Mary Woulfe

PSIA-RM Full Certified 1984

Wilmot, Mtn. - Blizzard Ski Club

Ski Broadmoor - Iris Draper, Director

Broadmoor Ski Racing Team - Bill Gooch, Director

Aspen Ski School - Jan Johannssen, Director 1983

• Tim Petrick, PJ Jones, Victor Gerdin -- Buttermilk SS Directors
• Dick Dorworth, Henry Hornberger, Paul Ruid, Tony Fry, Georgie Bremmner, Andy Docken

PSIA-RM Full Certified Spring of 1984 -- Jonathan Teuscher, Dadou Mayer, Lyle Viers Examiners

Special Programs - Coordinator/Core Coach/Trainer for the following:

Vic Braden Ski College & Reserach Project

Women's Ski College - Women's Ski Seminars - Women's Local Program

Lito Tejada-Flores -- Breakthrough on Skis Ski Week

Mountain Masters

Currently, teaching at Aspen Mountain specializing in plateaued students with a desire to breakthrough the intermediate rut and with children from ages 6 and up with good hockey stops wanting to begin exploring more terrain including bumps, steeps and powder.

Want to learn bumps but not be thrown into the bump field and left to sink or swim... I will introduce the skills and concepts needed in a simple skill based approach. Safety first always with fun running to chase you down the hill!

I began skiing with the Blizzard Ski Club at Wilmot, Mtn. WI -- thanks Geoffrey Kerth, David and Billy Lefley,  my ski buddies and of course thanks to Mary Ellen Hansen (Mel Brown) our instructor. Boy was I lucky to learn from such a terrfic ski pro with great friends.

I taught at the Broadmoor Hotel Ski Area to pay for my ski habit while in College at Colorado College. Coached 9 and under boys and girls with the Broadmoor Ski Team and chaperoned older girls to J1 and J2 ski racing events. Learned my trade and had a great time skiing while in school and drooled over teaching terrain at large ski areas where I only dreamed of teaching one day. I helped in the development of the "Ski Bee" program for children under six. Most of all, the customer service training and expectations at a five star resort made this experience one of the most formative in my career.

I did very poorly in our bi-weekly drinking contests at the Golden Bee which included the need to tell a joke that actually drew a laughing response from my peers. Never a shortage of jokes -- just a timing issue excaberbated by poor metabolizing of alcohol and the egging on of my senior fellow instructors. I did learn how to drink beer out of a 3 foot glass however. I made up for my inability to drink, tell jokes and generally hang in the bar by speaking to large groups (1,500+) at the convention center to introduce our evening learn to ski program. Sobriety required! My thanks to Iris Draper (Austrian & PSIA Certified Ski School Director) and the entire Broadmoor Ski School for instilling a life long love of teaching and skiing. And a special thanks to Bill Gooch coach of the Broadmoor Racing program for bringing me an understanding of the racing world.

Life after College revolved around the enternal question - How do I continue to teach skiing in a world that is requiring me to pay my bills? Ah....Graduate School at University of Denver's MBA program. I interned at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs so I could stay close to my friends still at CC and spent a good deal of time trying to help the Water Polo National Governing Body increase membership. I thought I might get to meet some of those hunky, good looking water polo players. Unfortunately, they were mostly in California as I sat in a Colorado Springs office. Maybe I'll just move to the mountains after I finish this degree and take a year off of the "real world" to teach in Aspen on the best beginner hill known to man -- BUTTERMILK!!!

Enter Billy LaCouter, Jan Johanessen, Gerry Bohn, Bob Kesselring and of course Dick McCrudden. To know any of them is to understand the polishing of my professional skills by those that really cared about the customer experience and mentoring of young teaching professionals. Twenty new-hire pros competing for three full-time teaching positions. Yes, just like in the movie 'Aspen Extreme', there was a sort of ski off. Before that our names had been posted on the outside of a window at Aspen Mountain. Billy and Jan took us for five days straight, skiing us as hard as they could push the group and with the three of us standing at the end of the week at the bottom of a fast crud run on Ruthies offers to teach full-time were accepted on the spot. It was 1983 and record snows were falling continuously piling up to over five feet of new snow. Yes, I just hung on and made a deal with the best skier of the group to keep an eye on me. He did and I was standing (just barely). The little girl from the mid-west with no real knowlege or experience with bumps and powder made the grade and started teaching full-time.

Full-Certification came that year. I sought out as much training as I could find. Indoors at the Christiana Lodge operated by Steen Gantzel trainers Jonathan Teuscher and Rick Vetromile spent evening hours over the breakfast table talking ski mechanics, movement analysis and other technical stuff like the infamous "polygon of sustenation'. Still a joke today... how could we have used such jargon? Buckminster Fuller called skiing the 'angular valving of gravity.' Thank goodness I had a master's degree.

After a couple of seasons Billy asked me to help him put together a list of pros for the upcoming 'Vic Braden Ski College', a ski research project with the famous tennis coach and sport psycologist. I had played a lot of tennis in my youth, knew Vic's reputation and was honored to become a core coach in leading, developing and growing this innovative teaching program. What I didn't know was how in over my head I was about to become exposed to some of the greatest teaching minds in our ski school. Respected advanced educators, demo team and/or examiner status ski pros such as Jonathan Teuscher, Victor Gerdin, John Phillips came in periodically to work with us. I was exposed to masters in other sports like Tom Crum and his Magic of Skiing Program based on the principles of the marshall art of Aikido. Everyday was an adventure in how much I could push myself to give the best product to the guest. The other core coaches John Bokram, Chris Gulick and Muriel Frei all brought tremendous background and skills to the table that made me want to reach inside and become better everyday. I constantly sought out training opportunites to continue to grow in my skiing, teaching and life skills. I learned so much from Vic Braden and Gayle Godwin.

Simultaneously, the women's ski program was developing led by Debbie Morris. The fabulous group of women working hard to further the awareness of women's needs in ski instruction led to many other great opportunities. When Debbie asked me to take over her lead it was just too much for me and we formed a committee to explore growth opportunities for the program. Jenny Twelvetrees became a critical leader when we decided to run the program nearly every week out of the Snowmass Ski School. I took on just the local's program development which quickly grew and was largely based at Aspen Mountain. Eventually, I passed off the leadership of this program to Teri Christensen who continues today to successfully manage this program integrated now into the local's clinics.

Throughout this time, beginning in the early 90s ski school went through a major transformation we called 'reorganization'. Led by Senior Management Team Member, John Norton a small group of pros met regularly throughout the summer with management to put together a complete rethinking of our organization. Many elements of this process remain in place today such as the Team Leader process that replaced in part our supervisory staff and the Pro Council which gives a safe path to ski pros with issues they would like management to be aware of from a pros perspective. Our entire organization could better serve the guest if we found a better way to communicate with each other. We truly became one ski/snowboard school with universal goals and objectives that honor our unique needs while unifying us under one leadership.

I served as a team leader and Aspen Mountain Pro Council representative for over ten years. I still consider this one of the most valueable contributions of my career to my fellow pros and the organization that is now the Ski and Snowboard Schools of Aspen. The us vs. them attitudes between staff and management/owners became a thing of the past as Pat O'Donnell led our company with his 'Guiding Principles' and we began on a very customer centered path that spilled over into a culture change not only for our business unit but the entire community. Pat complemented what ski school had accomplished with decisions throughout the company that included the 'Environmental Foundation' and other actions that built trust within the company and community that we were "all in this togehter" to build a successful resort community to serve our guests and "renew the spirit".

Enter Lito Tejada-Flores onto the SSSA (Ski and Snowboard Schools of Aspen) scene - an opportunity arose to continue the group teaching process we started at the Vic Braden Ski School based more around the Intermediate skier and led by one of our own a PSIA-RM ski instructors with a long pedigree in both the skiing and climbing worlds. His books had sold millions of copies....how could I not jump on this opportunity to learn even more from a great teacher? What I learned was how important communication skills are to the learning process of each and every student. Break down the complex into movements simple enough to practice and own that will help the student ski more terrain with more ease, confidence and comfort.  I worked with Lito for five seasons teaching strong intermediates to enjoy skiing more of the mountain with great adventures planned to test out new skills they had acquired during our ski weeks.

I work hard to stay current and relevant not only with ski specific training but with coaching classes, fitness and nutrition education. Weems began the process of developing the Sports Diamond Model and I was again enthralled with the possibility of how to incorporate new thinking and expand my teaching abilities. I am excited and pleased to see the formation of the Diamond Pro program. Weems is leading us toward a continued committment toward greatness in ski instruction.  The understanding of the Sports Diamond model so clearly helps evaluate a lessons progress stimulating thought on what choices to make to enhance the student learning process. Tools to tactically think through, motivate, direct and intuit  the teaching process.... What a framework that provokes ideas about the ski learning process!

I coach the HS Boys' Golf Team with state coaching certification. I am curious intellectually yet enjoy the silence of early morning turns listening to the ski interact with the snow as I move down the hill.

While I'm known for strong conversational skills, my students will tell you we talk where it is warm and ski long continuous runs without standing around on the hill except to catch our breath. I love to work with adults and kids of all ages and abilitiles. I truly enjoy the challenge of affecting change in some of the most challenging teaching situations. My students learn experientially. I beleive in acquiring specific skills that like stepping stones allow one to reach places or new levels of skiing without falling down or feeling scared. I like the playful feelings of the snow and ski interacting to create flow and freedom for the skier moving down the hill. Come ski with me and explore the joy of skiing taking your skills to new territory.

My Students - Yes, this list could be long of those professionally that I support and that support me. But the most important sponsor is you -- the client! Here are a few people that can help you as a skier.

Book your trip: Contact http://www.Ski.com or call and ask for Bobbi Carson or Resa Car

Ready fo  a new boot, work out alignment issues or need a new footbed? Contact Jim Lindsay at http://www.bootech.net/ Make an appointment way in advance of your stay. Jim can help you with your footbeds for other athletic endeavors as well.

Treat your body:

Physical Therapist: Tim Reed (970) 618-5559 timmassage@hotmail.com

Massage Therapist: Joe Kistner  at the Kistner Institute: (970) 379-4155

Prefer a woman: try Lisa Kistner 309-4156

Call me with other questions. I'm happy to put you in touch with the right person to take care of your needs.