The start of a winter season is a super fun time. It's great to catch up with friends you haven't seen for the entire summer. Some instructors are like geese and migrate south for the summer for back-to-back seasons in New Zealand, Australia or South America. Some spend more than 275 days a year in their snowboard boots! Some instructors scatter from Park City for other reasons: some are river guides, some go to Europe as hiking guides and others are coaches at various snowboard camps, to name just a few.

For those that stay, the summers in park city are amazing, never getting too hot or to cold. If you have never been to park city in the summer, I highly recommend it. There is so much to do!

You never know who you'll find on Park City golf courses during the summer. (photo: Jon Nutting)

At the start of the winter, however, a great deal of snowboard instructors start to put their mountain bikes & golf clubs away and start to get their new snowboard equipment out.

The main reason the start of the winter season is fun because you are re-uniting with friends that you haven't seen in over 6 months. You just pick up where you left off, many friendly hand-shakes and smiles are all over the locker room at the start of the season, along with getting to know the new instructors that have joined our team.

Catching up in the Ski & Snowboard School instructors' locker room (photo: Jon Nutting)

The start of the season is a time to get your riding skills back up to where they were last season. It's like riding a bike and after a few turns you finally realize that winter has begun, you start to like the days getting shorter and the fresh cold air getting crisper.

There are some new things to get excited about this upcoming season. we are doing the first full season of the "I RIDE PARK CITY" freestyle camps. It's a 3-day camp aimed at 9-15 year olds. You will have your own private park on the mountain to train in. It's open to skiers & snowboarders who want to get better at freestlye and have it filmed and edited on a GO Pro camera. There is more info at the Resort's website. My only suggestion is book early as the camps fill up fast and there are only six sessions to choose from: the first is January 19-21.

Another new additon that we are stoked to have is the Neff Land park, which will be open to everybody on the mountain. Neff Land will have very unique and crazy features to play on like huge cupcakes and 12ft long candy canes to name a couple. Even if freestyle isnt your thing, it's still definitely worth checking out. I hear rumors that there will be a weekly mayor of Neff Land too!

With that folks, it's officially time to put your golf clubs and mountain bikes away. Get your snowboards and skis out and waxed, then hit the slopes. Oh, and if you see an instructor: stop and say hi!

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