Actually most if not all ski resorts don’t allow private “under-the-table” paid lessons. It’s one thing to offer “ski tips” to a friend or relative for free (which is permissible), but if a ski area becomes aware that someone is giving lessons for pay that is not connected to the resort, they will quickly put the kibosh on it. This could include revoking the tickets of those involved or even banning them.
At a minimum, the instructor would be working without any liability insurance with no protection if a student got hurt and sued them.
Sad news, Kasha Rigby was killed in an avalache in Kosovo. I never met her but we have lots of mutual friends. She was a pioneer, fantastic skier, and an amazing person.
Back from daddy daughter ski day, and I think it was a success. Not some smashing success, but no “I’m never skiing again” or anything. At the last minute we modified the plan slightly. At the top of the gondola at Keystone is a little learning area with a carpet lift, so we just stayed there the whole day, and then rode the gondola back down. Which is good, because I was wrong about Schoolmarm, it is 3.5 miles, not 2.5.
We did about an hour of skiing, then lunch, then another hour of skiing, and then home. Each run the kid did better, and by the last one managed to get on the carpet without falling. They looked like a brand new skier: weight way back, and could only turn to the right. At that point they were pretty wiped out. Learning to ski is a lot of work.
It went well enough that I think they’ll be interested in lessons next year. Eldora does a multi-week lesson that could be very good. It’s 4 half day lessons, with a season rental, for $900. Loveland does similar with 3 full day lessons for $625. Loveland is a bit cheaper, but I think full days are too long.
Next year we lose the free Epic school kid’s pass, but there is a $65 Gems card that gets kids 2 free days at a variety of places. Unfortunately the companion parent pass doesn’t have Copper and Winter Park, which are on the kid pass. $300 for 2 days each at Loveland, Eldora, A-basin, Cooper, Copper, and Winter Park had me sold, but without the two big ones, I’m less sure. I’m going to have to carefully consider which pass I’ll get next year, and if I’m going 8-10 days per year, it is much too expensive to go without one.
First couple of days of my wife’s Feb school vacation week. We were headed to Saddleback Maine, but stopped at Black Mountain of Maine for a few runs at a new to us ski area. Fun little place, conditions are firm and fast in NH and ME right now. Then on to SB for classic cold and windy conditions. It was about 0 up top, but the groomers were skiing well. The ungroomed, not so much.
Two days at SB, the second was pretty short as we were a bit tired of the same fast cruisers. Drove over to Jay where we’re going to use our last Jay Indy Pass redemption tomorrow. A few more days skiing with family and friends will round out our week.
Hit Heavenly today. Conditions outstanding, but damned crowed for a Thursday. Had to retreat to the Face and wore out/started hurting pretty early. But, I got more than my self-imposed minimum in, so I’m good.
My daughter bought me an Epic Pass with four days of skiing on it. I’ve used two – one at Crotched Mountain and the other last weekend at Attitash.
Crotched Mountain was great – I had to pains or difficulties, despite its being my first skiing of the season. A great day out.
For the second, I finally got to do something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. My wife and I drove to North Conway NH and took the snow train to Attitash. After seeing me off, she rode back to North Conway and hit the shopping outlets (There’s no way I’m going to get her on skis. I gave up on that a long time ago).
Unlike my experience at Crotched Mountain, Attitash was extremely painful on my first run, and I had to rest when I got down. Reasons:
1.) still hadn’t tightened my boots enough
2.) Ice. The last time I had skied Attitash it was really icy, with insufficient snow cover. This time there was a little more cover, but it was really icy underneath. (It didn’t help that really warm and rainy days earlier in the season took a lot of the cover off. Five inches of rain, they told me.) I had to hold my legs tight to prevent a spill, and it wore me out. After resting, I tightened my boots some more and took shorter runs. That helped a lot, but I was still pretty worn out by the end of the day.
I still have two days left on the pass. Unfortunately, only four NH ski areas are on the pass. Besides the two I’ve already hit, there’s Wildcat (also pretty icy, in all likelihood) and Sunapee. Okemo in Vermont is within easy striking distance, too, and I might go there.
I bought the lowest tier for Epic Day passes, so Okemo is out for me.
Go to Sunapee or Okemo, they are likely to be the best of the lot. They generally have long groomers with pretty good grooming crews, although Sunapee has suffered from the Vail purchase. Wildcat can be fun, but if you thought Attitash was icy then Wildcat is going to be just as bad, if not worse. The best redeeming feature of Wildcat on a good day is the view of Mt Washington.
They’re predicting 6-9 feet at the resorts around Tahoe starting later today thru Saturday (I’ll believe it when I see it), and some of the resorts are already planning to close or partially close tomorrow during the brunt of the storm. Sounds like you got in turns on the two perfect days this week!
With so much snow coming all at once, and too many people overly confident in their powder-skiing ability, with that sort of snow depth it can be life-threatening - I think some people will be getting in over their heads, so to speak, as this one clears out starting Sunday.
Have you been to Okemo and Sunapee? Okemo is a bigger mountain and, since the Vail purchase, has better snowmaking and grooming. But it’s a longer trip from Boston.
Been to both. I re-visited Sunapee again just last year, and it was great. I haven’t been to Okemo in eons, but it’s just as long a drive for me as Wildcat is, so it’s not a big deal.
Since I have two more days on the Pass, I’ll probably go to each of them for one day.
