End of the Teaching Season

Yesterday was the end of my teaching season.

What, you say. Hasn’t it has been over for weeks?

Well yes it has. The last lesson I gave was sometime in late March. But the hill where I teach went on for another week or two. And last night, we remembered the season.

If you’ve never thought of it, you might be surprised at the number of people required to keep a ski area open.

There are, customers aside, at least six important groups of people who make a day area work: owners, office staff, lodge staff (kitchen, primarily), hill and other maintenance (groomers, snow makers, lift operators), ski patrol, and instructors.

Last night our little area had its “Annual Instructor & Patrol Spring Banquet.” Though instructors got the top billing, the event was really more a celebration of ski patrollers than anything else. After the meal, there were awards for best rookie patroller, most spirited patroller, and so forth. No such awards for instructors.

Then again, I don’t begrudge the patrol for any commendations they receive or wish to bestow on its members. At a recruiting open house, I learned that ski patrollers have to undergo OEC (Outdoor Education Care) before the season starts, and do dryland training. as well. Something about walking up the hill on Saturday mornings. In ski boots.

One curious thing that I noted about the evening: a large portion of the crowd seemed to be north of 40 years old. This is similar to my observations about snowsports journalists, and of ski club memberships. Perhaps younger folks do participate, but have very young children who keep them at home during the evening. I’m not sure. It did seem, from my limited observations, that many people knew each other for quite a while.

The evening ended with a long video that showed different parts of the season, from the snow-making operations to mid-season skiing and riding to bumps skiing to freestyle tricks. To be truthful, most of the soundtrack did not appeal to me. It would have been nice to see more snowboarding and less skiing. But overall, the video was a great reminder of the season.