Shall we call it a Movement, or a Dream that took on a life of its own? In the late 1970’s, as owner and Director of Ski Master Ski School I started to put together ski trips after ski school was over for the season in an effort to inspire my staff of instructors to ski other areas and get “really excited” about skiing, ergo, they will become more inspired and effective ski instructors. We went en masse to Sun Valley, Park City and Jackson Hole. Immediately, many students in the school got wind of our plans and wanted to join. Hooray, we had a viable project! We had so much fun and expanded our horizons. 
The next year I was invited as the President of the Northwest Division of the Professional Ski Instructors of America to be part of a group that represented our Division of the National Organization at a Ski Instructors Exchange with Austria. At that time 65% of Austria’s gross national product was tourism. They had recently come off of hosting the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria. They had devised this “Exchange” to promote skiing in Austria. It fell on very fertile ground! Besides having the privilege of being hosted in grand fashion to get acquainted with Austria and its wonderful people and its great variety of ski areas, it made me feel like I would be comfortable escorting a group to this friendly country and their fabulous skiing possibilities. I was able to make contacts with their travel bureau called the “Tirolerlandesreiseburo”. (If they could live with that name and be a success, they must be competent – and they were.)
Thus, our first ”Ski Masters European Ski Trip” evolved. “Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread”. 108 people signed up for our first adventure! Our destination was St. Anton, Austria where we transferred our group in three buses and accommodated them in three hotels. Our second week was in Innsbruck, Austria where we took over an entire hotel, The Rotor Adler. It was like a European fraternity house! What memories we have of those two weeks! More to come.Lenore Lyle, Owner and Director Emeritus of Ski Masters Ski School, Inc and Ski Masters Europe Trips
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