Mark Waird has started a new site called Monarch Ski Guide: The Unofficial Guide to Monarch Ski and Snowboard Area.  He has some very interesting information, much of which is already found on the official Monarch website, but there is sort of an informal feel and other information such as a link to old area…

An article appeared in the December 5th issue of the New York Times about our town of Salida. Here’s a link to it www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/greathomesanddestinations/05havens.html. The title of the article is The Outdoors Life, With No Attitude. It mentions Monarch Mountain Ski Resort as one of the great things to do near Salida. People who come to Salida…

Requests are hugh for us as instructors. After a certain number of request private lesson hours we get a significant raise in pay. So when you come to Monarch and want to ski with me, no matter what your age,  please, please use the words “I request Rick please!” Or click Rick’s Contact Form in the Links…

This is Lilly! This photo was taken by Image Makers. I pulled it offline from their website here. Lilly is becoming an awesome skier. Last year she was in the Mountaineers program. She thinks her instructor was either Brad or Susan. It was a pleasure skiing with her yesterday (Sunday).  She said her goal was…

Monarch opened on Friday with an 18 inch base. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but the coverage was pretty good. All the green runs were open and two blue runs.  The were no crowds to speak of, mostly locals enjoying opening day. I had my first lesson of the year. I was proud…

Joined yet another ski website. This is called SkiSensei. See it here. I’ll add it to my list of ski blog/websites. It’s a social networking site specifically for ski instructors. I’m hoping to maybe make some friends there. Perhaps they can come ski at Monarch and maybe I could get to ski in some other…

Here’s an intersting concept. You send a YouTube link to a ski instructor via his or her blog and they post it with analysis and tips for improvement. I found this idea in practice on a blog called Free Ski ‘YouTube’ Video Analysis. The blog is by an Austrian ski instuctor named Carl Owen. PSIA uses…

I’m starting to run across more ski instructor blogs. I added a new one today in my sidebar called Canadian Ski Quest. The blogger’s name is Mark Impey. It looks like he is certified with CSIA (Canadian Ski Instructor’s Association). What is interesting to me is reading the perspective of a Canadian snowsports instructor. I…

Earlier I mentioned that I volunteered to be the PSIA-AASI Area Rep. Well I’ve been asked to be the Rocky Mountain Division PSIA-AASI Area Representative at Monarch. My job is to aid our snowsports school in growing its membership in PSIA-AASI. In exchange they will waive the Rocky Mountain portion of my PSIA dues. The…

There’s a new site that I was invited to participate in called Ski Pro Connect. The purpose of the site is to help people find snowsports instructors. It’s just getting started so there’s not very many instructors participating right now. They’re currently running an incentive program to encourage new instructors to sign-up on their site. The…