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Instructors, what have you heard from your ski schools?

Erik Timmerman

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Also, I hear that they will only be allowing 2 on our Quad chairs. Not sure what that means for the triples and the doubles. Plan to spend a lot of time standing in line.
 

geepers

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But aren't we also not going to be riding the lift with that group lesson instructor or other students as tightly as the normal days? That will take longer to get up the mountain between runs, with fewer opportunites to be coached on the way up. Increasing the lesson costs due to more value in smaller student groups sounds more like increasing the lesson costs due to lower revenues at old price with smaller groups per instructor to me.

Vail's Perisher instructors follow lift social distancing protocols. They don't live with the students so ride quads with max one student, doubles/triples by themselves.

Also, I hear that they will only be allowing 2 on our Quad chairs. Not sure what that means for the triples and the doubles. Plan to spend a lot of time standing in line.

If mountain capacity reduced by to 50% it works out roughly similar. Australia did one only passenger (unless living together) on dbls/triples.
 
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LiquidFeet

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^^Lift discussions with students will be more difficult to conduct. I enjoy those lift rides; it's a comfortable place to talk about technical things, and to get to know the student better.
 

graham418

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Our ski school has said that we will have smaller class sizes, mandatory masks for instructors and students. Also no filling out students lesson books , or eating lunch together. And things will change and adapt as new medical information and practices evolve.
 

DanoT

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Also no filling out students lesson books , or eating lunch together
In normal years, many resorts reserve tables for ski school/race kids. Smaller class sizes and precision scheduling should take care of physical distancing at lunchtime; so classes should be able to lunch together in those situations.
 

Seldomski

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Mahre Training Center (base in Deer Valley, UT) posted on Facebook yesterday that they will have their 3 and 5 day ski 'camps' this year with some changes. The only changes I notice vs prior years:

1- Register by phone only at this time. Used to be an online form.
2- Groups of 5-7 skiers mentioned for preformed parties? I recall the number of student per group were smaller when I did this 2 years ago. Dunno if this is cost savings/new for this year or unrelated to COVID.
3- Boilerplate note about COVID general procedures, CDC, go check the real website for info, blah blah.
4- Video is taken, but the review of the video is not guaranteed. In my experience, the review was conducted indoor with everyone clustered together looking at one small screen indoors. So they may be changing when/how this is done? Perhaps review will be outdoors and if weather sucks, they will film but not actually try to huddle around something to review.
5- Breakfast on day 1 was a big party, fun atmosphere. Everyone meets others, figures out abilities for pairing. Now it says you may be preordering breakfast. Not sure what that means/implies.
6- Evening technical discussions are not on the itinerary. In past years, they had one evening talk about gear, and another about ski technique.
7- No end of camp party/dinner.
8- 5 day camp has skiing with group all days for morning/afternoon. In past, they usually had a free afternoon or two in there.

I have done the 3 day camp/clinic 2x in past ~5 years.

EDIT - I am NOT an instructor, but figured this was best place to put this info...
 
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David Chaus

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From the TD of the independent school I have worked for the past 7-8 years:

Hello follow instructors,

I hope this email finds you all well, considering the unprecedented times we are all living in. I am sad to bring you the news that, due to Covid-19, Vail has announced that no concession ski schools will be allowed for this upcoming winter season at Steven Pass, not Clancy’s not any other. We hope that this is a one season situation, we will get more details in April 2021. With that, other Covid related rules are in place, like day reservation system for skiing days, etc (**check the resort web site for details!).



If you plan to purchase a season’s pass, do it ASAP, as the sale will end in 6 days, and apparently pass holders will have a priority to reserve skiing days. I myself have not decided on what to do yet for this season. My general hope is that in the future we resume operations as a ski school again, and I am already missing you all. I will keep you posted with any new information – stay healthy!!
 

David Chaus

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OTOH an independent ski school that specializes in multi week clinics is able to operate:

Hello from Gavin and Alison at Snowperformance to the Wednesday Multiweek group/

We hope that you and your friends and family have been well in mind and body over the last 6 months and that you continue to be so.

It’s coming up quickly and many of us are thinking about winter, skiing and ‘what on earth is going to happen’ in the mountains come December.

The honest answer is currently no one really knows. Most ski areas in the US are planning on opening with restrictions on numbers of skiers on the mountain and in the lodges, having mask and spacing protocols for Covid protection in place and changes in ticketing and reservations.

We understand and totally respect that some of you may decide not to ski this winter due to the pandemic and the health risks that the ski industry may have.

We were able to have a safe, successful and a much busier than expected summer season on Mt Hood and were pleasantly surprised at how well the mountain flowed and with masks and spacing restrictions being well maintained by the mountain.

We are planning on running Snowperformance camps and sessions this winter.

We have created a re plan for the 20 21 season due to the international travel restrictions and are now assuming that the US Canada border will not reopen at least until March.


Boot and equipment fitting

We are taking appointments for early October to get you set up in the right boots and skis to get the most out of your season.


Multiweek

We are planning on running these as per schedule Tuesday Wednesdays and Fridays in January and February at Snoqualmie and Alpental and may offer extra sessions Mondays and Thursdays.

Alpental and Snoqualmie are asking concession schools to reduce numbers and stay clear of weekends. This is ok for us as we only operate there mid-week and our group sizes are small.

However we do need to reserve space on the mountain in advance and plan ticketing for guests in advance so we are asking for commitments early.

The Summit is recommending clients purchase Seasons Passes.

Quote Tickets for peak days will be limited but since you are not operating on holidays or weekends, you are good to go. We encourage your students to purchase season passes.





http://www.snowperformance.com/index.php/what-we-do/multi-week-programs see this page to sign up and review our Covid policies.


Privates

We will be running Privates at Snoqualmie and Alpental and Snowbasin Utah mid-week and Mission Ridge at weekends also. This summer private lessons were very popular with a number of our clients as it gave extra Covid security as well as the highly individualized product outside of the group situation.

We also offer private group sessions if you have a pod group you feel good skiing with.



Camps

Sun Peaks


We are still looking at alternate destinations with in the US for our early season (Sun Peaks) camps.

We hope to secure a location in the next week for camp 1 December 10 11 12 or Sun Peaks camp 2 December 17 18 19 20

Please also let us know if you would consider joining us for an alternative US Western State destination.


Snowbasin camps and Privates

We have the go ahead from Snowbasin to run camps and privates outside of peak periods and are planning on a number of mid-week dates throughout the season.

Privates can be booked in advance for mid-week and we plan to run a number of multi day privates and private groups as last season.


Mission Ridge

We will be operating at this super fun area near Wenatchee and will be running weekends and weekdays.



Crescent Spur Heli = Silverton mountain Heli

The Crescent Spur trip has been postponed until 2022. We are going to run our first Silverton Colorado camp in January which will have heli options. Are you interested this option?



Japan


We assume that we are unable to travel to Japan in February. If travel becomes possible we will consider a Japan tour. Please let us know if you might be interested.



La Grave France = Silverton Mountain #2

As we cannot guarantee going to Europe this winter we are going to run our second Silverton Mountain camp instead. Silverton offers many of the challenging steeps that La Grave offers and also has heli bump options.
We are finalizing dates and details with Silverton and will post on our website shortly.



Mustang Cat

Mustang has rain checked our trips to 2022 so we are now offering two Alaska heli camps instead in mid-March and mid-April we are finalizing these trips and will have dates and rates up shortly.



Iceland Heli

We hope to be able to go on this trip but will be assessing the travel conditions as we move forward.



New product.

In light of Covid many people are talking more about touring and backcountry skiing. We are looking at offering some specific camps and private products designed for your needs locally and in the Western States.

We have some highly qualified and experienced mountain guides on our staff.



  • Evening race training at Snoqualmie. We will run a lane one or two nights a week for individual or multi week training.


  • Personal (Injury and surgery recovery) programs designed to get your body back in to ski shape.


  • Preseason ski fit online sessions starting September or October.
  • Sign up for 6 or 8 week sessions to get you really fit for season.


Please say if you are interested.



If you could give us an idea at this stage of what you would like to do and any alternatives you would like us to consider.

We will limit group sizes to 5, we will most likely avoid inside group meetings and lunches.

If you are looking at a private or group private sessions please let us know.

Cross training paddle board and mountain bike camp in September 25 26 27 in Hood River, are you interested?



This is us trying to get a feel for your needs and wants in what is a very fluctuating world.

Please send us any and all thoughts on what your needs may be for the upcoming season and we wish you all good health as we go forward.



Cheers Gavin Alison and the Snowperformance team







 

David Chaus

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I looked into Baker, but they are only accepting applications from returning instructors. I'm not leaning towards instructing for Stevens at this time, so I think I'll take this year off from instructing.
 

Slasher

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Some FB chatter seems to indicate that WB might not provide lessons for kids under-6!!!

1600329880349.png

1600329922726.png
 

markojp

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I looked into Baker, but they are only accepting applications from returning instructors. I'm not leaning towards instructing for Stevens at this time, so I think I'll take this year off from instructing.

To the best of my knowledge, CM will be looking for instructors.
 

markojp

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From the TD of the independent school I have worked for the past 7-8 years:

Hello follow instructors,

I hope this email finds you all well, considering the unprecedented times we are all living in. I am sad to bring you the news that, due to Covid-19, Vail has announced that no concession ski schools will be allowed for this upcoming winter season at Steven Pass, not Clancy’s not any other. We hope that this is a one season situation, we will get more details in April 2021. With that, other Covid related rules are in place, like day reservation system for skiing days, etc (**check the resort web site for details!).



If you plan to purchase a season’s pass, do it ASAP, as the sale will end in 6 days, and apparently pass holders will have a priority to reserve skiing days. I myself have not decided on what to do yet for this season. My general hope is that in the future we resume operations as a ski school again, and I am already missing you all. I will keep you posted with any new information – stay healthy!!

I hate (and am sad) to say it, but I don't think concession schools beyond race clubs will be back. Covid just accelerated the process of elimination.
 

David Chaus

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I hate (and am sad) to say it, but I don't think concession schools beyond race clubs will be back. Covid just accelerated the process of elimination.
I’m honestly surprised it didn’t happen before Covid at Stevens.

I am encouraged by Summit’s position of limiting the number of students in concession ski schools on weekends, but not worrying about weekdays.
 

Bad Bob

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I’m honestly surprised it didn’t happen before Covid at Stevens.

I am encouraged by Summit’s position of limiting the number of students in concession ski schools on weekends, but not worrying about weekdays.
The delay could have been a multi-year contractual situation. Like you can not imagine Vail being okay with concession ski schools, college perhaps but not competitive ones.
 

DanoT

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The delay could have been a multi-year contractual situation. Like you can not imagine Vail being okay with concession ski schools, college perhaps but not competitive ones.
Or it might have been a case of Vail's long term plan to a eliminate competitive ski school and they were just looking for the right timing.
 

David Chaus

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The delay could have been a multi-year contractual situation. Like you can not imagine Vail being okay with concession ski schools, college perhaps but not competitive ones.
Or it might have been a case of Vail's long term plan to a eliminate competitive ski school and they were just looking for the right timing.
In past conversations with the owners of the ski school, the last several years they simply didn't know what Stevens' policies would be year-to-year until near the start of the season. As far as I know there haven't been any multi-year contracts. I think it's more a matter of the number of students that the concession schools bring to the resort, for tickets/passes for the students and for the parents of the kids in lessons, not to mention the revenue from food and beverage sales.

In the past there were a lot more of these independent/concession schools and clubs, many of them pre-dating the existence of the ski resort. About 10-15 years ago Stevens no longer extended the concession to most of the independents, keeping the largest 3 which had the most enrollments and brought in the most revenue to Stevens. Several of the independents relocated to Summit at Snoqualmie.

My guess is that the past couple of years Stevens management has been reluctant to lose that revenue, whereas this year they simply can't accommodate the number of people associated with the concession schools, much less their own historical level of enrollment. And yes, it fits Vail Resorts model of not accommodating or allowing competing schools.
 

Groomer61

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There has been no state guideline decisions made yet here in NY which is leaving everything in limbo. Even state owned areas(Whiteface, Gore and Belleayre) have no updates on their websites. Seeing it's NY you can count on not getting any answers until its to late
 

markojp

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The delay could have been a multi-year contractual situation. Like you can not imagine Vail being okay with concession ski schools, college perhaps but not competitive ones.

This has been year by year for a long time as far as I know.
 

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