FAQ's

We currently rotate between two ski areas east of the Twin Cities - Wild Mountain and Trollhaugen. Both ski areas are within an hour's drive from our last bus pickup locations, which maximizes on-snow activities for our students.

Students are grouped by age and ability. Due to motor skills and cognitive development, the age range per class is approximately two years.

For entry-level skiers, class size is 4 to 6, but our target size is 4 to 5. For intermediate to advanced skiers/riders, class size is 6 to 8. Our target size is 6 to 7. In some cases we use team teachers the first day of lessons and the group then will split as abilities and aggressiveness develop.

We are willing to consider such requests as long as they meet the following criteria:

• The age difference between students is no more than approximately two years.
• The students are similar in skiing/riding ability. If this is not the case, we would have to place both students at the lower ability level. Our experience is that the stronger student is not challenged and becomes bored in such a class.
• Students need to interact with all members of their class on an equal basis to build positive group dynamics and a strong team-building atmosphere. We cannot allow cliques to disrupt the learning environment. Please note that if friends are not able to be in the same class because of age and/or ability, they still can spend time together on the bus ride to and from the ski area and also over the lunch hour in the chalet. We only allow skiing/riding under the direction of a student's instructor. WE CANNOT ALLOW UNSUPERVISED SKIING OR RIDING BY STUDENTS.

The following outline provides an activity timeline for a typical ski school day.

We strongly recommend bag lunches for nutritional value. Although students can buy their lunch at the ski area, we have no control over what they purchase. We encourage parents to send snacks and/or money for snacks for mid-morning and mid-afternoon breaks.

An email will be sent each week on Thursday or Friday. The email will include the location of that week's lessons, lift ticket fees, and where we'll meet in the chalet. You can also check our home page for this information. Parents also receive this information from our bus supervisor at each morning's bus pickup.

Lift ticket fees are the student’s responsibility. Lift ticket prices will be communicated each week via email and will also be posted on our home page. Also, parents are greeted at our morning bus pickup locations by our bus supervisors and informed as to which ski area we will visit that day and the lift ticket price. Parents are encouraged to send cash or write a check for the exact amount of the lift ticket. Checks should be written to Otto Hollaus, not to the ski area. Otto Hollaus personnel will take your payment inside the chalet.

Our season is weather-dependent, and there are some circumstances that may result in cancellation of a day's activities. These may include extremely cold conditions; deteriorating road conditions, such as freezing rain; and, in rare instances, lack of snow. (Ski areas have state-of-the-art snow-making systems so it has to be a prolonged, adverse weather pattern to significantly affect area snow conditions). The Otto Hollaus Snowsports Academy reserves the right to make cancellation decisions that we feel are in the best interest of our students. Should we cancel activities for the day, we will extend the program affected for an additional week. The decision to cancel lessons will usually be made the night before, but WHEN CONDITIONS ARE CHANGING RAPIDLY, CANCELLATIONS MAY BE MADE AS LATE AS THE MORNING OF LESSONS. Cancellation information will be communicated via email. You may also call us at (612) 201-9309.