Our Story and Philosophy

Welcome to our World-Wide Adventure Ski School, AIARE avalanche school, and Backcountry Guide Service!

Our Foundation

The North American Ski Training Center (NASTC) was founded in 1994 as a unique performance ski school offering multi-day, full immersion and adventure ski training clinics for intermediate through expert skiers taught by members of the PSIA National Demonstration Team and AMGA certified guides. Based in Lake Tahoe, CA, NASTC offers all-mountain free-skiing clinics all over the world.

NASTC’s methodology towards ski improvement is based on a holistic approach that addresses fitness, equipment, skiing technique and tactics. The total immersion teaching approach is not a quick fix or band-aid approach. It is a multi-layered process that not only results in better skiing but positively affects the body, mind, and spirit. At NASTC you truly improve your skiing – a full level! And you get to do this at the best resorts and mountain ranges in the world, led by the top instructors in the world, in a group with adventure enthusiasts like yourself who also leave their professional world behind to enjoy these focused clinics.

In order to improve, our bodies need to repeat new patterns over and over. This was the antithesis of the “quick-fix” approach. In 1993 while the 3 were supervising and teaching for the Squaw Valley Ski School and climbing the ranks of PSIA, they realized with so much energy being given to beginner skiers that upper-end skiers were left without much guidance in their continued progression.

“To us, great skiing is built through immersive experience, expert guidance, and a lifelong pursuit of adventure.”

  • The Dream

    The dream behind NASTC came from Chris and Jenny Fellows and the late Mike Sodergren. The idea was a total immersion ski school along the lines of the great Austrian and French Academies where students immersed themselves for multiple days. Both Chris and Mike had attended the Austrian “Bundessportheim.”

  • The Philosophy

    In order to improve, our bodies need to repeat new patterns over and over. This was the antithesis of the “quick-fix” approach. In 1993 while the 3 were supervising and teaching for the Squaw Valley Ski School and climbing the ranks of PSIA, they realized with so much energy being given to beginner skiers that upper-end skiers were left without much guidance in their continued progression.