Recommendation for a Freelance instructor in Utah?

I'll be skiing in Utah December 14th thru the 18th and am thinking about possibly taking a private lesson. My wife will be with me the first four days with the 4-resort Super Pass, and one afternoon we'll probably take a 1/2 day group lesson at Brighton (can't beat the $40 price). We may take the 4th day off and then I'll be skiing by myself the last and fifth day. That last day I'd love to take a full day hardcore private lesson focused on getting me comfortable enough to ski just about any of Snowbird's single-diamond black runs. I skied there last January and enjoyed the blues and some of the milder black stuff in Mineral Basin. This year in early January I'll be out there again with a buddy for 8 days, and he's a significantly better skier than I am. He's kind enough to ski at my level most of the time, but I'd sure like to sharpen my skills a bit so that I could ski some of the tougher runs that he'd like to ski. So I'm hoping that a few days of warmup skiing in December finishing up with a full day lesson with a good instructor who pushes me hard on the blacks might get me to the point that I'm comfortable on just about any single black run at Snowbird (I know that may be asking a bit much for a single day's lesson but I do learn fast and work hard). The lesson doesn't have to be at Snowbird although that would be my preference (could also be Alta, Brighton, or Solitude).

Anyway, the full day private lesson cost at Snowbird is $600 smackers and that's more than I can stomach. Soooo are there any "freelance" instructors out there that come highly recommended that charge a lot less than the resorts (but make more by keeping all the dough themselves)?

(PS, if this thread should be posted in another forum please let me know)

Thanks in advance!!

David

Thanks for the info SnowbirdDevotee! I found two things on Snowbird's website that sound sort of like what you're talking about - Dean Cummings Big Mountain Experience Camp which is a week long camp in February, and Dean Cummings Big Mountain Experience Private Lesson. The price is the same on the DCBMX private lesson as their regular private lessons ($600). But besides the price, based on the description of the class, it would be way above my skill level. It is described as being "for experts" which I definitely am NOT by any stretch of the imagination. I'm just looking for a lesson that can help me get more comfortable skiing most single black diamond runs at Snowbird, which I'm not right now. If I don't have any luck finding a good freelance instructor, I'll probably end up taking a full-day group lesson and try to accurately describe what I'm looking for to the instructors before lessons start so that I'll end up in the right class level. But I'd sure love to have a highly focused all day one-on-one lesson that's just all about me.


If my thread is taboo or has been covered a bazillion times please don't hesitate to set me straight. I haven't seen another thread talking about freelance instruction, but I do know that resort instructors get a TINY cut of the price that resorts charge for lessons. So I guess the question is, do freelance instructors exist? If so, are there any that are known here (and recommended) that offer instruction at Snowbird, Alta, Solitude, or Brighton?

David

Thanks again SnowbirdDevotee! Believe me, I'm stoked about skiing at that time!! I'm sure that all the runs that I'm comfortable skiing will be well covered by that time, and I'm glad to hear that crowds will be thin. I'll definitely check on the Mountain Experience thing, although I'm still worrried that it would be over my head.

Okay I spent some time researching this. First I looked for a "Forum Rules" area that might give me some guidance, and the closest thing I found here in the forum was the "General Forum Usage" and "Reading and Posting messages" areas in the FAQ page. No mention on either of those pages of the word "freelancing" (or even "instructor" or "instruction"). Then I used the search function again (earlier when I tried it I left it set to the default "Search entire posts" option which wasn't much help because it turned up too many results that had to do with things like freelance writing while on a ski vacation). This time by limiting the search to thread TITLES I found a thread discussing the subject of freelance instruction here: http://forums.epicski.com/showthread...ight=freelance. By slogging through that thread, in the 24th post I found a link to this thread: http://forums.epicski.com/showthread.php?t=43508

That second thread APPEARS to be forum policy and according to the first thread it was supposedly a sticky at one point in time. But it is definitely NOT a sticky now and is buried about 16 pages down in the thread listing in the "Ski Instruction and Coaching" forum.

Also, I followed the "terms" link in HeluvaSkier's policy post which took me here: http://www.epicski.com/about/terms.php No discussion of freelance instruction there. Then I noticed the "Posting Guidelines" link on the left hand side of that page (which apparently isn't accessable from within the forums themselves). No discussion of freelance instruction there either.

So at this point I have no idea if my thread violates current forum policy or not. And I can't imagine that the forum moderators would expect relative newcomers to have any idea about this issue since it doesn't appear on any official forum pages, other than an isolated thread over two years old that is burried 16 pages down in the thread list (i.e. it isn't a sticky).

Anybody know what the current forum policy is? Before reading Heluvaskier's post I had no idea that freelance instruction could possibly be ILLEGAL . As someone mentioned in one thread I came across, the resorts rent skis, boots, and poles onsite, but there's no legal issue with renting your own gear from another source and as far as I can tell the resorts don't even discourage it (even though offsite rentals will invariably be a better price than the resort rentals). So I'm not sure why someone NOT involved in the ski industry would be expected to know that simply hiring an instructor outside of the normal resort school system would be a problem (let alone ILLEGAL for God's sake).

David

Okay, breathing in, breathing out....breathing in, breathing out. Much better now.

That's interesting about the Forest Service getting their cut. Never would have thought of that.

Anyway, I like your suggestion about free lessons for future Heliskiing. Valdez here we come!!

David

Touché MisterK!!

Yeah this has definitely turned ugly. I hadn't thought about (or responded to) this thread in a few days because I clearly wasn't going to get the help I was looking for. I'll probably just stick to affordable group lessons at Brighton and take what I learn with me to the Bird. Somebody may figure out a way to argue that I'm doing something immoral or even illegal by paying for the services of a pro OFFSITE and taking those services with me the next day (in my head and muscle memory) to the Bird. But I'll sleep just fine at night.


"so I can turn them in for theft of services". So if somebody takes their own popcorn into a football stadium and sells this popcorn, then they would be guilty of "theft" of popcorn? Not sure I get that logic. If as Mom explained, the stadium has a "concession contract that gives them the right to control commercial activities there" (which makes perfectly good sense) then the bandito popcorn seller is clearly guilty of infringing on the rights of the concession holder. But is he "stealing" popcorn???

Anyway, thanks for those who have tried to help me out. Regardless of how my search for instruction turns out, I'm sure I'll have a blast in Utah and I can't wait!!! 46" of snow last week at the Bird!

Thanks for your thoughts Las!

No argument there!

I consider myself a reasonably "competent" skier with a good grasp of the basics already. But definitely nowhere near an expert. I was comfortable skiing pretty much any of the blues and a few of the milder single-diamond blacks in Mineral Basin at Snowbird last year. I did take a couple of half-day group lessons last year (at Brighton) and they definitely helped take my skills up a notch. Just looking to make even more progress this year and figured a full day of one-on-one instruction would do me the most good. Still may spring for a full day private lesson, but would likely do it at Brighton where they would only be milking me for $395 instead of $600 (and I suspect the instructor at Brighton would make very close to the same amount as the instructor at the Bird?)

Anyway, thanks again for your comments Las and I'll definitely send you a PM for your book recommendations!

David

Now THERE'S an interesting idea JF! If I find an instructor at Brighton that really "clicks" with me during group lessons on my December trip, I could try to set up a private with them at the Bird for my January trip. $395 is still a pretty good milking, but compared to $600 it almost looks like a deal.

Do you know if you reserve and pay for the lesson at the "home" resort (Brighton) or at the "host" resort (Snowbird)?

David

Cool! Thanks for the suggestion JF!


Yeah you're probably right about which word I put the emphasis on. But I emphasized *theft* because I think it's a gross misuse of the word *theft* to characterize paying someone for something (whether services OR goods), even if the seller isn't properly licensed to sell their goods or services in a particular place. Morally wrong perhaps, and possibly even illegal, but not *theft* (IMHO). In any case, your comment that "It's a little unclear to me how paying a freelance instructor would be theft of services since you didn't receive a lesson from the resort without paying for it" was exactly the point I was trying to make.

David