Hello there. My wife and I learned to ski at Whitetail over 12 years ago via excellent group lessons. My son also did the learn-to-ski youth program 5 or so years ago and has progressed pretty well. Searching the site today...I don't see any options like what they used to have. It was a complete learn to ski program that included rentals and a few hours of lessons the first day, then discounted rentals and a free group lesson the rest of the season. Now it looks like only 2 hour group lessons, and if I want to take my soon to be 8 year old daughter, they don't seem to have beginner group lessons for her age!! Not sure what happened...but do you recommend any other day trip type places that would have a half day type learn to ski program that we have used in the past?? A $290 private lesson that doesn't include rentals/ticket seems pretty excessive!!

Thanks

Mepps3 wrote:

Hello there. My wife and I learned to ski at Whitetail over 12 years ago via excellent group lessons. My son also did the learn-to-ski youth program 5 or so years ago and has progressed pretty well. Searching the site today...I don't see any options like what they used to have. It was a complete learn to ski program that included rentals and a few hours of lessons the first day, then discounted rentals and a free group lesson the rest of the season. Now it looks like only 2 hour group lessons, and if I want to take my soon to be 8 year old daughter, they don't seem to have beginner group lessons for her age!! Not sure what happened...but do you recommend any other day trip type places that would have a half day type learn to ski program that we have used in the past?? A $290 private lesson that doesn't include rentals/ticket seems pretty excessive!!

Thanks

 There are two reasons things have changed at Whitetail.  The common problem across the ski industry for group lessons is having enough instructors.  Massanutten had a great ski school program for kids pre-pandemic.  Still not running it because of lack of instructors.  As for VR decisions for Whitetail, that's an operational situation for Epic resorts.

Have you checked Bryce?  That's a great place for a beginner.

Mepps3 wrote:

Thanks. Yeah, I guess staffing issues have created this mess. Perhaps I should wait a year. We were thinking about a weekend in the Canaan area, so that might be our best solution. We live in Maryland, south of DC. 

 Have you skied at Timberline since the Perfect family took over?  It's a fantastic place at this point.  I just spent a couple nights at the Timberline Hotel and can recommend it.  There are rooms set up for families.  There is a 2-night minimum.  A friend from central PA joined me and we had a blast even though it was pretty cold.  She invested in a private lesson on Tuesday.

NOT a staffing issue, Peak and then Vail eliminated ALL first time skier packages, last seen those in 2018-19.

Liberty Whitetail used to have beginner programs that had double the national success rate of people returning for the second day

They expect first timers to commit to a season pass before even trying.

That could have been clearer. 

This year group lesson availability is a combo of low instructor availability, high demand and no walk ups & terrible website admin.

The beginner program disappearing is my response above