“It’s not going to click until you make that mind-body connection,” says snowboard instructor Maddi Alvelo.
I pick my head up, wipe the snow off my goggles and do a “turtle roll” onto my back. The only connection I’m making is my body colliding with this slope. I must have wiped out about two dozen times by now.
Infinitely patient, Alvelo is teaching me J stops on the bunny hill at Lee Canyon. She’s been trying to get me to pick up some speed downhill, open my front knee and then press my front foot down to turn the snowboard. Only problem is, when I try to turn, I keep sliding out.
“I know it feels like you’re going to fall, but you have to use that front foot to be in control of the board.”
I push myself back to standing and try again, moving forward a few feet, only to fall when I try to execute the turn. I repeat this cycle a few more times until we’re almost down the hill. I imagine it’s quite the spectacle for everyone looking down from the chairlift.
Sensing that I’m discouraged, Alvelo asks, “Can I give you some food for thought?” She gently explains how my upper body might be getting in the way of executing this turn.
“Grab your pant leg below the knee, and try to redirect your body weight over the front knee,” she advises.
I try again and again—this time with me hanging onto my front pant leg. And after my 48th fall, it finally clicks, and I make the J stop.
There’s that mind-body connection—though, admittedly, my mind is largely focused on how much it hurts my body to fall on snow. And while I have much more to learn, just getting to this checkpoint gives me the juice I need to keep trying for the duration of this three-hour private lesson.
In celebration of Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month in January, Lee Canyon is encouraging newbies to learn how to master the slopes. For those who don’t opt for private lessons, the mountain resort offers a free 30-minute informational Snow Experience for first-timers 13 and older with the purchase of a lift ticket. (Information about parking, lift tickets and gear rentals is available at leecanyonlv.com.)
So far on this unseasonably warm winter day, Alvelo has taught me how to attach my rental boots to the bindings on my rental board, tips for standing and skating, how to ride on the back edge of my board, riding downhill in “fallen leaf” formation, and J stops.
Without her, I don’t know if I’d be able to get past the frustration that almost always comes with learning anything that’s worth learning.
“Being able to start this path for a lot of people is really meaningful to me, because it’s such a fun sport,” Alvelo says. “Being outside and in this environment does something for the mind. So I love showing other people why I like being outside.”
She’s right. Being immersed—literally face-first in the snow—is doing something for me. It’s like the antidote to sitting behind a desk at an office. Even if it hurts a little bit.
MOM-AND-POP ON THE MOUNTAINTOP
The late, great Lee Canyon ski instructor Marcel Barel described Mount Charleston as a “mini Switzerland.” Around Lee Canyon, which lies at an elevation of 8,660 feet on the north side of Mount Charleston, avalanche chutes and patches of massive pinyon and bristlecone pine dominate sheer limestone cliffs.
The 445-acre resort receives an average annual snowfall of 129 inches. Plus, they make their own snow.
Amanda Propst at a snowboarding competition at Lee Canyon in 2012.
Almost an hour from the Strip, Lee Canyon truly is part of Las Vegas’ backyard, every bit as much as Red Rock, Lake Mead and Kyle Canyon. Just like those areas, visitation has grown as the local population has expanded. Over the years, more and more people discover that there are conditions here that are indeed hospitable to snow and snow sports.
“It used to be a real small little mom-and-pop shop. There was some definite beauty to that,” says snowboarder Joey Brandt, who has been frequenting Lee Canyon for more than 30 years. “I do miss that a little bit. But at the same time, now they’re doing more with their snowboard parks, they’re doing the mountain biking trails. They’re adding new chairs and redid the whole lodge. It’s great to see my kids get to grow with it.”
In 1963, Lee Canyon Ski Lifts was granted a permit from the U.S. Forest Service. The first chairlift, now the Sherwood chair, was installed in 1968. (It has since been replaced with a triple chairlift.) By the ‘80s, two more chairlifts were added and snowboarding started to pick up popularity, with the first terrain park opening in 1998. The 2000s saw some upgrades to rental equipment, snowmaking capabilities and the base lodge area.
Fast forward to 2022, when the resort opened a mountain bike park, which now has five trails. In 2023, a fourth chairlift and 450 parking stalls were added as part of a $17 million capital improvement project initiated by Mountain Capital Partners. The company acquired Lee Canyon in April 2023.
“Last winter [was] the first winter Lee Canyon operated [the new] lifts. And that … helped disperse skiers around the mountain, opened up different types of terrain for people and reduced waits and existing traffic,” says Josh Reid, regional marketing director at Lee Canyon resort.
The company, which owns resorts including Brian Head in Utah and Arizona Snowbowl in Flagstaff, lives by the mantra “Give people the freedom to ski.” The idea is that skiing and snowboarding should be a right, not a privilege.
“The idea of ‘freedom to ski’ is giving people the ability to do it. And in the last 30 years in America, it has become, demographically, an affluent sport,” Reid says.
“How we bring that to life is with flexible pricing, a lot of opportunities to get on snow—like Snow Experience—and really introducing a lot of people in the Vegas area to skiing and snowboarding. … We have a lot of programs to introduce them to skiing and snowboarding as affordably as possible, in hopes that they get the bug.”
CONQUERING THE MOUNTAIN
With Alvelo’s guidance I’ve managed to get on the chairlift, the only respite for my body during this lesson. Alvelo tells me she skied for 12 years and only took up snowboarding three years ago, learning from co-workers at Lee Canyon. A few seasons later, she’s an Alpine Level 1 certified snowboard instructor.
“I never would have been able to progress the way that I have if I had never been here,” she says. “Being able to have a consistent training schedule to consistently improve my lesson delivery is monumental to growth.”
Splitboarding in Lee Canyon’s backcountry.
That growth in skills and confidence is not limited to just staff. Come up to the resort on a weekend in January or February, and you’ll see parents lined up in chairs watching their kids in Lee Canyon’s sold-out youth programs. In fact, Lee Canyon has become a national leader in youth participation, with its ski and snowboard programs growing by 190% in 2023 compared to the 2017-2018 season.
Those kids are putting me to shame. I can’t even get off this chairlift without falling. And as much as I expect to be on the receiving end of pointing and laughing, I realize no one is paying attention to my falls, or really caring if I do.
“Everybody has to start from somewhere,” Alvelo reminds me.
Amanda Propst, who has frequented Lee Canyon for 22 years, got her start snowboarding when her brothers dropped her off at the top of the mountain. After graduating from Bonanza High School, she got a job there as a lift operator. The next year, she met her life partner of 20 years. Eventually, she would go on to compete and place in national and international snowboarding competitions, including the X Games.
“Lee Canyon is a training ground. … It’s provided me a lot of confidence in life. Even though I’ve been doing it for 20 years, I can still continually grow my skill,” Propst says. “And that just kind of carries over in life—continuing to push forward and always striving to be better. Nobody judges you. Everybody’s just up there having fun. You can just let your guard down and enjoy life.”
That confidence has served Propst well in mountain biking, which she also does at Lee Canyon in the summer and in competitions. These are activities she and her partner do together.
“I always say, a family that plays together stays together,” she says.
Brandt, who enjoys snowboarding with his two sons, says his years spent in Lee Canyon gave him a foundation to navigate backcountry snowboarding and even splitboarding—using a snowboard that splits in half to hike to those backcountry spots, then reattaching the halves to snowboard down the mountain.
“I wouldn’t be where I’m at if I didn’t have a background snowboarding. I wouldn’t have the confidence to go all the way to the top and ride down some gnarly chute. … My older son … is going to start doing it with me. When I see the look on his face on a good day when he’s in the powder, it just hits the heartstrings,” he says.
Back on the bunny hill, I’m trying to connect my J-turns into “garlands.” After much more falling, I finally get it down.
Showing her approval, Alvelo jumps up and down (surprisingly high in her heavy snowboard boots). And I feel like I’ve been initiated into this community. Regulars say Lee Canyon’s “tight-knit” and welcoming community is what kept them coming back all these years. And it just might have me coming back to learn those S turns that I see the pros doing.
“We call it mountain family,” Brandt says. “Every weekend you start to get to know people. It’s a different culture up there.”
Lee Canyon 6725 Lee Canyon Rd., leecanyonlv.com, daily 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
Chris Ruby Memorial Cup promotes saving lives through organ donation
Jeff Ruby (left) with the winner of the 2018 Chris Ruby Memorial Cup.
Chris Ruby loved to snowboard. He also loved to help others. Before the 20-year-old’s death from a skiing accident in 2014, he registered as an organ donor. His decision would later save or help more than 90 patients, according to Nevada Donor Network.
To celebrate Ruby’s life,Lee Canyon is hosting the 10th annual Chris Ruby Memorial Cup, an all-levels ski and snowboard race benefiting the nonprofit Nevada Donor Network, on January 11.
Since it was first held, the annual event has registered well over 5,000 donors.
“We are so grateful for the continued support of Lee Canyon and the Nevada Donor Network in honoring Chris’ life through the Chris Ruby Memorial Cup. The event celebrates Chris’ passion for life and snowboarding and is a reminder of the impact one person can have through the gift of organ and tissue donation,” the Ruby family said.
“It means the world to our family to see Chris’ story continue to bring people together, fostering a culture of giving and compassion that reflects the kind of person he was.”
According to Nevada Donor Network, approximately 22 people die every day as they wait for an organ that doesn’t come in time. Organs like kidneys and pancreases have waitlists up to five years on average.
The Memorial Cup is one way of connecting, spreading awareness of that, and getting more people to be part of the solution.
“We are incredibly grateful for strong community partners like Lee Canyon who help us to save and heal lives each year,” said Gordon Prouty, president of Nevada Donor Network Foundation. “Together, we can end the wait for Nevadans in desperate need of a lifesaving organ transplant.”
Lee Canyon will cover the registration fees ($20 per person) for current organ donors and anyone who registers as a donor at the event. Registration and information is available at leecanyonlv.com.
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