Mowery’s got lots of company at the front of the lift lines. These days, only a third of the skiers taking classes are first-timers, according to the National Ski Areas Association. The rest are students like Mowery, who wouldn’t have been caught dead in ski school just a few years ago. But as ski areas try to encourage lifelong learning (thus lifelong skiers), more intermediate and advanced classes teach students how to master moguls, conquer backcountry powder or perfect turning. And better yet–they can be a part of your ski vacation, whatever resort you choose. Mowery signed up for Breckenridge’s Prime Time camp for 50-plus skiers (Feb. 19 to 21, $320; breckenridge.com). But there are also specialty classes stretching from extreme skiing (You want to be James Bond on skis? No problem) to programs where women can learn in a testosterone-free environment. Vail’s Her Turn program, for example, includes evening yoga sessions and videotape analysis (Feb. 27 to 29, $390; vail.com).
But when Wendy Ruby, 61, goes on a ski trip, she wants to perfect her form–and be pampered a little bit. High-end ski camps like Powder Tracks in Alta, Utah, are perfect for her. Not only do they teach advanced skiers to handle deep snow by day, they let them eat, sleep and relax around the fireplace at the historic Alta Lodge by night (April 3 to 7, $1,776; altalodge.com). “I want to get more experience in powder so that I can feel completely comfortable in it,” she says.
Longtime skier Mark Brookes, 38, signed up for Jackson Hole Resort’s Steep and Deep Snowboard Camp (Feb. 26 to 29, $775; jacksonhole.com) for the fifth straight season this year. The four days of coaching on how to race between trees and down steep bowls in the Grand Tetons are his “favorite week of boarding all winter.” Jackson Hole’s Backcountry Camp (March 12 to 14, $500) helps aspiring out-of-bounds skiers learn to assess avalanche danger. Glenn Stewart, 45, says his classmates were disappointed when instructors prohibited students from skiing down a powdery ridge. Several days later, a snowboarder died in an avalanche at the same location. “We learned a lesson,” she says.
But for those who truly like to live on the edge, extreme-skiing film star Doug Coombs’s ski camps in La Grave, France, teach adrenaline junkies how to ski 45-degree pitches, couloirs, glaciers and steep drops like those seen in ski movies (Feb. 28 to March 6 and March 20 to 27, $2,195; dougcoombs.com). And with 7,000 feet of vertical drop–twice the amount of any resort’s in the United States–“every run is an epic journey,” Coombs says.
Along those lines, you can also “learn to fly” at ski-jumping clinics at Utah’s Olympic Park, for example. T. J. Parkes, 41, signed up for a $40 half-day clinic. But don’t look for Parkes in the next Olympics–her best jump from the 10-meter ramp was “about five feet.” Ski jumping, she says, “is one more silly thing I can cross off my list.” That’s some list she has.
