First week of exams are over

As luck would have it, we have Simon Cooke again as our BASI level two instructor. The level two instructor exam is two full weeks of technical riding and teaching skill evaluation. The teaching is fairly easy once you understand what he is looking for. My riding still needs some minor improvements. We should be tested on switch riding, freestyle, and bumps this week. I'm not looking forward to it since my knees are starting to show their age. I'm taking the day off today for a much needed rest.

Tiffany and Kelly came to visit this week. They were here with a bunch of Jane's friends from London and Zurich. They are on their way to St. Anton today and will be back for the Easter holiday. I have included some pictures of their last night in Zermatt.

Pablo Watch: I know it has been a while, but we had some classic moments this week.

1. Being tardy- Pablo nearly missed two days of the BASI level 2 exam. On Wednesday he grabbed a taxi from the apartment. He arrived just as we were about to get on the train. However, he nearly forgot his snowboard which he left on top of the taxi.

2. Nearly killing Simon (again!)-Classic Pablo moment here. Thursday morning, we were working on steeps and Simon was emphasizing control of speed and line. We were doing a video feedback session where he was recording our runs on a steep line. Simon asked us to show some slope style into our run (meaning throw in some slashes or slope tricks). Pablo decides to do a backside nose turn 2 meters in front of Simon. Remember that we are on steep terrain and as always, he lost control and nearly decapitated Simon when his board came around. Later in the afternoon, we looked at the video from the run. The last frame in Pablo's video was the bottom of his board (which nearly look up 50% of the screen) and you could see his head from behind the board with a stupid "I just messed up again" look on his face.

3. Crashed into another skier- Again a classic Pablo maneuver. We were on our way down to the village fron Blauheard. We all normally jib (throw tricks) on the side of the piste on the way down. Pablo managed to crash into a skier when he decided to traverse across the piste (without looking) after doing a trick. The crash occured right next to Simon.

There are many more small things which he did, but I figured I'd just highlight the best moments.

Pictures are from Friday night at the Schnee.