Major ski resorts, places like Vail, Copper, Park City, and more, hold the exclusive right to conduct ALL commercial activity on U.S. Forest Service Land that they lease. Consequently, there is NO competition.
This results in consumers paying nearly 1000$ for a private lesson at a place like Vail, and the instructor receiving a measly hourly wage for that 6 hour period. Resorts have taken advantage of the system by raising costs for ski lessons through the roof and not paying instructors their fair share. This system is bad for both the consumer and the instructor. A move to an open-market setting with competition among multiple ski schools or independently contracted instructors would drive down the cost of lessons & increase payouts for the instructor, as is standard in Europe & beyond.
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