Trip Take: Stratton
I’ve always found the regional ski wars a little silly. Easterners extol their local peaks and the gritty skills their mountains teach, while western devotees singing the praises of powder and 12,000-foot summits. Which is “better”? Who has ultimate bragging rights? My take: who cares? The reality is that skiing in the East is just DIFFERENT than skiing out west. There’s no question that western snow is easier to ski and more reliable, but northeastern skiing has its virtues.
Trip Take: Winter Park
We consider signing our kids up for lessons every time we take a trip. Z still needs the confidence to stay parallel on the steeps, and H needs to ski with kids more capable than his sister so he can be challenged and seek out real adventure. When we made the shift to Winter Park for the holiday weekend, we discovered that all-day group lessons were available for kids of all abilities, and conveniently, all lessons depart from the same base area. The terrain at Winter Park is varied and interesting, and lessons were $70 less expensive than group offerings at Sun Valley had been. We were sold.
Big Mountain Adventures: Vail
With our kids now confident on skis, we were ready to explore the bigger mountains out west. Choosing somewhere familiar for the kids’ first venture west made the most sense. Having lived in Vail in the early 00's, I was comfortable with the town and the mountain. In hindsight, our decision to pick a place we knew well was a smart one: it allowed us to focus on the skiing.
All-In!
Planning for the 2020-21 ski season wasn’t easy. The mountains were forced to deal with constantly shifting local and state restrictions and fluctuating infection rates, so information (especially related to ski lesson costs and details) was vague and late coming. We had to accept early on that of our plans could be interrupted by Covid at any time. How did we make it work? Read on!
Introducing Kids to Skiing: Top Tips
Ready to get your kids skiing? Base Kamp offers our top five tips for getting started on the snow. Use local mountains, rental gear, and ski lessons to make the most of your early ski experiences and ensure the whole family is eager to return.