My expectations for my daughter’s first skiing attempts were low.
Over the years I had seen enough crying children and frustrated parents scattered across Utah’s slopes to grasp the miseries of teaching a kid to ski. Maybe I should have just put her in a lesson right away. But at least I marched into the breach with my eyes open.
To be honest, things started out better than I could have hoped. But eventually we reached that special parenting moment when one must carry two sets of skis, two pairs of ski boots, backpacks, helmets, water bottles, and 30-plus pounds of flailing child across a parking lot the length of three football fields, while said child leaves a trail of flung winter apparel in one’s wake.
Expect this moment. Embrace the trial. Absorb what it teaches you. Remember it when you want to teach your child to swim, to play a musical instrument or to drive a stick shift.
Then put your kid into lessons.
For the determined, here are some of the steps, techniques and tools we tried.
1. Rental equipment
Success • High
My child had just turned 3 when I got her fitted for gear. The best deal I found was at Utah Ski & Golf, whose Junior Upgrade Program allows kids as small as a typical 2-year-old to take out seasonal rentals and upgrade as they grow, for a one-time payment of $375. That’s good until they outgrow a 140-cm ski — around age 10 to 12.
2. Towing kid on skis over flat snow
Success • Fleeting
I thought she’d get more out of this. I dragged her around a lodge at Solitude for just a few minutes before she saw kids her size skiing down the bunny hill. Then she was determined to join them.
3. Taking the bunny lift
Success • High
After two winters, riding the lift is still her favorite part. As far as she’s concerned, it’s a carnival ride.
4. Holding child’s hands while she skis
Success • Low
She just dangled as dead weight from my husband’s hands while her skis slid around beneath her. Waste of time.
5. Cable connector for child’s ski tips
Success • High
This tool, known as the Edgie Wedgie, is great for an amateur teacher to train a kid to do the “pizza pie,” or snowplow. A cable with clamps on each end keeps the ski tips close together. There are various makes and models out there. It can be hard to tighten the clamp with cold hands, and I had to rescrew my daughter’s after every run. Some use clips rather than screws.
6. Skiing backward in front of child
Success • Moderate
This was recommended in videos I watched about getting kids down a hill. I’d ski backward, facing her. The cable between her skis would rest on my ski binding so I could control her speed, but she would get to control her balance.
It worked! She focused on keeping her body over the skis and rarely reached for my hands.
Unfortunately, this only worked for our first day. After her dad let her ski solo, she never agreed to ski like this again.
7. Ski harness and leash
Success • Fleeting
The harness is a controversial tool because it can be a crutch. But for just the experience of moving downhill on skis, it can be a fun thing to try as a last-run reward.
This worked for my daughter exactly once. She quickly noticed that no other kid had a harness, which prompted some passionate midmountain negotiation over the terms and conditions that allow one to claim the title “Big Girl.”
8. Let ’er rip
Success • Fleeting
On her second day, her dad let her ski solo on the bunny hill. She’d go 10 feet, fall, laugh, get up, repeat. She was proud to ski alone and she never got much speed because she fell so frequently.
The bad news was that her balance improved more quickly than did her appreciation for the need to turn or stop.
9. Magic carpet/conveyer belt
Success • #@(%&$#*+!
The magic carpet is like one of those people-movers at the airport. You skootch onto it and ride a couple dozen yards up a tiny hill. Then you ski down.
I thought this would be great. The one at Solitude is free, so I don’t have to waste a day pass on the bunny lift; it leads to a steep enough slope to get a bit of slide going; and it’s a dead end, with no intimidatingly fast skiers funneled onto it from advanced runs higher on the mountain.
Turns out it’s more fun to ski with fast skiers who know what they’re doing.
Nervous newbies were deposited at the top of the carpet — and then wouldn’t move! Three people stood abreast, like a quivering blood clot, blocking anyone else who tried to get off the moving belt. Their ski tails stretched crosswise over the carpet’s exit. I yelped to let them know we were literally on their heels, with more skiers behind me. Still no movement. I finally grabbed my kid and shoved her up a snowbank as I lunged uphill above them. My edges scraped on the icy bank, and we all went down like dominoes.
Except for my kid.
She had stayed upright and was beelining straight down the slope, toward a fallen snowboarder sprawled at the bottom of the narrow trail. I disentangled myself from the carpet scrum and futilely tried to sprint-ski down to her, screeching “Pizza piiiiiiiieeeee!”
Just above the snowboarder, she veered left — toward the snowy drop-off over the magic carpet. She bonked into a pole and fell over, right in the path of one of the nervous newbies who was now wobbling down the hill and showing no signs of stopping.
Four bodies littered the bottom of the run by the time I dragged my kid away.
Never again, I say. Never again.
10. Lessons
Success • Moderate to high
After the magic carpet debacle, I was done. I signed my kid up for a half-day lesson. This turned out to be mostly set up as babysitting for skier parents, but the kids did get to take a couple of runs down the bunny hill on the arm of an instructor. Be sure to make detailed inquiries about the amount of instruction kids will get when you sign up for lessons or classes.
My daughter’s greatest progress was during a private lesson with a friend of mine who has experience as a ski instructor. I didn’t watch. I don’t know what happened. But after an hour or so, she was skiing the whole bunny hill with control.
So don’t give up hope. Teaching small children to ski is a known skill. If you don’t have it, find someone who does. Just be clear about your goals.
Follow @erinalberty