My girlfriend and I are planning to take a group lesson at Whitetail next time we're up there. Presuming that they just do a standard beginner/intermediate/advanced split, we'd definitely end up intermediate. That said, what's the best strategy to get the best student:teacher ratio? Is there any simple rule of thumb, like the mid-day classes are huge, the early and late are empty, or anything like that?


aaron

i think one of the dcski members, therusty, is an instructor there. he should have the lowdown

Last year I took several lessons at Liberty. Most of the time I went during the week at night for the group lessons and every single time I ended up with a private lesson due to the lack of crowds. When I asked the instructors what other good times are for lessons they mentioned that on the weekend you can usually get a small group or end up with a private lesson on Sunday nights. They seemed to give the impression that Saturday night would have smaller crowds than other times during the weekend but it could still be crowded.

I realize that Liberty isn't Whitetail but since they are run by the same group and draw crowds from the same areas I would think that the trends are similar.

-apc

Aaron,

There are several factors including the weather and the crowds. I prefer the last lesson (7:00 PM) but that's partly due to needing time to get comfortable on the snow. Since we're night clubbers, we usually arrive at 4:00 and a 5:00 lesson is too soon. It's a bit of a crap shoot if you end up with a private lesson or share with kids.

If you are skiing the blues, you'll have less competition for instructors. Also, if you know what you want to work on and tell the supervisor (the guy who divides up the groups)that may help weed you out from others who are looking for other areas to work on.

More important is the instructor, since some are great and occasionally there's a dud. I rarely get a group of more than 4 and about 1/3 of all my lessons have been private.

A strategy might be to be close to the lesson area and see how many folks are by each set of flags (green/blue/black). Then if there are too many, came back two hours later and try again.

Also, you may want to avoid Friday night since all the school trips will be there and it can be interesting to try to avoid the kids who think that if you don't turn once from top to bottom you know how to ski.

Good luck. Steve

Aaron,

The best strategy is to go up when the weather is not primo. Sunny days are busier than cloudy days. Mild temp days are busier than too warm or too cold days. Holiday weekends (e.g. MLK weekend coming up) can be busy regardless of the weather. Night time on super bowl Sunday would be a good bet. Other than that my guess would be that either the 10:00 AM or 7:00PM weekend line ups would be your best bet for intermediate lessons.