Where did you learn to ski?

[skibum4ever]

I had forgotten about Gray Rocks.

Before our first trip to CO, we spent a week at Gray Rocks. That was probably our third real winter of skiing.

I recall that there was virtually no snow in the east and we wondered if we would have to cancel the Gray Rocks trip, but they had a nice manmade base.

The week of lessons really prepared us for skiing in Colorado. We drove from NYC, skied at Vail, then continued on to a week at Aspen. Aspen was a little tough for us and very scary, since it seemed we were the slowest skiers on the mountain. For some reason we did not ski Buttermilk, but did enjoy parts of Snowmass and Aspen Highlands.

 

[DobeMom]

Mammoth!!!

Hi, Barbara!

 

[skibum4ever]

Hi, DobeMom.

Can't think of anyplace better to learn to ski.

See you at Mammoth in a couple of months.

 

[Soujan]

My first time skiing was 3 years ago at Shawnee in PA. I took a lesson and felt confident that I could ski the bunny hill. I got to the top of the bunny hill and kept telling myself, "I can do this." I proceeded down and after maybe going 40 feet I yelled out, "AHHH too fast" and threw myself to the ground. After I dusted myself off, I got the rest of the way down where I met up with my friend who then proceeded to say, "Let's go to the green." I responded, "WHAT?!"

 

[MissySki]

Wachusett Mountain.. I still cannot believe how intimidated I was here when I first started out!

 

[MaineSkiLady]

Wisconsin, 74-75 season. A sport that had been on my must-do radar since, like canski, 64-65. But took me 10 years to actually get around to it (i.e., grow up, financially independent, parents were not winter fans). Love at first turn, and then some. A storied tale that's been told here? Instructor and student tie the knot, ‘75.

Our possibly singular claim to fame (besides getting and staying married for 36 years)? Never having missed a season since starting this sport. That boils down to #46 pending for DH, #37 for me. After having a near-xmas baby, was all I could do to hold off for 35 days. Then was back out there. With (skier>yay - he got it) doctor’s blessing!

 

[mountaingal]

Well, since I don't see anyone else who has mentioned where I learned.... Beech Mountain Resort (at the time it was known as "Ski Beech") in North Carolina, 1983. 15 trails and a whopping 95 acres covered mostly in ice! But we had a blast. My Dad, who wasn't exactly an expert, gave me a few pointers, took me to the top of the longest green run they had and pointed me downhill! I caught on eventually, but stopped going when I was in college.

Fast forward to 2004, and I get transferred to Colorado. My first trip there was to Steamboat, after a major powder dump. I couldn't believe the difference! Now skiing at Tahoe and couldn't be happier!

Thanks for the topic....it brought back great memories of family trips....and a few bruises!

 

[Ski Bunny in Training]

I learned to ski at Boyne Highlands in Harbor Springs, MI. I don't remember exactly how old I was, in the neighborhood of 6 or 7. My aunt taught me, my brother, and my mom that year. The trail was Camelot. We started out on a little rope tow they used to have there before we graduated to the chair lift and got to go all the way up to the top of the hill. My parents still ski but she was never nearly as good as my brother and I were, that always bothered her.

I took my daughter, now 5, out for the first time when she was about18 months old. She couldn't do more than hang out between my legs as I snowplowed down the hill. As a matter of fact it was the same hill I learned on, Camelot at Boyne Highlands. Anyway, she couldn't even stand up on the skis yet but when we got to the bottom of the hill she just started screaming "I ski!! I ski!!" We got her hooked early. We took her out a couple times over the next few years but her training didn't really begin in earnest until last year. We did put her in a harness, ok it was really just a rope we tied a loop into but still, so she couldn't go bombing on down the hill before she could control her speed. Ski season starts around Thanksgiving around here and by Christmas my uncle, who I believe was actually a ski instructor for a few years, said she was ready to come off the harness. By the time the season ended in late March she was carving her turns down the black diamonds at the resort. She isn't skiing parallel yet but she controls her speed really well and is carving her turns.

 

[braveskimom]

Powderhorn, Colorado. 1968. I just turned 3 and my dad was a ski instructor there. I fell of the poma platter lift continuously. So happy when I graduated to a chairlift! Little ones today (and us, their parents) don't realize how wonderful magic carpets are!

 

[skihub]

I learned to ski at Bintz's (now Apple Mountain) in Freeland, MI. I started in 4th grade and then went on to race there in high school. It was really a social thing at first but I grew to love skiing more than any of my friends. This proves you can learn the to love the sport anywhere! It was all rope tows then - 10 hills - 220 foot vertical drop!! Ha ha!! Fun times. Great place to learn.

 

[snowdrift]

Learned to ski at Sundown in Dubuque, Iowa! My first "real" mountain skiing was at Keystone in CO. I'll never forget the drive from Denver...so beautiful!

 

[marzNC]

Well, since I don't see anyone else who has mentioned where I learned.... Beech Mountain Resort (at the time it was known as "Ski Beech") in North Carolina, 1983. 15 trails and a whopping 95 acres covered mostly in ice! But we had a blast. My Dad, who wasn't exactly an expert, gave me a few pointers, took me to the top of the longest green run they had and pointed me downhill! I caught on eventually, but stopped going when I was in college.

Beech is still going strong. Not where I learned but where I discovered after 10 years of not skiing that I still could have a great time on intermediate runs.

My first time on skis was in 7th grade at a boarding school near Lake Placid. There was enough snow in early Nov to allow skiing on the "lake hill" for those willing to hike up after skiing down perhaps 30 yards. Once someone helped me learn to snowplow to turn and stop on straight skis with bear trap metal bindings, I kept on going for a couple hours. Sooo sore the next day. Was skiing every day a few weeks later when the rope tow got going on the school's ski hill.

 

[joycemocha]

Timberline, night skiing, 2006. It was a year with ice a couple of nights, unfortunately one of those nights was when I ventured off the bunny slope and got a serious fear complex about one run.

I totally own that run now. It's one of my favorites for warming up.

 

[segacs]

My first time on skis was in the parking lot of Stowe, VT, when I was six years old. I was using the borrowed skis of a friend of the family, and never made it out of the parking lot that day.

The following winter, my folks bought us season's passes and signed us up for ski school at Morin-Heights. We skied there as a family for the next several seasons, and even rented a country house for a couple of seasons. My sister and I both learned on those old-style chair lifts that didn't detach and were death-defying for beginners (remember, this was the 80s). I still remember some of those runs pretty clearly. It was a small hill but it felt huge to my seven-year-old self.

We skied Morin-Heights until my sister and I were teenagers and had too many other weekend commitments to make season's passes worthwhile. After that, we pretty much just got in the habit of driving up to different hills in the area whenever there was some free time and a good snowfall.

 

[marymack]

Last season I signed up for a lesson package at Nashoba Valley in Westford, MA and went each week for my 1 hour lesson on wednesday nights. I would also ski up at Mt. Sunapee (Newbury, NH) on the weekends and when I had a free day (how I will miss college life this winter!). I'd say I learned the technical aspects of skiing at Nashoba (which is good little mountain, I'd say I ended up with a private or semi-private lesson more often than actual group lessons). But I actually "figured out" skiing by doing laps at Sunapee.

 

[segacs]

A few years later, we graduated to a small Laurentian Ski hill called Mt. Christie, where they had a whopping two T-bars!
It was all wonderful.

Wow, Mont Christie! I very vaguely remember that. Very early ski experience. I think I was about six years old when my dad took me there.

I think I heard that the land has been sold for real estate development now. Kinda sad.

 

[marzNC]

 

[Dtrick924]

Nashoba Valley, Westford, MA (had my first lessons at 8 years old) and Wachusett Mountain, Princeton, MA (my elementary school ski program had their lessons for grades 3-8).

 

[Jenny]

Don't think I've posted in here yet - Caberfae, near Cadillac, Michigan. Tow rope, jeans, cold and miserable. Made my friends go away so I wasn't holding them back and then they'd yell things at me from the lift, like I could pay attention to what I was doing and them at the same time! At least I didn't fall down when they yelled, like those fainting goats do.

 

[mustski]

I don't think I have posted here either. Mine wasn't one "where" though. I joined the "Rod Roy ski club" in Montreal in 1973 and went wherever they took us, morning lessons included. I skied with the club for 4 years - the Laurentians and Eastern Townships in Quebec, and also Stowe (? I think ), Jay Peak, and Smuggs in Vermont. On our own time, my friends and I practiced at St. Sauveur. It was very cold and I ditched morning lessons quite often because it was too icy.