Like any bad habit, poor skiing form is tough to break. But at the Park City Mountain Resort’s five-day Ski College, you’ll be so hypnotized by the gorgeous setting—and by exhaustion—that you will learn how to straighten out those skis. Or else.

Unlike in Tahoe, snow after Thanksgiving is a reliable bet in Park City, Utah, given the high elevation and the resort’s incredible snowmaking capacity. You may still come across a stray rock (so leave your brand-new skis at home), but you’ll catch a blizzard this time of year more often than not.

After a mere 1.5-hour flight, you can be on the slopes in less time than it would take you to drive to Tahoe. You’ll have the mountain to yourself, and you won’t waste a minute in a lift line. Plus, the ski college is a bargain-basement deal for level-five skiers (which means you can parallel turn on green runs and are comfortable on blues) and up: for about $20 more per day than the cost of lift tickets, you can get a group lesson for five days.

Your instructors use the first day to evaluate your weaknesses, from leaning back in your skis out of fear of the steep slopes to skidding through your turns. Skiers are grouped according to ability with five or six people and one instructor for the whole week. (Get there a day early to warm up, so your tryout for level placement isn’t your first run of the season.) The instructors devise drills that target your limitations and push you out of your comfort zone, and then they make you do those exercises over and over again—after all, muscle memory is redirected only through repetition.

Sometimes you feel like you’re in over your head, but the camaraderie and the eclectic mix of skiers the college attracts mean that the days fly by, and you’ll improve significantly simply by skiing with other people at your ability level. After a week of deconstructing every component of your skiing, your instructor deftly ties all your new skills together on Friday. You’ll edge your turns for the first time and confidently approach steeps.

By the time the slopes shut down, you’ll be beat, so don’t plan much in the evenings—although you should book an après-ski rubdown at Mountain Body before you arrive. And this is the perfect time to enjoy the charms of Park City’s historic main strip, minus the glitterati and black-clad throngs that Sundance brings to town. A hearty meal of London broil of elk finished with a green chili béarnaise at the Southwestern restaurant Chimayo, or cheddar-and-stout fondue at Blind Dog Restaurant, are the perfect antidotes to cold and hunger—and you’ll have earned the right to a decadent meal.

You’ll want to crash somewhere cozy and comfortable within a stone’s throw of the mountain. Just two blocks from the town lift, the Washington School Inn is a circa 1889 limestone schoolhouse turned bed-and-breakfast, replete with plush robes and featherbeds. You’d have to be on a waiting list for years to stay here during Sundance, but during the off-season you’ve got a fighting chance.

-Natasha Sarkisian

DATES AND PRICES WITH LIFT TICKET: NOV. 26–30: $420, DEC. 3–7 & 10–14, $470. PARK CITY MOUNTAIN RESORT: 800-331-3178, PARKCITYMOUNTAIN.COM; MOUNTAIN BODY SPA & COSMETIC DELI: 825 MAIN ST., 435-655-9342; CHIMAYO: 368 MAIN ST., 435-649-6222; BLIND DOG RESTAURANT: 1781 SIDEWINDER DR., 435-655-0800; WASHINGTON SCHOOL INN: $130–140 PER NIGHT FOR SKI COLLEGE SPECIAL. 435-649-3800, WASHINGTONSCHOOLINN.COM.