I grew up skiing, we’d go to the Pocono’s, then to Vermont, then out west. I learned to ski with friends early on, I skied a year or so with my school on Friday nights (or maybe Wednesday, I was young, I don’t remember), I skied a lot with my sister and Dad, then as I got to college, I have some amazing memories skiing with Friends again. Having largely grown up outside the mountains skiing is an oddly large part of my memories and growing up. We’ve wanted to get the kids to ski for a while, but it’s always been a challenge.

Kids

Kids are funny, some things are really challenging, you think they should be fun and easy, at least that’s the way you remember in your head, and you just assume they should love and jump right into it. Rarely does it work that way though. Most of our past efforts to get them to ski have resulted in a sore back, them seemingly not really learning anything, and maybe even saying how much they don’t like skiing.

Lizzie took a lesson or two over the years, Chris has always been too young for lessons and I for some reason didn’t feel like I was in a good place to teach him. Although, looking back I think I was just unsure about “where” to do it on the mountain and how to start small while balancing the cost of basically paying for a full lift ticket so I could just walk around the magic carpet and not ski. But, at that point he’s free so you kind of have to look at that as the cost of the lesson and the cost of playing. Skiing isn’t cheap, no matter how you cut it.

This Year

This year though, we decided we were going to put in a real effort to get the family skiing. Katie found a cool after school program at Cataloochee that is weekly ski school on Tuesday evenings. Weekly is a lot, but the the cost wasn’t bad and if they’re going to learn this seemed like a great way to do it. It would push us to get up there more frequently and not stay too long, for attention span reasons. Chris is still too young, but I was coming to grips with teaching him on my own for now.

Getting up to Cataloochee weekly hasn’t always been the easiest and it does seem to throw off a lot of the week. Tuesday becomes a cramped rushed day in a hurry. It’s been worth it though. The kids now seem to really enjoy skiing, they look forward to it, they are learning so quickly. There is some level of resiliency that’s been tough in the past. They want to try new runs, they want to keep going, it’s a lot of fun to watch and be a part of.

Adults

Katie on the other hand didn’t grow up skiing or doing much in the way of board sports or skating, or things like that. She’s learning along with the kids, but the difference between learning something new as an adult vs learning as a kid is tough. As an adult you’re so much more in your head and the what ifs or fear of falling are so high. I think the consistency this year has made a big difference but it’s still hard to keep up with those hard charging kids. She’s working hard at it and hopefully having fun along the way. I want so bad to just magically have her know how to do it.

Skiing in the southeast is tough, skiing is expensive, and really doesn’t make a lot of sense to teach but it has a place in so many of my memories growing up that it’s hard for me not to want to share it. Also, I’m having so much fun watching them learn and grow that it’s amazing.

Less Glamorous

Fast forward to our last ski day of the season…weather wasn’t looking good, warm rain. I started feeling sick the day before. Then, the day of, the school called to let Katie know Lizzie had the same symptoms I was having. But…we felt like if we didn’t go today, that we might not make it back, or they might not even have snow much longer.

So, we went for it. Maybe not the best move? The conditions weren’t great, honestly, they were bad. So little snow, windy, spitting rain half the time. We did a few runs, had our treat of eating at the lodge, it was going ok. Then Lizzie suddenly started with this I don’t feel well, and I don’t want to do my lesson thing. She wouldn’t listen to me, so Chris and I did a few runs, which was great.

Katie did get lizzie back outside. She looked like she was having fun. We got together as a family, did one lift ride up all together…which turned into a debacle on the exit where Katie got to ride the lift back down. Shortly thereafter Chris lost his mind when I wouldn’t let him ride the lift alone with Lizzie (he’s 5…). It was raining at this point, and I had to carry him off the mountain kicking and screaming yelling put me down…Way to end what was such a great ski season!

Such is life? Still a great year. So much learned, so much fun had, Looking forward to next year already.