So how did you start?

[JimG.]

Started at age 4 at the Concord Hotel in the Catskills. My first run consisted of my parents putting my skis on and then turning around to talk to my instructor for the day. When they turned back around, I was heading straight down the more advanced section of the hill. Went straight to the bottom and crashed into a plastic fence to stop.

Been hooked ever since.

 

[billski]

1976

To fulfill my college PE requirement in 1976, I signed up for the group lessons program at Swain Ski Center, a small area (650' vertical) with tons of snow in Western New York State. http://www.swain.com/

6 weeks of group lessons and night skiing, $30. Rentals for those 6 weeks, $30. Yup, I cost me $60 for the whole season. Best investment I ever made. After the first two lessons, I was hooked. Couldn't get there early enough or stay too late.... I can't say enough about the importance of feeder mountains.

The following year I bought my first set of boards for $125, boots were $75.

The rest of my life is an uncontrolled addiction....

 

[ctenidae]

Started at 6 or so in Colorado and New Mexico on family trips. Last trip was when I was 11 or 12. Didn't ski again until 18 years later, two seasons ago after my wife kept saying she wanted to go skiing because she hadn't been in a few years. She's regreeted it ever since. Night skied on rentals at Wachussetts, bought skis the next day, never looked back.

 

[tirolerpeter]

First time?

First skied at age three (that was in 1949) on a pair of wooden skiis with leather bindings on the mountain at the edge of the refugee camp that I lived in at that time. The camp was located in the Austrian Alps about 40km west of Innsbruck Austria.

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

Re: First time?

First skied at age three (that was in 1949) on a pair of wooden skiis with leather bindings on the mountain at the edge of the refugee camp that I lived in at that time. The camp was located in the Austrian Alps about 40km west of Innsbruck Austria.

I don't think anybody is gonna top that story. 8)

 

[skibum1321]

I got my start at Yawgoo Valley (a massive 200-something vertical feet in southern RI). I was about 12 years old and have since become minorly obsessed. Unfortunately being a Rhode Islander who played hockey and the only skier in the family, I only got to ski about 8-10 times per winter until college. Once college hit I would log 50+ day seasons. This winter will be the first of post-college, so hopefully I'll still get up there a lot.

 

[ChileMass]

I was very fortunate to grow up in western Maine in the 1960s when skiing was booming and families could still afford it. My buddy's Mom dragged me and him and my brother up a hill in our neighborhood and we decided it was more fun than sledding, so we got hooked. That was at about age 8, circa 1967.

Spent the next couple years skiing on OLD wooden skis with lace-up bindings that needed wax about 3 times a day, and if you got the wax wrong it was impossible to slide down the hill. Frustrating!! We took a few lessons, but were mainly self-taught.

By junior high, we bought some modern equipment and got on the kids' race team. We had instruction from the coaches for the local high school and college (Univ of Maine - Farmington), which was great. For the next 3 winters, race season started in November, ended in April, and we skied close to 7 days a week, plus 1-2 nights.

It was a great place to grow up.....

 

[Greg]

That was at about age 8, circa 1967.

Some funny math there...

 

[ChileMass]

That was at about age 8, circa 1967.

Some funny math there...

You pups never miss a chance, huh - ??

 

[Paul]

Carefully.

 

[Starter Jackets Rule!]

So how did i start?
let's see stuck my leather lace up boot in cable binder, pushed off poles an off I went....First time ever me and my sister (her age 6 me 4 1/5) Skied down Sandwich Notch Road. Center Sandwich, New Hampshire.
my dad use to drag a "Snow Roller" up and down the road with the John Deer so we could get to school(not me i was only 4.5 yo).
the county did not plow the road so pops got the town to buy a "Roller"(used to groom the old school way) from mt sunapee.
That was where i cut my theeth.

 

[Sparky]

At started back in 1975 when my wife signed us up for a night lesson deal at West Mountain. That was it for me, I was hooked. Not so much my wife, it was really cold. Couldn't afford to do much for a long time. Once a year on my birthday if I was lucky. After the kids got a little bigger I started the night adult lesson program at Jiminy. After several years of that my now much older daughter suggested that I try to become an instructor there. Since then I get out about 60 times a year and have been out west three times (Whistler and Panorama). My wife also (she took a 22 year break, but when everybody in the family started skiing she joined in. Now she plans our big trips.)skies as well, that's a big factor in the trip frequence. When I retire I hope to at least double the time i get out.( don't tell my wife.) :beer:

 

[Bkroon9175]

Started in 1967 with lessons at the Blue Hills in Canton, Mass. As a familly growing up, every year we skied a few days over Christmas and February vacation, usually at Gunstock or Alpine Ridge. A winter would include a few day trips to the Bule Hills. So I was an occassional skier until I was 17. At 17, I took my girlfriend to Bobcat and tried to teach her. It was a horrible experience and she wouldn't go again. The girlfriend filled my time and I stopped skiing. Years later, we got married, had kids and I never really thought about skis again. Then one winter my wife signed my two duaghters up for a recreational program at Blue Hills through our town's recreation commission. The girls took to skis very well. After they completed there designated number of weekly lessons ( 6 I think) they begged to go to a big mountain. After listening to them for a week, I relented and decided in March of that year to drive up to Waterville where they could ski and I would hang out. Well on the way up to WV, the girls begged me to rent skis and head out with them. Once again I got tired of listening to them and rented skis. Since then I have not turned back.
Now, all four kids ski or board. We go almost every weekend. Even my wife skis now. She realized that she would be left in the lodge once the youngest (then 3) started taking lessons. Our first year skiing as a family gave us six ski days. Last year I felt pretty good with the 32+ I got in.