CSIA Course Conductor Training

Indoor Training today! It was a good day, the new thing the CSIA is getting into this year is leadership training. This makes sense to me as all Ski Instructors are leaders whenever they are teaching.

This exercise in the photo was a fun one. The goal of the group was to lower the pole without anyone losing contact. It was interesting to see the leadership scenarios evolve.

Day One: 2010 Season On

I am in Banff and skied at Sunshine today. We are having a great start in Canada. The skiing today was as good as mid winter. I did not hit a single rock with my new Fischer Skis and we skied all the way to the parking lot at the end of the day.

I am here for CSIA training. I basically followed the group around today. I am at about 50% in terms of my capabilities, due to my knee. I did well to keep up. But it was great to ski again and I can see that I will be able to get back to it.

Fischer Skis and Canadian Ski Quest

Make sure you are sitting down for this one: Mark Impey is switching from Ski Sponsors from Head to Fischer!!! The news is having a dramatic effect on the entire ski industry.

I have been with Head for the past 12 seasons in both Canada and Australia, and it has been a great run. I obviously continue to support the Head product which I truly believe in, but things change and it is time to move forward. I will be working with Robin McLeish who I used to work with at Head, and I am very happy to reestablish this working relationship.

I am off to Banff today to participate in the CSIA Level 4 Course Conductor Training. I am not teaching it this year as I want to see if my knee is up to the task first. I am skiing tomorrow so we will see how that test goes.

Still having difficulty with my picassa program so no photos of Rossland. But the snow has continued. 49 Degrees North is opening on Saturday, so hopefully Red is not to far behind.

White Rossland

We have snow! It has been snowing off and on continuously since Friday. This definitely will stick around up high and i am cautiously optimistic that it will stay in Rossland as well.

The Paulson Cross Country trails have been track set. A lot of jumps and rails have been constructed around town. Kids carrying skis on Columbia Avenue is the norm.

I have taken a pile of photos and video clips of the kids skiing in town, but I can't seem to get them off my camera for some reason.

Youtube Competition

My friend, Tag Danforth's, father, has won a chance to play in a million dollar poker tournament. He gets a chance to play against a famous pro Daniel NeGreanu IF his youtube video gets the most hits. All you have to do to help is to watch the 2 minute youtube video (link to follow)

It is actually quite entertaining.

My most memorable moment of Tags's dad was when working on Tag's house renovation with Tag and Len (the star of the video). After quite a long period of hamering and of no talking at all Len asks "So Mark" ........followed by a very long pause.........."are you the Man?" It might sound funnier after you see the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rltj9Od1K0

Remembrance Day in Rossland

We had good weather for Remembrance Day this year.

The most noticeable thing for me this year was the lack of World War 2 Veterans, their numbers are in decline it appears. The nice thing to see is how supportive Rossland population is of the occasion.

More Snow in Rossland

Well I may have to admit that the Mountain Biking and Waterskiing seasons are over! Fine with me. I was woken up this morning by the sweet sound of a snowpow scraping along Spokane Street, followed that silence that only 10 cm on snow can produce.

It was enough to inspire our 15 year old dog Jesse!

The Skiing is INCREDIBLE and it's November

I actually did not get to have a run personally, still due to my injury recovery (I swear there is no other reason I did not have a run) but Todd Larsen did! Yesterday Todd, Isabelle and myself went out. Todd made some inspiring turns!

Before you give Todd too much credit, it was not that bad, the temperature was about 6 Celsius! The only thing frozen when we got back to Rossland was the smile on his face.

Very Early Turns

The Snow in Rossland has melted, although now it is quite cold, but it has remained up high. This is Kieren Gaul from Big Red Catskiing skiing last week