I can still picture my mom picnicking atop her favorite trail, Chilcoot at
Smugglers’, after making runs with me. She
would visit with her fall line
friends while my teenage brothers and I would continue to ski laps.
When I was only about eight, I remember watching my brothers build jumps and
fly off them at Gunstock. Later, when we were in high school, I recall early
morning road trips to ski races around New England. Many of my best memories
growing up surround skiing.
I believe now my kids are creating similar alpine archives. Some of our best
times as a family have been on the slopes. One of us can
mention a
particular ski run on a specific day and we all get our grins on. Just the
mention of the bumps on Thrasher at The Canyons
in Utah or that -20F day at
Sugarloaf and the whole family flashes back to that moment when we mastered
the mountain elements together.
Giving your child the gift of skiing is providing them a lifetime sport that
they can share with you, and then with their own children. Introducing snow
sports gives your kids an outdoor outlet in winter, that sure beats being
inside. Skiing is a rare sport because you can do it with your kids, and
your grandkids for that matter.
That doesn’t mean you have to teach your kids to ski
singlehandedly. Being a
competent skier does not automatically make you an accomplished instructor.
You aren’t a better parent because you taught your kids every aspect of the
sport. You need to find the right balance between professional instruction
at resort ski and ride kids camps
and making turns with your tot so that it’s a positive experience all
around.
Once the basics are mastered, pizza pie to French Fries, you will share in
the triumph of linking a trail’s worth of turns side by side. As you slide
up the color chart with your child, from Green Circle to Blue Square to
Black Diamond, you create an inseparable bond - like skis to snow. I
remember our kids’ first powder day, watching them go from hesitant to huge
snowy smiles.
What my kids have taught me in exchange, which we forget as adults, is the
joy of falling. Kids tend to have a wacky attitude about wipe outs, they
find falls to be quite funny and worthy of laughable labels from face-plant
to biting the dust, to yard sale.
Skiing is one of the greatest gifts my parents gave me. I appreciate that
they started me so young (3), and I now know that took effort and commitment
on their part. You learn that as a parent when history repeats and you are
hauling your kid and heavy ski gear to the snowy slopes. I have since
thanked my folks for giving me a sport for a lifetime – and I still enjoy
skiing with my Mom, my brother, and my kids. And in their awkward teenage
way, my kids show gratitude for introducing them to the forever young sport
of skiing, especially when we are planning that big
family ski trip out west.
New England Ski Resorts |Canada |Rockies | Family Ski Resort Guide
