Some Time in the ICU

Breckenridge, Colroado last week

I love being a ski instructor. As a Director, it's an essential component of my work to create for my staff an environment that facilitates their own love of being instructors. Often, that means being the cheerleader-in-chief and this was never more true than during the 2015-16 season, now in its waning days. This season was a serious test of the depths of my enthusiasm reservoir. It’s hard to explain in succinct fashion just how tough it was – little natural snow and any snowfall followed immediately by buckets of rain; digit-numbing cold followed immediately by unseasonably warm weather; beige granular passing for beginner teaching surfaces; mud-crusted rental boots; frozen pond ice that only was skiable by means of divine intervention; and a notable drop in business levels making it tough for our staff to get enough work. And that was just in December and January! My running joke during the December to January holidays was that it was like the plagues upon Egypt and that I was just waiting for the locusts to show up. My job, first and foremost, was to keep the instructors of the Sugarbush Ski & Ride School engaged, focused, enthusiastic, happy and busy. I’m confident that it worked, I’m incredibly proud of our entire staff from top to bottom, but it took an awful lot of effort and it really did wear me out. How on earth does a ski school director recover from all of that? It’s simple: I've just returned from the S.P.I.C.U – the Ski Professional Intensive Care Unit, also known as the PSIA National Academy at Breckenridge!

In the little corner of the universe inhabited by ski and snowboard instructors, PSIA National Academy is a very big deal. It’s basically an intensive training week involving on-hill clinics all day every day, indoor presentations, and plenty of fun, all conducted by a collection of coaches that is simply the best in the business. The coaches come from around the country and the world and include current and former members of the National Teams of the Professional Ski Instructors of America and the American Association of Snowboard Instructors, some international coaches who share our American guest-centered view of teaching, some members of the coaching staff of the U.S. Ski Team, some close friends I hadn’t seen in a long while, and some genuine living legends who’ve had a major impact on the sport (for pros and recreational skiers alike). The participants and the coaches also included some of my favorite people on the planet and several who have had a direct impact on my own career and on my deep-seeded passion for what I do. It helped that Breckenridge really put its best foot forward, that the conditions were terrific and then it snowed two feet. We had plenty of sunshine as only Colorado can deliver it, they served beer, and we were based in a hotel famous for its free chocolate chip cookies. Any questions?

In a season that was a true test of my ability to inspire instructors, being in Breckenridge was a vital reverse of course where I was on the receiving end. Yes, it was professional development. Yes, I trained hard and skied hard, focusing on learning and improving in a way that will allow me to continue my growth as an instructor and as a Director. Yes, it’ll provide ample fodder for me to work with our trainers at Sugarbush to bring our staff of pros to the next level of teaching and skiing. And yes, it saved me. The Academy was like a transfusion that cleared my system and nourished my mind, body and spirit. Can you tell how much I loved it?!

Sugarbush is holding on here. We’ll remain open through this weekend and reopen for the first weekend in May – our normal operating schedule, remarkable in a season that definitely has not been normal. In a season that has been among the worst in the long history of skiing in Vermont, there have been some definitely highlights and there is ample cause for optimism – for our sports, for our profession, and certainly for the Sugarbush Ski & Ride School. Having returned from the S.P.I.C.U., I am in a position to see those highlights with clarity and to look forward to next winter. I’m also reinvigorated enough to be very excited for my next season in this endless winter, and t's coming right up in a little over a month on the other side of the globe. in Wanaka, New Zealand. I can’t wait!