# Lessons at Telluride



## kysnowboarder (Oct 28, 2009)

I was thinking about taking one but they are insanely expensive, like $625 a day. I called their ski and snowboard today to ask what a lesson consisted of and the lady on the phone told me that you get a lesson.....I couldn't help to laugh, then she asked me if I wanted to book a reservation. I told her I would like to know more about what a lesson involved. She replied that I should call back when I was ready to book a reservation. I honestly thought I was talking to a robot!:laugh:

Has anyone ever taken a full day lesson at Telluride, was it worth $625...


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## kysnowboarder (Oct 28, 2009)

I thought I would post some Goals I am thinking about setting for the lesson. I "think" I am a beginner to intermediate rider. This is my forth season and I have ridden 25 times over those four seasons...my 26 time will be tomorrow. I am riding some east cost black diamonds and feel descent on intermediate runs.. 

Goals
Improve on steeps...I would like to be able to do chutes by the end of the lesson.

I have done some tree runs but they have been relatively tame and not very steep, I would like to get comfortable with steep tree runs...this kind of goes with the first goal. 

I have improved some what with moguls but still I am not completely comforatable with them. I have been trying to pump through them more, which seems to help, but I still fall and catch edges on them....I may just need more practice..

Finally I would like learn to do small drops...I want to progress my riding to the back country and I want to be able to handle technical terrain...I am not expecting to be able to do this one lesson but I would like to start to learn some of the techniques involved. I think be able to do small drops on steep terrain
would be a great step forward with my riding. 

I know all of this depends on where I am at today with my riding...So it will be interesting to see what the instructor assess my level to be at. 

What do you all think about these goals...is it too much for a day lesson? 

Also, is practice to tip the instructor, if so what is considered a good tip?


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## Guest (Jan 31, 2010)

any respectable ski school should not be able to tell you with accuracy what your lesson will consist of because a lesson is a dynamic, individual thing and many questions about what you will do and how you will do it can not be answered until your instructor has had a chance to examine your individual strengths and weaknesses and has crafted a progression to get you to where you want to be. in my experience, no two private lessons are the same so calling her a robot seems a little harsh.

you seem to be looking to improve in 4 distinct areas: steeps; trees; moguls; and drops. while there are undoubtedly skills which will overlap these areas of learning, they are quite distinct. if your full day lesson is 6 hours of learning, then you are talking about devoting 90 minutes to each of these issues? you may disagree but i think that expecting to see a decent improvement in your mogul riding in only 90 minutes is a little unrealistic. i think you are trying to cram too much into your day but, as ever, ymmv.

i work at a ski school in tahoe and our full-day private is $575. it's hardly insanely expensive as we routinely sell out of private coaches and, especially during busy periods, we have instructors whose schedules are booked weeks, if not months, in advance.

as with anything you buy - goods or services - it's silly to complain about the cost without considering the associated benefits. look at the value not the cost. if cost is a factor, consider taking a group lesson but bear in mind that in a group lesson, you may be receiving as little at 15% or 20% of the instructor's attention (depending on how many people share your group lesson). in a private lesson you will be receiving 100% of the instructor's attention.

finally, it's likely that, at a quality school like telluride, you will be taught by an aasi-certified instructor. i have been to mountains and experienced lessons where instructors were non-cert and, while they could certainly ride, appeared to have no idea how to teach a lesson, create a progression, analyse movement, etc.

again, as with most things in life, you tend to get what you pay for...

alasdair


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## kysnowboarder (Oct 28, 2009)

Thanks for the feed back...This is what I was looking for. I had an excellent day out on the local hill. Hit a jump for the first time and got a little air. I did have some issues on the steeps, mainly with keeping my turns tight. I went through a mogul field...it was a disaster as ususal....I tried about 5 or 6 runs. 

I defiantly understand about experience thing. I defiantly wasn't expecting to magically be able to do all those things after a days lesson. If the sport was that easy than it would not be worth my time. 

I found some instructors that teach through telluride have their own websites, so I am going to contact one of them, hopefully they will have more time to talk with me about the lesson. 

Thanks again for the feed back, this is very helpful.


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## killclimbz (Aug 10, 2007)

While you were in Telluride did you run into Stickers the friendly porcupine?

Evidently he/she has been making their rounds again. Pretty funny stuff.

There is a fox at Winterpark that likes to steal your lunch, but not at all lovable like this porcupine...


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## unfmoose (Jun 23, 2009)

I haven't seen Stickers in a couple of years... I did pet her one time...sort of...more like touched her on the top of the head. I've got pics somewhere.


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## killclimbz (Aug 10, 2007)

It's a pretty kewl story for sure. She was just relocated a week or two ago, so sadly you'll no longer see her at the resort. Makes sense though, it's not the greatest thing for a wild animal like that to be having that sort of interaction with people. What a great thing it was though.


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## kysnowboarder (Oct 28, 2009)

Funny...I probably would have freaked out had I seen a porcupine on the slopes...I have never seen one in the wild in all my journeys


I did finely book the lesson. I talk to someone who worked at Telluride who has taken lessons. The conversation was helpful. 

I am going to take the lesson the first day I am there. I told them that I want to eventually be able to ride all mountain...For the lesson I told them I wanted to focus on moguls and steeps..

I leave on the 20th will be there boarding 21-24th, leave on the 25th.


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## kysnowboarder (Oct 28, 2009)

The lesson went well. It was very helpful. The instructor pushed me pretty hard, taking me down blues, double blues and a couple of tree runs. This is what I needed. He helped me correct some form issues, such as keeping my body parallel with the board, shifting weight forward when making turns and moving back to an up right position as I came out of the turn. Also stressed matching the terrian and keeping the tip up in deep pow. On moguls he stressed the importance of being loss in the knees. Also told me not to bend to much in the waist as this causes my body to be out side of the edges of the board, which results in loss of control. 

The only down side is I wish he would have given me a little more critical feed back. He kept telling me how good I was doing...when I know that i have a lot to learn still and probably wasn't excuting everything he told me to do correctly. 

The guy was from the Patagonia region of Argentina. He comes up here to teach in during our winter than goes back down to Argentina for their winter. What a life snowboards all year round...awesome. 

I think next time I woudl probably do a group lesson instead of private one...I will take more lessons in my snowboarding career...have a lot to learn...I want to be good at this.


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