Return of the Season 09-10

The snow is back and in force. Several wonderful days of skiing these past weeks have left me very happy the season is back earlier than usual. With it come more regular updates to this blog for the handful of people reading it.

Biggest changes this season from last...

• Co-operation between resorts for the instructing staff to co-train*. The local PSIA representative has been successful in convincing the resorts to allow cross training between the resorts. This means I will be attending the Certification sessions and classes over at our neighboring larger corporate (aka Corpy) resort that happen on a 3xweek basis in the hopes of finally passing the on-snow portion of my exam. Judging from the first day of review and being on snow, I've got a lot of work to do.
• The loss of many coworkers. I somehow was kept out of the controversy over the summer, but it seems several of our more senior instructors have all left the resort and moved on to Corpy's staff. It was quite a shock to see my former co-workers arrive at the Certification training sessions decked out in Corpy's gear.

My big issue this year has now been moved to do I stay at the smaller resort or do I move on to Corpy? Both have advantages and disadvantages. The main draw for Corpy is the heavy recruiting their senior staff is making on me. They've pointed out how they are setup to help instructors move through the ranks of the PSIA with regularly scheduled on and off snow training and review. They've also got several features setup a little better like a true ski school location for their staff to store gear and meet (not that I mind having our morning meetings in the bar). They've also been pushing that the minimum age for students is 6 unlike my current school's minimum age of 4 (from 4-6 Corpy has ACE certified instructors and schools to handle the students). The pay is a little better as well, although that gets lost when you realize the cost of items at Corpy is about 10x greater ($3.25 for a 12 oz Coke? WTF?). My guess is these were all things that helped convince my former coworkers to move over.

For me, the big seller is the regularly scheduled training bits. Oh, their complete lack of a rope tow (how my knees and gloves hate thee), and a very nice beginner hill area are also big draws for me. But it's hard to give up being with people you enjoy working with too. Since I'm not signed up for either school yet, I've got a week to think about this.

* To be clear, the ski schools have never had an issue sharing time or knowledge, it's always been a challenge with getting the resorts themselves to allow the other instructor's letters for a pass.