Ski School Recommendations (Park City, Alta: rentals, elementary school, living in)

[slcute]

Hello,

I am interested in hearing where people have enrolled their kids in ski school and where you would recommend. My daughter is 5 and I am looking to get her a half dozen or so lessons to get some basics, and I will take it from there.

Brighton is appealing because kids under 10 can ski for free. Anyone have a opinion on the best resort to enroll your kids?

Thanks!

[JohnRoxy]

What canyon do you prefer?
My son took snowboarding lessons at substance for 2 seasons through his elementary school. It was a great experience. He started at 8 though.

[SnowBuddy]

We moved here this year, had our first ever experience on snow and lesson (2 kids and my wife) at alta. This season the kids have had lessons at Brighton, I had a private lesson at Brighton and my wife at Solitude. (Trying them all out).

They were all great. Nothing bad to say about either. Like anything its going to have a lot to do with the actual instructor but the 3 resorts had great vibes from the school. We have season tickets at Solitude but the only reason I don't get the kids lessons there is for the 2 of them it costs me $50 more every lesson. They absolutely LOVED their group lesson at Brighton last weekend although they were the only 2 in the lesson and they had 2 instructors

They also will be doing lesosns at Snowbird, through their elementry school early next year. You can say we have done the rounds of the canyons

So my advice is check out price, what suits and you probably can't go wrong with any of the canyon resorts.

[JohnRoxy]

I love that some schools give that opportunity to the students. The school my kids attended in Utah was the same. They'd bus them up to sundance in Fridays. The school would work with a couple rental shops who would bring the rentals before they drove up the canyon and would be there waiting when they got back to take the equipment back to the shop. Parents could come too, or just pick up the kids from school after they got back. It was very convenient for busy moms with little ones.

[altajoe]

I'll give my opinion and then duck.

If I had children and lived in the area, I'd choose one of the "local" ski areas rather than the "destination" ski areas. So, I'd take Solitude and Brighton over Snowbird/Park City/The Canyons/Deer Valley. I'm not sure about ALTA.

In my experience patrolling at a "resort" area back east, I saw the ski school leaning more toward what I would call "sound bite instructions" because the kids were transient and would filter in and out depending on the amount of days they were there. They would also serve to be babysitters while Mom & Dad got to do their own thing. This lead to an inordinate time off the hill and in the lodge because there was no real commitment on the part of many of the kids.

One thing I can say for the resort (and I assume all resorts) is that the instructors take their craft very seriously and are constantly upgrading and updating their techniques. I'm not saying that this is not the case with the instructors at the local areas, I simply haven't been exposed to them.

My own ski school experience and that of my wife was with a ski school north of Montreal that operated on a very small hill. It was not open for free skiing, but was truly a "Ski School". The hill was sculpted to mimic just about every possible type of terrain that one would encounter. The instruction was 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. The majority of the instruction consisted of body position, edging techniques, balancing and very specific skill sets. They would generally be short (50 - 100 feet) at a time drills. Once every 15 minutes we would do a top to bottom Chinese Downhill run just to cut loose. Since it was a destination resort the classes were one week in length. I'd venture to say that the average student advancement up there blows away the average student advancement anywhere else. Alas, the ski school closed for good in 2009.

The OP stated that he/she only wanted 5 lessons to teach the basics and then to take it from there. So, I'm not sure if my observations help in this case at all. But, maybe it will help others who are living in the area and want their children to continue past the basics with PSIA instruction.