Who went to ski school?

[uphillklimber]

I had opportunity to ride with some students from Gould Acedemy and inquired about how it works. Anyone here willing to share any insight to when they were in ski school? Just curious how it all works.

 

[deadheadskier]

I'm a graduate of Vermont Academy. VA is a traditional boarding school, but we competed against Gould in ski racing and I assume Gould had a similar schedule as we did. The way the winter schedule worked for my school and the other school's in the league (Kimball Union, Proctor, Holderness, Brewster, Tilton, North Hampton, Hebron and several others in Northern New England) is we would get out of class for the day on Tuesday's and Thursdays at 1. Our home mountain was Okemo about 45 minutes away. So, skiers were on the hill at 2:15ish and would train until 4. On Mondays and Fridays, classes went til 3, so we just did dry land training as we couldn't make it to Okemo in time. Maybe Gould skiers get out early on Mondays and Fridays as well as I know I've seen them on the slopes on those days at Sunday River.

On Wednesdays and Saturdays classes would finish at 11:30 (which was the case year round) and travel for competition. This was the case in all sports. Average drive time between schools was anywhere from 1.5 - 3.5 hours. When we played Hebron Maine in football, we'd spend 7 hours on a bus on game day.

I barely raced at all in High School. I was more into bumps. Fortunately, VA allowed non-racers to catch a ride with the racers to the mountain for the day and just recreational ski. The only racing I did was my Senior year for about 3 weeks. I had shattered my wrist mountain biking in the summer and wasn't allowed to play football in the fall. VA required students to play two competitive sports a year, so I reluctantly joined the ski team and proceeded to get in a massive wreck training Super G dislocating my shoulder, fracturing my C7 and compressing nerves. Missed the rest of the ski season and wasn't cleared to play lacrosse in the spring as well. The crash involved a collision with another racer doing open training. To this day 18 years later, I'm extremely sensitive of skiing close to others and dial my speed WAY back if there's any traffic at all on the trails.

 

[uphillklimber]

Thanx for the perspective DHS. The young ladies I rode the lift with said they ski mornings to 11, Tuesday thru Thursday. I'm not sure why they were there Monday(????) Oh yes, school was out for the week. But they dormed at the school and the ski bus took them just the same. Competitions are about every 2 weeks, from what they told me. I asked how much they ski, and they said "a lot!" 4 days a week all winter, plus competitions. Their school is very liberal about jockeying class around for skiing.

 

[AdironRider]

I think it depends on the school.

I went to Milton, which had a similar structure to what DHS mentioned only our half days were Wednesdays.

There are others, notably NSA and Carrabassett Valley that are much more sports oriented. I know NSA in Lake Placid pretty much skis every day and does most schooling through one on one tutors. Unfortunately, most of the kids I know who went there arent exactly rock stars academically. Can ski real well though.

 

[ScottySkis]

Sent from my ADR6410LVW using Tapatalk 2

Ski school of my dad.

 

[bdfreetuna]

I raced for Williston in high school. 3 days a week at Berkshire East (probably 4 hours on the slopes from 5:00-9:00pm) plus three days of long runs and intense work outs. Reading Deadhead's post I remember now our schedule for competitions was basically the same... half day of classes Wednesday and some Saturday races as well.

It kind of burnt me out and left little time for homework or a social life after school. On top of it I wasn't really the best racer. I hated skiing the ice rut slalom courses we raced on and usually spent as much practice as I could get away with off in the woods or bumps.

I wasn't bad but there were a handful of students who were far better than me. They must have gone to ski schools at a younger age. For me, I was just a kid who was comfortable skiing double blacks and woods but skiing gates on ice (intentionally, no less) was a relatively new experience.

That said I learned a *lot* those few years and while I never got a podium spot they are lessons that still stick with me.

Also it's nice to know that the skier I am now would ski circles around that kid in high school

 

[AdironRider]

Williston Northhampton? My sis went there and graduated in 04. Cool spot.

 

[bdfreetuna]

yep. Class of 2001. I was a day student there. Enjoyed my high school experience very much / would recommend.