Instructors At Aspen On The Hunt For "Underground Instructors"

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Ski instructors with Aspen Skiing Co. were told to keep an eye out for ‘underground’ ski instructors in an email sent out by Vice President of Mountain Sales and School Jonathan Ballou earlier this week according to Aspen Daily News.

“We are increasingly aware of the underground teaching issues that have been occurring within our resort. We take this problem very seriously and research every lead provided to us and act on all credible findings.” – Jonathan Ballou

The email called out independent ski instructors, guides, and ‘ski nannies’, defining the practice as any instruction or guiding in exchange for any form of compensation that’s not authorized by SkiCo. The practice both breaches company policy and violates the company’s agreement with the U.S. Forest Service.

Vice President of Communication Jeff Hanle later released a statement diving further into the issue, explaining that it’s been a problem resorts have dealt with for years and claiming that it’s a disservice to the resort’s employees and guests.

“We have always monitored for this activity, we will continue to do so and violators will face serious consequences including loss of access to all ASC mountains. We’ve seen a slight uptick this season so we sent a reminder to our teams to keep their eyes open and report any suspicious activity.” – Jeff Hanle

The original email states that the practice has been on the rise, asking employees to note or, if possible, covertly photograph suspected perpetrators. The company even created a Report Underground Teaching form online for instructors to easily fill out.

It’s no secret that underground instructors take money away from Aspen Skiing Company. The price for a full-day private lesson varies day by day, but they usually sit over $1,000. I still think it’s plenty understandable to try to prevent the practice.

Not only does it violate the company’s agreement with the Forest Service, it could pretty negatively impact the guest experience of the mountain. Aspen has a pretty incredible staff of guides and instructors that they hire for a reason. Allowing random people to start teaching cheaper lessons across the mountain with little guidance could lead to some pretty bad times.

Also, it’s not like you can’t still teach your friends and family, you just can’t charge for it. I can totally understand that.