Vail Mountain School Outdoor Education and Elite Snowsport Training, Vail, Colorado

Locations

Ski & Snowboard Club Vail Partnership

VMS is a proud academic partner of Ski and Snowboard Club Vail (SSCV), which is recognized as one of the best snowsport training programs in the world with offerings in Alpine, Freeski, Freestyle, Nordic and Snowboard. SSCV was represented at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi by 12 currrent or alumni athletes yielding two gold medals and one silver. 

Our relationship means that a student at VMS can train at an elite level and receive a rigorous college-preparatory education without compromising either. As members of the VMS community, it also means that these athletes will have social, enrichment, and athletic opportunities beyond the mountain.

Academic Support

During the ski season, SSCV athletes work with a two full-time tutors, who track their progress and challenges. The tutors help students manage workload, time commitments, and stress. When needed, the tutor acts as a liaison between the student and teachers to help plan their schedule and manage any upcoming assessments. 

VMS may accommodate students who are competing in Europe or across the state by scheduling exams around travel, providing afternoon tutoring, or allowing students to submit work online.

Flexible Faculty Members

Our faculty understands the schedules and lives of our scholar-athletes. VMS enthusiastically welcomes these individuals, and helps them keep up in class even while competing. Teachers utilize a number of strategies including recording their lessons, posting notes online, Skyping students who are traveling, accepting online submissions of projects and tests, and meeting one-on-one after school.

Summer Programs

Both the middle and upper schools offer classes over the summer that allow students to lighten their third quarter class load. By taking advantage of summer school, students have been allowed to complete 1-2 classes in advance of their travel-intensive competition season.

Daily Schedule & Logistics

Full-time SSCV athletes train Tuesday-Friday mornings on Vail Mountain, which is five minutes away. In addition, during Ski Fridays, SSCV athletes have the opportunity to dedicate the whole day to training or race preparation. 

After morning training, VMS provides transportation from the mountain to the school where students attend 4th-7th periods and then work with dedicated tutors after school. The tutoring staff is also available throughout the day to work with students during free and study hall periods. 

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, SSCV coaches provide dryland training from 5:00-5:45 pm at VMS in our newly revamped, state-of-the-art fitness room so that students may transition directly from tutoring to training and minimize travel time.

For more information on the Vail Mountain School Elite Snowsport program, please writ to StudyUnitedStates EU <- click for e-mail

Vail Mountain School Outdoor Education

See our regular Vail Mountain School high school programme here

Take a drive through the VMS parking lot and it becomes readily apparent that our students are passionate about the outdoors. Mountain bikes, kayaks, skis, golf clubs and stickers from favorite companies adorn cars as badges of pride in their recreational pursuits. Built on underpinnings established in lower and middle school and supported by families who lead active mountain lifestyles, VMS kids get outside and get after it.

Though many students actively pursue recreational interests outside of school, structured trips provide opportunities to explore new locations or activities and serve as a means to build community in the upper school. Each year begins with two-night action-packed orientation trips on the Western Slope — kayaking, canoeing, fly-fishing, mountain biking, llama trekking, rafting, and stand up paddle boarding.  Led by certified guides and teachers, students are encouraged to develop selflessness and teamwork, and in this way, VMS builds a strong learning community before school begins.

Upper school students also may elect to participate in an annual winter hut trip or serve as “guides in training” on middle or lower school school hut trips. Additionally, opportunities to get outdoors abound through Intraterm and class trips. Intraterm courses have ventured as far as Costa Rica and the Grand Canyon, while simultaneously, students locally had the opportunity to shadow Ski Patrol while earning certification in wilderness first aid. While in New York, seniors explore the urban jungle, but also Central Park with its specimen trees and perennial gardens that were established more than a century ago.

For young adults eager for adventure, Vail Mountain School provides ample opportunity and a perfect base camp from which to explore the incredible natural treasures just outside in our back door.

Please enquire as to the extra cost for this programme at the Vail Mountain School through StudyUnitedStates EU <- click for e-mail 

Vail Mountain School Support for Elite Athletes & Artists

Many VMS students pursue interests outside of school that demand significant commitments of both time and energy. VMS faculty willingly work with students, parents and coaches to ensure that ski racers, athletes, musicians, and artists can compete, train, and perform without compromising academics. 

These students are expected to be scholars as well as athletes or artists, and we are committed to supporting the highest level of achievement in and out of the classroom. Students and parents keep up with schoolwork and grades via an online course-management system, and by working with two full-time support staff, one of whom is a former ski racer.

As a formal partner of of Ski and Snowboard Club Vail, VMS is staffed, prepared, and accustomed to ensuring the academic success of snowsport athletes, and to helping their parents with the logistics of competing while keeping abreast of schoolwork. VMS’s dedicated liaisons can assist with communication as much as with tutoring, and help students compete or perform internationally, stay on top of academic demands, and make friends at the same time. Few schools offer this level of attentive, proactive support.