Northstar visits Heavenly, 5 year old skis backwards

Today I journeyed to Heavenly in South Lake Tahoe to teach two five year olds, Kaiden and Zach.  It was the first time on skis for both of them, and the energy they show in the photo to the left never dissipated over the course of the day.

The video below is my favorite, although there are seven or eight more clips posted in this lesson album. The embedded video shows young Zach mastering skiing backwards and getting very excited about it. I think his quote is "Oh, Baby!"

So how is it that I got to teach at Heavenly, when I work at Northstar? Simple. Heavenly and Northstar are both part of the Vail Resorts family which allows instructors to teach, in uniform, at their sister resorts whenever our guest request it, and we can make the scheduling work.

Kaiden, Zach and their respective dads, Kareem and Bruce, chose to meet me at Boulder Lodge, one of three ski school locations at Heavenly. Boulder is about 10 minutes out of town and has a great kids ski school with a magic carpet, rental shop, restaurant and very convenient free parking all within a 100 yard radius.

The mountain team at Heavenly was awesome and just as friendly as the gang at Northstar. The team at the kids ski school made me feel especially welcome when I arrived and throughout the day.  I checked in with Ron Blum, the children's supervisor and Scott Dickey, the Boulder Ski School Director.  Out on the hill, Rachel Richards (a great Heavenly instructor) and Travis (The magician helping kids on and off the magic carpet) made me feel right at home.  Everyone treated Kaiden and Zach just like they were Heavenly students, rather than guests who'd imported an instructor from another resort.

So a big thank you goes out to everyone at Heavenly, and to Kaiden, Zach, Kareem and Bruce.  What a great day!