In Aspenski professionals began responding to lesson requests for the upcoming winter season in early summer. There are 1,350 pros in this famous mountain town and the best have been booked up for a long time, says Jonathan Ballou of Aspen Ski Societythe first ski school in the region. Forget Olympians, getting a reservation even with a keen ski instructor during the peak period, Christmas to New Year, was impossible for months.
It’s a similar story at Deer Valley, the exclusive resort for skiers in City ParkUtah, where full-day private lessons cost $1,490 in peak season. Reservations with its 600 instructors opened after Independence Day, and they are full. Kurt Hammel, ski school director, says Deer Valley has one of the highest percentages in the world of people taking ski school lessons on peak days.
Over the past five years, a barrage of luxury resort brands like One&Only And Assembly have planted flags at coveted ski destinations, creating more high-caliber spaces for more die-hard personalities. Each of these guests wants a top ski instructor, and booking them has turned into a high-stakes competition to improve the best.
The competition to ski with the best is growing more intense as more rooms accommodate more affluent guests.
Brenna Keller
“While I have no hard evidence of what is happening, I guarantee that booking offices regularly receive bribes from regular customers who will try to go the extra mile to book the instructor their choice”, Dan Sherman, marketing director of Ski.com. “I also know that sometimes a skier can go directly to the ski school to see his instructor and offer him a bonus if he clears his schedule. However, since all on-mountain lessons must be booked and sanctioned by the resort, participating in this type of booking would result in the ski instructor’s dismissal.
While this happens, the top 1% of instructors are like Ivy League universities: they value legacy over flash money.
“(Returning guests) end up with the same instructor,” says Hammel, noting that these connections often go back several years. Ballou adds that it’s not uncommon for Aspen’s top veteran professionals to ski with three or four generations of the same family.
Joining this club is not easy. It takes patience, planning and lots of full-day private lessons, says Brenna Kelleher, a professional who has worked at Big Sky Resort for 15 years. There, private education starts at $1,195 and increases depending on the date. Kelleher estimates that all but three of her classes last year were requests from private clients — and she taught more than a hundred of them. Most of these customers were repeat customers from previous years.
Tracy (T-Bone) Taylor Telluride
Tracy Taylor
“People lock me in on certain dates, and then I’m locked in,” Kelleher says, adding that skiers wanting to book with her can go through the ski school, but it will be “a labor-intensive thing.” work”, and not the one it recommends. The key is year-after-year loyalty and multi-day private reservations, she says.
While Kelleher doesn’t accept offers from the highest bidders, she stresses that generous tipping is also essential, especially since instructors (at Big Sky and elsewhere) don’t even see half of what you pay for a full day of teaching. .
Tracy (T-Bone) Taylor is one of the Colorado resort’s most popular and in-demand instructors. He has taught at Telluride’s Ski and Ride School since 1988 and has names like country star Dierks Bentley as customers.
Every day his phone buzzes with an avalanche of direct booking requests, but the ones that win demonstrate “financial gratitude,” he says.
He recalls a client who had difficulty finding an available instructor for one of his less advanced children. “It wasn’t a very good tip,” says Taylor, who had to kindly explain to the guest why he was being blackballed.
To ski with Brenna Kelleher at Big Sky, you will need to pay your membership fee.
Brenna Keller
But building a relationship with an instructor often goes well beyond a Venmo greeting or lunch (clients usually foot the bill for a nice lunch on the mountain). For example, one of Taylor’s clients liked the veteran instructor so much that he invited him on ski trips to Canada and paid and compensated him for his time and effort on the mountain.
It’s a process that creates “deep, meaningful connections” between teacher and student, Ballou says.
“What people are buying is a personal concierge who is also an expert,” he says. “They save time with a companion.”
