Willy wrote:What's happening?
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Mr. Mason must be the skier in the world with the worst luck. He has met the largest number of level 3 PSIA instructors stemming their turns like they were beginners. I am not here to defend PSIA, but John's bad luck is beyond the laws of probability. I have seen many level 3 PSIA skiers doing very well and resorting to lesser technique when getting outside groomed slopes. Sure, occasionally they may stem a turn, but now it seems that in Mr. Mason's recollections they are all stuck on stem turns. Hard to believe.--- snip---
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I asked, over on the other board, what the population of L3 instructors was---actually more out of curiosity than anything else, but I can't deny this quote helped motivate the question.
Figures from the year 2000---but most thought they would still hold up rather well.
Approximately 22,000 PSIA instructors of Alpine L 1,2 or 3. Approximately 5,300 are L3.
Interesting part is of the 5,300---3,200 are in the Rocky Mountain division and (while no numbers were given) Northern Intermountain was credited with a high % of L3. For sake of discussion---lets ascribe 1,000 to NI.
We have 1,100 left to go round to the remaining 7 PSIA divisions. How many of these are teaching? How many are certified---but not actively teaching for various reasons?
Divide that by snow sport schools through out the land and how many are there per school?
I have no idea, but I'll guess less than one on average. Many schools won't have a single cert---much less an L3. Some will have multiple L3's---depends on the size and scope of the school.
What is the true likelyhood of casually running into one?
What's the true likelyhood of knowing you ran into one?
I don't have a clue what the answers are.