 2 skis), then taught them how to 'hockey-stop'. Once they'd mastered the snowplough (wedge) and the herringbone (duck-step), it looked like they were ready to tackle their first lift- the MIGHTY MITE! (magic carpet). Chris and I agreed that they hadn't wasted any time mastering these fundamental skills...

This 30m-long conveyor belt of plastic and rubber drags 12 people at once up a gradient suitable for even the most snow-challenged members of the general public. However, it is also one of the greatest morale-killers of the whole place too. Challenging even for someone as awesome as me (?!?) to slide onto without looking retarded, the journey upwards gives you plenty of time to contemplate whether you've got enough to contemplate during the journey, admire Ski Patrol's unique skiing style evolved from thousands of hours skiing with a 30kg backpack on, laughing at snowboarders attempting to look 'rad', while at the same time pondering what arrangement at the top allows you to disembark in somewhat neater fashion than your embarkment (there isn't one). So anyone with any skill on skis just skates up the side and waits at the top for the students. This wait gave Chris and I plenty of time to plan the next part of the lesson, talk about hopes and fears for the rest of the season and even set up a mini race-course for our fledgeling skiers...

But eventually they arrived at the top and we went through the motions of helping them point themselves in the direction they wanted to go. After a couple of runs, they were going down our race-course no problem (these guys were really picking it up quick!) and some were even experimenting with parallel skiing (but we kicked this habit since they didn't have any underlying technique to fall back on if they tried to do that on a steep slope).

Lunch, as usual, was a real highlight of the lesson with the all-you-can-eat buffet, loads of pudding, free drinks, fresh salads and lots of roast meat. From lunch, we went down to the lower mountain area to take the guys on their first chairlift, Jackrabbit. Since there is a maximum capacity of 4 on a chair, and there was 6 of us, I was tasked with supervising and accompanying two of our pupils on their first chairlift ride. Of course, they pulled it off flawlessly and on the second time round didn't even want to put the restraint bar down (but I pulled it down anyway, of course- 'safety first!'). From the top of Jackrabbit they did a couple of runs down the easy green Miss Gratz, turning in both directions and controlling their speed - even a couple of small jumps! - with an occasional shout of "wedge! wedge!" from me for someone who was going a bit fast and starting to panic.

Shortly after, they were ready for a run down Forget-me-not, which has a nice 'steep' section with a highly visible flatter bit. Of course, this is where we teach people how to 'schuss' (bomb-it). And they really went for it! After that, they were pumped and it didn't take us long to get to the gondola mid station with a few jumps along the way. At this point, I was glad I was at the back and that everyone was concentrating on other stuff, because trying to do a 180 off a small kicker left me flat on my back in the middle of a green run...

We took the gondola back to the village before heading for one final run up Wawa chair- the highest chairlift that the group had taken (and you could feel the cold too. All morning we'd been boiling up from running around everywhere...). We had a long run down Meadow Park, including a hugh schuss and lots of turning. Finally, we made our way back to the village with 4 exhausted but thrilled Scottish 'green runners' in tow. They'd been great company all day and progressed far quicker than I would ever have imagined. Chris is an excellent teacher, but the pupils' athleticism, entusiasm and general co-ordination helped them perform wonders. After thanking us both and making their way back to the gondola and to their hotel (I'd planted the idea of a 2 day add-on in their heads...), Chris and I had a little debrief, I thanked him, then headed back home.