A good 8-9 years ago, I attended the now defunct Epic Ski Academy.
We spent the majority of all 4 days on progressively steeper and bigger bumps! The major breakthrough came in day 1 and 4. Day 1 came in the form of some critical tweaks to my boots which corrected my stance problem that was blocked my way to further improvement. (couch was also a boot fitter, he even brought in 2 of his boot fitter buddies to help shadowing the class), Day 4 was a “tactic” lesson to put all previous 3 days work to use on double black terrain.
Before the camp, I was “confidently” hacking my way down garden variety blacks. Since then, I’ve developed the skill to ENJOY double blacks with no raised heart rates, and slowly acquiring the judgement on evaluating the suitability of more extreme terrains.
The benefits of the camp still come in drips and drabs to this day: it sets me up for a journey of discovery in my skiing. I still take lessons from time to time, because I know what I need to work on.
It turns out, a lot of my issues were equipment related. Boots and skis, even poles. I always thought a skilled skier can ski on a pair of 2x2. But while that is true, for the still developing skiers, equipment can reinforce bad habits and hinder progress. At the time, I had just returned to skiing after a multi-year gap, I was reluctant to throw away my then nearly new and “good” equipments. But as I started to replace them over the years when those finally died on me, I realized how much those inappropriate equipments held me back.
Immediately after the camp, I thought I would take it again at a higher level once I “exhausted the benefit” in a couple years. That last part never happened, I continued to improve in leaps and bounce every season since (some came as I acquired equipments more appropriate for the way *I* ski). In the mean time, the ESA disbanded not long after. But of course there’re many other camps I’m sure are good too.