Basecamp

This course reignited my passion for skiing. For the last few years I had turned to predominantly Freestyle skiing for fun. However, the highly professional and passionate level 3 and 4 CSIA instructors brought both a challenge and fun back to piste skiing.

The previous Basecamp alumni that now work in resort were there to give advice and guidance all through the course. Also being able to shadow current instructors while they take lessons really gives a feel for the reality of working as an instructor.

Living centrally in Banff only adds to the experience with the numerous bars and restaurants encouraging a great social scene and the accommodation is very high quality.

All in all it is a life changing eleven weeks. Basecamp is the most well established and best regarded of all the gap year courses at Lake Louise and having completed the course I can see why. All of the skiing cohort passed the Level 2 CSIA Instructor course and a number of the participants (including myself) plan to be back in resort next year to instruct and ignite a passion in the next generation of skiiers.

Had the time of my life out in Canada with these guys! Met the most amazing people who will now be friends for life, skied in a world class resort which was insane, lived the dream of qualifying to instruct with awesome coaches to help and Banff was happily called our home out there. Had days where we hiked to find powder to hitting the park in the same day, the smile was impossible to get rid of. If you're thinking about it just do it, was an adventure of a lifetime.

I cannot quite express quite how amazing my 10 weeks in Val d'Isère were, but I'm going to try. I did the course in my gap year between school and uni, but while most of us were 18-19ish, there were a fair few who did it post-uni. Though age out there didn't really count since we were all out there to improve our skiing; get a qualification and to have a great time. I can say that I got all three out of the 10 weeks. I passed my Level 2 and then went on to teach kids to ski for a couple of weeks with a fellow Basecamper in Italy for a company called Interski. Basecamp has a good relationship with Interski and getting that employment after the course was surprisingly easy with my resort manager Gwil's help.
Gwil was amazing - he was always there if we needed help with pretty much anything and was always keen to organise events for us (e.g. Ice Karting!).
The BASS instructors are also fantastic - I had a number of different instructors who were all equally lovely and willing to tell you about scholarships available to continue on to Level 3 and 4 (something I'd love to do in the future).
I was having such a great time out in Val d'Isère that after a couple of weeks out there I decided that I didn't want to go home after the course but to stay out a bit longer, so after going to Italy for a couple of weeks, I returned to Val d'Isère for a final week and farewell. Loads of people stayed on at the end of the course (accommodation was very much affordable!) so it didn't feel as though it had properly ended!
The only thing that I can even be a little bit negative about is the accommodation which is a bit squished, but wasn't much of an issue because although you're a bit on top of each other, it forces you to get to know everyone really quickly. It was a bit of a shock for the first week, but after that everyone was good enough friends that it wasn't an issue at all.
All in all I couldn't really recommend this course much more highly. It's a lot of money, but SO worth it!

Had a great time on this course training for my BASI Level 2. Overall the course was well thought out with enough of a split of training weeks before the level 1 and 2 exams were booked to fit into the 10 week period. The trainers, examiners and all the basecamp staff were very helpful and good fun!

I had the most amazing winter season with Basecamp. I met friends for life and experienced so much. The coaches and Basecamp staff are great fun.
It is an unreal thing to do and would recommend it to anyone with a keen interest in skiing / being outdoors, or doing a Winter season!
The resort is extremely fun and there are all the facilities you could possibly want such as a gym/ pool/ good bars and clubs/ 3 supermarkets ect!
Amazing experience I just wish I could do it all again!