My award of a Sodergren Scholarship allowed me to attend to 2018 Cross Country Academy in West Yellowstone. Cross Country Academy, which immediately follows the Yellowstone Ski Festival over the Thanksgiving week, has quickly become the best opportunity for a PSIA instructor to share information across divisions, attend clinics to update one’s teaching and skiing skills, and keep current with progress being made to establish a standardized training and exam process for PSIA. I recommend the event to instructors at every level. Besides, who can say no to great early season skiing.

In my role as Cross Country Chair my goals have been to build the number of PSIA certified instructors and increase the involvement of the ski schools so we can provide the skiing public with the highest quality experience. The information I gathered at the Cross Country Academy is vital to meeting these goals. It has allowed me to train education staff and provide information to individual ski schools to explain how PSIA-W benefits them. Next season will bring more discussion and implementation of the standards. To do this we will continue to train education staff, provide members with highly trained clinicians, and work with the public to increase their familiarity of PSIA. Cross Country in PSIA-W is keeping pace as one of the most involved and recognized divisions in the organization.