Finding friends to ski with

[NWSkiGirl]

I'm a single mom who just moved to Portland with my 3 year old girl. My toddler had her first lesson and it went well! But our closest resort is 1 1/2 hours away, and we don't know anyone here yet.

I'd love to hear any ideas you all may have for meeting other parents ski to with!

 

[ExpertOnBlueRuns]

I wish I was in the PNW so we could be ski buddies! I have a 2 year old. I know that Halfdays (the ski wear brand) has a Slack community where they organize local meetups. I definitely saw some in PNW. Also, are there any mom groups in Portland you could join? There’s one in Bend that does a lot of events and meetups.

 

[GladeDuchess]

Your little girl may find them for you! If she is in group lessons with other children, she may just make friends, and you'll get acquainted with the parents of her friends.........who right likely may also ski. : )

Perhaps post some MOTH dates here as well, if you know dates you are heading out, and see if any other Divas with little kiddos are interested in meeting up?

 

[Christy]

Looks like there's some fun sounding Portland-based ski clubs and online groups for women and parents.

Skyiente: Portland's Snow Sports Club for Badass Women

Ski and Board with Kids PNW

Adventure Mamas of Portland

Or join a open-to-all ski club and there is bound to be other parents there.

Club Listing by State — NWSCC

nwskiers.org

 

[marzNC]

When you are in the lodge and someone looks friendly, especially if they have kid(s) about the same age, say "hello" and see what happens. Can be helpful to come up with the "elevator" self-introduction to you and your daughter. Plus an opening question. In recent years, my question when riding the chair with a friendly stranger is something like "How many years have you been skiing here?" or "Did you ski yesterday?"

 

[echo_VT]

I’ll tell you what worked for me — at age 5, we started our girl in a seasonal ski program at a hill that had a great snow sports school. From there these programs feed into the ski race youth programs and the freestyle ski youth programs (moguls/jumps). Many of the parents had multiple kids in both the seasonal for the younger ones and one of the two youth programs. So there’s crossover and there’s also knowledge sharing too… the parents were friendly and would introduce themselves. I eventually did the same when I saw what the culture was.

Additionally, the programs will sometimes have events like seasonal races or holiday celebration such as St Pattys day or the holidays. Or fundraisers and host dinners or host parent races. Potlucks at the lodge after hours. All social events.

then each weekend — When the kids are in the program, we’d see each other and the kids would run to each other to play at the lodge before gearing up and getting ready — and it’s almost like playground parent meetups but in this case it’s ski parents at the lodge. Sometimes when waiting around at pick up We generally talk about skiing or riding and we’ll talk about our levels and if we want to grab a run or two while the kids are in the program together next time and exchange numbers. Some parents worked on laptops inside the lodge, while others skied/rode. Other parents were instructors or race coaches.

The older the kids got they would arrange play dates too over the course of the weekend with friends from their program — and go tubing or hit the pool or we’d have the kids go to each others place after the program and play in the backyard snow.

Once in the youth programs they’d organize even more events like movie nights at the local theater. Parents and race coaches would host drinks apres at their place as well, and there were older teens or young instructors willing to babysit too.

what helped was that our kids were in the same program and at the same time, so the parents were around as well. So it was almost just a matter of time before we connected. It’s smart, it builds a strong community easily and quickly.

 

[NWSkiGirl]

I wish I was in the PNW so we could be ski buddies! I have a 2 year old. I know that Halfdays (the ski wear brand) has a Slack community where they organize local meetups. I definitely saw some in PNW. Also, are there any mom groups in Portland you could join? There’s one in Bend that does a lot of events and meetups.

Thanks for this! :-) Yes it's too far we live to far away

 

[NWSkiGirl]

Looks like there's some fun sounding Portland-based ski clubs and online groups for women and parents.

Skyiente: Portland's Snow Sports Club for Badass Women

Ski and Board with Kids PNW

Adventure Mamas of Portland

Or join a open-to-all ski club and there is bound to be other parents there.

Club Listing by State — NWSCC

nwskiers.org

Oh, thanks for this! I didn't know about any of them.

 

[NWSkiGirl]

Your little girl may find them for you! If she is in group lessons with other children, she may just make friends, and you'll get acquainted with the parents of her friends.........who right likely may also ski. : )

Perhaps post some MOTH dates here as well, if you know dates you are heading out, and see if any other Divas with little kiddos are interested in meeting up?

I think she was overwhelmed during her lesson because she didn't even remember later there was a teacher and another student! haha But in general she's very social, so I'm sure this will happen.

Good idea!

 

[NWSkiGirl]

When you are in the lodge and someone looks friendly, especially if they have kid(s) about the same age, say "hello" and see what happens. Can be helpful to come up with the "elevator" self-introduction to you and your daughter. Plus an opening question. In recent years, my question when riding the chair with a friendly stranger is something like "How many years have you been skiing here?" or "Did you ski yesterday?"

We'll do this! I realize now that someone tried to do this with us, but we were so immersed in boot fitting and getting to the lesson I didn't really respond. It wasn't until we went for pizza on the way down the mountain that I realized as happy as I was, we were all alone!

 

[NWSkiGirl]

I’ll tell you what worked for me — at age 5, we started our girl in a seasonal ski program at a hill that had a great snow sports school. From there these programs feed into the ski race youth programs and the freestyle ski youth programs (moguls/jumps). Many of the parents had multiple kids in both the seasonal for the younger ones and one of the two youth programs. So there’s crossover and there’s also knowledge sharing too… the parents were friendly and would introduce themselves. I eventually did the same when I saw what the culture was.

Additionally, the programs will sometimes have events like seasonal races or holiday celebration such as St Pattys day or the holidays. Or fundraisers and host dinners or host parent races. Potlucks at the lodge after hours. All social events.

then each weekend — When the kids are in the program, we’d see each other and the kids would run to each other to play at the lodge before gearing up and getting ready — and it’s almost like playground parent meetups but in this case it’s ski parents at the lodge. Sometimes when waiting around at pick up We generally talk about skiing or riding and we’ll talk about our levels and if we want to grab a run or two while the kids are in the program together next time and exchange numbers. Some parents worked on laptops inside the lodge, while others skied/rode. Other parents were instructors or race coaches.

The older the kids got they would arrange play dates too over the course of the weekend with friends from their program — and go tubing or hit the pool or we’d have the kids go to each others place after the program and play in the backyard snow.

Once in the youth programs they’d organize even more events like movie nights at the local theater. Parents and race coaches would host drinks apres at their place as well, and there were older teens or young instructors willing to babysit too.

what helped was that our kids were in the same program and at the same time, so the parents were around as well. So it was almost just a matter of time before we connected. It’s smart, it builds a strong community easily and quickly.

I'd love to do this! Especially since we can go every weekend and the only barrier would be the drive. We could carpool with other kiddos or maybe even stay on the mountain with another family

 

[marzNC]

We'll do this! I realize now that someone tried to do this with us, but we were so immersed in boot fitting and getting to the lesson I didn't really respond. It wasn't until we went for pizza on the way down the mountain that I realized as happy as I was, we were all alone!

If you are busy, could be enough to respond with a smile and eye contact at the moment. Another parent or grandparent will recognize when it's a good time to chat.

 

[NWSkiGirl]

If you are busy, could be enough to respond with a smile and eye contact at the moment. Another parent or grandparent will recognize when it's a good time to chat.

Oh I did actually respond, because the girl came up with her mom and talked to us. She said she'd come over and say hi during the lesson. I said great, but my mind was elsewhere. Next time I'll be more engaged! :-)