Committed to the Core

A typical sunrise at Cardrona Alpine Resort.

Commitment. It’s a theme I hit on frequently as an instructor and trainer. As skiers and riders, we make movements that commit us to each new turn, to moving down the mountain while to staying in balance and control. In many ways, committing in this way is totally counter-intuitive – prudent or risk averse people don’t exactly find it natural to hurl themselves down steep icy mountains with long boards on their feet. Balancing our need to commit in this way with the messages coming from our stomachs (‘Don’t go there, it’s dangerous’) is the very crux of our sports, and it’s what makes them so thrilling.

There is another type of commitment that is a major factor for us in the big picture, and that’s the commitment made by people who come to our resorts to ski and snowboard for the first time. It’s one thing for an experienced skier to have a little anxiety about confidently moving downhill as terrain gets steeper or icier. It’s something far more complex and far more of a leap of faith to travel to a far away mountain, spend a boat-load of money and put your faith in the idea that putting on ridiculous clothing and uncomfortable equipment to slide around on snow under the tutelage of some unknown odd-balls will be a fun and rewarding experience. The National Ski Areas Association, our industry advocate in the USA, has rightly been preaching the gospel to all of us for some time about the need to market to and retain new skiers and riders. Our resorts and PSIA have worked hard to develop programs to attract them and to make people’s first experiences a success, and that’s certainly a big focus for us at Sugarbush. Making sure beginning skiers and riders feel strongly that they receive good value for the substantial amount of money, time and effort they spend, to say nothing of the anxiety involved, is a huge responsibility for us. It’s an important gut check and litmus test for those of us who make teaching and coaching our sports our vocation as well as our passion. Failure to fully grasp the essential role of teaching beginners represents a fundamental failure as a pro, pure and simple, and I believe to my core that this is true for coaches and teachers of all levels.

This is a simple enough issue for those of us in the Eastern US – simple as distinct from easy. Families easily make the drive from New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington to spend a day or a weekend learning how to ski or snowboard. Even the most skeptical folks can chalk it up to a rosy-cheeked, healthy, outdoor weekend in the country, whether they fall in love with the sports or not. Yes, it’s a huge commitment, but there are a lot of other aspects of the adventure where they can find value with ease. Besides, they’ve all gone sledding together or ice skating, walked around in the snow at home and certainly talked with their friends who have no problem disappearing to the mountains from time to time and are happier for it.

Imagine, then, the kind of commitment it takes for a family from a country with no mountains, no snow, and a tropical climate, people who don’t own warm clothing and have never seen snow in person, to get on a plane with their passports, land in a foreign country, eat strange food and drive up a crazy mountain road just to get to the snow on the off-chance that it’ll be fun and rewarding. Imagine skiing for the first time when you've never, ever, held snow in your hands or felt it under your feet. Imagine if you've never had to wear a hat or gloves. And then you arrive at a resort only to see three-year-olds fly around as comfortable as could be without a moment’s hesitation. And then some instructor asks you to take your life in your hands and slide down the damn mountain! Now that’s a real commitment, and that’s precisely what we've been asking a lot of people to do here at Cardrona Alpine Resort since we opened a week ago.

For the past week, the schools from Brisbane, Australia have been on break. For reasons I can only imagine and admire, many families decide each year that what they really should do with their precious family time together is to get on a plane and come see us. It’s amazing. It’s our first week of business this season, and the requisite amount of instructor training going on changes the dynamic slightly for these guests. Those of us who are more senior and typically spend most of our time teaching private lessons end up teaching beginner classes side-by-side with younger, newer instructors. It’s awesome for those teachers, for our guests, and for us. Just yesterday, I had an entire group of adults for two group lessons who had never seen snow. In this particular group, English was a second language for all of them, it was their first time in New Zealand, and all put their faith in Cardrona and in me, for crying out loud.  We laughed, we crashed, we took in the amazing view, we made snow angels and snowballs, we stopped, we turned, and we all found the unique and astonishing joys found in skiing. I clearly learned more from them than they did from me, and I’m grateful for it. We all learned how to say “ready” in the five languages represented.

As devoted skiers and riders, we’re committed to the core. Our choices of what we read, what we  wear, how we speak, how we dress, who our friends are, where and how we vacation, all reflect our commitment to skiing and riding and it’s all quite foreign to those outside our little bubble. As instructors and whose job is to share our devotion with others, we have a daunting responsibility to those who make the enormous commitment to join us for their first experiences. The good news – great news, really – is that the rewards for us and for them are equally enormous. High fives and hugs abound, smiles match the vistas, and the sense of satisfaction and accomplishment is a truly wonderful thing to see and to feel, for all of us as skiers and riders, whether it’s our first day or our millionth.

When’s the next lineup? I’m ready. “Pronto!”