A family enjoys skiing with their instructor at Black Mountain in Jackson. (COURTESY PHOTO)
Black Mountain uses a hula hoop to keep young students skiing in line. (COURTESY PHOTO)
Young skiers enjoy a lesson at Bretton Woods with great views of Mount Washington. During the pandemic, ski areas have seen an increase in demand for ski lessons from many first-timers as well as from people who have gotten back into the sport. (COURTESY OF OMNI MOUNT WASHINGTON RESORT)
Snowboarders work on their balance during the Learn to Snowboard program at King Pine. (COURTESY PHOTO)
Using the Terrain Based Learning method, beginner ski and snowboard students at Cranmore Snowsports School aquire a good sense of balance and ease on the gentle learning area slope that is serviced by two Magic Carpet Lifts and a double chair. (COURTESY PHOTO)
A family enjoys skiing with their instructor at Black Mountain in Jackson. (COURTESY PHOTO)
Black Mountain uses a hula hoop to keep young students skiing in line. (COURTESY PHOTO)
Young skiers enjoy a lesson at Bretton Woods with great views of Mount Washington. During the pandemic, ski areas have seen an increase in demand for ski lessons from many first-timers as well as from people who have gotten back into the sport. (COURTESY OF OMNI MOUNT WASHINGTON RESORT)
Snowboarders work on their balance during the Learn to Snowboard program at King Pine. (COURTESY PHOTO)
Using the Terrain Based Learning method, beginner ski and snowboard students at Cranmore Snowsports School aquire a good sense of balance and ease on the gentle learning area slope that is serviced by two Magic Carpet Lifts and a double chair. (COURTESY PHOTO)
CONWAY — Being outside ... Feeling the brisk air and sunshine on a bluebird day ... Seeing the beauty of the mountains as you cruise down a slope, experiencing what late, great Cranmore Austrian skimeister Hannes Schneider called “flight without wings.”
What’s not to like? And during COVID, it’s a way to have some fun, out of the house, right?
“We certainly have seen an increase as the public has embraced being outdoors — we are seeing increased interest, and we are accommodating it best we can here at King Pine, which has always been a great place to learn how to ski,” said Thomas Prindle, marketing director at family-owned ski area in East Madison.
“We have always had a robust first-timer business here at King Pine, as that is our niche market. I can’t tell you how many people would often come up to me at the Boston Snowsports Show in the past and say that this is where they learned to ski,” added Prindle
Last year, due to social grouping concerns on account of the pandemic, King Pine did only private lessons and saw strong demand for that instruction — this year, Prindle says, King Pine introduced its learn-to-ski and learn-to-snowboard group lessons and continues to see strong demand.
Always known for its children’s programs, Prindle said King Pine is seeing increased demand from beginner adults — and that may be a part of the pandemic “get outside” trend, he believes.
“We definitely see our fair share of young children — but we are also starting to see a more diverse and generational market, which is great to see,” said Prindle.
Craig Clemmer, marketing director for Omni Mount Washington Resort, said Bretton Woods has also seen that increase for both its Nordic and alpine operations and combined with cold weather for snowmaking and grooming, things are “chugging along” as the resort meets the increased demand.
“I think everybody wants to enjoy the outdoors as much as they possibly can — it’s what we saw in golf over the past two years and it’s happening in Nordic and alpine skiing. These are activities and entertainment that people can do outside and so it sort of blends into the current world we live in,” said Clemmer on Thursday, yet another cold but sunny day that pulled at the heart of any skier to get outdoors.
Clemmer said he had spoken with the resort’s ski instructors and they told him that they are seeing many families who have at least one parent who is an avid skier who then is bringing his or her family to the resort to learn to ski.
“One of the bigger areas where we’ve seen the increase in lessons is for families who take family ski lessons together,” said Clemmer.
Black Mountain first-year ski school director and valley-raised Ray Gilmore is seeing a strong demand for its novel “Black Sheep” ski youth programs which focus on getting kids out onto the hill to have fun versus running race gates.
(It’s called “Black Sheep” because Gilmore knows that Black’s program is unlike others).
“We focus on having fun, on all-mountain skiing and the skills needed to have ‘Big Mountain Adventures,’” said Gilmore, a father of five young skiing children with wife Cassie and an Army 10th Mountain Division veteran who is passionate about skiing and ski instruction.
“We don’t focus on the mileage of lift served laps, but incorporate alpine touring and mountain safety such as first aid and avalanche awareness, how to get up, as well as get down, how to dress for success and make the most out of a lifetime of skiing,” Gilmore said.
He agreed that all aspects of skiing have seen a surge during COVID.
“Lessons, tickets, skier visits, equipment sales … all of it have seen an increase. After being locked inside, people were itching to get back out and they came out en masse,” said Gilmore, known to many as “Capt. Ray” for his military service and esteem for the 10th, which was originally founded in World War II as the Ski Troops, with many of its veteran members going on to prominent positions in the ski industry after the war — including the late J. Arthur Doucette, who ran the ski school at Black from the 1950s to the early ’70s.
“The Black Sheep Program has outperformed my expectations and projections to the point where we brought in an extra coach to meet the demand; and the support we are receiving from the community is remarkable,” he said.
Due to the rise of cases since December of the Omicron virus, Gilmore said Black has stopped mixing its ski instruction groups.
“I spent 10-days coaching in Colorado during the height of the Delta surge, with kids from all across the country, and we never faced a problem; but Omicron is a different animal. As soon as break through rates started exploding, we reverted back to family pods to limit exposure for our guests. This limits our capacity even further, but it is the right thing to do for our guests and our community, because public health needs to take priority over profits,” he said.
Becca Deschenes, marketing director at Cranmore Mountain Resort, agreed that demand for ski and snowboard instruction is bounding along at North Conway’s venerable resort, once home to Hannes Schneider (1890-1955) and son Herbert (1920-2012), who helped in making Cranmore a leading place to learn to ski with its sunny slopes and good array of beginner and intermediate terrain.
“We’ve seen an increase, especially for private lessons. We offer both private and group lessons but private lessons have been especially up these past two years,” said Deschenes, noting that Cranmore’s Snowsports School has long set the standard for ski instruction under the direction of longtime instructor Karen Dolan and now assisted by Meghan Kelsey, formerly of Aspen Snowmass.
Cranmore for the last several years has embraced the Terrain Based Learning (TBL) ski teaching method, in which students first learn to balance themselves by walking on skis at the base of the mountain on flat terrain. They then tackle a gentle culvert, feeling the sensation of letting them slide down into the center, bending their knees (or, as the renowned Schneiders would say, “Bend ze knees”) before progressing to the Magic Carpet and a gentle slope known as “Traverse Tracks” before advancing to the Cranmore Double Chair in the learning area or to the South Slope slow-moving quad chair.
It carries on Cranmore’s — and the Schneiders’ — legacy, with Deschenes noting, “We hear all the time that this is where people learned to ski. We have always been one of the top places to learn, and we are known for the quality and commitment of our ski instructors.”
Her mother, Deb Deschenes, who works as marketing director at the Jackson Ski Touring Foundation, shared her daughter and other ski resort representatives’ view that demand for skiing and ski instruction is up, partly due to people just wanting to be outside these COVID days.
“We are definitely seeing new skiers coming into the sport. And snowshoeing has also been popular, especially earlier this season before we had the good ski conditions that we have now,” she said.
“We have restricted our group lessons to families in their own pods and we offer private lessons. We hired an additional two instructors this season because of the demand,” said Deschenes.
In Bartlett, Bear Notch Ski Touring and Snowshoe Center offers lessons via reservation with certified Sue Tuttle and her two fellow instructors, Melissa Nadeau and Chris Bridge. “It’s going real well. They are keeping busy, especially now that we have the great new snow,” said John Henry Garland on Thursday.
“We saw great demand last year and we’re seeing it now, too, with peoole wanting to enjoy the outdoors.”
Like any operation in the valley these days of a labor shortage, the only downer is that there does seem to be a shortage of ski and snowboard instructors, only adding to the perception of there being an increased demand, according to all the ski representatives interviewed.
As King Pine’s Prindle noted, “We could always use more — especially snowboard instructors.”
Concurred Black’s Gilmore, “There is a shortage of instructors ... and snowmakers, lifties, front line staff, kitchen staff, patrollers … all of it, everywhere. The same challenges that everyone else in the valley is feeling, are being felt in the ski schools and at resorts across the region.
“Retail, dining, nursing, teachers, you name it, New Hampshire is short on employees. This is a problem that has been growing for years, that was exacerbated by COVID, that is holding back our economy at the moment,” Gilmore said.
Ski NH’s executive director, Jessyca Keeler, and others said ski areas are doing their best to adapt to the challenges of COVID, the labor shortage and increased demand.
And, bottom line: Keeler said, the Granite State remains a great place to ski — and to learn to ski.
“New Hampshire offers a lot of different ski areas, each with different personalities and different kinds of family-friendly terrain. We’re only a short drive from the greater Boston area, so we’re easy to get to in only a few hours,” she said.
“And yes, I do advocate for taking a lesson as you will learn how to ski the right way versus learning from a friend or family member who is not certified.”
Take a lesson, and “bend ze knees”— and enjoy a lifelong sport in the safe outdoors.
Local alpine areas offering ski schools include Black Mountain, Bretton Woods, Cranmore Mountain Resort and King Pine for alpine lessons and Bear Notch Ski Touring and Snowshoe Center, Bretton Woods Nordic Center, great Glen Trails, Jackson Ski Touring, Mount Washington Valley Ski Touring and Snowshoe Center and the Reserve at Purity Spring Resort.
For more information, go to skinh.com.
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