PSIA-AASI

4.29.2011

SnowPro Update: Vail Lesson Numbers and Where to Ski Now

Vail Resorts, Inc. enjoyed a great season of ski and snowboard lessons, according to a press release regarding its 2010-11 earnings. Although the resort giant didn’t state actual figures, it did report that ski school numbers across the company’s six resorts were up 8.4 percent.

Along with its title mountain, Vail also owns Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, and Heavenly, and acquired Northstar-at-Tahoe in October. Year-over-year earnings were adjusted as if the area was owned last season as well. Other highlights included an 8 percent rise in season pass revenue, a 3.9 percent rise in skier visits, and an 8.3 percent rise in the retail and rental business.

Lifts Still Turning from Coast to Coast

Don’t hang up those boards just yet! Chairlifts are still running from Vermont to California, with many areas sitting on record-setting snow depths. Jay Peak and Killington are still killing it in Vermont (albeit with limited terrain), and Sugarbush will offer free skiing this Sunday for everybody who wants to spend one more weekend avoiding yard work. Saddleback is keeping the faithful happy with weekend openings in Maine as well.

In Colorado, Arapahoe Basin and Loveland are the last two areas standing, with both reporting that they passed the 100-inch base level mark. The way this season is going, both could still get more snow, which could help Loveland blast past the 572 total inches of snow the area received in the 1995-96 season. As of April 29, 2011, the area had received 553 inches. A-Basin is reporting plans to stay open until June 5th.

California’s Squaw Valley, which passed the 700-inch mark for the first time ever on April 8, is open weekends through May, while Mammoth, which is boasting 637 inches of total snowfall, will be open into July, quite probably for the 4th.

Washington and Oregon State are also pushing late, with snow continuing to fall as this is written, and areas such as Crystal Mountain, Timberline, and Mt. Bachelor keeping the lifts going so that riders can go and get fresh tracks. In Utah, Snowbird also has received the most snow in its 40-year history at 696 inches, and will “be celebrating with skiing until Memorial Day and most likely beyond, with conditions that are anything but typical spring skiing,” according to Bob Bonar, the resort president.

—Peter Kray

4.9.2011

50/50 Blog: A Mountain Full of Stoke

Curt Chase may have done the best job of summarizing all of the excitement, pride and passion that has been at the heart of the 50/50 Celebration at Snowmass this week. In accepting his PSIA-AASI Lifetime Achievement Award—which honored not only his role as one of the co-founders of the Professional Ski Instructors of America, but also 80 years in snowsports—Chase told the more than 500 people in attendance at the Celebration Banquet, “When I grow up, I want to be a ski instructor.”

There was a standing ovation in response. There were cheers. There were tears. And from the chairlifts to the banquet to the bars, there was a sense that there really could never be a better job in all the world. “I can’t imagine anything more life-affirming and life sustaining than teaching and being outdoors,” said Otto Ross, who was also honored as one of PSIA’s 50-year members.

It is that constant sense of wonder, that thrill of waking up to another glorious day on the mountain and another chance to inspire someone else that made it so easy for the founders to mix with the many ski, snowboard, adaptive and Nordic instructors who are so busy building PSIA-AASI’s future. It is why former PSIA board president Mark Anderson, who was also honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award, could share a table and a vision with Bud Keene, the Celebration Banquet’s keynote speaker.

Keene, one of snowboarding’s original instructors, told the crowd that what he learned as a member of PSIA-AASI directly contributed to him becoming competitive snowboarding’s most successful coach, and to helping Shaun White win two Olympic gold medals. “It was the same tools and philosophy that I learned from PSIA that helped put an athlete on the top of the Olympic podium,” Keene said. “So thanks for that PSIA.”

With the millions of lessons that PSIA-AASI members have taught over the past 50 years, it is impossible to know how many Olympic champions they have helped create, or how many people they have turned on to snowsports for life, or many other instructors they have helped create. But that is really the beauty of what this week in Snowmass is celebrating. With an incredible 50 years now officially in the history books, it’s time to start to looking to the next 50 years, and a future that is filled with potential.

—Peter Kray

4.1.2011

SnowPro Update: Plake, Rahlves & McConkey Join Ski Hall of Fame

Congratulations to this weekend’s inductees to the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame.

World Champion ski racer Daron Rahlves, and extreme icon Glen Plake—both new members of the PSIA—join the late great Shane McConkey, Paralympic medallist Muffy Davis, 1972 Olympian Bobby Cochran and Sun Valley owner Earl Holding for the April 2, 2011 induction at Sun Valley, where the ski area is also observing its 75th anniversary this season.

Rahlves said in a statement that while he’s excited to be honored for his contribution to the sport so far—which includes a 2001 Super G World Championship and one of only two American Hahnenkamm wins (the other was Buddy Werner)—he’s looking forward to making even more contributions to skiing in the years to come.

“I don’t want people to look back on my history and say ‘man that guy was a good ski racer,’ said Rahlves. “I want people to know me as a skier who loves skiing. Staying active and influential in the ski world is really important to me.”

Of Plake, Rahlves said, “Everyone grew up watching Glen Plake. For the last 20 years, he’s been the most iconic guy in the ski world. He’s done a lot for our sport in terms of recognition. It helps to have a two-foot Mohawk. But it’s also about his smile and that signature cackle.”

As PSIA-AASI heads to Snowmass to celebrate its own 50th anniversary, it offers a hearty congratulations to the induction class of 2010.

3.25.2011

50/50 Celebration: Is the Session Lesson What’s Next?

It’s easy to see how snowboarding has influenced skiing in terms of slope preparation and equipment, what with all of the wonderfully wide skis, halfpipes, and terrain parks. But the way it is influencing both ski and snowboard instruction may not be as obvious.

Snowboarding has certainly brought a lot more kids to classes. And those fat skis and rail slides have changed both how and where instructors can take their lessons. But has it changed how those classes are actually taught?

Curious, I asked PSIA-AASI Education Manager Earl Saline to sum it up. “Just looking at the history of beginner skiing and beginner snowboarding classes,” I said to Earl, “what do you think has been the biggest difference?”

For Saline, it was the ever-present element of freestyle, which in snowboarding is inherent at the very start. “In a beginner ski class, if you accidentally spin a 360 the impulse would be to correct that,” Saline said. “If a student accidentally spins a 360 in a snowboard class, everyone would celebrate.”

Saline said this represented more of a change in attitude than it did a presentation of technique—a shift to a kind of “session lesson,” where the instructor is less of an assignment-giving taskmaster than he or she is an encouraging and supportive coach who lets students offer the cues for where the lesson leads.

That coaching mentality was certainly an important aspect of the PSIA-AASI Team’s freestyle presentations at Interski 2011, which showed how to work freestyle concepts into any level of class. And the whole idea of the “session lesson,” was the subject of a fantastic article by PSIA Alpine Team Member David Oliver on page 96 of the Spring 2011 issue of 32 Degrees that just hit your mailbox.

Oliver has been one of PSIA’s biggest proponents of freestyle skiing and teaching, and a firm believer that new school’s levels of energy and interaction are going to be a big influence on how future lessons are taught. “Bingo,” Oliver said when I repeated Saline’s quote. “That kind of thinking just raises the involvement of everybody in the class. We’ve always focused on that command-task way of teaching, and this changes the whole dynamic.”

In the article, “The Road to Retention? Freestyle!”, Oliver states that in a session lesson, “What changes is the instructor’s behavior and group-management tactics—moving toward a much looser format—but there is still structure, just not as obvious.”

Oliver thinks that stressing the fun, while also getting students more involved in the lesson, is a powerful way of accelerating and increasing retention. But he adds that while the whole concept of a session lesson may seem radical, it actually ties directly to one of PSIA-AASI’s most important guiding concepts—that the student is the center of every class.

“I think this is really the next big step in student-centered teaching,” Oliver said. “The fact that it comes from the roots of what U.S. teaching is all about only makes it that much cooler for me. It’s really just taking it to the next level in the guest experience.”

As we head to the 50/50 Celebration in Snowmass, Colorado, next week, it will be fun to find even more parallels between PSIA-AASI’s past, and what’s next. Stay tuned . . .

—Peter Kray

3.18.2011

SnowPro Update: Snowmass Sunsets, Lesson Leap & Couloir Sit-Ski

The longer days of spring are already extending the ski day across the country, and Aspen/Snowmass is poised to take advantage of the later light with longer lift hours.

Every Friday from now until closing, Aspen will keep lifts running until 6:30 p.m. on one of its four mountains. And just in time for anyone arriving early for the 50/50 Celebration, Snowmass gets the honors to conduct the late lift hours on the evening of Friday, April 1st.  That means you can arrive on Friday, ski or ride away your après and your weekend, and then slide right in to the big event, which officially kicks off on the evening of April 4th!

Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month Attendance Doubles

Ski and snowboard instructors appear to have been quite a bit busier this January as a result of the Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month (LSSM) campaign. Organizers announced on March 16 that more than 60,000 lessons were taught as a result of the effort—twice as many as were taught the previous year.

LSSM director Mary Jo Tarallo, who thinks that might actually be a conservative estimate regarding the number of actual lessons, said the final numbers will be presented at the National Ski Areas Association Convention in May. In a statement, Tarallo said, “the initiative that seeks to get more kids and families on the slopes generated an estimated $4 million dollars in general media coverage for snowsports.”

Annual Adaptive Celebration Ready to Rock Alpine Meadows

One of adaptive snowsports instruction’s pioneer programs rolls out its annual festival next week as Alpine Meadows Ski Resort hosts the 17th Annual Ability Celebration Tuesday, March 22 through Saturday, March 26.

With ski and snowboard instruction for those living with paraplegia, quadriplegia, amputation, autism, multiple sclerosis, visual impairment, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, head injuries and muscular dystrophy, the special event culminates with dinner and auction and benefits the Disabled Sports Center and its ongoing programs.

Sit-Skier Makes History with 1st Unaided Corbet’s Drop

U.S. Paralympic Ski Team member Chris Devlin-Young got first tracks and a place in the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort history books on March 6, 2011, when he became the first sit-skier to make an unaided descent of Corbet’s Couloir.

Devlin-Young got to hit the legendary extreme shot just as ski patrol finished their control work, landing in some beautiful blown-in fresh powder conditions, which you can see for yourself on YouTube. Just search Corbet’s Sit-Ski.
   
— Peter Kray

3.11.2011

50/50 Blog: The Only Snowboard Instructor in the World

Berthoud Pass was ground zero for the snowboard scene in Colorado in the 1980s. It was the place where everyone and anyone who was trying to ride would eventually end up, either to drop into the trees and hitch a ride back up the highway, or even to ride the t-bar or the chair.

As one of that handful of first ski areas to sell lift tickets to snowboarders, Berthoud buzzed with a sense of discovery. There was hardly any difference between what was lift-served and what was backcountry, and the terrain could go from gentle to deadly in the space of a dozen turns. People showed up on Burton Performers, the “Woody,” or early Sims or Wintersticks, or even boards they had made on their own. And the weather could turn from 50 degrees and bluebird to a below zero blizzard in the space of an hour.

The Berthoud Pass Lodge stood there for more than half a century, like a battered old beautiful frigate forever sailing into a white sea, and we would stop in the cafeteria for hot dogs and Cokes. People still talk about the handmade wooden bar. When the Forest Service tore it all down in 2005—two years after they removed the chairs—my one regret was that I never spent the night in one of those old rooms.

“I used to live there in that lodge,” David Alden told me when I called. “It was so prehistoric. And there were days in the winter where you would just huddle down inside there because the pass was closed.”

Hired in 1981 as a kind of ambassador to talk to those people starting to show up on snowboards, Alden was given the title “snowboard instructor” in 1982. But he said he was still just more “of an answer man at the time, helping introduce people to the equipment, and how to decide if they rode regular or goofy—which had never occurred to many of them—or checking to see if the equipment was set up even close to properly.”

By the time the sun was up he would have already hiked to ride some new line, then would spend the day being that first friendly face every new snowboarder would see as they went to ride their first chair. That first guy handing out a couple pointers, and some stoke, and letting you know someone else wanted you to have a good time out there, too.

For any sport to grow, that’s all you need at first. And only later did Alden and his father start to propose to Colorado’s other ski areas why they should accept snowboarding on their slopes. Breckenridge hired him as their first snowboard instructor in the spring of 1985, and he sat down and wrote a manual for snowboard instruction that he presented to the PSIA board in 1986. The official manual came out in 1987, and then came the first certifications and first snowboard team, and Alden and Jane Mauser presenting the first snowboard demonstration at Interski in 1991.

It’s quite a long way to go in 10 years, I thought, to the spotlights of St. Anton from that snowbound Colorado lodge where on some early mornings in the early ’80s, Alden might have been the only snowboarder in the world.

—Peter Kray

3.4.2011

SnowPro Update: Squaw hires a legend, free helmets and more

Squaw Valley USA has hired Dee Byrne as the resort’s new Director of Snowsports School and Race Programs. With 37 years experience in the ski instruction industry including eight years as the Director of Vail Snowsports School—as well two separate terms on the Alpine Team—Byrne brings a wealth of experience to the resort. She joined the team from Aspen/Snowmass where she served as the Business Development Manager for Aspen/Snowmass Ski & Snowboard Schools.

“We are delighted to bring Ms. Byrne to the Squaw Valley team,” said Andy Wirth, Squaw Valley’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “Byrne is one of the best in the industry, and we are honored to have her as part of our high performance management team.”

Byrne is now responsible for the management and future development of Squaw Valley’s Snowsports School including all aspects of strategic planning, product development, team building and daily operations.
“Squaw Valley is an iconic destination with a deep heritage in American skiing,” she said. “I am thrilled to join the team!”

Originally from Spokane, WA, Byrne began skiing at age eight in Schweitzer Basin, ID and skied with her family every weekend from that point through High School. Byrne started teaching skiing at age 14 and has not stopped since. Her other snowsports instruction credentials include a PSIA Level III Certification and six years on the PSIA National Education Advisory Council.

Brighton Hands Out Free Helmets with Learn to Ski Class

Utah’s Brighton Ski Resort is giving away helmet to new skiing adults who sign up for a learn to ski or snowboard package. The package costs $79 for ages 13 to adult, and comes equipped with a free Smith helmet ($75 value), a lesson and a beginner lift pass. The offer began March 1st, and is good “while supplies last.”

Shawnee Steps Up for Kids

And speaking of free, Shawnee Peak Ski Area in Bridgton, Maine is taking a road trip to offer free learn to ski and snowboard packages to kids from the nearby Berwick area tonight. The area is sending 30 instructors and a staff of rental shop employees to the Powderhouse Hill in Berwick, where they hope to introduce as many as 100 kids to snowsports.

“Powderhouse Hill’s main objective is to provide skiing and riding as Mother Nature makes it available,” said Eric Mundell, Volunteer Coordinator for Powderhouse Hill. “We have no rental equipment and no paid ski or snowboard instructors, so when Shawnee Peak provides those two key components, we are able to introduce many more kids to the sports.”

2.25.2011

50/50 Blog: Filling up the Memory Files

I think nostalgia can sometimes feel like sitting in a hot tub, relaxing as the warm feelings wash over you. Which means that here in the PSIA-AASI home offices in Lakewood, Colorado—surrounded by more than 50 years of photos, slides, videos, and DVDs—we are neck-deep in memories right now.

Thanks to Membership Services Coordinator Kyle Hamley and Marketing Coordinator Erin Tulley, as well several generations of generous members who have taken the time to send in their digital and Polaroid histories, the conference room is absolutely packed with imagery right now. Sifting through it is one of those happily hypnotic exercises where every stack that is set down for sorting unearths another era, another adventure, or the photographic proof of yet another on-snow breakthrough.

There are black and white photos from Whitefish, Montana, featuring the likes of PSIA co-founders such as Curt Chase, Jimmy Johnston, and Bill Lash, as well as an absolutely stunning yearbook-style photo of the U.S. members of the 1968 Aspen Interski Team. There are Kodachrome-colored images of Horst Abraham ski touring in the Alps, Max Lundberg in Czechoslovakia, and the fresh-faced smiles of early Demonstration Team members Tim Petrick and Mike Porter (who seems to be grinning back from almost every fifth or sixth photo we see) enjoying another demo or alpine get together from somewhere around the world.

As we hit the sleeves of slides from the 1980s, more photos of Ellen Post Foster and Dee Byrne arcing turns from Italy to Aspen start to appear, as do early slides of adaptive pioneers such as Doug Pringle, and nordic revivalists like Paul Parker and Tony Forrest. Then suddenly, at the end of the decade, the neon era of one-piece suits, mudflap haircuts, and “snowboard skiing” bursts from the images in a rush of color that rivals the sunsets with its bright orange, yellow, and pinkish hues.

That wash of color and energy continues into the 1990s, as halfpipes and big air images start to compete with the many slides of happy kids and synchronized skiing that we are sorting through. It all seems to lead seamlessly into the 21st century, so much so that only by comparing dates—and the size of the method airs the riders are boosting out of the terrain parks—that we can really tell what decade we are in anymore.

Next will come the videos, the final sorting and editing of images, and something very special to present to all of the PSIA-AASI 50/50 Celebration attendees, so that they can also share in this wonderful kind of hot tub time machine of memories that we’re enjoying right now.

For more on the 50/50 Celebration, click here. To share your own awesome images from the past 50 years, contact Erin Tulley or Kyle Hamley by sending an e-mail to or .

See you soon in Snowmass.

—Peter Kray

2.18.2011

Snow Pro Update — More Hot Skis and Boots

It’s hard to think about next year when this season is going so well, especially in Tahoe where the snow has been falling by the foot the past couple of days, hopefully moving its way across the country before President’s Weekend is done. But fresh off the SIA Snow Show floor, we’ve still got lots of new equipment for 2011/12 to talk about. Here are a couple more highlights for next year in both skis and boots:

Elan Waveflex 14
Elan grabs the best of both worlds, mixing rocker and camber via a new construction it is branding as “Amphibio Technology” which pairs the two designs most noticeably in the ski’s shovel and tip. Built asymmetrically, with a designated right and left ski, the rocker provides ease of turn initiation, while the camber provides grip. For hardpack skiers who want to carve on a dime and still have some float in the windblown conditions, the new technology is being featured in the high performance Waveflex 14.

Blizzard Bodacious
Blizzard is staking its claim on the big mountain category with a new technology it has labeled “Flipcore,” which quite literally involves a reverse core that is created before the rest of the ski’s construction starts. This creates a more natural flex along the length of the ski, and is featured in the new Free Mountain Collection, which all have names from some of bull riding’s most famous cowboy crushers, such as Cochise and Bodacious.

Dynastar Outland 80
In the storied “quiver of one” category for hitting just about anything a regular day on the lifts can dish out, Dynastar introduces its Outland 80 for everything on or off-piste. The ski features moderate tip and tail rocker for easily rolling into turns in any condition, as well as bomber construction for arcing on the hardpack.

Nordica Fire Arrow
Nordica is introducing a whole new category of go anywhere, ski anything boots in its Side Country collection, including the Hell&Back Hike Pro, with an expanded walk feature for getting the goods. But most Snow Pros will probably opt for the Fire Arrow, a new three-buckle, three-piece shell collection with performance features to match up to its legendary on-piste owning ski counterpart.

Lange RX 130
Lange’s extensive research into foot mapping continues to pay dividends in terms of comfort and performance. New this year is the all-mountain owning RX 130 (also available as the RX 130 Pro), which delivers more edge hold due to a more secure ankle fit. The same features are available for women in the Exclusive RX 100.

—Peter Kray

2.11.2011

50/50 Blog: From St. Anton to Snowmass

Do you ever have that feeling that you are pooling in the middle of some perfect eddy in the flowing river of time? As if all of the exciting innovations and revolutions that you missed or stood on the outskirts of will cycle by again if you wait for them?

I have had that feeling a lot now since the 2011 Interski Congress in St. Anton. Especially with regard to how interesting it was to hear and see the ever-expanding influence of the Skills Concept and student-centered teaching all being discussed in the birthplace of modern ski instruction. Throw in the advent of rocker, and the incredible interchange of information, and it was tangible, that sense of three separate eras conjoining to create something new all their own.

I felt it when I got off the phone with Bud Keene, the former head coach of the U.S. Snowboard Team, whom I interviewed about his role in the early, formative years of snowboard instruction. After thanking him for sharing an hour of stoke and insight, I looked down at my desk to see the Winter 1991-92 issue of The Professional Skier—the precursor to 32 Degrees—with a cover shot of “PSIA Snowboard Team” member Ray Sforzo ripping up a bluebird day at Vail Mountain.

I imagine it was the first snowboard cover The Professional Skier ever ran—a sure sign of the sport’s growing impact, as well as PSIA’s (and later AASI’s) role in helping get snowboards accepted on America’s mountains. More parallels were to be found in the pages, where for anyone following some of the sad news in the Northwest of late, there was an excellent piece on the dangers of tree wells. As well as a serendipitous Saranac gloves ad, featuring a certain Mr. Glen Plake, who just a few weeks ago earned his Level I alpine certification.

Mostly, though, I have been feeling this overwhelming sense of past, future, and NOW! converging because of the upcoming 50/50 Celebration in Snowmass, Colorado. Not only were PSIA’s founders visionaries because of the depth and versatility of the organization they created in 1961—which is obviously key to the celebration!—but seven years later, in the case of Bill Lash and Curt Chase especially, they were also visionaries for hosting the 1968 Interski Congress in Aspen.

I’m not sure who in the U.S. would host an Interski now, what with the costs and logistics and need to close off your best base slope for two weeks as a demonstration run. And how,judging from the amount of ordnance in St. Anton, you could blow a mountain town’s budget for the next 10 years on fireworks alone. So the fact that PSIA hosted the world here already, then began to influence the world so quickly in the following decade, does add even more depth to the sense of homecoming.

It feels as if all of those ideas and advancements that took flight in the ’60s are being given the stage to take flight again. As if once the adventure of American snowsports instruction started, then it could never ever end.

Here’s to April in Snowmass.

—Peter Kray