 Poster: A snowHead
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easiski, my wife would agree with you there. The only time in our twelve years together I've heard her use a certain four letter was at lunchtime on the first day when the two groups met up, and I asked her how she was doing. Her response was somewhat negative but when I suggested she packed it in she replied 'I'm not letting that **** think he's scared me off'. Perhaps he was just using advanced pyschology on her!
I would agree though with Kramer, that it helps with EC if you are a strong freeride skier already when you ski with them. I suspect that if I went back now with my off piste ability much higher (thanks to the good Mr Smith) that I would enjoy it more
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| easiski wrote: |
| It sounds as though Extremely Canadian is not for women! that sort of thing doesn't generally work without testosterone running around!! |
easiski,
Perhaps you should ask Christie, Wendy, or Cara (some of the women EC coaches)...? 
Think it is fair to say that Extremely Canadian isn't for the faint hearted or those wanting a softly-softly approach, but that really isn't the reason I for one do it.
I'm very far from being an 'extreme' skier, don't like heights, can spot all of the ways I could possibly maim myself going down a run rather than just skiing it, get nervous on very simple to ski exposed terain, etc, etc, but I need someone to push me a bit, because the more I ski these types of runs, the less of a problem they become and the better I ski them. With EC I've skied runs that normally I would just go round. but with some encouragement have gone down and afterwards found it looked much worse than it was and have been very pleased to have done it. Later some of these have come in very useful, sometimes you find yourself in areas where you have no choice but to drop a small cliff or straightline a chute. I'm lucky enough to have skied with the EC guys a lot, so I know I can trust them to match the skiing to my ability and generally not push it too far, I also know Whistler well enough to know if they are likely to. 
Guess it's horses for courses. 
I think EC probably would benefit from sometimes either running more levels so they can match the coaching to the ability of class a little better or raising the minimum required standard (they say from good intermediate upwards, I think they should raise this a little as the run they do the ski-off on is a decent black (in fact actually on the website they do say you should be skiing blacks aggressively)) - sometimes I find they mix it up too much when they only have small numbers of participants to the detriment of both ends of the scale.
Kramer You really should make sure you do the second day some time - just for the Apres! The beer in merlins has never tasted so good as the one after surviving repeated laps of Spankys Incidently it is after this I nearly had my worse Extremely Canadian accident when I fell off the magic chair after (quite) a few jugs of beer attempting to make our way to the GLC to continue the survival celebrations/apres!! 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I would be interested in hearing more peoples experience with Piste to Powder in St Anton.
I spent 3 weeks with Yes Improvement in Whistler last year. I found the first week to be challenging but by the the third week I felt that I was not challenged enough. I then traveled over to Europe for some ski tours and experienced less technically challenging skiing but with greater exposure.
My plan this year is to travel to Europe in March for more ski-touring but I would like a week of technical off-piste ski instruction beforehand. So will Piste to Powder improve my technical skiing ability or just test my composure in difficult locations?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I would recommend the Dolomites for some fantastic off-piste terrain in a quieter environment than is usually found in the Alps. In addition the food on the mountain in Italy is fantastic, you will need a good lunch if you are skiing off-piste all day!
These guys, https://www.mountainguidesitaly.com/activities/733/772/off-piste-skiing, offer a great off-piste ski course and you can be completely flexible with your level, duration and dates which made it ideal for our group because we didn't want to do a fixed Saturday to Saturday week.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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I have no experience of Piste to Powder or St Anton although folk on the forum do rate them highly. I did email them in the off season couple of years ago but never got a reply.
Snoworks have a good reputation and go to various European resorts over the Winter. Can usually help you sort single accommodation if that is what you are after. Mainly based in Tignes though which has great off-piste. They do St Anton in January too.
I have used Ultimate too in Tignes but problematic if you are travelling alone as they will not confirm a course unless there is a group.
Arguably there are better options for finding off-piste courses in Val D'isere (linked with Tignes) and you should be able to sort accomodation easily. There are few companies with courses most week. An easy google will find them.
I am doing a week in Chamonix next year with Mark Gear & allmountainperformance. He has several set 5 day long courses. Chamonix has varied accommodation options.
You could even join the Ski Club of Great Britain for £70 and do a Freshtracks holiday - they have off-piste weeks in many resorts all through the Winter. Yet to go on one though!
Can recommend Ski Marmalade in Meribel too!
If you were coming from Oz I think that a week in each St Anton, Chamonix, trois valleys & Val D'disere would be fantastic. Just hope you are wealthy!
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...and of course there's the snowHeads Spring Off-Piste Bash (The SOPiB).
6 groups ranging from 'just getting off the piste' to 'Gnar gnar epic POW weeEEee!!'
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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@Harbord. Hi, we used Piste to Powder last year. We booked a week and were allocated Stefan. He was above excellent and unlike any other off piste instructor we have had in the past. Historically we have found the instructor basically do a follow the leader and if you fall it all becomes hard work when the instructor is 50/100 meters away and puts pressure on you not to fall and hold up the group. Stefan never left the group by more than 3 turns, this did extend a bit as the week passed and our ability grew. He even took time to take photos of us which he airdropped to our phones over lunch. His level of detailed instruction and care to mountain safety was a revelation . We were so impressed with the tuition, we dug deep and booked a second week. We did not get Stefan the second week. We had progressed to the second level group and things were a bit faster but the guides were good finding safe fresh powder if somewhat faster. At all times group safety was paramount. They were also flexible to coffee breaks and lunch. We nearly every day more hours on the skis than we had paid for. We took open groups and had good value for money.
We are going back to use them again this year; Hope we get stephan_p again, in fact we will ask for him. On a lighter level the only down side was the early meeting which meant we missed the fresh morning bread at the camp site.
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