Banff 2014, Arrival week.

We're back into the full swing of things here in Canada once again, our 11 week instructor crew has got their first week of training behind them already. 

The group turned up last Friday just before the storm of the season rolled through. Our first weekend is always jam packed full of awesome events, we definitely kick off the season in style. Once we got the all settled into the Basecamp building we made the 5 minute stroll into the heart of town to Athena pizza for a welcome dinner and drinks.  Once everyone had their fill of the awesome spread they put on for us there we made the move to one of the other bars on the main strip for another couple of rounds before we lost half our crew to jet lag. Those who pulled through made their way to Aurora, one of the nightclubs that always give us the VIP treatment and were out till the wee hours of the morning. 

The next day we usually kick off with a buffet breakfast at the hotel then do a big tour around town, getting everyone sorted with their ski passes. This weekend was special though as the town of banff was putting off a massive street party to celebrate all our Olympic athletes heading off to Russia. Most of Banff ave was closed off and there were all sorts of activities happening in the street as well as a massive concert going on at one end of town. In the evening we headed over to see our friends at Soul ski and bike. They always put on an awesome tech night for us where they give us the lowdown on all the gear needed to help you get the most of the training. Once the chat was over they brought in a DJ and gave us open access to their beer fridge while we had a look around at all the goods. 

As I mentioned we had a massive storm rolling through the first weekend of the course and on our first ski on Sunday there was about 30 cm's of super dry pow on the mountain. It was easily the best snow that most of the group had ever ridden!  Th storm continued through the first two day of training and by the time it was all said and done we had about 80cm's of new snow, completely changing the way the mountain looked. 

Thursday we went out as a group for a few rounds of bingo in town which always turns out to be a great start to a night out, a few of us even walked away a bit richer. Friday each alternating week the guys get one on one training with the coaches at Lake Louise, so the ones that has th next day off made the most of thirsty Thursday in town. 

Have a look at the video for a great redcap of everyone's arrival and the pile of new snow we had. Make sure you check back in every week as we will have another recap of what's been happening in Canada every Sunday.