It wasn’t optimal weather for a day of ski instructor training. The temperature was in the low teens at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (JHMR), and the wind stung our faces as a dozen instructors huddled like penguins, eager to learn from one of the industry’s best.

Ann Schorling greeted us with a big smile as we skated toward the Teewinot chair. Throughout the morning, Schorling analyzed our form like an engineer reviewing schematics, sharing small tips—like how to initiate a turn—as we lapped the three inches of cowboy pow accumulating on the mountain.

Hailing from Pittsburgh, PA, Schorling grew up skiing with her family on trips to Keystone, CO. Her parents taught at Keystone Resort, but it never crossed her mind to become an instructor. When she graduated from Williams College, MA, with a degree in political science and math, she asked her father, a lawyer, to pass her resume around to law offices in his network. Her dad had a different idea: take a year off and be a ski bum. “The best way to ski while you’re working at a ski area is to teach skiing, so [becoming a ski instructor] seemed like the thing I had to do,” she shrugs. She started teaching at Copper Mountain, CO, in 2003.

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