Expedition Kirkwood — Local services in South Lake Tahoe

My friend and I eagerly signed up for Expedition Kirkwood's Carving Camp (March 23-24, 2025) .

With excitement high and expectations clear—I was aiming to elevate my carving from 30% on green slopes to confidently carving at least half my turns on blues.

Prior to enrollment, I had explicitly confirmed via email that this camp would involve carving-specific progressions. Expedition Kirkwood’s assured that i would be able to carve blue runs (pic attached)

Saturday began with our instructor, Tony, a Level 3 Ski Instructor, spending the first 30 minutes indoors discussing basic ski construction. We hit the slopes from 9:30 AM and go for a couple of runs for the instructor to see us ski.

10:15am-12:15. weight in front of your skis. Weight on outside leg, via shoulders pointing down the slope. pull the inside leg so that both skis are parallel

1:10-3:10. Pull the inside leg in to get forward. Traverse across the slope on edge by rolling ankle and watch your skis turn. Try to roll from edge to edge. Do it like a dimmer switch. Not all in one go. And we end the day there.

When I expressed disappointment and explicitly asked about carving drills (such as J-Turns, Hand Drags, and In-rigger drills), Tony dismissed these as "too advanced" for our group, stating that fully carving blue slopes was unrealistic for us. This was alarming; the advertised camp was explicitly labeled a "Carving Camp," not a basic parallel ski session.

At this point I felt this wasnt worth my time, and left expedition kirkwood an email asking to call me.

Dan called me at 8am next day and asked if I wanted to attend the class on sunday. I said If I can get a refund, I wouldnt want to attend sunday session. And he said Matt (his boss) would call me in 30 minutes to talk about the refund. Matt did not call me till wednesday. Anyways I decided this wasnt worth my time, and told my friend to attend the session and I skipped.

My friend told me the next day they were working on upper and lower body seperation and ankle rolls. Also they did not find the right slopes, and spent a lot of time searching for it. (He told me I took a good decision by skipping the day). He also felt it was not very useful.

This camp surely did not help me and my friend.. We could have spent the 620$ each more wisely.

I felt expedition kirkwood is not taking these camps seriously. It is a hit or a miss. From my conversations with Matt it is clear that they dont have a set progression to teach at the camp. When I asked him to name 3 drills that should be taught at the camp . He responded saying he is a snowboarder and he doesnt know. (I asked this question to multiple people at expedition kirkwood and no one could answer, including Tony the instructor). Matt, the boss, didnt seem like someone who wanted to take feedback and better the camp. His main focus was to defend and not refund.

Overall, if you are someone who really wants to learn, I think you can find better value for your time/money elsewhere. I wouldnt spend a $ with expedition...

I attended the chutes drop and jump snowboarding clinic with Expedition Kirkwood. Prior to attending the class, I emailed the organizer with my skill level(comfortable at black but never attempted more advanced feature) and asked if it's appropriate for me to attend this class. He took the time to understand where I'm at and let me know that this is the right class for me.

We were split into small groups (2~4 people per group) and we got Dustin as our instructor. He was incredibly patient and fun to ride with. When I told him I didn't really understand how to apply one of his instructions, he gave me an alternative set of tips to achieve the same thing and I found that super helpful. He observed my groups skill level and was able to find features that challenged us without overwhelming us. He made the camp feel like a fun adventure with a helpful friend, where I gained more skill and confidence in one day than the entire season.

I had previously attended another camp with progression sessions and I was having a terrible experience there where the instructor started the day with complaints about how tired she was, yelling at me when I didn't apply her instruction immediately and just kept repeating the same instructions that I was struggling to apply despite my request for alternative approach.

I was very hesitant to attend another camp but Dustin has completely changed my mind about snowboarding camp. I'd definitely ask for him if you are planning to take...

Just did the Terrain Park Camp last weekend and had the most amazing instructor, Dustin. I’m an advanced snowboarder but have never ventured into the park, which I realized is a completely different world. There were 5 of us in the group, thankfully with similar skill sets, and Dustin gave us very clear, technical instructions on how to control our bodies and how to prep for and land our jumps. He gave very helpful feedback for each individual and took the time to understand each person’s comfort level. Every single one of us showed significant progress and confidence by the end of the day. I’d definitely do another camp next year and hopefully get...