In this guide
The difference between a good ski week and a forgettable one is rarely the resort. It is whether the person in front of your group reads the level correctly on the first run and adjusts from there.
Why we choose the instructor for each trip
A resort school assigns you whoever is free. We choose a person for your trip. We select for teaching style, terrain and language, which are three separate things and rarely arrive together by chance.
What the briefing does
We tell the instructor about your group before you land: ages, levels, what each person wants out of the week, and anything that went wrong on a previous trip. That turns the first morning into skiing instead of assessment, which on a five day week is a full twenty per cent of the trip recovered.
Where it matters most
On terrain that has to be read rather than followed. At Cerro Catedral the wind loads one face and scours the next overnight, so a local who knows which aspects filled is worth more than any trail map. In Aspen or Zermatt it shows on the steeper days, where the question is not whether you can ski it but whether today is the day.
What to tell us
How the group skis, honestly, including the parts people usually round up. The match works from real levels, and an instructor briefed on an optimistic description spends the first morning correcting for it.
For a family whose members are not all at the same level, see family ski lessons: how to book when levels do not match for how to choose between private, semi private and group formats.
This trip by trip matching is the reason Patagonia Living exists. Read why Bautista started Patagonia Living for the story behind it.
The instructor is one of four decisions we make together. See how we match your family to the right mountain for the other three.
For how that instructor gets chosen for a child specifically, read the ski instructor your child asks for again.
Common questions
Why choose the instructor rather than take the resort school?
Because we choose the person for each trip rather than take whoever is next in the rota. We select for teaching style, terrain and language, and brief them on your group before you arrive.
What languages do the instructors speak?
It depends on the trip. We match language along with everything else, and ask for it at the start.
What if the instructor is not the right fit?
Tell us on the first day and we change it. That is the point of coordinating them rather than booking a slot.
- Instruction
- On the mountain
- Private lessons
