French Swiss Ski College — Local services in Blowing Rock

Left my kids (3 total) including my 6-year-old son with a group of 8 children in our party. Pick up time was scheduled at 3:30 and when a few parents from our group arrived a bit early they picked up most of the kids not including my son, where asked to his whereabouts they were told he left with me. Upon my arrival, and seeing my son was not with me, we asked again the instructors but none seem to know (or care) that a kid is missing. Furthermore, we were told that his jacket with his name was turned in and that they accounted for him.

After having 4 families run around the mountain (with no help from any instructor or the school) we finally found him 20 min later wandering around the mountain jacket still on. He was gone for a good 20-30 minutes prior to that with not one person noticing.

To make things even worse the manager of the Ski School at the place offered little to no explanation how this could happen, and when contacting them by email, I was told that this program is not a daycare, and "we are faced with the reality that if we give the students an opportunity to ski on their own that on occasion we will have a student get separated" (direct quote from his email).

So as a warning to other parents please note that by paying for the Ski School and leaving your child there, they take no responsibility and that your 6-year-old child will be allowed to leave and wander around, not be accounted for, and not really bother to look for him when knowing he went missing. So unless you plan to spend the whole time standing there supervising your own child I would highly NOT recommend leaving...

Where to start, they had 1 full weeks notice that Storm Diego was coming, it came on a Saturday so even locals could be trying to partake in winter activities. But when we tried to drive there from Boone, no one was at the "Welcome Center" (what a joke), then tried to drive the last mile in brand new Cadillac we could not make it up the hills. We had to back down the hill, then waited, 2 snow plows passed us not stopping nor did they drop the plows (so much for Southern Hospitality. We backed out 1 mile to the main road. Then we called resort and were told to call the DOT. 1 Week to plan, and they did not hire a plow and what really what they needed was just a little sand on the road every hour. They could have easily hired someone to dump some sand every hour the last mile of road, BUT THEY DID NOTHING!!! I'm from Minnesota so this "event" was what we call "a Tuesday" and I drove in snow 20 years. If you go to Colorado or anywhere else I've been they NEVER EVER CAN'T GET THERE ON A SNOWY DAY!!!!! This place sucks!! If you are coming from anywhere far, don't, spend the extra and go to CO, or Utah, or pretty much anywhere. My 5 year old first time in snow and we played in parking lot of hotel. What a joke!!!!!!!!! I saw a NEWS truck out of Charlotte and asked if they were from around here, they ended up interviewing me and told me "let em have it on the Internet"!! I WILL NEVER EVER COME BACK...

Worst ski school I have seen in 40 years. Way over crowded and teachers totally ignored kids. Kids 6 years and under were sent up the hill and no one watched or cared if they fell , slid or rolled down the hill. Parents were told to stay away. No watching. Don’t leave you children here. They definitely don’t care if they get hurt. When I went to the ski “college” to complain when my grandson was injured and not one instructor even noticed that he was at the bottom of the hill with a twisted ankle they apologized with “we were just overwhelmed with the crowd today”. Not an excuse if it is your child injured. How about not taking more students when you have exceeded your capacity. Just greed maybe? 25 kids ages 10 and below for one instructor is plain absurd for a sport dangerous enough to require a helmet. My kids started skiing at age 5 in very crowded ski resorts in Colorado. Parents could always check on their kids and classes never had more than 6-8 per instructor. These instructors didn’t even know who their charges were much less where they were or what was...