Family Skiing

[severine]

I was browsing Ski-Diva's site this morning and something that was mentioned in a thread on there intrigued me. I was wondering how you all handle skiing with a young family. Do you find a sitter? Take turns? Put the kid on your back and ski away anyway?

Seriously, what are your ways of making it so both mom and dad get an enjoyable ski season when the little ones are too little to join you?

 

[Greg]

I was browsing Ski-Diva's site this morning and something that was mentioned in a thread on there intrigued me. I was wondering how you all handle skiing with a young family. Do you find a sitter? Take turns? Put the kid on your back and ski away anyway?

Seriously, what are your ways of making it so both mom and dad get an enjoyable ski season when the little ones are too little to join you?

My wife is no where near as whacky about skiing as I am. We do take a week-long ski vacation though and have been since before we had kids. Typically, we go with another couple who also have a child. The men ski the morning while the wives watch the kids and then we switch in the afternoon. I guess the same approach could work for a day trip with swapping off in the base lodge. My wife doesn't like to ski alone, so having another woman for her to ski with is key.

 

[SkiDork]

Ty and I were lucky enough to be able to get season day care, first tracks and then ministars passes at Killington before POWDR jacked up the prices 3x or more. Now they're both in the KSC programs and can ski with us just fine.

The season passes used to cost us approximately 1600 dollars for each, a pretty good deal for us since they would each do between 30 and 40 days

 

[SKIQUATTRO]

Heres what we do, I have a 2.5yr and a 5yr old

the 5yr old has been on skis since 2.5yrs old and my now 2.5yr old will start this year.

We go to Smugges every year..we put the little one in day care and the 5yr in their ski school program which is fantastic..we drop her off at 9 am and pick her up at 4 or we'll pick her up at 3 and make some turns with her...

for day trips we buy 1 adult ticket and put it on my jacket,,,,,we each take turns skiing with the 5yr old and the other watches the little one...but we are still outside sledding or towing her on plastic skis etc that way we can see mom and sis coming down the mtn and see em at the end of every run...

seems to have worked well so far

 

[SkiFirst]

My wife does not ski... So she spends the day with my daughter who is 2 while I ski. Most of the time I will take some one else that does ski with us. Or if its just a day trip i will ski and my wife and daughter will go shopping or find some kind of activity to do. They just like the atmosphere of the mountains. So it usually works out.

 

[Brettski]

We did 5 years at smuggs

Kids can now ski top to bottom on anything

 

[billski]

less is more

We chose a more hands-on approach rather than a day-program approach. The notion of having fun together as a family outweighed black-diamond pursuits. I have three, with an age range of 7 years. Until they are teens, they inevitably have very different interest, skill and ability levels, so we always used the divide and conquer method, between the two of us. My wife, being the more protective and conservative skier, usually took the youngest. We always insisted on one or two lessons, but found early that one private lesson = 3 group lessons. Advantages: skill breakthroughs come rapidly, self-confidence increases quickly, fewer hours in lessons, less (yes, less) impact on the wallet, afterwards discussions with the instructor, more time with Mom and Dad.

When free skiing there is always a front pack, and always a rear guard. One set of walkie-talkies was essential, as someone was always changing their plans.

We always went with babies in tow for the first six years. Slopeside with cooking minimal facitlities was essential for those years, especially when they couldn't carry their stuff. It was nice when, after 45 mins on the slope if they were cold (happened a lot in early years), we could easily swap kids without un-gearing. In later years, me being the earlybird, would fill up the van at 7am with the gear, and stake it all out at the lodge while they were eating Lucky Charms.

My wife too, is much less a ski nut than I, so she gravitated to keeping the home fires burning, until the kids were old enough to want to all be out all day. Even now the proclivity varies from child to child. Some get cold sooner, some tire easier, hungrier, faster, slower, etc. etc. just like adults, so we still find ourself breaking off.

The key for us, was to minimize the "hassle factor." Equipment for skiing/boarding is already a hassle, now multiply that gear times five people.

We learned early that going to a large resort when little, wasn't just a waste of good money, it was a waste of good vertical. I would often free ski until about 10 am when the lucky charms crowd finally gone potty for the last time. Otherwise, I just planned separate "big boys" day trips and kind of suppressed hard-core skiing for a few years. The only trick is finding enough places to eat. Then again, with the kids limited menu desires (hot dogs, mac and cheese, grilled cheese. we were not looking for the Ritz!

Our philosophy has always been "figure out how to entertain yourself", we push our kids to find their own entertainment (we don't have cable TV or video games at home). That made for much more fun time together, but a lot more work for Mom and Dad (trust me, it's worth it. Once they hit their teens they don't want to be with you/general rule with exceptions.

In the end, our kids can also ski pretty much anywhere, and that includes pretty much any conditions including glare ice and glades. What they took away was a confidence in their skills and a willingness to take measured risks. I'm sure other approaches work well too; that's my story and I'm sticking to it! :razz:

 

[thinnmann]

My kids turn 10 and 14 this month. When they were very young we skied less. When we did ski, when one or the other was less than 2, we split the day. It is great when you only have to buy one lift ticket. We got a lot of reading done in the lodges, and there were always some random grandparents around that would make conversation or even play with the kid.

Used some daycare at mountains, then eventually moved into "SkiWee". In addition to that we did the leash-thing, and the hold-between-the-legs thing. Then, at Belleayre, both of my kids came up through Alpine Development program. My son got bored with that at about age 11, and he does not want to race, so he just skis with me and the rest of the adults all the time. My daughter has been in the Race Program at Belleayre for the last few years and will probably stay in it. Both of my kids can ski anything, even backcountry at Vail. I highly recommend the Alpine Development and Race programs at Belleayre. The kids get to know the group of kids they ski with, and the bond with the consistent instructor for both the kids and the parents is wonderful. Plus it is a nice family atmosphere and a place that you can easily get familiar with, so I feel I don't have to worry about them on the slopes and in the lodges.

Someone mentioned how important it is to reduce the equipment carrying; the drop-off, changing, pick-up effort with kids gets to be Herculean! It can cost you a lot of ski time if it is inefficient. If you get to know the place well, that effort gets easy and routine. It pays to find a good family place and go there often.

 

[severine]

Love the suggestions, thank you!

We have a 6 month old and 2.5 year old. The local hill won't do lessons until they're potty trained (for private) or 4 years old (for group), so our daughter can't do lessons yet. But I'm definitely missing skiing and have been for a couple of years now. I do like the idea of trading off during the day. Maybe we can try that at Sundown since they're so close by. It may take a bit of experimenting to find enough activities to keep the 2.5 year old busy but there are worse things she could be doing than hanging out at the lodge. And definitely when we have the money, I plan on going away on a family trip when they're a bit older.

 

[gladerider]

similar to brettski.

did 5 years at tremblant. had to pause skiing for 5 years before the kids started.