The Burden of Risk In The Teaching World and Equitable Risk Distribution

When teaching professionals hit the slopes, who bears the burden of risk? Certainly not the resorts which employ them.

As previously discussed, the only risk to the resort is when a pro is injured during the course of a lesson, or in a mandatory clinic, or perhaps in a clinic related to certification. The rest of the time, the burden falls upon the pro. If a teaching pro is hurt in any other sort of clinic, training or while free skiing for self improvement, injuries are solely the responsibility of the teaching professional.

Moreover, at some resorts, the pipe and park "pass" required to teach, or even ski in such terrain is not even covered, with resorts telling their pros that "it's up to you if you want to teach in the park."

Is that really true?

What really happens to a teaching pro who refuses such lessons?

In a best case scenario, the professional forsakes a portion of their potential income (in a declining economy). In a worst case scenario, the teaching pro is downgraded by their ski school, making them "less valuable" and possibly "expendable."

To suggest that there is no "level playing field" here would be a vast understatement.

What then is the answer? In a nutshell, an equitable distribution of the risk.

How?

Resorts need to insure their staff, provide workers compensation coverage for all time spent on snow, as well as providing a reasonable rate of show up pay so that pros have some incentive to train when work is not available.

Make the statement that you respect your teaching professionals. Such a show of respect is one avenue towards increasing ski school bookings, a large source of revenue for most winter resorts. A continued lack of respect is only likely to lead to a drop in performance and skill acquisition, promoting a further decline in revenue. Resorts, you do have a financial interest in accelerated performance; it makes money for you. In our troubled economic times, can you really afford not to look at all means of increasing revenue in ski schools?

The teaching professional puts their health on the line for you everyday; is it unreasonable for them to expect something in return?

After all, the increased financial support is still less expensive than a potential strike or a continued drop in revenue.

Be smart resorts; look at the long term implications of your current policies and make the necessary changes before you pay a price you may not expect

A Duty of Care in the Skiing World

What so-called “duty of care” does a ski school owe its paying clients? Obviously, in return for the large amount of money spent, a teaching professional is provided, but the questions goes far deeper than that.

How “talented” is this professional? Are they happy to be teaching; an employee who feels good about what he or she is doing? Well compensated and taken care of? Provided for in the event of an injury? Secure in what he or she is doing?

What happens when the teaching pro has other things on their minds?

Consider what might happen when a teaching professional feels underpaid, unappreciated by their resort…worried about the implications of something going wrong. Where is their focus now?

Teaching professionals are just that, professionals. Are they treated as such by their resorts? Are their opinion and concerns paid attention to? Do they have a forum for promoting improvements in their work place or with regard to their individual situations?

Today’s teaching professional is too often treated in a most unprofessional manner. Sometimes by the clients they ski with and sometimes by the resorts who employ them. Many times, I have heard clients referring to their instructors as “ski bums” who are lucky to be doing what they do for a living.

Why?

Unfortunately, the resorts themselves must shoulder most of the responsibility for the impressions formed by clients. They fail to provide for adequate compensation, much less provide financial protection for such staff. True, workers compensation is available for those injured while performing their duties on the clock, but even then, the teaching pro takes a substantial “hit” when things go wrong. First, they lose the first three days of pay when injured. Second, ALL of their tip revenue evaporates with zero compensation for that. While at some resorts, tips play a small role in the overall financial picture, at larger resorts such tips form a huge portion of what the teaching professional makes and without such tips in major resort areas, they could not afford to even be there.

And what happens when a teaching professional speaks out regarding issues such as pay, insurance, working conditions and more? They are immediately ostracized, if not terminated for “insufficient performance.” If anything, this is a one-way street, with the resorts doing all the driving. Resorts take their teaching professionals for granted. And that results in conflict. Conflict limits the flow of business and should be avoided at all costs, no pun intended.

Is there any wonder why so many clients take ski professionals for granted?

Moreover, the resorts fail to make any effort to adequately “impress” their clients with the qualifications of the teaching professional. These so called “ski bums” have devoted themselves to their sport/profession. Some work on snow year round; almost all try to improve their skills year in and year out, without adequate respect or compensation.

Is there any surprise in the fact that the level of discontent in the world of the teaching professional appears to be growing?

And how does this affect the customer?

Customers pay large sums of money to ski with these professionals. Do they not have an entitlement to a focused, high quality experience every time? Or, is it all right for them to receive this level of attention and care only part of the time? The question would appear to answer itself.

When a client pays for a teaching professional to ski with them for an hour or for a day…or even for a number of days, they have an absolute right to receive the very best that can be offered. Is this the case? One would tend to doubt it’s even possible when the pro has a number of significant issues weighing heavily on their mind.

Teaching pros are people and like everyone else in the working world, when they have issues, those they service will feel the effect of those issues as well. The logic is inexorable.

So, what is the answer?

That is, perhaps, the easiest part of the equation. Take care of your pros so that they can perform at the highest possible level. It is the only way to ensure that your clients get what they are paying for. The failure to do so will only result in declining ski school revenues, particularly in an economy where everyone is forced to cut back on expenditures. Resorts love to complain when ski school revenues drop, yet fail to accept responsibility for such declines, preferring to blame economic factors or a lack of performance by the staff. Quite simply, improved morale equates to a higher level of performance and, consequently, a better experience for the paying customer.

In such a declining economy, what can resorts do to compensate for these issues, assuming they are even inclined to cope with them in the first place?

There are ways to compensate, just as there are for any corporation coping with such declines.

MARKET your professionals. Take a positive, pro-active approach by looking at the skills the teaching professional brings to the table. Change the way the resort advertises itself. Enough of the “come to our prestigious resort” approach. Be more specific when it comes to what you, as a resort, have to offer. Instead of print ads in SKI Magazine, which paint with a broad stroke, try placing ads that demonstrate what your staff provides that your competition may not. Go out on a limb and feature the very pros you expect your clients to pay large sums to ski or ride with. Highlight their competitive background and their educational backgrounds. Do you not realize that some of your pros have more than twenty years experience teaching or speak multiple languages, or even that some are world champions in one discipline or another?

You are selling a product and just like any corporation engaged in the business of doing so, you MUST convince the client to spend their hard earned money. You cannot simply continue to ride along on a reputation that may not even exist any more. History is full of examples of corporations who have tried to do the latter; most of them failed.

There are ski schools that bring in between $40 and $50 million dollars a year gross, yet still claim they cannot afford to pay more, or provide basic insurance during the season, a claim which is ridiculous. This is not the 1960s where ski teaching was but a fledgling industry.

The power to cope with this unsettling situation rests in the hands of such resorts, but perhaps they simply do not have the leadership and vision to see what possible solutions exist.

Today’s ski school director needs to do more than simply manage the ski school. They need to have a sense of marketing and public relations. They need to practice their skills in community relations, both internal and external. They need to be more so that they can do more. They need to look at issues from both sides of the equation and ask the right questions. “How can I motivate my staff?” “How can I assure my customers that spending money to ski with my pros is a good investment?” “How can I take steps to ensure that my staff wants to be here, instead of feeling that they have to be here?” These are just some of the questions today’s ski school directors must ask themselves.

If one is responsible for that many people and their livelihood, the failure to ask such questions is just that, a failure.

You let your staff down and you let your customers down. It all boils down to one simple concept: evolve or die.

Economic Support for Professional Skiers

What would happen if every ski teaching professional in one state...say Vermont for example... decided, their pay being wholly inadequate, to say, "I quit?" Or, simply went on strike? Or, as the Aspen Pro Patrol did years ago, decided to unionize?

How would resorts handle such a problem?

The resorts already have a decidedly clear problem finding enough qualified skiers to fill those jobs as it is; would they be able to handle such a drain? And, with the recent restrictions imposed on H2B and other visas used to bring in teaching professionals from abroad, this is a problem that is only likely to get worse.

Teaching professionals, for the most part, have spent years...some decades... honing their craft. From the many hours of working on their own skiing to the inevitable time spent in clinics, to the countless hours working with beginners in the hope that they would someday advance their skills and be able to then teach more accomplished skiers, these professionals have fully committed themselves.

Typically, it takes a ski instructor a minimum of five years to attain a level III teaching accreditation, during which time, the hours spent on their own, studying and improving their skills, asking questions of othersand working with students amount to the equivalent of perhaps a post graduate degree in the sport. It certainly equals an undergraduate degree in the field, with a particularly strong emphasis on practical experience, something no college graduate has at the time they leave their school. Moreover, these instructors are then expected to continue their education with mandatory continuing education clinics.

Further, the resorts for which they teach expect all that any employer expects; timeliness, a professional appearance at all times, a growing base of knowledge, the ability to communicate with clients and more.

Yet, how do these same resorts treat such professionals? Not well in many cases.

What do these professionals receive in the way of compensation? In some bigger western resorts, compensation is more than adequate, with hourly wages, in some cases, exceeding $20.00 per hour. Unfortunately, those who receive such compensation are the elite of the teaching world. Typically, a western pay rate is significantly less and give the exceptionally high cost of living in western resorts towns, such professionals must find a second job at night simply to make it through the season unless they are blessed with a long list of clients who tip exceptionally well.

In the world of Eastern resorts, it is a completely different scenario and culture. Here, instructors are lucky if they make $15.00 per hour hour, with tips that don't come close to matching those out west. If an eastern instructor makes $500 a week, they are extremely lucky.

Moreover, instructors only get paid for the time they are actually teaching. A blank during the daily schedule is just that, a blank...no revenue and perhaps only a modicum of "show up pay."

Do the Eastern resorts charge lesson for their lesson products? Hardly.

Is the work easier? No.

Do any resorts provide seasonal health coverage free of charge? No.

Yet, who is it that often provides a guest's primary impression of any resort? The teaching professional. Anyone see a problem here? Anyone wonder why resorts have problems retaining staff or why such teaching professionals feel no qualms about relocating should a better position become available?

And let's not forget the seasonal nature of the work. However accomplished and talented a teaching professional may be, they still must find a second job during the so called "off season" in order to simply survive economically. How may resorts make an effort to find off season positions for their teaching staff? Very few.

There is a certain shortsightedness in the outlook of the resorts; the industry as a whole is going through some rough times, with very few able to maintain their historical number of skier/rider visits each season. True, the economy as a whole is not in good shape, but the resort issues significantly pre-date the downturn in the global economy.

Consistent performance is what resorts expect from their teaching professionals, but that is a one way street, as the professionals certainly cannot expect the same from the resorts.

Quite simply, resorts need to find more diversified ways of maintaining their income levels and use some of their revenues to assure teaching professionals that they are indeed valued. Provide teaching professionals with a quality wage that reflects all the time and effort it has taken to become a polished instructor. Provide them with health care that covers them when they are on their own time working on their skills. Relying on workers compensation for injuries suffered during the course of their work is simply not enough for those who risk grave bodily injuries in order to simply be better at what they do. There is a certain lack of incentive to spend one's own time improving, given the physical risks involved.

These professionals deserve more respect and better compensation; they have earned it year after year.

Beware resorts; you are creating a growing problem which, some day, is going to bite you when you least expect it. Think of what it will cost you then. Think about your clients and what they will say. Have respect for the product you put on the snow and look to the long term opportunities that come from having a staff that is excited about working for you.

I recently read where a prominent eastern resort was sold for $82 million in cash, with an additional $50 million being due on a 40 year note. Please don't claim that you cannot afford to pay your teaching professionals appropriately or that you cannot afford to provide health care coverage. The facts say otherwise.

Think resorts, THINK. It won't hurt to do so.

The New England Powder 8 Championships at Suicide Six

South Pomfret -- The number eight is sometimes linked to the concept of infinity, which may be why Stacey Gerrish so desires to make her eights infinitely perfect.

It's what she and her skiing partner, Ginny Creak, will be trying to do this at Suicide Six this week. They'll be easy to spot: Look for the two of them skiing front to back in matching uniforms -- blue, gray and pink -- with the words “Babes of Prey” on their skiwear.

Oh, and the perfectly linked turns that, when done correctly, will leave a series of cascading eights in the snow behind them.

“We spend our days as instructors out on the hill, working with other people to improve their skiing,” the Woodstock-raised Gerrish said this week from Colorado, where she is a ski instructor at Beaver Creek Resort. “When you have an opportunity to train for yourself and work on your skiing and exude your passion for the sport through competition, it's more exciting.

“I'm out on the hill, giving every day, sharing my love of my sport. This gives me a chance to enjoy the sport on my level.”

Today and tomorrow, that level will be the New England Powder Eight Championships, which Brownsville's Doc Tulin hopes will bring greater light to one of the two primary forms of synchronized skiing available to high-level ski teachers.

Tulin created the Powder Eights when he moved east from Colorado a decade ago. The competition pairs two skiers, front and back, skiing downhill in tandem, graded on everything technical in the ideal ski turn. The meet begins with preliminaries today; up to eight successful tandems will advance to head-to-head knockout stages tomorrow.

“The way we approach it is it's open to anyone who wants to pony up the $100 entry fee for a team, sign the waivers and they're in,” Tulin said this week. “That's the beauty of it. Joe Blow from off the street can ski head-to-head with a friend against someone who is, say, an examiner from a mountain like Stowe. It’s a great way, if you're interested, in moving into the ski teaching industry, to look at what we have to offer.”

When you're the person teaching someone else to ski, how do you go about skiing better yourself? One way is through synchronized skiing, a sport with little presence in the eastern United States.

Synchro skiing -- be it the two-person variety or the six-to-eight-person version known as demonstration skiing -- is more prevalent in the Rockies and is huge in Europe largely because of the culture of skiing, according to Gregor Neal, one of Tulin's teaching colleagues from Colorado. Being a ski instructor isn't a requirement of competition, but about 95 percent of the people who compete are teachers.

“In Europe, skiing is a way of life; in the United States, it's a business,” said Neal, a private lesson instructor at Beaver Creek. “So many countries, and they all have ski industries. They have synchro carving, powder eights, six-man teams, eight-man teams. They'll have competitions with 30 or 40 teams coming from all over Europe.

“I've been involved in the ski industry all my life. This is a good way to further yourself, along with your skill patterns. I like the camaraderie and the competitive part of it. It could be synchro skiing, football, basketball; it's the same as for any team sport.”

The powder skiing of the West is also conducive to synchronized skiing. It's certainly easier to assess performance in such conditions, Tulin said, when the trails of the teams stay behind them as evidence.

“With untracked powder on every run, we can examine the shape (of the turn) by looking up the hill and evaluating and counting,” said Tulin, who will be one of two judges for this week's event.

At Suicide Six, tandems will be scored in four areas: turn shape, synchronization, turn symmetry and technical ability, everything from the placement of hands to the bounce of the knees. Shape is graded on a 1-to-20 scale, the others on a 1-to-10 scale. Speed isn't a factor in powder eights until teams are lined up against each other, wherein bonus points can be earned for completing a run faster than the opposition.

Teams will hold qualifying runs today, after which the top 16 pairs will enter head-to-head, round-robin competition this afternoon. Seeded into four pools, the group winners and next four highest-scoring teams will advance to tomorrow's knockout rounds to determine a champion. (Several sponsors -- Karbon, High Gear, Giro, Transpack, Chaos Hats, Rocky Ridge Golf Course, Henderson Ski Shops in Quechee, Boot Pro in Ludlow, Vt. -- are providing product as prizes for the completion.)

“You're going to see a lot of good skiing, that's for sure,” said Neal, who has helped Tulin judge the New England Powder Eights in past years. “There will be a lot of really, really good skiers, which gives guests a good idea of what good skiing is all about.”

That Suicide Six is serving as home for Tulin's event is a matter of circumstance.

Born in 2003, the event was held at Jay Peak -- arguably the snowiest site in the Northeast -- before moving to Stowe last winter. The New England Powder Eights were to return to Stowe again this winter before economic issues forced Tulin to seek an alternate site. Suicide Six was close, and event has received a warm welcome, Tulin said.

Synchro skiing has no national governing body, and the few competitions that exist are run by enthusiasts. A national championship for powder eight pairs is set for Aspen, Colo., in March, while larger teams will congregate for their meet in April. A world championship used to be held at a heli-skiing facility in British Columbia, but that was abandoned last winter because of the costs involved, Tulin said.

Tulin hopes to recruit squads from Killington, Mad River Glen, Stowe and other Vermont resorts for New Englands, while he has assurances that a handful of Western tandems will make the trip east.

“This highlights what we mean about Western skiers going a lot further to be in this,” he noted. “Eastern skiers need more experience to the whole concept.”

Gerrish has grasped the concept and enjoys it.

Educated in Woodstock schools before graduating from Northfield-Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts, Gerrish cut her skiing teeth at Suicide Six and once taught there before settling at Beaver Creek 20 years ago. She formed Babes of Prey both as a competitive synchro team and as a means to raise money and awareness for cancer prevention.

“I think all the ski schools out here (in Colorado) give the sport support; there's a lot of excitement around it,” Gerrish said. “We go up and train every morning before the lifts open to the public. It's a pretty big deal.”

The weekend will be extra special for Gerrish, who is returning in time to help her grandmother celebrate a birthday. She might have tried the New England Powder Eights had they still been at Stowe or Jay, but the late move to Suicide Six made the trip a no-brainer.

“It's my home mountain and my hometown, and I can stay with family,” she pointed out. “My grandmother hasn't seen me ski since I moved out to Colorado 20 years ago. I'm excited for her to see me.”

It'll make the New England Powder Eights infinitely more delightful.

NOTE: THIS IS A REPRINT OF THE ARTICLE WRITTEN BY GREG FENNELL FOR THE VALLEY NEWS (HTTP://VNEWS.COM) IN APPRECIATION OF THE SUPPORT THEY HAVE SHOWN THE NEW ENGLAND POWDER 8 CHAMPIONSHIPS THROUGH THEIR COVERAGE OF THE EVENT

Reflections on what's inside a skier

One often wonders what the motivation is for 7 years of working hard to provide an event where the top teaching and technical skiers in the New England region can gather together for a competition particularly well suited to what they do.

Sponsors are gathered; frequent emails and phone calls are exchanged. Venue details are sorted through, with endless corrections, the collection of equipment, building of fences.

Resorts are approached to send teams, clinics are run for the various ski schools in the region...many trainers and instructors are spoken to...and many say they will be there.

Yet, come event day....year after year, the turnout is less than stellar.

Such a different atmosphere than one finds in the western states, where the skiers think nothing of driving 12 hours from Colorado to Montana just for two days of competition. To the western skiers, it is so much more. It is a chance to connect with peers, make friends, sharpen their skiing skills in the fire of competition. They waste no time worrying about how they will perform. Rather, they thrill to the chance of being able to perform, to compete, to better themselves somehow in their chosen way of life.

Eastern skiers are a wholly different breed. They worry about whether they are good enough, shy away from competition and are content to do as they always have for the most part. They miss the opportunity to learn, to better themselves. Frankly, most of them are just lackadaisical, content to just go through the motions of their skiing lives and, in doing so, miss the point of why they became skiers in the first place.

A skier is a skier is a skier. It's not about how well one skis, much less how one skis on any given single day. It is about the sensations one derives from moving down the hill....the pleasure of making a turn that makes you think, "yeah, that's it...that feels awesome!"

It is about a sense of belonging somewhere, of desire, of sensory pleasure. It is about the environment in which one surrounds oneself; the freedom of physical expression...to be wrapped in the arms of the mountains while pushing for forward towards some unknown.

Think back Eastern skiers; why do you do what you do? The answers, should you have what it takes to ask the question, may just surprise you.

For the skiers who make it to the New England Powder 8s (soon to be the New England Synchroski Carving Championships) you "get it." You do not waste these rare opportunities and you will grow from having been part of something different and unusual.

Turn n' burn!

Reporting Ski Conditions...what a joke!

Does anyone ever really notice what is reported by services providing regional ski/ride conditions? We're not talking about what the individual resorts themselves report but rather, what companies such as OnTheSnow.com and SnoCountry.com broadcast.

Does anyone really care how many "miles" of terrain are open? Or kilometers for that matter?

What makes a resort visitor pay attention? Fresh snow? Of course. The number of trails? To a certain extent, limited of course by the way in which the resorts count trails. Most resorts count the cut overs between trails as bona fide trails, something no knowledgeable skier or rider buys into. Why do they not list only vertical trails? After all, one rides down a mountain, not across it.

Why do the reporting services not get more specific in terms of the actual conditions of the snow, the depth of the snow and similar items that affect the quality of the riding experience.

Listen to the radio reports these entities put out and see for yourself; they are wholly inadequate and focus more on the sponsor funding the broadcast, rather than the quality of the information itself....what a waste of the listeners time!

Try talking to us about the snow itself, the prevailing weather, what conditions will be like at different times of the riding day...we might actually then start listening.

Define yourself

Crisis; the plunge. Deep, shadowed what’s hidden below what’s hidden inside.

Fear; the knot cold, grinding, twisting inside Do they see can they feel what I feel the shaking the dreams.

A deep breath move forward fear does not win must not win can never win. Life clings to that freedom...the exhilaration within...how to explain?

Good and bad cannot be set apart; intertwined in the passion and the fear.

You do what you do; you are who you are...acceptance comes late, yet does not define.

Face the fear; face and embrace know who you are in that moment...that place you will never forget

The Tribe

Having read Bill Kerig's book, The Edge of Never, last week, I still can't let go of the vivid picture Bill painted of The Tribe...those legendary skiers we have all seen in movies such as the Blizzard of Ahhs... who so willingly gave of their knowledge and experience in order for young Kye Petersen to trace his father's path (the late, great Trevor Petersen) into and through the snow of Chamonix that claimed his life.

I now wonder what went through Kye's mind as he made his way through such a memorable journey; how it felt to be under the proverbial wing of Plake, Hattrup, Anselme Baud and Stephane Dan ("Fan Fan") or how it felt to be the subject of Kerig's memorable work.

The pictures on http://theedgeofnever.com are superb and help to show the enormity of what was physically conquered, yet only Kye Petersen truly knows the depth of what was psychologically conquered.

Thank you for such a magnificent piece of work Bill; I appreciated reading this book more than I could possibly tell you.

A first time for everything

Never having had a blog before, I felt it was time to have a place to post thoughts, observations, news about events and life...things that are of interest to me...and perhaps to others, although I guess one of the points of this is not caring what others think about such things.

Everyone needs a place to go and express themselves and we will see how this works as my place to do so.

Right now, the economic world is a tough one...and not just in the world of skiing. I see talented friends struggling every day and feel a sense of frustration in my inability to make things better for them. Yet, I also see how they somehow manage to make it through tough times and feel nothing but respect and admiration for the manner in which they conduct themselves.... it's reassuring to see them overcome the hurdles.

For me, relief is found in the simple things; time spent with an irascible cat named Hank who is as headstrong as they come...a trait we have in common too often....and in the peace and beauty that we call Vermont.

Yet, as much as I appreciate the sense of community Vermont offers, I have come to realize over time that my heart belongs in the high country of Colorado, with the most beautiful peaks, the bluebird days, the friends I have spent so much of my life skiing with, laughing with and surviving with...the sense of belonging that I so associate with being there. It is a place where I am at my most creative...where my writing takes wings and where I need to be.

The return there may take some time and I accept that, much as it is hard to do so, but better things await me there and I look forward to that ultimate "reunion."