Exploring Our Approach to Skiing

The Story and Our 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

    We founded NASTC in 1994. Our dear friend Soddy helped dream up the novel idea. The concept 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 Soddy had attended the Austrian “Bundessportheim” (Austria’s National Ski Instructor Training Academy) for full seasons. Our goal was always to give students more than a quick-fix approach, and a chance to work on technique and tactics day after day so that they could see true improvement. We planned our first clinic at Sugar Bowl and Donner Ski Ranch in Truckee. It quickly sold out, and NASTC was born. Tragically Soddy died along with his wife and 16 other people in the July 1997 Thredbo, Australia landslide.

    We chose the name NASTC because in the early years we thought we might build a lodge and run all of NASTC’s camps out of one resort. We even had plans drawn up. However, as we measured demand and read our students’ reviews, it became clear they wanted to go to different resorts, try new mountains, and see new places. That quickly became NASTC’s successful business model. Over the last 32 years we have brought groups to at least 40 different resorts around the globe from California to Chile, Montana to Vermont, Iceland to Switzerland, Japan to Argentina, and many places in between. The common thread however is our tried and true methodology including technique, tactics, equipment, and fitness. And taking a very personalized approach looking at the building blocks of your skiing that you come with, and how we can best help you bring those skills up a full level.

    As we enter our 32nd season in 2026-2027 we are extremely grateful to our thousands of students and our devoted, best-in-class Staff. With an almost 85% return rate, we love seeing many of the same faces return year after year.

    Thank you!

    Chris & Jenny

  • 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.