They Work Hard for the Money

Teaching skiing to the very young

By Clark Williams

The hardest working instructors have the smallest students. Most mountains seem to have children’s programs. The mountain I work for has a very successful and profitable program. I have been told that the children’s program makes more money then the rest of the ski school. On a busy holiday it’s easy to see why. If you look over at their gathering area it can look like someone kicked over an ant hill. There are kids from 4 to 12 years of age waiting, wandering and wailing all over the place. It may look like utter chaos to the untrained eye, but it is actually very organized chaos. I, thankfully, can’t claim to be all that familiar with their processes because, I like most of the other “mature” instructors, try desperately to avoid being indentured into this program. It’s not that we are child hating old farts, we’re just old farts.

It is a tremendous amount of work to usher a pack of 6 to 8 (much larger on holidays) kids around the mountain all day. That’s assuming that you have kids that can ski. If you end up with a group of 4 year olds that have never skied you could be wearing a truss before the day is done. Fortunately for us old farts my mountain tries to recruit slightly older kids to deal with these very young kids, but when things get busy the front line instructors can be drafted. The few times I have been “asked” to help I have been lucky enough to get kids that could ski well enough to get off the beginners hill. However the regular kid instructors are not so lucky, but most of them seem to be quite adapted at dealing with the trials and tribulations that can be associated with kids everywhere.

My daughter is one of these talented and dedicated instructors. She has worked in the kids program for 12 years. She can get a group of kids suited up and booted up and ready for the magic carpet faster then I can get my own boots on. She is an expert at managing potty breaks, making sure everyone gets the right lunch, and dealing with the infamous  “mommy melt down factor”. The factor must be resolved quickly, before the crying kid infects the rest of the group and you have a pile of blubbering kids stumbling around in ski boots and helmets. Looking for all the world like a collection of bobble heads. She can just as effectively deal with the parents, from the ones who would like to just drive by and toss the kid out the window and say see you in 6 hours to the ones that want to tag along for “just a little while”. I asked her for some stories about her tenure and she provided the following: “It's not all about head aches and baby sitting.  Every now and then you get to see something truly amazing, from a 1 and 1/2 year old teaching himself how to ski (complete with pacifier in mouth) to  watching a girl grow up and not only beat you down the hill, but come to work alongside you”.

 I guess this means that this hard work has its own rewards, but it’s still hard work. So if you ever have a kid in one of these programs remember the instructor. They may be young, but they are working hard for the money and they are making new skiers. That’s something that the sport needs.

Clark Williams has spent ten seasons as a part time instructor at an eastern mountain. His fervent wish is to pursue instructing full time after retirement.