Reduction in women skiers -- why?

[abc]

That doesn't explain gender or age though. I know a lot of the people we used to see regularly skiing would say they had just "given up" for a while these past two seasons. Even my husband was pretty unmotivated this year, which was a first.

Without seeing the more specific data in that "report", we're merely speculating on the reported "drop" of participation. In all likelihood, it could be women in their 40' and 50's has been dropping out of skiing all along and last year was just a bit bigger than before.

Don't forget, the last of the baby boomers had just gone past 50. Basically, the largest population group had just aged past the age range in question! That alone, may account for the entire "drop" altogether!

 

[CMCM]

Hmm, well I don't know if I've observed this...not on the slopes, anyway. I see lots of women skiers, especially in the above 50 category. I got serious about skiing in my early 50's, and now at 63 I'm very passionate about it. BUT....I'm careful, no crazy stuff for me, I just like to cruise on groomers mostly. I'm not into challenging myself with the steeps or any of that, and I'm choosy about my ski days. If the snow is lousy, I tend to lose interest and don't want to risk injury. I still try to ski as much as I can, though....my record is somewhere around 50x per season, although the last couple of years weren't that good.

 

[ski diva]

Okay, so let's presume that the figures are right -- that women in their 40s and 50s are dropping out. What do you think it'd take to either keep them skiing or lure them back?

 

[marzNC]

Okay, so let's presume that the figures are right -- that women in their 40s and 50s are dropping out. What do you think it'd take to either keep them skiing or lure them back?

I wonder if ski clinics that also included something else would lure a woman who hasn't skied in a while back to the slopes? Alta Lodge has yoga together with one of their clinics for women. Another approach is to have a 4-5 day clinic but leave an open day in the middle for shopping or sightseeing or whatever. Provide transportation for something fun off the slopes on the open day. But of course the trick is how to market to a group that is not paying attention to the sport any more.

Any idea how successful the local women's clinics are in areas with bigger ski resorts? Meaning the multi-week type. What age group tends to participate?

 

[altagirl]

I've gone to a day yoga/meditation retreat at Snowbird during ski season that didn't involve any skiing - other than doing yoga while watching people ski out the windows of the Cliff Lodge. My husband was horrified ("you know your'e going to miss a powder day!"), but it turned out to be a day where it was sunny and the temps were like -15F so there were like a dozen people actually skiing. Beautiful to look at, glad to be indoors. And then we had spa access, so we went and sat in the hot tub on the roof and warmed up in the eucalyptus steam room. It was actually really fun - and cheap enough that I would go to that regularly. And I'd go to a half day yoga thing too where there was time to ski during the day. I don't think I'd want to do a ski clinic associated with it, because the skillset would seem way too varied, but maybe if it was set up with an optional lesson package or something - that would make sense. They could turn the 1 day yoga thing into a two day yoga thing with half of each day skiing and lodging optional for locals who don't need it and I'd totally do that.

Most of the full-on yoga and skiing retreats that I've seen tend to be way too $$$$$ for me - there is/was a Kristen Ulmer one at Alta but the price was insane. There was one I registered for that was early season and therefore reasonable, but it ended up being cancelled (I think we weren't getting the snow you'd expect). And I know they advertise things like that at the yoga studio I go to, so you could definitely get the attention of people doing yoga regularly anyway.

On the other hand, I know people who are "serious" about whatever sport get all grumpy about clinics that include pampering/yoga/etc. because they want to spend all their time and energy on the sport - which is understandable, but there is certainly room for both types of events IMHO.

And I will say that the age group of the yoga/meditation thing I did at Snowbird varied a bit but it was mostly women, and mostly 30-60 in age range.

Maybe what they should do is offer a series of sunrise yoga classes up at the resort that would get you up there and then allow either spa access or skiing all day. Or maybe I'm the only nut who would think getting up even earlier sounds fun... haha.

 

[Christy]

Okay, so let's presume that the figures are right -- that women in their 40s and 50s are dropping out. What do you think it'd take to either keep them skiing or lure them back?​

It seems like you need to nail down the reason first. If it's because they are too busy with kids, that's hard. Again using my SILs as examples, they couldn't even manage running, which doesn't take gear, driving, a full day, etc etc, plus the $$$. It's pretty easy to see how something as time consuming and pricey as skiing can fall by the wayside when you are already over extended. (Sometimes after a long work week I think ugh, do I really want to get up early, get all my gear together, drive in bad weather, etc? I can't imagine if I had to be responsible for kids doing this, too). Maybe the trick is to get the sport to capture the kids, to get them to want ski rather than play the other sports that they do in the winter and early spring.

If, in fact, that's a reason why women might drop out.

 

[abc]

It seems like you need to nail down the reason first. If it's because they are too busy with kids, that's hard. Again using my SILs as examples, they couldn't even manage running, which doesn't take gear, driving, a full day, etc etc, plus the $$$. It's pretty easy to see how something as time consuming and pricey as skiing can fall by the wayside when you are already over extended. (Sometimes after a long work week I think ugh, do I really want to get up early, get all my gear together, drive in bad weather, etc? I can't imagine if I had to be responsible for kids doing this, too). Maybe the trick is to get the sport to capture the kids, to get them to want ski rather than play the other sports that they do in the winter and early spring.

If, in fact, that's a reason why women might drop out.

That pretty much nailed it!

Without knowing how much is the so-called "drop", much less the reason behind it, we're just talking out of thin air.

You can always try some stuff to attract a specific group. But that's not the same as targeting a group that's known to have drop out for a certain reasons. Sure, we're in the off-season and have all the time in the world to speculate on that. But it's pretty useless discussion. No more useful than if I go get a 6-pack and type something after I finish them all...

 

[Lilywhite]

For some of my European GFs it's a case of when the kids stop they have no one to ski with. As we Brits are far more likely to take a weeks skiing at a time rather than a day a week or whatever it can be daunting holidaying alone or joining a group of strangers. Last year I teamed up with a like minded woman off of another ski site and had a great time but not everyone has the confidence to do that. There are a few singles specialists that match you up with other singles but they tend to be very pricey top end holidays and again the less confident might be daunted by the unknown.

 

[marzNC]

Came across this blog by a woman who started skiing at 40 with the help of a Ladies only weekly lessons at Sundance in Utah. Her husband skis and her kids were learning. Sounds like without the special program, she would not have had the nerve to persevere into the second season when skiing became fun.

https://www.themompodcast.com/sundanceladies/

 

[MaineSkiLady]

I’ll throw out some random thoughts on this – which actually have been mentioned, primarily by altagirl: pain.

This can be a pivotal decade in women’s lives for many reasons: critical junctures in terms of family and career obligations, both of which make even the thought of injury and being laid up onerous and scary. In considering that delicate balance scale which weighs risks versus enjoyment, the choice for many, it seems: not worth it.

Bodies change. The big laugh (although it’s not really funny) is that there comes a point in time when it’s not whether one hurts - it’s *where* and *how bad*. One’s commitment to and love of the sport has to be way up there to overshadow this regrettable phenomenon.

And there are, of course, *Those Other Changes*....
It can be a discouraging time of life for ANY athletic endeavor - and all the more discouraging to a regulation recreational skier.

Toss in the enormous cost and hassle of travel, and I think there’s a veritable Perfect Storm for significant drops in participation.

Those who actually weather this life phase and refuse to get discouraged are probably good for the super-long haul where skiing is concerned.

 

[Pequenita]

Okay, so let's presume that the figures are right -- that women in their 40s and 50s are dropping out. What do you think it'd take to either keep them skiing or lure them back?

More time in the day and making it more convenient. Which is kind of the answer to almost anything... (really, I'm not trying to be facetious).

Here's another anecdotal possible explanation for the dropoff, dovetailing off of MSL's last sentence: I know women who were in ski houses in their 20s and 30s who did it as a social thing. Then they meet their spouses and stop skiing because it was a social thing to begin with, not a hobby, whereas the spouses still make an effort to get out there.


Where's your panel?

 

[pinto]

...Where's your panel?

And why aren't they interviewing the ones who quit, rather than the ones posting on a ski forum during summer? ;) Seems like that would make for better info; we are insane, and just guessing about the normal ones.

 

[Jilly]

I think a lot of the reasons have been mentioned. Time, family commitments, age, injury etc.

How to get them back?......One of the reasons I like to teach "Ladies Night". I want to get them out of the lodge and back on the hill. I think more events for women only. I don't know of any clinics in eastern Canada like the ones in the States or Roxy at WB. I think some of those with goodies bags and/or spa's, yoga, wine tastings, whatever would draw. This pass year Tremblant ran a women's clinic for snowboard. Now there weren't too many older participants, but that could be because of snowboard, not ski. But it was full. I would be interested if they ran it with skiing instead.

 

[SkiNurse]

Is that a change from previous years? Anecdotally, that's when my friends quit skiing.

As for why, my thought is that a lot never loved it anyway and went in order to take the family. In your mid-40s, often your kids are old enough to go on their own, or at least ski by themselves, and any women who were skiing only out of duty feel free to stop.

I think fear is part of it, too, as your body doesn't bounce like it used to.

I have several friends that either have decreased the amount of skiing they do or have quite altogether for pretty much the same reasons listed by Pinto. Others stopped skiing until their kiddos were old enough to take and teach to ski. Now it is good family ski time. Interesting enough, the friends that quit completely, even their significant others weren't that into the sport either. The friends that went back when kids were old enough, they were more into the sport than their husbands.

PS: Happy that I still have Pinto to ski with....I don't think we're going to quite ANYTIME soon!

 

[pinto]

Cheers!

And also ... I know this was sort of mentioned already, but to put it all together, kids also become involved in other sports, or school functions, or jobs, or whatever as they get older, and often it's THEM who have to quit (or lower) skiing for a while, and then mom doesn't like to go alone. Again, this would seem to relate to a drop in the numbers in a different age group as well, but that might be offset by a corresponding increase in older kids who do not have skiing parents but start skiing during that same age range. If that makes ANY sense at all.

 

[altagirl]

I do think that advertising other things to do while you're there helps. I know when I was at the peak of knee pain issues, I might only be able to ski 3 runs or so and would be in too much pain to continue. If I drove up there with my husband - that means I'm sitting in the lodge for hours and hours waiting by myself - which when this was a new development for me generally meant sitting there trying not to cry because I wanted to ski and felt like a loser. These days I'm better at planning for this and will go for a walk or drive separately or bring plenty of books or whatever. It's not that far for me to drive separately, but I know that's not the case for most people. But I can't be the only person who has been stuck at a resort like Alta that doesn't really have anything else to do but ski when they've discovered they can't ski as long as the people they went with.

 

[AustinSkier]

Also, re: ages - I have been surveyed at a few Vail Resorts; a friend of mine even won a pair of skis for participating in the survey. But they seem to walk up to individuals, rather than going through the line, so I doubt it's a scientifically distributed sample of the population. Season passes are a great source of data, but yeah, a drop in season pass membership is not the same as a drop in skiing days.

If I can go online and see how many days I've skied on my pass and where, you can bet the resort can see mine and everyone else's! Big brother ski resort is certainly watching its pass-holders!

 

[AustinSkier]

Lets talk about pricing issues -

At a rate in excess of $100/day for a lift ticket, a person working a minimum wage job would have to work over 12 hours to earn enough for a window rate lift ticket. Add equipment, travel and everything else that goes with a day of skiing, one is looking at several days of work at minimum wage to earn enough for a single day of skiing. These equations certainly don't make my adult children viable candidates to accompany me on a a ski trip unless I pick up the tab.

A large number of divorced women in their 50's (and beyond) were in that vanguard of women who entered the workforce in the 1970's and 80's. We earned then, and still earn now, about $.72 for every dollar a man earns employed in a similar capacity. Many divorced women in this cohort simply do not have the means to sustain a ski habit and support themselves. I know lots of women who would love to ski, but just cannot afford it.

If you look at the migration patterns in the US over the last several decades, places lacking ready access to skiing, like Texas, experienced significant population growth. Presumably, many women who once skied now reside in those southern climates. This just makes the economics of skiing for these women even more daunting because the travel costs have to be factored in.

If the ski resorts are serious about attracting women, they need to consider the economic realities for women. Just my two cents.

 

[Lilywhite]

Lets talk about pricing issues -

At a rate in excess of $100/day for a lift ticket, a person working a minimum wage job would have to work over 12 hours to earn enough for a window rate lift ticket. Add equipment, travel and everything else that goes with a day of skiing, one is looking at several days of work at minimum wage to earn enough for a single day of skiing. These equations certainly don't make my adult children viable candidates to accompany me on a a ski trip unless I pick up the tab.

A large number of divorced women in their 50's (and beyond) were in that vanguard of women who entered the workforce in the 1970's and 80's. We earned then, and still earn now, about $.72 for every dollar a man earns employed in a similar capacity. Many divorced women in this cohort simply do not have the means to sustain a ski habit and support themselves. I know lots of women who would love to ski, but just cannot afford it.

If you look at the migration patterns in the US over the last several decades, places lacking ready access to skiing, like Texas, experienced significant population growth. Presumably, many women who once skied now reside in those southern climates. This just makes the economics of skiing for these women even more daunting because the travel costs have to be factored in.

If the ski resorts are serious about attracting women, they need to consider the economic realities for women. Just my two cents.

Yup it eats money for sure.

 

[mustski]

Add kids to the mix and the price goes way up. Even though a lot of mountains offer "kids under ______" ski free with parents, there is the cost of equipment and clothing. Kids are an big expense to start with, add in ski costs and you will find that families are probably choosing less expensive vacation options. Years ago, Snow Valley had a lift ticket that included a certain number of runs. The pass was good all winter until you used up that number of runs. I loved that pass when my son was little because (although he skied free), I didn't lose my money if he had a bad day and wanted to quit after an hour.