Today after some more intense edging and carving practise and training we skiied down to the bottom of Jersey Cream and Glacier chair lifts to see a massive blow up air bag underneath a huge jump!

The whistler kids freestyle team were using the airbag for a tv interview an demonstrating their awesome skills! 7 and 8 year olds were straightlining down steep slopes and flipping and spinning and landing on the blow up mat. After a lot of jumping and practising, their key freestyler – a small 16 year old – made a big entrance by skiing the mogul run and taking off the actual jump next to the airbag, completing a triple back flip spin with twist and landing it just in time to hear us watching, the restaurant AND everyone on the chairlifts above take a big cheer.
By 3 o’clock we were exhausted!!! And headed straight home to relax before visiting Squamish, a local village where most of the Whistler locals actually live.
Obviously once again I am looking forward to what tomorrow has to offer!!

Today was the first day of our third week of training and it started with meeting our new instructor. As a group of 5 girls and 1 guy, changing to a female instructor altered the dynamics slightly as we weren’t used to it but we soon became accustomed to her teaching style and listened to her detailed technical lessons on our posture when skiing – we were also thankful on her female way of looking at things like how long we spend at lunch and toilet and drink breaks!!

After skiing down the glacier (my new favourite run of all time) we ended up in bird corner where Kim (our instructor) got some cereal bar from her pocket and we spent a good half an hour feeding the birds!!!

After a relaxing, slow day ending with the film ‘the day after tomorrow’ we’re all hoping that Whistler receives (preferably within the next three weeks) as much snow as New York does in the film when global warming hits.
Early night now ready for next week’s training, wonder who our instructor will be this time!

Since my time here, my friends and I have compiled a list of special things to do before we leave.
So far we’ve completed some of the less adventurous ones but hopefully before our season is up, the whole list will be completed.

1. Have a fully loaded waffle in the Crystal Hut (waffle with maple syrup, berry sauce, whipped cream, bacon and baileys)

2. ride the peak to peak godela

3. have après at Merlin’s bar

4. Drink a beergita at Lornhorn bar

5. go tubing at the cocacola tube park

6. Spend a day at the Nintendo terrain park

7. Go bungee jumping in winter

8. Go zip lining across the valley

9. Spend a day at Scandinavia outdoor Spa

10. have a picnic on the highest point on whistler mountain

11. Go Ice skating at the Olympic warm up ring in whistler village

12. Have your face painted at MoeJoes Sunday themed club night

13. Watch the fire and ice show at the whistler base (a snow freestyle show including a huge fire ring!)

14. SKI ON WHISTLER AND BLACKCOMB MOUNTAINS!!

On training days off, you begin to appreciate the beauty of après ski.
After a long lie in this morning, a hike up to the glacier and a long run down, we headed straight for the bar to explore some unique after ski drinks – of which whistler has a lot to offer!
The most famous is the ‘beergita’, a huge margarita with an upside down beer bottle inside – as you drink the beer is let into the drink, creating a tasty mix. Today I experienced an “after eight” hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps.
1 drink and two massive pizzas later our après were finished and we headed home to relax before having dinner and watching the ULTIMATE ski movie… CHALET GIRL!!

Early night tonight ready for a full days skiing (and après skiing) tomorrow.

P.s HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA

Finally the sunshine has arrived and whistler has been restored to its former beauty! We finished off our week with out extremely insane instructor with lots of teaching techniques and some incredible runs!
Our beginners techniques started with walking around without skis on in order to get used to out boots and then snow ploughing down a baby slope – serious beginners stuff!!
We finished off today with a hike up to the highest point in whistler. Picnic in hand we sat in the sunshine and ate our lunch looking over the valley!
An amazing second week of AllTracks.

Today I compiled a list of the 7 deadly sins of skiing – the seven things that very person tries to or wants to avoid when hitting the slopes.

1. Ice
2. Fog
3. Flat light
4. Tree wells
5. Avalanches
6. Slushy snow
7. Slow zones

Today we covered even more terrain than yesterday, starting the day working on the first and base component of skiing: stance and balance. We were introduced to a stance and balance exercise to help beginners (and people like us with sloppy technique) to keep perfectly balanced. To maintain good lateral balance a skiier’s elbows must be infront of their body, then their arms must stay down and not flail up with each turn. In order to make this happen we were made to ski keeping our pole tips touching the floor at all times, meaning that on steeper terrain we were forced to lean downhill instead of the natural temptation to lean uphill – making our skiing easier and ALOT more stable.
The afternoon consisted in shoots and bowls and “narly, adventurous skiing” on steep, off piste, trees, and powder terrain, allowing us to put our new stability to good use!

Literally so shocked at how tired we all our this evening – the skiing is really taking it out of us!! Spent the evening watching a film and it’s now half 10 and everyone is in bed… Obviously we do need to be refreshed for tomorrow!
Another exhausting but great day.