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January is Learn to Ski & Snowboard Month!

by Greg Colquitt | January 6, 2016

The wait is over!

With the holidays behind us we can start to settle into those New Year’s Resolutions, which for many includes learning a new skill. I can safely speak for all of us at GetSkiTickets.com and for all the greater ski & board community when I say that picking up either craft may be the most rewarding decision we have ever made.
Skiing was never intended for sport, rather used as a tool to hunt reindeer, elk, and wolves in northern Scandinavia and other snow-covered regions. For thousands of years it remained this way, but once news of humans moving faster than the birds in Norway spread to its southern neighbors in Europe, the race was on–skiing had taken its hold in the minds of humans yearning to experience flight for the first time. Soon enough t-bar lifts were erected in the Alps of Switzerland and Austria, but once it hit the United States, ingenuity at the heels of pleasure, pushed the fledgling sport into the spotlight. For the record, Sun Valley, ID, was the first ever ski resort to build a chair lift in 1936. Little did he know, James Curran, a Union Pacific engineer, would design the modern chairlift that makes the freedom of flight easily accessible to skiers and boarders across the world.
In honor of the 80th anniversary of the modern ski lift, Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month has a few ways to get yours.

#firstdayfaces

This year’s focus is on the mug of a new skier or snowboarder. Maybe you’ll get lucky, but only if you get out there and ski. The prizes at stake are a pair of goggles from Boulder-based Zeal Optics, thermals from Polarmax, or a $100 voucher from skis.com or snowboards.com. The only way to do it is to post #firstdayfaces so get after it.

World’s Largest LessonWorldsLargest

The goal of this month is to get people on the mountain who are new to the sport.
January 8th is the day to remember. Why?  On this day resorts across the nation will be hosting heavily discounted lessons (some even free!), while simultaneously shooting for a Guinness record. You could also win some sweet new bamboo skis or a board from Park City-based RAMP. For more information regarding your region, head to our section on Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month or, the program’s main website. 
If you happen to be in the Lake Tahoe region, head to Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows where for the first 50 people to show up, your lesson is free.


This is your time.

When places like Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows in Lake Tahoe offer free lessons, or when over 10 Vermont, Utah, and New Hampshire resorts offer $49, $45, and $39 lessons, respectively, and of course when the Governor of West Virginia officially declares January as Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month, it’s time to get out and learn to ski.
Happy skiing and riding everyone! See ya out there.

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