How young to get'm started?

We picked up a pair of plastic skis for our son Tom when he could barely walk. They had plastic straps that would wrap around any sort of boot. We'd put the skis on in the living room and he'd paddle around on them. I used to pull him around in a covered sled on short ski tours and the first time he actually wore the skis on snow was at Windy Pass (near Hyak) when he was 2-1/2. He paddled around for a few minutes and went back in the warm sled.

We got him some real skis and boots the next season and we tried them out at Loup Loup, near Twisp. I'd ski with him between my legs and I took him on his first rope tow that day. He was 3-1/2. I think Loup Loup is a great place for kids to learn to ski.

Tom didn't ride his first chairlift until he was 5. That was the bunny chair at Crystal Mountain. He made his first turns that day and a few weeks later he skied the chair without my help. He gradually progressed to harder chairlifts that season. I towed him on a rope to the TAY picnic when he was 7 and he made it under his own power (his first alpine ski tour) when he was 9.

I never pushed Tom very hard to ski. Our ski days were typically just a couple hours long in the early years and we'd only go on nice days. I don't think he really started to like the sport until he was 9 or 10 years old. Every kid is different. He still hasn't made the breakthrough to want to ski the whole mountain in all conditions. It won't be long though. He's 13 now.

Gravity doesn't know how old you are. A kid and a grownup are evenly matched on a pair of downhill skis. Off-hand, I can't think of another sport where that's true. It's great to cruise down the mountain and find that your kid is keeping right up with you. Skiing is a great family sport.

A great place to get used to all the ski stuff in a very friendly environment is a warm summer day at Artist Point. You can have a summer picnic and go sledding and skiing (of course you have to carry or tow your kid up the hill), then go pick blueberries. [Snow was incredibly lame/absent by August blueberry time this year, not typical]

We did that and some winter days at Baker while my daughter was 3, 4 and 5, lots of skiing between my legs, she enjoyed it but could not control what she was doing. Then a few weeks ago, a couple of days after she turned 6 on Thanksgiving Saturday, she just suddenly figured out how to turn and stop at the Magic Carpet at Olympic in Whistler, and she was launched.

It was so sudden. I had tried every explanation I could think of, but she had to get that last piece of the puzzle herself (for her, it was turning her arms in the direction she wanted to go while maintaining her snowplow, this naturally weights the opposite ski and drives a turn).

Then she did many Magic Carpet runs with no help whatsoever until they shut down the lift on her.

Lowell, your comments about when they get really bitten by the bug made me ponder on our experience.

I've had all my guys in some sort of professional program one day a week since they began because I really felt they'd learn much better under the tutelage of someone other than their impatient and profane father. In hindsight I stand firmly by this decision. Being committed to a program also forced us all to go up together which was also helpful to me with so many other things going on. My now 15 year-old had always enjoyed skiing and we had done a lot of it together, and he was a solid skier with a good adventurous spirit.

Two seasons ago he was in the High Adventure program at Crystal and enjoyed it. Last year I enrolled him in the then-fledgling Crystal Freeride Team program. I'm not sure what happened, but that was the turning point for him from being a casual, good skier to becoming a true fanatic for the sport. My younger kids love it too (I think!) but the eldest is off the charts for it. Perhaps just a product of growing up a bit and becoming more self reliant.

At the end of his first day with the freeride team last season he got in the car, looked at me with great big eyes and said breathlessly, "dad, that's what I want to do for the rest of my life! I've never, ever, ever had so much fun". Spending the day (and the subsequent season) being coached and having his limits expanded by regional pro skiers (Grevey, Thompson, DeVore and others - all super great skiers/guys and stoked to work with the kids) probably helped. Good mentors are a beautiful thing, and those guys are so much cooler than dad.

Since that day skiing is all he thinks about. School is still important and he does well enough that the skiing is a fine and not distracting activity. He lives it, breathes it, travels all over the mountain looking for new stashes and airs, and has a group of pals that all can keep up with each other (which can be harder than you'd think when you're a kid that's a good skier), and will be an elder (heh) statesman on the team this year. He spends all his spare time reading about it and watching ski movies. I can't even begin to think of a better thing for a high school freshman to be so involved with, and I can't begin to express how much it warms my cockles to see him so stoked about it.

This is the big payoff for all those years (still going strong!) of managing, schlepping and maintaining 3 kids worth of gear, uncountable expense, wrestling their clothes and boots on and off in the parking lot when they were little, and spending many days skiing at their pace and honestly, sometimes wishing I could just take off on my own. It's worth every minute, grey hair and every dime to hear him as well as my two young racers excitedly recount their day's adventures, breakthroughs and successes to me on the ride home after every day on the hill.

Almost finishing up the season with me 3 almost 4yr old. The last few times out she started to act not so happy.She had no Idea what I was talking about.
After a powder day with the growen ups. I realized that I was maybe over instructing, So I made sure that when speaking on the hill while moving. To mostly say "yahoo"
"wooohooo", "yikers","WoooooWoooo" "ououuouo" "HAHAHA" "zooooma" "ShhhhShhhhhshhhhh" and other real ski words. She had a much better time.

Make them want it. Stop before they get tired and while they are still enjoying it that way only positive memories will remain. Go skiing without them and tell them boldly you are going. Be sure they will demand to go but go without them - it fuels the fire.

I also found getting a ski buddy the same age helps too. Started mine at 3.5 and seemed OK. Would have started earlier but felt 2.5 was too early so stuck with the sled / snowballs that year.

Any fun time on the mountain is a good one no matter what the activity.

Good luck!

This year my daughter (she's 6) she learned to turn under control and has had some great days. Saturday we skied at Baker and she did five charilift runs including two on Chair 5 with basically no assistance other than encouragement and a hand up when she fell, a great accomplishment for her.

I purposely chose only nice mild days this year, I did not want her to think of cold misery toigether with skiing. Time enough for that later. I think she can start really tearing it up next year, and won't be so shy about the weather.

Once she was learning how to turn by herself, I found that a great skill was skiing with a backward snowplow just below her. That allowed me to catch her if she lost speed control, and (really important!) to watch out for speeders coming from above and take evasive or protective action as needed.