Ski Club / How It Works
How a Ski Club Friday works.
Gear drop in the morning, on the mountain by five, lessons at six, home by ten. Here is the whole evening, step by step.
Logistics
The evening, start to finish.
The sequence below reflects how last season ran. Exact times for this season will be confirmed with registered families before the first trip.
Gear drop
Students drop labeled ski gear at the Parish Hall in the morning. It stays locked there through the school day.
Early dismissal
Ski Club students are dismissed early. Backpacks and school clothes are stored and locked in the Parish Hall, and students change into ski clothes.
Bus departs — pizza on board
The bus loads immediately after dismissal. Pizza and water are available on the way up, so students arrive fed rather than losing mountain time to a dinner break.
Arrive at Whitetail
Rentals happen first — boots, skis or board, helmet. This takes a while on the first trip and gets much faster after that. Chaperones help with fitting.
Lessons
An hour of instruction with Whitetail's ski and ride school, grouped by ability. Instructors assign the groups, not parents. Students stay with their group until the instructor dismisses them.
Free ski
Most students stay on the two beginner runs. Stronger skiers can go further with a buddy. No child skis alone, and this period is not directly supervised the way a lesson is.
Back at the bus
Everyone must be at the bus by 8:00. Cookies and snacks for the ride home.
Home at St. Bart's
Parents get an emailed arrival estimate as the bus leaves the mountain. Timing shifts with traffic and weather.
Skill levels
How skiers describe progress.
Every trail on the mountain is marked with one of three symbols. Here is roughly how our students moved through them last season.
Where nearly everyone starts
Gentle, wide terrain. About three-quarters of our group began here last season having never skied at all.
Where most finished
Steeper and longer. By the final trip, most students were riding lifts independently and skiing blue terrain.
Where a few went
Steepest terrain on the mountain. Some of our stronger skiers were skiing black diamonds by season's end.
Progress looks different for every child. Instructors decide when a student is ready to move up, and no one is pushed onto terrain they aren't comfortable on.