trainers

Alan Schoenberger was born in Denver, Colorado, and grew to become a world champion skier. He has been skiing for all but five years of his life. As a professional skier for over 30 years, he has taught skiing, competed and performed internationally, and has written, photographed and published technique on alpine skiing. He is a gifted, adept, and caring coach, with an extensive technical background in ski technique as it relates to modern ski design. He specializes in translating alpine world cup technique for all skiers.

Schoenberger began skiing under the expert tutelage of his athletic father. Schoenberger's passion for skiing developed with great intensity from grade school through college. While attending Utah State University, he was an alpine racer and certified as a ski teacher under his mentor, Robert Parker. Parker was the Professional Ski Iinstructors Association's (PSIA) Intermountain division technical vice president, a PSIAI demonstration team member and Schoenberger's alpine coach. Schoenberger went on to teach skiing full time at Snowbird for Junior Bounous and at Alta for Alf Engen and Max Lundberg.

In New York, during the summer months, he studied dance techniques of Merce Cunningham and the Joffrey Ballet, and physical comedy with Moni Yakim and Richard Morse.

In 1974, he began training for freestyle skiing competition. He received an invitation to perform a freestyle ballet piece during an Intermountain PSIA spring clinic. From there he catapulted into international freestyle competition. For three years, he dominated freestyle competition in Europe, Canada and the U.S., winning or placing second in most all ballet contests, and finished several top five mogul and aerial contests. Schoenberger placed second overall in the world (moguls, aerials, and ballet skiing combined) in 1975, and in 1976 earned the coveted World Trophy in Ski Ballet. His skiing was featured on ABC, NBC, CBS and PBS, and in books, magazines and film.

Schoenberger’s introduction to the ski simulator was during the fall of 1975 when Ski Utah presented Alan Schoenberger with Stein Eriksen on the national ski show circuit. After the ski show tour and while he continued to compete on the world freestyle circuit, Schoenberger began drafting designs for a more advanced ski simulator. During this time he also wrote a theatrical ski piece for stage production. The ski simulator that he had in mind would be a departure from traditional design, and would vastly improve the skiing sensations for his eventual theatrical performances.

During the autumn of 1979, Schoenberger introduced his one-of-a-kind ski simulator and set out on a national tour with the zany tragi-comic alpine stage production, Schoenberger Skis the Stage

His involvement with ski education on an elite level brought him to form the Turning Point Ski Foundation with PSIA national demonstration team member, freestyle skiing champion and long-time friend Ellen Post Foster. The Turning Point Ski Foundation, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, is dedicated to the development of educational concepts and instructional material for skiing. Together Foster and Schoenberger have authored and published five books and one video on ski education which are all currently in use by coaches and ski teachers around the world. Their award-winning, best-selling book Skiing and the Art of Carving and video ignited the carving revolution in ski education. A year following their publication, the book and video were submitted to the International Ski Congress by the Professional Ski Instructors Association to represent the United States' position on carving technique for modern ski design. It was during this period, under the guidance of Ellen Post Foster, that Schoenberger became passionate about ski technique for today's shaped skis. For ten years they developed, tested, wrote, photographed and filmed technique that changed the face of modern alpine racing and ski teaching.

Schoenberger has performed in theatres on skis on his special effects ski simulators in 70 major cities in Canada, Europe and the United States. In 1984 he performed live on stage with Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra at the Eastman Theatre, the same year that Skiing Magazine called Schoenberger the most outrageous skier of the season. He choreographed and performed the opening ceremony for the 1994 World Cup in Vail, Colorado. On October 23, 2001, Alan Schoenberger was honored with the “Pioneer of Freestyle Skiing” award from the University of Utah Ski Archives as a key individual who played a major role in shaping this region’s ski history. In 2002 he performed Schoenberger Skis the Stage during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Park City, Utah.

Schoenberger's recent creation is his ski studio. Located in Park City, Utah, Alan Schoenberger's SkiStudio365 provides indoor ski sessions in the ultimate prepared coaching environment for skiers of all ages and abilities. SkiStudio365 has also become a popular training facility for Intermountain division and world cup alpine racers.