Keystone Resort Ski/Ride School

A Great Experience from Start to Finish
If you want to learn how to snowboard (or ski) I highly recommend taking a lesson or two with the Ski and Ride School with the Vail Resorts team in Keystone, Colorado. After trying to teach myself, I decided to take a lesson and got hooked up with the absolute best snowboarding instructor on the mountain, Dan Tobin. I kid you not. Dan was such a great guy! It's one thing to have a wealth of knowledge about snowboarding, it's another thing altogether to be able to effectively pass that knowledge along to someone else. Dan did that masterfully. Not only was he a great teacher, he was incredibly encouraging the entire time. I can still feel the high fives and hear him yelling down at me, "heck yeah Kristine! You got this!" I learned more in that one lesson than I had in all my time on the mountain riding solo and I had an absolute blast doing it. And now, because of Dan, just two weeks later, I'm carving down Dercum Mountain like a champ! Thanks to the Ski and Ride School there at River Run and a huge thanks to Dan for being so freaking awesome! I hope you're reading this Dan cause I'm absolutely shredding it because of you. 😎🤙 So grab your board everyone and get up here and let Dan share all his knowledge and skills with you. The high fives are waiting for ya!

Nolan OH was our ski instructor. He was fabulous!
He is certified, Personable, Great with the kids getting them to interact in a fun way yet getting the skills down that were needed. He is a true professional. He was positive as an instructor which made the experience Amazing for our whole family. He was upbeat, friendly great conversation. Great training.
Thank you Nolan

Keystone ski school and resort has been our ski vacation destination for over 10 years. Most recently, I had to reschedule a ski lesson for my daughter after a later than expected arrival and her being sick. I called at 8 am, and Skyla was so helpful by allowing us to make changes to our lesson reservation. He was so kind, knowledgeable and extremely helpful! It's just refreshing to go on a ski vacation and encounter someone like Skylar, who is genuine and willing to put the customer's needs over making $$$ for the resort. He actually saved me $45 as a result of the changes we made.

I had a wonderful experience with my instructor Mitch Ryland. He taught me the basics of skiing but also observed what I was doing right or wrong and gave me feedback on how to best adjust. He also knew when I was ready to move on to the next thing. I had my first ski lesson last Friday and I loved it so much I’ve gone back to the mountains twice since then. I look forward to hopefully a few more days this season and taking another lesson to advance next season.

I took a beginner lesson with Bill Collins to help me advance from snowplowing and pizza turns to gaining confidence and finally feeling in control. His guidance and encouragement get full credit for the smile on my face replacing the look of terror that was usually there before. He was an amazing teacher and really helped me identify the changes needed to progress. Highly recommend if you’re looking to build your confidence and challenge yourself to improve!

This review is specific to David Elliott who is a fantastic ski instructor! My husband was about to completely give up on skiing after 3 mediocre ski classes. His fourth and final class was led by David who completely restored his confidence. If you are looking for a calm and patient instructor who isn't condescending, David is your guy.

My wife and I had a group lesson with George. He was AWESOME! He made us believe in ourselves that we could progress as skiers. He was thorough and fun. If you are new to skiiing, or to skiiing in Keystone, Colorado we recommend taking a lesson and requesting George as an instructor. He made skiiing fun, enjoyable and teachable.

Had my first ski lesson at Keystone today with Marty Carpenter. She was fabulous and really taught us all the fundamentals. It was all about fun and safety first, didn’t have a fall all day.

I had 2 full day snowboard lessons with Keegan. The first day Keegan was able to troubleshoot all my bad habits and explain them in a way I easily understood and progressed quickly. In fact she was so helpful and patient
that I requested her for my second day lesson. Keegan was the best! I highly recommend her!!

This was is the best place to ski or snowboard! I have epic pass and all other resorts like crested butte are not as fun! I’m a colorado boy and if I could I’d live up here and ski and help everyone. Navy retired vet ready to help run the mountains.

Leon and Hans are AMAZING instructors. I knew basically nothing about skiing until this week. Thank you for being incredible!

Didn’t go to ski school but wasn’t sure where else to leave this review. Bought a used board and took it up to the slopes without bothering to look at it. Hopped on the lift and started going down the mountain only to realize the board was set up goofy and I ride regular. A ski instructor (Chris “Topher” I think?) saw me struggling and reset my bindings right there in the middle of the run and completely saved my life and didn’t even roast me for the very dumb oversight. 20/10 guy

We have had an amazing experience with the Keystone Ski and Ride School. We had/have both of our kids in the school. In 2 seasons our oldest can now confidently ski with us on groomed black runs. Our youngest has fallen in love with skiing and is progressing well. All of the instructors are really good and the school is flexible to match your kids with the right personality of the instructor. I highly recommend the program without reservation.

This a great resort. I loved everything about it! My first time skiing here but its worth visiting

would highly recommend.. my 4 yr old daughter did kid ski school one day and a half day private lesson another.. It is very pricey but I would recommend private lessons... children's ski school was great but with so many kids it's hard to get that experience..we had Nicole as private lesson instructor and she was AMAZING!!! she did SO well with my daughter and made it fun. If you can request a private instructor ask for her!

First class all the way - I like Kesytone. I purchased the kids group lesson for our 8 year old and it was worth the $. At first $211 seems high but the lesson was a full day with lunch included. The instructor (can't remember his name) was top notch. Nothing but good things to say here. My little munchkin started as a non skier and after Dad (former instructor) gave her some pointers and a full day lesson at Keystone, she is now a level 3 skier!

Instructor Ben Anklan ties with one other instructor (also at Keystone) for best ski instructor I have ever had. I've been skiing for 35 years and over the years have had numerous lessons, so I have had quite a few instructors. For intermediate skiers, Ben takes the time to break the instruction into components, and for our small class those components were clearly chosen by him to address what mattered most to us, rather than a cookbook formula. He is incredibly patient and positive, has a great manner with people, and is a born teacher. I don't know whether he instructs children, although I do know that he works with teens in the summer, and I would think he'd be a great ski instructor for any age group. (I'm a mom, so...) Ben helped me improve in 4 or 5 ways, and those improvements took me from being intimidated by steep (blue) inclines to enjoying groomed black runs. Cowabunga!

I had my first experience today on skis! Instructor Bill Beagke was amazing and so patient! Our day started with traffic backed up and I was a little late arriving. The entire staff was amazing at getting me set up and out with the others as fast as possible. Bill greeted me and got me going right away. I will definitely be back for round 2!

I went to Keystone this weekend and took snowboarding lessons from Kyle. This dude is awesome! He was very attentive, he was funny, he kept an eye on my progress in order to effectively get me up to speed as fast as possible, he maid my day! I hadn't ridden in over a decade and he was able to help me surface those long lost skills and harness them. In a matter of hours he had me out of the school and riding down the mountain. I left keystone feeling like a rock star! There was another guy there named Kevin, he helped me get caught up to the rest off the class because the snow storm delayed us. So if you're going to learn how to snowboard come here, request Kevin or Kyle, if you came with friends who already ski or snowboard, they'll have you caught up to your buddies skill set by the end of the weekend no joke! Plus it's cheaper than all the other schools in summit county. DO IT!

I recently went to Keystone and I was wanting to snowboard. I have skied since I was little, so I find it to not be very challenging and I wanted to have an adventure.

The last time I tried to snowboard I was twelve years old and ended up being taken down on a toboggan so obviously I needed more practice. My mom suggested that I should take a lesson.

We arrived at 9:30 am and there was only one other person in my class. Blake was my instructor and I could not have asked for a better one. Not only did he explain everything well he was able to assess what I was doing wrong and telling me what I needed to do to fix it. I started calling him MR. MIYAGI because he was teaching us his ways (not that he looks anything like him, but I thought it made it more fun!).

I was in level 2 the first day and then he suggested that I take the level 3 before I moved on to the bigger slopes. I tried going down Schoolmarm after the lesson (which he suggested that I should not do) and I crashed and burned so many times. I decided to take a second day and I learned even more and I had paid for the group lesson but ended up having a private one (because no one else was in my group). I was able to tackle Schoolmarm twice after the lesson and would have kept going if I wasn't so tired.

It was the most tired and sore I have been in my whole life, but it was also the most rewarding. I came so far in two days and I am going back for a third.

I also suggest buying the 3 for 2. You get 3 lessons for the price of 2!

Much love to Blake and I will be back later this season!