Sunday, lovely bright and cold day, dusting of fresh snow on the streets of Banff.
We're being lazy and having a well deserved rest this weekend.
Our first week with 'NonStop' was amazing and we will be sharing a few stories here and there.
We started on Monday on Lake Louise with a great few runs so people can get their snowboarding legs back.
To start with there were 16 snowboarders but sadly after the first run we became 15. One of the snowboarders unluckily hurt his shoulder and had to be taken to hospital but he should be OK within a couple of weeks and back riding with us.
We were summoned immediately by ski patrol and given little talk about safety on the slopes and how to make sure that everybody has good experience over the next eleven weeks.
After that little hiccup everything else went according to the plan for the rest of the week.
By the end of the first day we were divided into two groups.
Instructors were very happy with the level of our skills and were ready to progress to more advanced stuff.
Little did we know what are we into for the rest of the week.
Little did we know what are we into for the rest of the week.
The second day we were heading to Mt. Norquay and our bus had a little encounter with a truck on the way up. Check the previous post. Norquay is the closest ski resort to Banff and you can see the panorama from the top of North American chair lift.
Our two instructors Marc and Brian, who are the nicest guys you can meet in Banff, decided not to waste one second and threw us in the deep end on day two. We were riding steeps, moguls, tree runs, icy hard pack snow while testing our limits and our technical abilities.
All day riding was scary but totally exhilarating.
We had Wednesday off so people can cure their hangover from the previous night 'NonStop' kick off party.
Thursday and Friday we spent on Sunshine Village. Both days were sunny and we had a little bit of fresh snow.
Lots of challenges while learning new stuff and doing endless tree runs with Marc and Brian, not that we are complaining, tree runs are absolutely addictive.
On Friday we were joined by our third instructor Johnny, another great enthusiastic snowboarder, who took upon himself to make sure we all learn by the end of the day how to drop off the cliff and land on our feet. Scarrrry!!!! Right! Great fun!!! Yeeees!!!!
Meet the NonStop instructors:
All in all GREAT week, every day was getting better and better.
Apart from great riding there are lots of new people to meet. This year NonStop 11 Week Course in Banff has around 40 skiers and snowboarders.
None of this would be possible without our amazing host Emily who made sure that everything is running smoothly.
Also we had a visit from Max from NonStop London office who was riding with us for two days before continuing his tour of NonStop courses around Canada.
We have people from different parts of the World, different ages and backgrounds, skiers and snowboarders together (yes, you read it correctly), you would say perfect recipe for a disaster. But no, we are all united in one universal passion, sliding down a hill on bits of wood and having lots of fun in a mean time.
If somebody told us last week where and what we'll be doing the answer would be 'you must be joking?'. But we had lots of fun and as the cliché says 'it can only get better'.
Until next time.
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