3 Ways to Ratchet Up Your Skiing: Teach, Race, Learn Avalanche Skills

Alberta’s Rocky Mountains aren’t just a mecca of champagne powder and stunning scenery, they’re also the perfect stage for a perfect lifestyle.

Leave the cityscape behind, ditch the office cubicle, quit the crowds and traffic and come teach skiing on the slopes of one of Alberta’s world-class resorts. Or put down the building blocks for success by enrolling the kids in one of the province’s 33 ski clubs.

There are also scores of avalanche courses to ensure the safety of those with a deep-seated need for adrenaline and backcountry adventure. Whatever your dreams, whatever your needs, Alberta has what you came for.

Become a Ski Instructor

If fresh air, skiing every day and helping people fulfill their dreams sounds like fun, then maybe being a ski or snowboard instructor is the job for you. With just a four-day course and an intermediate knowledge of the sport, you’re ready to embark on a career as an instructor.

Details of the four-day course are available at www.snowpro.com and the website has numerous tools to help prepare future instructors for the course material.

“They’re looking for adaptability in your skiing,” says Janet Schmidt, assistant director of Marmot Basin’s Snowsport School in Jasper National Park. “Instructors have to demonstrate snowplow and basic parallel, which is where Level I instructors start off.”

Level I is a prerequisite for Level II, which is a prerequisite for Level III. The highest level, and the one most difficult to achieve, is Level IV. Though it’s rare, there have been people who have progressed from being uncertified to Level III in a single season, says Schmidt, though most instructors make the transition over several seasons.

“Your skiing has to be top-notch in Level III,” Schmidt adds. “You have to make two half-hour presentations. You have to take your peers and teach them to ski better. Once you pass Level III, you can take a course to begin teaching Level I.”

Once an instructor reaches Level III his or her certificate is recognized globally. In Canada, a Level I instructor earns about $15 per hour. A Level III instructor earns about $17 hourly.

“You get to do what you love all day long and being able to work outside with people that are the same age as you is great,” says Schmidt. “And you get a season’s pass, so you can ski whenever.”

Instructors, even after they’ve reached Level III, take lessons every day with a Level IV instructor and it’s a message they pass on to the client. No matter how well you ski, there’s always new things to learn.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s golf, tennis or skiing, an expert can give you a fresh perspective and tips so you can enjoy the sport more,” says Ken Read, president of Alpine Canada Alpin and former Crazy Canuck racer. “Instructors can also take you places on the mountain you never knew existed.”

Enroll in a Race Program

But for the most dramatic improvement in the least time, Read advises enrolling in a race program, especially for kids. They get good instruction, they’re on the mountain, on their skis frequently and they do it with friends, so they improve really quickly, he says.

And Read ought to know. He won his first World Cup race at 20 years old and together with his Crazy Canucks team mates dragged Canada into the spotlight of World Cup racing from the mid-1970s and into the 80s.

“A lot of families put their kids in to build skills so they can enjoy the sport for the rest of their lives,” says Read.

Alberta Alpine is a Calgary-based ski club that teaches young people to race. The focus is on youth and they take skiers aged 5 to 20, says Maureen O’Hara Leman, the club’s president.

At 5 years old, the children begin skiing in the Nancy Green Ski League with professionally certified coaches.

“The Nancy Green program builds a really strong foundation and skills so the kids can develop into successful athletes,” says O’Hara-Leman, adding that parents often benefit from their kids’ enrollment.

“If they’re committed to a program and the kids know their coaches are waiting for them, sometimes they make the parents go,” says O’Hara-Leman. So the parents get out more and get more exercise too.”

When the kids reach 11 and 12 years old, they move on to K1, where they begin to race and move up to the next level. They also begin dry-land training and some of these young skiers begin sharpening their bodies and skills for a career in racing.

K2 level is for 13-14 year olds and the racing and training components intensify.

Ellen Brenner, program director of Bow Valley Quikies, a ski club based in Banff National Park, sees first hand how ski racing teaches far more than just lines and speed. It also teaches discipline, work ethic and time-management skills, she says.

“They have to juggle ski time and school work, so they don’t have a lot of free time,” she continues. “They don’t have time to get into trouble. And some coaches say that what they learned balancing their time helps them when they go to post-secondary.”

O’Hara-Leman agrees. The other benefit is that even if they quit at ages 17 or 18 they’re still awesome skiers for the rest of their lives, she says.

“They become really good at all-terrain,” continues O’Hara-Leman. “A lot of them go into skiercross or free-riding disciplines.”

Discover the Discipline

That’s exactly what happened with Eric Hjorleifson, a highly-accomplished freeskier with several movie credits under his belt. Hjorleifson raced until he was 16 years old and says it’s the best way to improve technique.

“You just work on your technique and on how to carve,” he says. “Downhill discipline is still one of the craziest things I’ve ever done. With the speed, it can be really scary.”

This might seem a strange statement from a man who routinely carves fluid lines down steep backcountry pitches for filmakers and fun. But Hjorleifson doesn’t venture into avalanche country without the right equipment.

Learn Avalanche Safety and Skills

For those who want to follow suit, but perhaps have less experience than Hjorleifson, Alberta has numerous avalanche skills training providers, the official name for programs that teach avalanche awareness. Leading the pack is the University of Calgary’s Outdoor Centre.

The centre holds various avalanche awareness programs throughout the winter, from a three-hour avalanche transceiver clinic to a six-day Avalanche Safety Week course.

“Clients learn avalanche awareness skills, how to dress and eat for winter back-country travel, how to use a beacon and where to find snow and avalanche conditions information,” says Lori Allan, marketing and communications supervisor for the Outdoor Centre.

The good news for backcountry travelers is that November conditions in 2006 are really good. The snow is very deep and so far there aren’t many deep weak layers, says Ilya Storm, a public avalanche forecaster at the Canadian Avalanche Centre in Revelstoke.

But Storm is quick to add that conditions change overnight, which is why it’s so important to keep checking conditions and avalanche forecasts constantly.

“Looking a week ahead is like looking into eternity,” says Storm. “It’s very difficult to look that far ahead. So the best central place for avalanche information is our website at www.avalanche.ca.”

While Storm highly recommends the use of beacons, shovels and probes, he’s quick to point out that these tools are for when disaster has already struck.

“Prevention is way more important and the most important tool is your head,” says Storm.

To help backcountry users make the right choices, the CAC has developed The Evaluator. One side of this driver’s-license sized card is a trip-planning tool, while the other is used to help evaluate conditions in the field. The Evaluator is available at Mountain Equipment Co-op or online at www.avalanche.ca. The website also lists the nearest avalanche skills training providers.