Ski School Supervisor Gary Nett Has Dedicated 56 Years of His Life to Liberty Mountain Resort, PA

A person who has been doing the same profession for nearly 50 years is a rarity in the world today. Gary Nett, the almost 83-year-old ski school supervisor and longtime instructor, has been doing that at Liberty Mountain Resort for 57 years. He started in 1969 as an instructor, just four years after Liberty Mountain first opened 60 years ago. To say that Nett and Liberty Mountain have seen a lot together throughout all those years is a major understatement. I had the opportunity to speak with him at the Pennsylvania ski resort, but what I wanted to do the most was to listen to him and hear all the advice, stories, and wisdom that he had accumulated over his time in the ski industry.

My first impression of Nett was his genuine humility, gratitude, and wisdom. He spoke softly and respectfully, and it was very clear that he still loved his job that he’s been doing for almost six decades. He shared his passion for skiing, the evolution of the resort, personal growth, and making a difference in people’s lives. After serving in Vietnam, Nett learned to ski at China Peak in the Sierra Nevada while attending Fresno State. While there, he joined the National Ski Patrol, but returned to Pennsylvania after his father’s death.

Before his father passed away, he wrote Nett a letter about a new ski area in Pennsylvania named Charnita (named after Charles and Anita Rist, the original developers), now Liberty Mountain. That letter inspired him to apply to Charnita, and he started on lifts, then two days later, moved to the ski school under Luis Sanchez, a Spanish Olympic alpine skier. Sanchez competed at the 1960 Winter Olympics and the 1964 Winter Olympics. Sanchez started the ski school that was very European-dominated, with instructors from Switzerland, Italy, France, Spain, and Chile.

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Charnita Ski Resort went bankrupt in 1973 and in 1974 was purchased by Irv Naylor, who had already built Roundtop Mountain, which is about an hour away, and renamed it Liberty Mountain. Nett was 25-years old at the time, and said Liberty had different standards than Europeans. At that time, he was only an instructor, but he joined the Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA) in 1975, and by 1977, he reached level three, which was the highest level you could achieve at the time. As of this year, Nett just received his 50th year pin for being a level three instructor.

Liberty Mountain’s ski school started developing and taking shape under what Nett describes as the “Vanguard,” which was three great ski school directors. Linda Steinle and Nett started at Charnita together, and she went on to become the ski school director from 1983 to 2001. After that, another great director was Steve Martin, who held the position from 2002 to 2022. The third and present director at Liberty is James Billingsley, who took over in 2023. Having great directors to lead Liberty Mountain’s ski school throughout its history was instrumental to its success.

It was also very important to have great trainers as well. Having a great leader doesn’t necessarily equate to success. Having a great team that works together does. Some of the great trainers Nett mentioned who he has worked with in his career are Steve Kling, Tom Swope, Brian McVicker, and Nick Eastman. “These are all the people, these are my mentors as I went along,” Nett said. This is a testament to Nett’s humility and gratitude to all the people who have helped him throughout his career.

The ski school team at Liberty Mountain currently has 260 part-time instructors, with 60 of those being first-time PSIA instructors. Liberty has 36 level two instructors, 22 level three instructors, and seven educational staff members. Nett said the ski instructor team at Liberty is one of the best on the East Coast. The New York Times wrote about Liberty Mountain’s ski school in 2014 on How to Make Skiing Fun for Beginners. Liberty also won the Conversion Cup in 2011, which was awarded by the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA). The award is presented by the NSAA to ski areas that best introduce and convert newcomers into repeat skiers and snowboarders. Liberty Mountain was the first recipient to win this award. “We became like the vanguard of training, and all we did was train all the time,” Nett said. “Killington can’t compare with us, and we were known as one of the finest schools on the East Coast.”

Since Nett has been in the ski industry, he has seen a lot of things change and has a lot of great stories to tell. He has seen dramatic changes in grooming, snowmaking, and resort operations. In the “early days” of snow grooming, Nett recalls them using a rudimentary grooming mechanism that was constructed of a 12-foot metal roller that was only done once every two weeks. All the snow guns were ground-based and fed by lake pumps that required constant manual attention. But the most dramatic change in the industry Nett saw came with the shift from straight to parabolic skis.

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One story about his early days centered around the 1970s energy crisis. During the gas crunch, Liberty bought a nearby gas station and offered a full tank of gas to anyone who purchased an all-day lift ticket, which was a clever perk that boosted appeal. “Can you imagine if we did that now?” Nett said with a smile.

Nett said that he might have accidentally started the origin of adaptive skiing. Nett told a story about a person who had braces on both legs and couldn’t walk without them. Nett didn’t want the boy to sit there and watch all his friends ski. So, he outfitted the boy with oversized boots, and two instructors skied down next to him, holding a bamboo pole to help him ski down the slope. Nett said this led to tears of joy and applause from his peers. The boy later became a rabbi and head chaplain at Johns Hopkins University. “That’s one of my best memories,” Nett said.

One of the biggest things Nett enjoys is seeing the smiles and personal fulfillment in teaching. “I love the sport, and I love the people I work with,” Nett said. “There’s nothing greater pleasure than doing something you would like.” He will be 83 in less than a week and plans to continue doing his job until he is 85 years old. He still teaches his friends occasionally and does some private lessons, but is mostly in the office now, coordinating and planning at the ski school. Nett’s humility, dedication, emphasis on community, innovation, and inclusivity demonstrate how his 56 years in the industry can shape a person’s life. After almost six decades of being an instructor, he still loves to teach and see people learn. “You can’t get away from the smiles that they have when they pick up something and realize what could be done,” Nett Said. “It’s just amazing.”