Louis Hall turned his hobby into a second professsion, and had a great time doing it!

“So Louis, what are you going to be doing this summer?”

“Well, I’m going to be working in an architecture office for three months before heading out to Argentina to teach there for the summer months”, I reply smiling to my client, but mostly to myself.

Confused silence follows, then the usual reply: “Oh…wow”.

It never ceases to amuse me – the pre-conception that ski instructors are simply people lacking any other skills or interests in life besides skiing. But this is rarely the case. Certainly there are those that have dedicated their time solely to the sport; many of the friends I have made in Verbier over the past five months have done just that. But the majority of ski instructors I have come to know have lives outside of the industry.

I myself am half way through my training to become an architect. Many other instructors I know have alternate professions: as graphic designers, investment bankers, even doctors. Four years at Edinburgh University, and a year working in practice in New York, has left me well placed to continue my studies when I choose to complete that particular journey. But in the meantime, I plan to divide my time between the two.

It’s strange, but I still can’t recall the exact series of events that led to me booking onto the ski instructor gap course in Argentina. I think it had a great deal to do with the exhaustion (and mild depression) that kicked in sometime during my final design project at Edinburgh, and the desire to pursue my other great passion for a while. You see, I never took a gap year after leaving Eton; a decision I have never regretted. I think some people are ready to spread their wings and discover a world outside of education upon finishing school; I was, however, not one of those people – I desperately wanted to get on with my architectural studies…the gap year could wait.

Eventually, the inspiration for doing an instructor course over the summer came in the form of a university colleague’s experience in Argentina. She recalled a course that was being run by Peak Leaders when she visited Bariloche, a small town in the Andes, buried deep within Patagonia. The thought struck me that I could qualify as an instructor, and then teach during the coming winter season in Europe. So with this thought in mind, I booked onto the course knowing that I only had two weeks of finals separating me from my Patagonian adventure.

I set out for Buenos Aires not really knowing what kind of people I could expect to meet on the course. I was pleasantly surprised to find an eclectic mix of characters – the majority of the group being made up of “gappers” taking a traditional year out, while the other percentage of the group consisted of people on a post-university gap year, and still older people taking career breaks or simply looking for a new profession. After getting to know one another in Argentina’s capital, we made our way as one down to Bariloche, set on the edge of the Patagonian Andes near the Chilean border.

You couldn’t choose a more stunning setting to spend two and half months. The Hostel El Returno, located just outside of Bariloche, and ten minutes from Cerro Cathedral (the actual mountain resort), was our base for the trip, and the mountain-fringed Lago (lake) Gutierrez upon which the Hostel resided was a constant source of beauty. When up the mountain, one could see far across the Patagonian steppe, and turning 180 degrees one was faced with the immense panorama of the Andes, reaching all the way to Chile.

As distracting as the scenery was, there was still a great deal of work to be done. We spent most of our time up on the mountain working in conjunction with local ski schools to improve our technical performance and our teaching skills. Back down in the valley we worked on our physical fitness – warming up at 6.30 in the morning before breakfast, and warming down and doing flexibility exercises after skiing. The football fanatics amongst us also played quite a few indoor matches at the nearby gymnasium, and eventually put out a team against the Argentinean instructors…and despite historical precedent, I am pleased to say we won.

The programme was not all about skiing though. Twice a week we would all have Spanish lessons, which we could then put into practice on and off the mountain. We also travelled some distance south, down through Patagonia, to make use of the facilities in Esquel – another ski resort. During that one-week trip we also stopped over in the mill-town of Trevelin, one of the first Welsh settlements in Patagonia, and got to see some of their cultural influences on the area, including a Welsh tearoom! On our return trip back to Bariloche, we dropped in on the national park of La Pampa in order to complete our mountain safety and first aid course, and take a look at the stunning glaciated valleys.

The culmination of our time spent in Argentina was of course our instructor examinations. After our month and a half of training with the local instructors, a group of trainers from BASI (the British Association of Snowsport Instructors) joined us at the Hostel El Returno. We then embarked on a physically and mentally gruelling three-week examination schedule, consisting of technical training on the mountain, video analysis down in the valley, and evening lectures focusing on the finer points of teaching styles. Since continuing along the road of skiing qualifications (I am actually at the time of writing this in the middle of another course!), I have come to realise how tough these examinations really are, and as such am thoroughly impressed at how high a pass rate we managed to achieve in Argentina – thanks to the dedication of both the students and those working with us.

I was deeply touched by the time I spent in Patagonia. The inherent peacefulness of the region provided me with an amazing sensation of calmness – much needed after nine years of intense education. The course was naturally a great deal of fun (how could it not have been?); but I will also never forget that it provided me with a handful of what I hope will be life-long friendships, a qualification enabling me to teach one of the things I love most in life, and most importantly a clear head.

My plan for the rest of this year is return to architectural practice for a short while, before continuing to make the most of my time in Argentina, by heading back there to teach and help on the very same course I was a part of last year…my theory is that two professions are better than one.

“So, what are you going to be doing this summer…?”

Louis Hall – Peak Leaders Ski Instructor Course, Argentina 2007