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Ski Slope Access for
Paid Instruction:
by Bill Jones, Ski Instructor
Certified Professional Ski Instructor (Registration #110478)
Many ski resorts in the United States operate on federal lands with exclusive use permits from the U.S. Forest Service. In these cases resorts pay fees to the federal government for the privilege of providing and charging for services on these lands. Often such resorts own land at lift bases where they operate lodging, food service, ski rentals, accommodations, and lift access, but the lifts themselves and the slopes skiers use may be on national forest lands, especially in Colorado and the rest of the West. Thus, while non-ski-school persons may teach others on the national forest slopes, in most cases they cannot legally do so for compensation. In these cases, only the ski resorts can lawfully provide instruction for which a charge is made, which is only fair so they do not have to compete with those who would otherwise avoid the fees the resorts pay and the standards which they must meet. And the resorts do enforce this business practice with security personnel who observe on-slope teaching by non-staff or off-duty employees and take action against violators.
In other cases, resorts operate on their own or on leased lands, and are equally opposed to non-personnel teaching for pay on their properties.
Of course, ski school lanes cannot be used to access lifts by non-staff or off-duty teachers. If a black-market instructor is caught by a resort and removed from the area, a lesson session would be terminated . Even so, the so-called "underground" ski school has existed and may still, but to ask a professional to participate is to ask him or her to risk loss of a career. Here is a personal aside: Bill Jones knows of an underground instructor who went to work for a ski school; during the entire season he had the worst guest return rate of all instructors. Too, should there be an injury in an "underground" lesson to the instructor--an instructor might not receive help from a health insurance company, if any, for policies may not be intended to cover non-pay situations, and there would be no workman's compensation. If there was an injury to a student that might be blamed on the instructor, 'though a case that might not succeed anyway, that student may find suing a person without resources a futile exercise. There could easily be issues with the Internal Revenue Service and the Social Security Administration as well.
Please do not ask Bill Jones or any other person to teach outside the established, lawful, system.
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This "Ski Slop Access for Paid Instruction" page last modified 02/07/2012 09:47:43 AM. Did you come here from a link on another website? for latest version of this page, copy to your browser: www.SkiMyBest.com\skisys.htm. Copyright © 2012 William R Jones.