Ski Lessons Aren’t Just for Kids at Okemo

When I think about the number of adults who ski or ride and don’t think taking a lesson will benefit them, it reminds me of a quote by longtime ski instructor Mermer Blakeslee. In an excellent article for SAM magazine (the B2B publication for the North American mountain resort industry), she wrote: “We should tap into the most valuable gift of snowsports: their infinite continuum of learning, their unending capacity for newness. None of us will ever fully get our sport.”

In other words, we can always get better, and taking a lesson with a certified instructor is the best way to do that.

But when families go on ski vacations, kids are often the only ones who take lessons. This could either be because they legitimately need it, or the parents want to spend the day skiing kid-free. An all-day lesson = childcare.

When our family visited Okemo in Ludlow, Vt., at the end of January, we put the kids (ages 9 and 11) in an all-day group lesson. Our kids can ski, but they’re still figuring out their parallel turns and lessons help reinforce good habits and gain confidence.

Instead of basking in a full day of kidless mountain fun, though, we signed up for a two-hour adult group lesson that same morning—and it was so worth it.

 

Ski Lessons at Okemo

Easy check in. Okemo has its snowsports school situation dialed in. We stayed at the Jackson Gore Inn, a big slopeside hotel that horseshoes around the Jackson Gore base area, located a few minutes down the road from the Okemo clocktower base area. On the slope side of the hotel is a large, flat snow-front and a conveniently located high-speed detachable quad chairlift, the Coleman Brook Express, that serves beginner terrain that filters right back to the base of the lift. It’s a great setup for learners.

The snowsports school sets up a corral on the flat snow-front with soft fencing that says “Parent-Free Zone,” which demarcates where kids’ lessons meet, and wind-wings with age groups on them beckon lesson takers to the correct location for check in.

The process to get the kids checked in was easy: an affable instructor took their names and ability levels—they group lesson takers by age (7-14, in our case) and ability, which makes sense. We were conservative with their ability level, which may not have been the right move in the moment, but, frankly, we don’t want to be those parents who think their kids are Olympians when they’re not.

As it turned out, Okemo instructors take some time in the morning to evaluate their students and adjust groups as needed. After a couple laps off the Coleman Brook Express, our girls were offered the chance to move up to a higher-level group. They opted to stay with the group they started with because a) they really liked the instructor, Duncan, a 20-something dude who made it fun, and b) they liked the other kids in their group.

For kids’ lessons, those are probably the two most important things that lead to success.

Now, back to check-in. After the kids were ushered away with the trustworthy team of instructors, it was now our turn to find our lesson, which was easy to do—the “Adult Lessons” wind wing was only a few feet away.

Timing is everything. Proof that other parents actually take lessons while their kids do: check-in for kids’ lessons is at 9:30 a.m., and check-in for adult lessons is at 9:45. Wicked smart scheduling detail that avoids crossover, confusion, and frustration.

Adult check-in is similar: we shared our names and ability levels, and were once again conservative with the latter. This wasn’t an ideal choice since we spent all morning on the Jackson Gore learning terrain, but our other group members were delightful and our instructor tailored his approach to meet our group’s varied abilities.

We both took something away from the lesson that helped improve our skiing. Dave, especially, had some “ah ha” moments that helped physically and mentally when applied to more difficult terrain.

Bonus Treats

Still time for adult time. At the end of the lesson, we reviewed what we learned, tipped our instructor, and bid adieu to our classmates. At this point, it wasn’t even noon yet. Wait, what? You mean, the kids are in their lesson for three more hours (full-day kids’ lessons end at 3 p.m.) and we have the afternoon to enjoy a ski date? Magical.

And a ski date we had. After lunch at the Round House (which included a football-sized burrito and delicious salad), we made our way over to the main mountain and skied a variety of intermediate and expert trails. Then we finished the day with a couple runs down Tuckered Out, a fun and windy intermediate trail on far skier’s left of Jackson Gore Peak.

We met the kids back at the “Parent-Free Zone” and got a recap from their instructor, Duncan, of what they worked on, what they still needed to work on, and how much fun they had.

Candy mailbox. The kids got around during their lesson, skiing over to the main mountain in search of the “candy mailbox.” This is a neat feature that the owners of one of the large slopeside homes maintain. It’s literally a mailbox with candy in it on the side of the trail near their home. Kids can grab a piece of candy and sit in one of the handful of nearby chairs for a break. We loved that Your Responsibility Code—the National Ski Areas Association list of 10 practical, easy to follow on-hill safety best practices that EVERYONE should know—was displayed right next to the mailbox.

The mailbox serves as motivation for exploration. It’s not on the trail map, of course, and it takes a few chairlift rides to get there from Jackson Gore. For kids, it’s the payoff for working hard in their lesson.

Lesson aside, the kids loved lunch, which is included in the all-day group lesson. There’s a separate space on the second floor of the Round House at Jackson Gore for snowsports schoolers to eat lunch. They got to order off a kid-friendly menu, which also included desert. Many boxes were checked.

 

An Investment in Future Fun

It’s true that cost can be a barrier for everyone in the family to take a lesson. At Okemo and other properties owned by Vail Resorts, Epic Pass holders get 20 percent off group lessons, which eases the total investment a bit.

It’s also true that a lesson with a certified instructor is an investment in your future fun on the mountain. Even for experienced skiers like us, we’ve seen a return on our investment since our ski lesson experience at Okemo because we learned some minor adjustments that have made a major difference. And the kids progressed in their proficiency—but most importantly, they had fun while doing it.

 

 

Guest writers, The Meekers, live in southern Vermont and frequent their local mountain, Mount Snow, where both mom and dad have spent many days talking skiing and providing great experiences for visiting families. Kim works at Mount Snow and is also a realtor with Southern Vermont Realty Group. Dave is the editor for Ski Area Management magazine.The girls don’t fall far from the tree with a love of skiing and writing and slopeside waffles with chocolate drizzle.