We Are Ski Instructors!

I have been trying to get to the ski hill with my camera for two months so you can see us in our 'official' coats - red and black, very cool ski coats. There are about 15- 30 instructors who gather for 'line-up' at 9:45 on ski days, we are all identically dressed: the coat, and helmets and goggles. At line up the lesson assignments for the day are passed out.

Dave and I have actually had several lessons, private and groups of school children. It is really fun. On the days, or hours usually, when we don't have any lessons assigned we ski...for free! We figure the money we make for the lessons pays the gas to get up to the hill, how cool is that?

The snow at Lost Trail Powder Mountian http://www.losttrail .com really has been fabulous this year; even though there is less snow than usual, the skiing is wonderful. The terrain on the hill is widely varied, and there is much of it that is quite challenging.

Our hill is only 18 miles from home and the commute is simply a winding uphill pass through forested mountians. The people we have met and are 'working' with are SO nice. There are many who currently or in the past have worked as EMTs. Several are Firefighters during the summer months. One owns three coffee kiosks in Hamilton, MT. One teaches fly fishing in the summer, another works as a surveyor. Several others are simply retired men and women. There are also lots of young people teaching snowboarding - really nice kids.

It is amazing how many very nice people there are in the world; I love having weekly reminders of that!

This Saturday and Sunday we will be taking clinics and exams in order to pass our 'level one' certification for the Professional Ski Instructors Association -PSIA. See you next week!