the Cost of Ski Instruction

A skilled ski instructors takes a group of 4-8 beginning skiers out on a green slope, teaches basic turning, stopping (snowplow, not parallel), how to fall safely and reattach one's skis mid-slope.

This fellow was a great instructor; they should be firm but yet reinforce a sense of progress and raise morale. This isn't a class in a school; no one has to take this lesson if they don't wish to, and as a result, the class isn't as much evaluative (graded) as it is a service that ought meet the needs (including encouraging completion) of the person paying for the service.

We went up and down the slope only a half-dozen times, but the lessons still took 1.5 hours; the greens on this mountain are rather long, and we were stopping every 150-200 feet to learn a new skill.

1) You should get lessons included in a package with your lift ticket - much cheaper.

2) Take a lesson every day that you ski, until you are not just proficient but objectively highly skilled.

3) There are usually at least three age groups to lessons; it's worth waiting for the next available lesson appropriate to your age. It's markedly different to learn to ski as a child, a young-middle aged adult, and as a senior.