Ski school is coming fast and the closer it comes to more excited the skiers and snowboarders get! Ski school started Saturday December 9th. it is a time for friends to come together and spend their Saturdays up on the slopes shredding the snow.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve snowboarded/ skied all your life or it’s your first time hitting the slopes. All levels of skill are welcome to come. You can start in 5th grade with ski school but only a few still do it still from the time they were in 5th grade till 12th grade.

Every Saturday except for your winter break you go up and ski for about seven hours, what a good way to spend a Saturday up on the mountain with your friends.

The first time up(first day of the season) normally consists of just low snowpack and a lot of dodging potholes and creek beds. As long as you stick to the groomed rooms and you don’t go off of those runs you will do fine and really won’t have any problems.

Clara Tedford who has been doing ski school for 2 years and has skied for 2 years says” Ski school is very welcoming I was easily accepted by everyone right off the bat, the instructors were very patient with me and taught me a lot my first year.”

There’s different levels when taking ski school, the classes vary there is 101 which is for the people just starting off and know close to nothing about skiing or snowboarding and need to be taught from step one. Then there is 201 which are individuals who know how to get up on their skis or snowboards but can’t go far with it only about 20 feet or so then they’ll fall. Next up is 301 they are people that can do all the base runs but can’t do trails or back country but they are qualified for everything else besides that. Then there is 401 where they  can do everything on the mountain and are qualified as experts by the ski instructors. There is also park lessons which is after 401 where you learn all the tricks in the park and they teach you how to do rails, 360’s, jumps and etc.

If you don’t want to do any of that or you have done all of the lessons and the park lessons, then you can just go off on the mountain and teach yourself how to do everything. Doing this not taking lessons will cost more money with Ski school because it comes in a package deal. For those who learn better alone and not having someone over your shoulder the whole time teaching you or you do not want to wait for a group then just not taking lessons is the way to go That’s the way a good amount of seniors do it they go up to the mountain and teach each other.

The more advanced seniors will teach their friends that don’t know as much as them. Seniors like Garrett Hall and Tristan Barr do that for they’re friends.

Tristan Barr who has been skiing since he was in 3rd grade said” We bring all the new people to in our group on very difficult runs. This gets them used to the hard runs so all the other runs are relatively easy for them. Normally by the end of the season they are about in the 401 range rather than being at about the 201 range like the people that take lessons.”

If you’re thinking of doing ski school next year it is a great opportunity to learn how to ski or snowboard and make new friends while doing it. Being able to do either is also just a nice skill to have in life! Sign ups start around early November and go till early December.