Goddess goes to work!

Last year I successfully passed my Level 2 Ski Instructor qualification. I already had my Level 1 qualification but a Level 2 gives you the sort of skills that make you internationally employable. Although it won't necessarily get you a work visa!

The biggest issue for me getting an overseas work visa is my age. Being a few decades over the magical cut off age of 30 (35 in some countries, but yeah I missed that one too) I can't go swanning off on a working holiday visa and jag myself a job on a skifield. I need to get an employer to sponsor me, which they aren't going to do on a whim. Particularly without any experience!!

So I decided to apply for a job at Cardrona in NZ (where I can work without requiring a visa) this year. This is the mountain I volunteer on with the adaptive ski program, although I prefer to free ski at Treble Cone. Why, you ask, wouldn't I apply for a job at Treble Cone instead?

Many reasons, the main one being that the mountain is mostly advanced terrain. Which means most skiers coming to Treble Cone can already ski. Ski schools make most of their money in two areas: beginner lessons, and private lessons. Private lessons will go to those instructors with most seniority through a priority system that rewards qualifications and loyalty. My standing is so low that I would just be left with beginner lessons, and there aren't many of those at Treble Cone. So I wouldn't get any work.

Contrast that with Cardrona, which is so busy with lessons that I had all day work every shift I was rostered, and during the very busy school holidays and August I often had a couple of one hour private lessons as well as four to five hours of group lessons. Admittedly towards the end of the season it dropped off, but I only once had the situation of turning up for work and being told I wasn't needed.

A huge advantage of Cardrona, as compared to TC, is it is an awesome mountain to teach beginners on. This is because the terrain is so perfect (ok it's very flat!) for progressing even the most timid and anxious new skier. Since an instructor is in the business of creating an enjoyable experience so the punter comes back for more, there's a considerable advantage in not scaring the shit out of a complete beginner. TC, with it's steep terrain, can do a damn good job of being terrifying!

Cardrona gave me a job, which is quite an achievement as jobs there are hard to come by due to low attrition rates. I can only claim my success to be due to their need for a stable of part timers who are flexible: instructors who can work more when it is busy, and don't need the hours when it's quiet. And they also don't need to sponsor me with the requirement of providing a minimum number of hours per week.

I initially said I'd just do one day a week, but come June there was still not enough snow for TC to open and I was getting hopelessly bored. So I ended up doing 3 days a week.

I enjoyed every minute of it. The crew I was working with were all really friendly and supportive. I'd ended up getting a locker in the locker room next to some of the oldest and most experienced instructors at Cardrona, and they were great to learn from as well as unburden with when things didn't quite go to plan. Which happens more often than any of us would like to admit.

Sometimes I had adult first timer lessons where the group size was well over 10. This is quite a baptism of fire because fitness levels in a group that big can vary hugely, and some people acquire the basic skills much quicker than others. Learning how to manage both group dynamics and coaching people at different stages in their progressions was a great learning experience for me. And then there are the kids…

Children are easier, in that they learn through experiential learning rather than instruction as to how to do something. Plus, though there are exceptions, they are fearless. You just show them what you want them to do and get them to mimic you. And you make as much as possible into a game. Of course you have to customise it to their developmental level, but I seem to have a natural ability to assume the age of my students, whatever it is. Yes, I can even chuck a good tantrum given the opportunity!

Jokes aside, being older with more life experience gives me a whole load of other advantages when it comes to teaching kids. Firstly, their parents trust me. I'm not some 18 year old taking charge of their precious kids for the day and they make assumptions as to my experience based on how old I look. I don't tell them it's my first year teaching of course. And secondly, I'm well attuned to picking up when the kids are starting to show signs of fatigue and I'll interrupt the teaching for some play time.

The shit side of teaching kids is the shit kids. Usually they have arsehole parents so it isn't really their fault, but from time to time you get kids that just won't even make an effort to join in with the group. Mostly I try to create a sense of group solidarity, where the kids themselves will help and support each other, but sometimes you get a kid that just doesn't fit. And worst case scenario, skis off on you!! Luckily for me, I managed to catch my one potential runaway before he got too far, and we negotiated an agreement where he got one choice of where to ski, and then he had to agree to ski with the rest of the kids' choices. The other option, of course, is to suggest the parents book their child for a private one on one lesson. Arsehole parents don't often do this however….

I still managed to do some adaptive volunteering, although not as much as last year. I skied again with Finn and Sean, and managed to take a video of Sean's expert sit ski bucketting.


Finn and Sean from Naomi Brooks on Vimeo.

I've become good friends with Finn and his family, who live in Dunedin and come up a few times each winter. They are an awesome family that just do what they need to do given they have one child with a severe disability. Whilst Finn still wants to come skiing, Sean will take him, even though their younger son has now decided skiing isn't really his cup of tea. Sean's true passion is ski touring, so I asked Sean if I could join him on some upcoming day trips.

Unfortunately I didn't get as many days as usual skiing at Treble Cone. Mostly because of the late opening at TC, but also because I was working 3 days and then also volunteering a few days at Cardrona. I'm not totally sure I got my money's worth out of my TC season pass this year....

I also only managed one day over at Ohau this year, with Janey and a few of my Cardrona colleagues. This time I hiked right up to the very top of the big bowl and got a nice long run down. The conditions weren't awesome, but the view certainly was! Unfortunately I also got a speeding ticket on the drive back to Wanaka. Thankfully the fine wasn't too onerous....

In the second week of September Sean, I and my Alaskan ski touring friend Jennifer (remember her from The Invincibles trip?), as well as a friend of Sean's, headed out the back of Cardrona for a bluebird day shredding fresh snow, and then just the three of us did it again the next day out the back of Treble Cone. This year I had bought new touring boots and bindings for my skis, which made walking up hill considerably lighter and easier. It's exhausting work, but exhilarating! And I'm now understanding the joy of the rhythm of skinning up a slope. (For the uninitiated, you apply synthetic "skins" to the bottom of your skis which prevent them sliding backwards, you release the heel of your ski binding, and you walk in a sliding motion with your skis up a slope, because there isn't a chairlift to the spot you wish to ski down from).

At the end of the season I sat my adaptive ski exam. Just the Level 1, but it required us to have competence bucketting and tethering sit skis, actually skiing in a monoski, ok a J turn but it's easier said than done, teaching skiing for 3 track, 4 track, and a bunch of physical, cognitive and visual impairments. It was a great 3 days with an awesome group of participants, with my current hero Christine being our instructor. She can bucket and tether a sit ski whilst snowboarding! And yes I passed.


Adaptive skiing: bucketing and tethering a sit-ski whilst snowboarding from Naomi Brooks on Vimeo.

By the end of September things were quietening down considerably on the work front. Because I was part time, and frankly, didn't need the work, I was happy to reduce my hours. But then mum started having more health problems so I decided to leave Wanaka and head back over the ditch to spend some time with her to give my brother the chance to go on a family holiday to Tasmania.

So I did. That's next.

A tour to The Invincibles

I was driving my car when I got the call. My friend Sue was having lunch with her daughter when a friend of her daughter's, a heliski and backcountry guide, told them she was looking for a couple of women to make up a group heading out on a five day backcountry ski trip. Sue thought of me and immediately rang me.

I'd just got back from Australia, from seeing my mother struggle back from the precipice, and was in the middle of sitting my Level 2 ski instructor exams, so I wasn't quite ready to commit, especially  as mum wasn't quite out of the woods yet. But the temptation was there...

I'd heard of The Invincibles a few years ago, when I did a scenic flight and cruise to Milford Sound and we flew over it on our way back to Wanaka. It's a tiny private spot up the Rees Valley above Glenorchy, with a sole rope tow. It's only accessible by helicopter and there's a small hut for groups to stay in. Two staff run the rope tow and cater for the select few who are lucky enough to charter a trip there. Our guide, Anna Cook, runs a ski touring trip there once a year at the end of the season, and there had been a couple of late cancellations opening up the opportunity for me to join.

The following day I had successfully passed my exam. Yay me!! Once I knew mum was continuing to improve, I decided it was time to treat myself. I'd never been ski touring before, but had all the gear (except for ski crampons which I managed to source fairly quickly) even if my gear wasn't the lightest equipment out there. When I had purchased my Soul 7s for skiing in Japan, they had come fitted with Atomic bindings which have a heel release for touring. I'd purchased skins earlier this year so all I needed to do was cut them to size. My older ski boots had a walk mode, and I already had an avalanche beacon, probe and shovel. So I was all set....

We met the evening before at the Aspiring Guides office for a pretrip gear inspection and discussion. There were five of us women, plus our guide Anna. Two women were from Christchurch, a third from Kurow, and the fourth was a lass I'd met a few years ago, from Alaska. Not in Alaska, but in Wanaka! Bad weather had delayed the start for the group charter in the week before us, which meant we couldn't arrive for another day. Instead, we planned to have a whole day ski touring in the Pisa Range near Wanaka, drive to Glenorchy that evening, then take an early helicopter ride the next morning. Because of the delay we would be dropped off further up the ridge from the hut, and would make our way progressively back down. That meant we started with a free downhill run before the first skin up!

Day 1 was warm and sunny. We headed up to Snow Farm and skied through to a spot where we left the cross country track to cross a river and begin skinning up a ridge. But first we did a little refresher finding our beacons.

I had to learn to use my touring gear, so it was a good trial day for me before heading to a more remote location. My touring gear is much heavier than dedicated ski touring boots and bindings, but I didn't find it too much of a hindrance. I was slow, but mostly it was because I still needed to get used to the technique of gliding when skinning. Unless I was to do lots of touring, I can't see the benefit in purchasing dedicated touring gear.

We drove to Queenstown, then on to Kinloch Lodge, where we ate dinner and hit the sack. After an early morning soak in the hot tub and a quick breakfast, we made up our lunches and drove up the Rees Valley to our rendezvous with the helicopter. We loaded the chopper with the gear for the hut and waited for its return to take us and our ski and day packs up higher. We landed on a ridge into a pristine environment.

Johnny, who runs the Invincibles skifield, doesn't encourage touring due to safety concerns, so most people stick to skiing within the boundaries of the rope tow. But Anna is a very experienced guide, and somewhat of a guru when it comes to avalanche terrain and picking the best lines to ski. So Johnny lets her take tours out here. Needless to say, the terrain was untouched...

We did a couple of runs before stopping for lunch, then a few more runs on our way down to the hut. The weather was bluebird. The skiing was excellent, until we got back on to the skifield terrain, by which time the snow had turned heavy and was very sticky to ski in.

The hut is tiny, but warm and comfy for a small group. There's a table and benches, with a couple of couches and a pot belly stove downstairs, and a bunch of mattresses upstairs for sleeping. There's a long drop toilet a short walk away, but no plumbing. Basic, yet warm and comfortable.

Day 3 we clipped on the ski crampons, and made our way back up the ridge the way we had come down yesterday. We climbed up for some views back to Mount Aspiring, which is quite close as the crow flies, then took a big long line down before popping the skins on and walking back up again. Again Anna found good lines for us to ski and my skinning skills slowly improved. Learning to do kick turns on steep slopes takes some practice....

Day 4 we headed out below the hut, but bad weather was coming in so we skinned back to the tow rope and skied in bounds until lunch time. Then it really began to puke down. Only a few braved the zero visibility conditions to ski the fresh pow. I wasn't one of them.

Our final day we got up super early, packed and breakfasted and got out to ski the knee deep powder before our helicopter pickup. With more bad weather forecast we had only a small window to get off the mountain, so we lapped that tow line doing fresh tracks every single run until it was time to stomp down the helipad and head off down the mountain.

It was an amazing experience, and has certainly whet my appetite for more ski touring. Not that I need to go to all the expense of helicopter accessed terrain, there's plenty of good touring just out the back of the Southern Lakes ski fields. The main thing is I now have the basic skills for touring, just got to find some touring buddies to go with...

Once I got back to Wanaka I had a couple more weeks of spring skiing at Cardrona ( I missed TC closing day whilst out ski touring) before it too closed for the season. So that's it for 2018, it's now time to pack up the skis and go tramping.

That's next....