CERTIFICATION I, II, III


ALI MACGRAIN


LESSONS LEARNED ON THE ROAD TO LEVEL III


By Ali MacGrain


he road was a long and arduous one – spanning three continents -- but attaining PSIA-AASI’s Alpine Level III certifi cation a number of years ago was a sweet achievement and, let me tell you, the juice was worth the squeeze!


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If certifi cation is in your sights, maybe my personal journey and the lessons I learned along the way can off er good guidance.


HOOKED FROM THE BEGINNING


Getting my Level III was a personal goal ever since my fi rst season at Mammoth Mountain in 2002, but the quest actually started when I began teaching skiing in Scotland in 1998 on a 120-meter artifi cial slope. I was hooked from the fi rst lesson,


80 | 32 DEGREES • WINTER 2017


largely by the satisfaction in my guests’ faces when they realized they could achieve their tasks and goals. I love it when I can impart knowledge in a more concise fashion than it was delivered to me, so others can take a quicker and easier path than I took. In 1999 I took (and passed) my fi rst ski instructor certifi cation through Snowsports Scotland and this inadvertently started me down a path to collecting pins.


While teaching on the dry-slope in VIEW VIDEO Ali MacGrain knows every day on snow is an opportunity improve.


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This “Leveling Up” video serves up an inspirational message – and keen advice – IRU WKRVH VHHNLQJ /HYHO ΖΖΖ FHUWLfi FDWLRQ


urban Scotland I met a woman who had just returned from her fi rst season in New Zealand. Her stories were the things of fantasy, skiing every day in a land so


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