the fernie factor

Hi everyone, First of all how shocking that we haven't blogged for so long! It is a good idea when you first set one up, but finding the time to write them is quite difficult. Well, i can say that we are both Level 1 snowboard instructors having passed our 3 day assessment in week 5. Sarah has gone on to study for her Level 2 while I have decided to concentrate on my own riding and to do the 'AMP' course. There was a 3 week spell without snow which was nice for a while to enjoy the groomers (over 3 metre snow pack helps!) however it was a blessing to have the 2 days of snow early last week and now over 50cm in the last 3 days with more expected. Loads has been ... read more

Hi again peeps, Days seem to be flying by now and blog messages are becoming less frequent. We are into week 4 now and we have another new instructor, tall Paul, who is tall (strangely enough) and have a ginger handlebar moustache and a mullet, even crazier he is only 22! He is a fab teacher and a great laugh, our lessons are interspersed with Jim Carey impressions, movie quotes, hill billy accents and general craziness. Level 1 exam is coming up next week so we are all nervous about our lesson demos and our skills on the nursery slopes. Did an avalanche course at the weekend which wasn't the most exciting thing and made worse but the wet and windy weather, but was very useful for safe riding. Watched Transformers last night in the surround ... read more

Hello all, As you can see from the title the powder has arrived and it just keeps coming. We have a new instructor this week, Glenn. And with 2 Adams in my class there are plenty of opporutunities for talking about Adam and Glen, as if I was at home. Glenn has a different teaching style to Jay which basically involves finding sheer cliffs covered in powder and shooting down them at speed. This results in a whiter, wetter looking Sarah and Adam and a lot of laughs in the group. I have made close aquaintance with a tree today and disappeared in a puff of smoke (well snow really) as the snow has been knee or thigh deep so when you fall you are gone. Despite this slightly more "Let's ride!" version of teaching, we ... read more

Howdy, Sorry we've not written for a couple of days. Last lesson of the week was on Thursday and the weather was as cold as ever. Got another frostbitten nose and got very chilly toes. Have found the wonders of toe warmers which you can stick to your socks to keep your toes cosy, they are amazing. Spent half of our lesson learning to ride switch (fakie - your back foot forwards) which is not at all easy. Found out that last day of the week is Thirsty Thusrday which means lesson finishes early to get in a cheeky beer at the bottom of the slopes. After only 3 days we now leave our instructor Jay and get passed on the Glen for next week. Thursday evening I went boot shopping with the girls and now ... read more

Hi there, Sarah here! Today was the first day on the mountain and it was ace. The terrain here is really varied and there seems to be loads of places to explore. Great groomed runs for speed, sweet tracks between the trees and some seriously steep looking bowls just waiting for the next drop of powder. It was damned cold though, about minus 18 up the mountain today and I started losing all feeling in my finger, I had to pinch the instructors mittens - will be investing in some of those tomorrow. We've been told how to spot the early signs of frostbite and one of the guys with us had to tell me to warm my nose up because it started going white (first sign of trouble). Buying neoprene facemasks is no joke out ... read more