Celebrate PSIA-AASI’s 60^th Anniversary!

PSIA-AASI is a close-knit community of more than 32,000 snowsports professionals dedicated to creating life-changing experiences through snowsports instruction.

When PSIA’s seven founders – Curt Chase, Max Dercum, Jimmy Johnston, Bill Lash, Doug Pfeiffer, Don Rhinehart, and Paul Valar – sat down to form the Professional Ski Instructors of America in May 1961 at Big Mountain in Whitefish, Montana, they had one goal: to create a standard of consistency for ski instruction that would help draw new participants to the sport from across the nation.

Looking back 50 years after that momentous occasion, Lash said, “I’m proud of that moment for what it meant for ski instruction in this country. It created the basis for how we would grow the sport.”

Now, six decades later, PSIA-AASI teaches everyone how to enjoy more than just alpine skiing; welcoming every snowsports discipline, ability, and person. Each winter, PSIA-AASI members embrace the opportunity to create lifelong adventures through education.

“The strength of our organization has always been the initiative of snowsports educators in different regions of the country coming together for the common good of the snowsports community,” said PSIA-AASI Chief Executive Officer Nicholas Herrin. “It started with the unification of regional associations that existed before our founding and continues to this day.”

On the new PSIA-AASI 60^th anniversary page, you can enjoy a multi-media tour of the most notable teaching benchmarks from the past 60 years, which continue to inform American, and international, snowsports instructors. Listen to First Chair podcasts with some of the association’s pioneers, see photos from the association’s archives, and read the roster of 60^th anniversary members.

Thank you to all of members for your outstanding service and support!