Ski Season - Whistler, Banff or Fernie?? Where would you go?

A snowHead

chelt881, That's cool then, hope you have a great time. If you were prepared to get a bit organised though you wouldn't be paying a premium for stuff you could easily sort yourself is all I meant, and you wouldn't be hanging with (predominantly) a bunch of nobbers travelling on mummy and daddy's coin who therefore generally don't seem to make the most of it.

For the record though, it ain't 1-1, your day trips (Whistler 11 hours away, Banff 5) ain't day trips so you'll be looking at all the associated costs minus a $50 Greyhound ticket, cat-skiing at Island Lake is awesome but you'll be limited in terms of terrain by the abilities of the novices in your massive group (they were ringing around one morning offering free cat-skiing places last year as half the non-stoppers couldn't be arsed getting out of bed); just reckon you'd be better off meeting normal people for your road trips and simply buying your avvy gear, as you won't need a guide to hike any of the non-patrolled areas: Fish, Mammoth Head, 2000 Ridge, BSM etc. You could hit Thunder Meadows touring hut for a few nights with a photocopied A4 map and a mobile phone! Lift queue priority pass!? What queues?

Accomodation (with hot tub; most important) for 5 months will cost you CAN$2000, lift pass $950, Avvy gear/skins $1000, flights £500 then you have £3000 to play with and your own touring set up.

Fair play though, if you want 25 hours a week of group lessons then it does sort of start to make sense I suppose, I'm sure you'll have a right laugh and I'm only basing this on what I saw.

But I know what I'd do.

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Plenty of places at c$400 a month in a twin - do your own research! wink

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oz5000, with a hot tub? Anyway, who chooses to live in a twin room by choice? Confused

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

If he's paying £6,500 he'll be in a QUAD room with Non Stop!

Crash at the Elk when you arrive for a couple of nights and check the forums for houses.

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oz5000, yeah, fifth (well, fourth full season) in Fernie coming up, I've got a pretty good idea how the housing market works thanks Wink

Regardless, 25hrs * 11 is a lot of instruction, they get fed quite well, and so on. Good luck finding 275 hours of group lessons outside of a gap year course for any non-insane price. $20 an hour is approx the ski school rate for group lessons, so there's $5500 for you - plus they get a few privates, $400 l1, etc. Like I said, it's not actually bad value. I'm not disagreeing that doing it yourself is cheaper and just as valid, it's the decision I made, but I don't think Nonstoppers are being abused for mummy and daddies money.

I do like the "work experience" bit though - that's a day or two shadowing lineup. A nonstop shadow basically meant you got your lesson taught and just made sure they didn't kill any kids Toofy Grin

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Think I already acknowledged that?

After all it is free

Hi there!

For all you Ski Instructors, I just wanted to let you know that we have lots of Job openings in Japan (Hokkaido) for this season. In case you're interested, I've put up details on our website at http://www.boobooski.com/ski-instructor-jobs.html

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions, cheers.

Sincerely,

Adam

oz5000, you get most of your food with Nonstop too.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

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DaveC, I was referring to L1, I get that to do L2 even on a BASI course must require some ability to ski. Wink

L1? Not so much.

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parlor, still not sure how your "chalet boys and girls are crap skiers" thing fits in with that tho, when most people are doing gap year courses to be better skiers, or, "a ski instructor" (ie, good). It's just an alternate option - admittedly one that most people can't afford, and the thing that does seem to be overlooked is that people generally come out of it much better skiers having had a lot of instruction.

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

parlor, I'm going to give up trying to get you to agree that instruction makes people better at skiing now Wink

A snowHead

Sorry for the confusion on our website (see post by DaveC above)- salaries are higher for Ski Instructors than for other Resort jobs, which is why there are 2 separate sets of figures - thanks for bringing my attention to it - I've just updated the pages online to make things hopefully perfectly clear!

As for being able to teach in Resorts, actually in Japan, many Resorts will let you teach without even having ANY ski instructor qualification! (though you'd need to speak pretty good Japanese in that case). For those of you who don't speak any Japanese, even basic instructor qualifications will be good enough to land a job.

Hope this info helps all of you,

Sincerely,

Adam.

A snowHead

boobooski, It doesn't help anyone as you usefully spammed a thread on Canada. rolling eyes

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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if you buy a season pass at whistler you can buy a lesson pass that will allow you to attend as many 'standard' lessons as you like, and they do 2 a day, every day, so you will improve your skiing a lot if you want. when we went we did 2-3 days a week in lessons (and they go as far as you want - tricks, off piste, trees etc) and spent the rest of the time enjoying the mountain.
i believe the canadian instructor qualifications are only recognised by the french when you get to casi level 3 (which is quite hard i believe).

you could get a lifty job i'm sure.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

thinking about it, for casi level 1 boarding you need to spend 63 days on a mountain, so i don't think they'll let you take the exam before 7 weeks or so.

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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

After all it is free

Here is a simple reply for you as I have skied all the resorts you have mentioned. GO TO WHISTLER you will not regret it. Fantastic skiing on your doorstep with
great nite life and atmosphere. Traffic free and within walking distance of all facilities. Fernie has good snow and is steep but the village is drawn out and not brilliant. Banff has a great lively town but you will get fed up with all the travelling between resorts, all the skiing is a bus ride away. By the way anyone can pass level 1 and you are more likely to be offered a job in Whistler as the ski school is huge. Hope this helps you make up your mind.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

I had exactly the same dilemna this time last year. After endless arguments for and against each I chose Whistler. Best decision of my life! Unbelievable skiing and a nightlife to match. I've been to Banff which is good but in my opinion Whistler wins hands down for what I was looking for (skiing and partying). If you want to know anything about Whistler PM me, I just spent the past 7 months there.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

My usual response to a 'Where in Canada' question, Kicking Horse.

If for no other reason than the precipitation falls as snow between December and mid-April.

As to the Japanese spam, it doesn't mention which resort(s) on Hokkaido and what the accommodation is like.

As a CSIA Level 2 instructor working in Niseko for NBS I was earning 2,000 yen per hour for group lessons, more for request private lessons and paying 50,000 yen a month for accommodation (own bedroom, sharing the house with 1 other person). The lift pass was included.

Adam?

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Sorry you felt my comment was spammy - the reason I posted it here is that Canadians (between the age of 18-30) are eligible to receive a Japanese Working Holiday Visa, which gives you the opportunity to enter, travel around, and work in Japan, for up to year. In addition, I've personally snowboarded in both Canada and Japan, and in my experience, the powder in Japan was MUCH better! So for anyone considering working in a resort in Canada, I thought you might all like to know that you can also consider Japan, if you haven't already done so. Again, sorry if the comment was out of place - it's just that many people don't realise they have the opportunity to try skiing in Japan, and it's such an awesome thing to experience!

As for your question Mike, positions we currently have on offer now offer up to 1500yen per hour, with free accommodation + season ski pass. Meals are subsidised by the Resort, and cost about 1000yen per day. For privacy reasons, we can't give the name of the Resort until after you apply online at our website, but we can tell you that it's one of the best in Hokkaido. We've personally visited all the decent-sized resorts in Hokkaido, and honestly, we think Niseko is too overrun with foreigners... getting away from those resorts means much less packed runs, more fresh powder in the trees, and much shorter lift queues!

Hope this answers all your questions, and sorry again if these comments are out of place.

Have a great weekend anyway!

Cheers, Adam.

Can't comment on the various ski and instructor training options, but I can on the CV issue. Having spent a lot of time interviewing top graduates for Fast Stream Civil Service entry I can say with some confidence that whilst gap year experiences might well help, being able to write "qualified ski instructor" probably won't, on its own. There are an awful lot of "buy a package" gap year options around which require little beyond money (almost always somebody else's). You'd need to think about how the planning and execution of your gap year demonstrated and helped develop qualities such as drive, inter-personal skills etc (and no, the hookers won't help with the last).

The other point is that in interview terms, recent experience is much more important than past experience. The suggestion of doing a gap year after uni is a good one - you can also do it during your uni year. 2 of my kids "intermitted" for a year during their degree courses.

I remember one girl who put on her CV that she had started and run her own child-minding service in a ski resort. On the face of it, valuable experience and my fellow interviewers thought I was cruel and cynical when I stated my intention to explore this at interview, betting them that Daddy had a chalet and she was working for pocket money.

And guess what? I was quite right. wink

Paying a big chunk of money for a pretty well completely organised experience, and having some sort of job found for you, might well be a great way of spending a gap year. But don't kid yourself that it is the best way of enhancing your CV (though if you can use that argument to wangle that sort of dosh out of your folks, that does show certain qualities of persuasion, I suppose).

You know it makes sense.

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Ski Season - Whistler, Banff or Fernie?? Where would you go?

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