A little taste of home

Patrick took us up to Stockhorn today. That area was closed until the beginning of February. Stockhorn is known to be the steep bumped out off piste area of Zermatt. It has excellent powder when it snows, but since we haven't had snow for three weeks, it is definitely the place to practice your off piste skills.

For those of you who don't know. I LOVE CHARGING STEEPS!!!!!
I learned nearly all of my off piste skills from my mates Alex, Susie, Shane, Ken Marr, and Dave. All together, we have made plenty of turns in Lake Tahoe charging runs off Scotts chair at Alpine Meadows along with KT22 and Granite Chief at Squaw Valley. And let's not forget Red Mountain in BC. The most gnarliest mountain top to bottom which rivals Jackson Hole.
Zermatt is not known for difficult slopes so this afternoon was refreshing.

I'm now seriously considering coming back for a full season next year provided that I can get cheap accomodations.

Spring is here

We have been getting spring conditions on the mountain for the past two weeks. The things which are saving the runs down to the village are the altitude and glacier. I have not seen a cloud in the sky for the past few weeks as well. Each week, the forecast predicts snow, but it keeps getting pushed to the next day and so on. We did have clouds today, so we'll see if snow does come on Friday as predicted.



There was another fatality on the slopes this week. A woman fell into a crevase while skiing off piste on the glacier. The report says that she fell 150 meters. I'm so glad that we spent the two days with the mountain guides. I'm a lot smater now regarding the dangers of skiing on glaciers.



I just changed my ticket to stay for another two weeks. I plan on spending a lot of time in the park working on the halfpipe and kickers.

Back on Skis

The training classes were combined today. The skiers and snowboarders swapped gear and we each paired up to give each other a lesson. It was my first time on skis in about 15 years. Although Emma (my instructor partner) didn't give me too much instruction, I was still able to make turns and get onto the piste. Learning to snowboard is much harder than skiing. It is rare to let a total beginner on the piste after a half day lesson. Emma had a concussion from a crash earlier this week so I kept her on the nusery slope the entire time. The thing about Emma is that she bombs every run no matter how difficult. It is great if you are the teacher because she tries really hard to do what you tell her. However, she lacks control which is dangerous (and why she had a concussion earlier this week). At the end of the day, everyone had a good time and we all had a chance to experience a different activity.

Ollie and Niall rented mini-skis. These are part Rossignol's mini line of skis and boards. Rossignol makes a 121 and 123 cm snowboard. They are the most bizzare things you have ever seen. Ollie has ordered one and should get it in time for the BASI 2 exams.

Finally, I saw the best retro Swiss sweater in the shop today. I'm going to buy it this weekend. It's awesome!

Pictures are of me on skis and Lorna taking a snowboard lesson from Ollie

Review of expectations

We are finishing up week five of the instructor training program. I have been thinking of my expectations for this trip in the beginning of the year and if they are being met so far. If I had to prioritize, it would be improving my snowboarding skills, meeting new people, experiencing a slightly different culture, and finally passing the BASI snowboarding exam.

After five weeks, I can definitely say that my snowboarding is improved ten times. Switch riding is no longer a problem and I'm learning so many different freestyle techniques from kickers to halfpipe to slope tricks. Although I have been moslty hanging with the younger crowd, I feel that I have met some really good people with whom I can keep a life long friendship. Along with meeting different people, I'm experiencing new cultural things every week. There are so many different nationalities represented here. The red ski school instructors can speak English, French, German, and of course Swiss German. It is likely that I won't land a job here even if I wanted to. The red ski school rarely hire only English speaking instructors (and my German is questionable at best). There are a few students who are concerned about the BASI 2 exam coming up in three weeks. Although I want to pass, it won't hurt my experience if I don't.

Today we hit the half pipe for the afternoon. I'm starting to get the hang of it, but my heelside turn is a bit sketchy (maybe due to the ice). I'm getting a ton of air on the toe side though. Tomorrow, we are teaching the skiiers how to snowboard and likewise the skiiers will teach us how to ski. It has been about 15 years since I've been on skiis, so we'll see how it goes.

Side note:
The Swedish gals at the Northwall Bar are turning me on to some really good Scandinavian rock.

Pablo Watch: Pablo completely missed today's lesson (likely due to him getting pissed drunk or high). That was okay for the rest of since we did not have to look over our shoulders wondering if he would run into us.

Rules for Skiing and Snowboarding

I broke one of the most important rules of snowboarding yesterday.
The rule is no new tricks on the last run. I think I sprained my knee trying a frontside 360 on the way back to the village. I'm still able to ride though. I'll slap a brace on it tomorrow.


Here is the movie from the big kicker day. The first is me doing a straight air with indie grab. The second movie is of our instructor Boris doing a nose grab.

How to create an explosion

The three ingredients needed to create and explosion are fuel, oxygen, and ignition source.

Now check out Ollie's hair. The guys have set his hair on fire twice this season.

That's Jake in the background (his mom likes Elvis Costello too).

The Big Kicker

Boris (our new instructor) took us to the park today. We have been working on our freestyle riding all week. The morning was spent in the halfpipe doing some straight runs. The afternoon was spent on the big kicker. This was the biggest kicker I have ever attempted. It was really important that we had enough speed to the run up. If you went too slow, you would not hit the landing propperly. After a few nice straight airs, I decided to straight line the run from the top to get as much speed as possible. The end result was a massive air with an indie grab. Kaspar started calling me the blue rocket. Hamish was able to throw a mute grab and a 360 attempt. Boris had a nice nose grab with a lot of air. Overall it was a beautful day with a nice view of the mountain from the park.

A little bit of info about Boris. He is a third generation ski/snowboard instructor in Zermatt. He has a very retro style to him. He wears these old black frame Ray Bans just like the ones Roy Orbison wore in the 60s and his grandfathers original ski instructor sweater. Style aside, he has crazy skills on both snowboard and skis. I'm really looking forward to snowboarding with him again later on.

Pablo watch 2/18- Pablo ran over Duddley at the end of the day. This is the second time this season. Kaspar had a talk with him after dinner. I don't think he is going to listen, but we'll see.

Pictures are of me, Boris (red jacket), and Hamish

Movies to come.

Snowlis

Jane and the rest of the skiers had the opportunity to teach this week. Apparently the ski school overbooked due to the school holiday. The only twist is they all recieved the red jacket from the ski school. This is a big deal because the red ski school was the first school founded in 1929. The jacket carries a lot of respect in the resort. Unfortunately for Jane, Emma, and Lorna, they had to teach snowli kids. This is the side of being a snow instructor no one tells you about. However, everyone needs to experience the snowli kids at least once in their teaching carreer. The Snowli kids are 2-4 years old. Vitually all of them have never been on Skis. At first, the snowboarders were jealous because of the jackets (red jackets eat for free), then we found out that they had to wipe the snowli's butt after they go to the toilet. I'm not jealous anymore. Imagine Izzy and Sarah in their worst temper tantrum and having eight of them. Then when you think things can't get worse, take them to lunch.

Also, Jibber (Matt) had to dress up as Snowli. He basically had to dress up in a giant rabbit suit and play with the kids. Not all of the skiers had the snowli kids. Erica and Liam were lucky enough had private lessons. Liam did have to hold up a kid at the urinal so he could pee. Speaking a second language is a must. There are only two english speaking red jackets here (both are Brits). All of the other ski/snowboard instructors speak at least three different languages.

I think the snowboarders get to wear red jackets next week.

Shadowing The Level 1 Snowboard Class

Part of the BASI certification is shadowing ski /snowboard instructors during their class. We are required to have 70 hours of shadowing to receive the BASI level 2 certification. This week I shadowed the level 1 class. The beginner snowboarder is normally older than 6 years old. We also had adults taking classes as well. Since this was the start of the European school holidays, the classes were jam packed with beginners. Now the bad news. The red ski school had two out of five level 1 instructors out sick. So we had to actually help teach the beginners. It was total carnage for the first two days. We lost six out of 30 students due to injuries. One accident was so bad that we called in the helicoptor to take them to the hospital. Most injuries were broken wrists from falls and one girl had a runaway snowboard hit her in the back.

Teaching was really rewarding. About 90% of the students were able to link turns really well within the first two days. It was great seeing the improvement from beginning to end. Next week, I should be shadowing level 2 students. These students should be able to do standard turns and should have confidence riding steeps.

Nothing new to add to Pablo watch, but I think something good will happen today since we are going to the park. BIG KICKER DAY!!!!!!

Pablo Update

Okay. There are so many Pablo events that I can't even list all of them.
Summary for this week:
1. Pablo finally sorted out his boot situation. He has been complaining about his boots for the past 4 weeks (either too small or too large). He finally bought a pair on Monday which were molded to his feet. He is now complaining that they are too small.
Sam's Input: Why does it take four weeks to find boots that fit when you know you are going to spend the season snowboarding.

2. He was shadowing Denise (Red Snowboard instructor) who is in charge of the level 4 group (4 out of 6). After telling the students to watch uphill before crossing to the kicker, Pablo just went and almost took out a skier.
Sam's Input: Pablo just doesn't know when to apply the breaks.

3. Pablo asked where the Blauherd station was located on Monday. We spent nearly the first three weeks eating lunch at Blauherd.
Sam's Input: he is just a retard!

I'll add more by the end of the week I'm sure

Kids are alright

I'm sure some of you want to know a little about the kids I'm with in the program. All come from a variety of backgrounds. Only Duddley, Jane, Erica, and I are older than 20. Some kids have their programs paid for by their parents. Others have been working to save the money to go. Hopefully the ones who want a job in this industry will get one and then I will have contacts all over the world. I've attached pictures of some of the kids.

Pictures in order:

1. Hamish and Emma (Jacko. We have two Emmas in the group)

2. Lorna, Jane, and Erica

3. Me and the lovely Rowena

4. Jake, Ollie, Rowe, James, Niall during the toga party

5. James and Pablo (No, Pablo doesn't have a crazy eye, but I like that picture!)

6. Jake, James, and Niall during Corona night

7. Duddley and Kaspar

Weekend off

We had a great weekend off. The sun was out and the slopes were empty due to it being change over day. Most people on holiday book Saturday to Saturday, so that day is when everyone is arriving or leaving. The slopes are fairly empty during this time. The rest of this month will be very crowded due to the half term break for the European countries. It is the equivalent to spring break where students and families vacation for the week. Last week, the Swiss had their half term and the Brits are here this week.

We spent a leasurely Saturday free riding the slopes. I spent most of the day working on my switch riding and 180s. Sunday was an easy day. The group organized hockey and ice skating. It was not the best idea if you wanted to stay healthy, but it was so much fun. After nearly 25 years off skates, the feeling came back pretty quick. This next week will be very tough. We are assisting the Swiss Snowboard School for the next three days and traing the rest of the week. Our next break is will be Wednesday ( we'll need a break for sure).

Pics are are from the easy Saturday and Sunday Hockey.

Don't play air guitar in a dance club!

There is a univeral rule which applies world wide and across every age group.



DO NOT PLAY AIR GUITAR IN A DANCE CLUB!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!

There is an excerpt from teh book "Love Is A Mix Tape." It talks about bitch power.
The theory is always keep the girls happy in a club. When the girls are happy, the boys are happy. When both boys and girls are happy, everyone is happy. No one, and I mean NO ONE wants to see a bunch of chops on the dance floor playing air guitar to AC/DC.

Rescue dogs are bad ass

We completed our two day back country overview today. The course was not a comprehensive avalanch rescue class. We just went over the basics for using the beepers, probes, and shovels. We also went over the different types of snow layers one would fine when cutting a cross-section from the base. The instructors were Swiss mountain guides whose job was to keep us paranoid at all times of avalanches. The good thing was that we got to ride some good off piste powder with some steeps. The instructors seemed to tell us about pulling out avalanche victims at every stop on the mountain. Today, we buried Mark in the snow and watched a guard dog try to find him. The dog was awesome. She found Mark in about 1 minute. Note to self, carry some sausage when skiing in the back-country. The dog will find you faster if you have cured meats with you.

On a side note, I was told that I shouldn't have my haircut at the resort since the Swiss don't know how to cut Asian hair. It should be long enough by March to sculpt a nice mullet. I'll take pics if it happens.

Pablo watch - After about a ten minute lecture on snow blindness during the search and rescue class, Pablo waited about 30 minutes before grabing his goggles. After getting his goggles, he kept them on his forehead the entire day.

Pictures are of Gina finding Mark, Ollie buried in the snow cave and being probed, Checking out different snow layers, and Jonas (guide) with Gina (rescue dog).

These Days

Maybe it is the snow or that I've been away for a while.I can't get the first two songs from the Royal Tenenbaums out of my head.


"111 Arthur Avenue" by Mark Mothersbaugh
"These Days" by Nico


I imagine myself moving in slow motion through the streets of Zermatt on my way to the bakery. Those of you who know Wes Anderson will know what I'm talking about.

We completed the two day first aid training today. Tomorrow is the start of backcountry/avalanch training. looking forward to charging some off piste runs.

Pablo watch 1/6- He missed the first day of instructor shadowing (all of us are supposed to shadow classes for 70 hours). Sunday night, he went to the schnee Wittchen and had the viking (a boat of six shots). Some of the guys found him outside the apartment (yes. that's out in the snow) with his pants down around his ankles. We think that he thought he was back in his room. Good thing someone found him and put him to bed. This morning, he managed to run into Emma causing her to crash and lose a ski. Emma is 5'1" and about 95 pounds. She is okay and everyone is taking my advice to stay away from Pablo.

Air Zermatt

We had a tour of the Air Zermatt heli-pad today. It was awesome. For the past three weeks, I have been seeing the helicopters all over the mountain. We even see them land on the piste to take people away. Our tour guide worked on a careflight helicopter in Houston and Corpus before returning to Switzerland. I think car crash trauma would be a lot worse in Texas than ski accidents in Zermatt.

Air Zermatt is used for a number of different purposes. The main purpose is mountain rescue (rate is 90 francs per minute, yup that's about $2700 for a 30 minute rescue). They also run sight seeing, heli-skiing, shuttle service, avalanch maintenence, deliveries to high mountain facilities, etc. The hanger had about three different types of helicopters. The heli-pad is the highest in europe and they have a special light weight heli for rescues on the Matterhorn. All of the helis are smaller stripped down versions due to the altitude. Like most tours, the guide showed a 15 minute movie about Air Zermatt which was the PBS version. Afterward, he showed a real life movie where they recovered 2 bodies out of a crevase and recovered a body of a climber who fell off the Matterhorn. Out of the 1500 rescue missions per year, about 40 are just body recoveries. Today, there were five rescue missions (last of which was grounded due to winds, so rescue was on snowmobiles). Overall it was a very fascinating tour although I would have liked to hear more stories of stupid things people do to get in trouble.

Our tour guide elaborated more about the dead guy they found this week. The skiier was with friends, but he wasn't wearing a beeper. The heli rescue guys found him by following tracks in the snow. One of the tracks stopped in a big hole in the glacier. It was the fall that killed the skiier, not exposure.

Pictures are from the tour and one day when the helicopter landed on the piste.

My gear is falling apart!

I just realized how poorly most of the ski/snowboarding clothing is made. I have had good luck with most of my gear over the years. However, I'm noticing that many of the other students are having issues with their stuff falling apart. From what I've seen, ski clothes only need to last for three weeks. Three weeks equals about three years for non-mountain residents. Although you have only three weeks of use, you mentally think the gear has lasted you three years.
Okay, let's list all of the items which need to be replaced.

1. Helmet (already replaced after cracking it during the first week).

2. Bindings - My 10 year old Burton Customs are finally beginning to fall appart. Right gas pedal is breaking off.

3. Jacket - My old North Face shell has a nice slice in the back from one of the guys running into me. Zipper seals are starting to show wear.

4. Pants - Old snowboarding pants are showing a ton of wear ont he knees and rear. More so recently due to the lessons where we are either sitting or on our knees.



Here is the bad news. As I already found out, bindings are about 50% more expensive here than in the states. High end waterproof jackets are >$850 and pants are >$500. Even the Euro brands such as Schoffel and Mammut are just as expensive. Unfortunately since no one plans to visit, I'm going to rely on high speed shipping so that Swiss customs doesn't tax me. I found a great North Face jacket that I tried on at the resort. The same jacket was found online in the US for ~$550. Normally I wouldn't pay that much for a jacket, but it seems like such a bargain with the prices here. Looks like the wear and tear of the season is going to put a good dent in the bank account.

All of the Brits and Scotts want me to buy things for them once I get back home!

It started to snow this weekend. We need it.

I am now BASI Level 1 Certified

After a very friggin' cold morning on the mountain, we finally completed the week long certification exam. I passed with flying colors. So now, I'm able to teach on indoor and dry slopes. The BASI level 2 exam will start in week 8 so there is plenty of time to work on the technique some more. We celebrated the end of the exam with a trip to Nelly's which is a wild game restaraunt run by some Aussies. We had our pick from antelope, croccodile, and ostritch. You could also order kangaroo and zebra as well. The meal was good, but for 30 francs we expected more. After that, it was party time in the Schnee Wittchen.

Next week will be the first aid and avalanch training, so there will be little time on the snowboard. It is supposed to dump this weekend and the temp is supposed to get to -17 deg C. Looking forward to some cold smoke powder runs.

Pictures are from Nelly's