How did you start skiing?

[ski diva]

It was 1968, and I had a hot pink ski jacket with a groovy, psychodelic pattern. I was 13 years old, and my parents took me to a small resort in the Catskills (New York) for the weekend. I spent two or three days being (literally) dragged up a bunny hill by a rope tow and falling on the way down (and come to think of it, on the way up, too). I remember crying quite a bit. I hated it. But my sister was better at it than I was, and I wanted to beat her at something, just this once.

After that, my dad started taking us to various ski areas throughout the northeast. I started taking lessons, and eventually, I stopped crying and starting smiling. I was hooked.

The rest, as they say, is history.

 

[SnowHot]

Oh my word! looking back on it, I can hardly believe that my husband kept dating me after my first ski attempt.
I was 18, on terrible rental equipment. That miserable tow rope, an impatient boyfriend, with little for teaching skills, and a bunny hill filled with kids half my age.
I had a few panic attacks(the description of said panic attacks is not necessary, and will only serve to embarass me), but my boyfriend kept yelling "snowplow, snowplow!" Eventually I stopped, waaaaay beyond the rope tow, made my way back UP the slight grade to get back on the rope and do it all over again.
We decided that our relationship had a better chance if I were to practice on the bunny hill while he went off with his ski buddies. After several trips to the hill, skiing separatley, and many tips from kind ski patrollers, I made my way to the "boyz hill" and THEY(boyfriend and buddies) were shocked!
I had gone frome to :D
I still skied one run to their two, but I was all grins!

(I still can't believe he didn't dump me after that first ski experience!)

 

[ISki]

At 2 1/2, at Killington, my Dad had me stand on the front of his skis and he held me while skiing a very gentle slope. At 3 I got skis and first skied our backyard hill. Then I skied at Fahnstock, a tiny local NY hill, now extinct. It had 2 or 3 trails, a poma lift and a very scary ropetow. My parents, originally from Europe, both love to ski. They eventually bought a tiny hunter's cabin in Southern Vermont and for the next 12-15 years, until college, we skied Mt. Snow every weekend. We never ever ever missed a weekend. Every winter weekend we went skiing, no arguments allowed. I was put into ski school all the time when I was young.

I was a terrible ingrateful brat sometimes about all this skiing, but now I am really really grateful.

 

[Jilly]

I started at 5. My parents were looking for a sport that we all could do as a family. Since I was an only child, skiing looked better than figure skating. Its the early 60's and a family friend was teaching a Snow Valley outside of Barrie Ontario. Like our SkiDiva, spent most of the weekend on my butt. Next year they opened a local club around Belleville, called Oak Hills (now gone like most small ontario hills). Lessons were included in your membership. I don't know how many ski jackets I went through on that rope tow. Eventually Mom but a leather patch on the left side of my jacket and I had to use that coat at Oak Hills. I got a new jacket to use if we went to Snow Ridge (NY). I skied all through school and even during university. So it been almost 45 years gals. I've seen alot of changes. Bear trap bindings with your snow boots, to the plates bindings and the safest stuff we have now. Also clothing has changed too. Gore-tex fabrics, fleece, not wool. The best thing I did was getting my level 2 CSIA instructors card in 1984. 2005 I took the 3 course, but knew I wasn't ready for the exams. Maybe this year!

 

[tcarey]

I startedat about the age of 12.My parents bought my sister and I skis for Christmas. My sister bought hers back and I went on some kind of overnight learn to ski trip.I picked it up really fast and couldn't wait to go again.Never really went alot until my upper twenties when my son started skiing. Then we went every weekend to Mt Snow for several years.One day I went to Okemo and I took a lesson. I asked the instructor how you got to be an instructor.He told me that they held a hiring clinic in the spring.Well I signed up(all for free mind you)we went out with one of the supervisors and skied our butts of alll day.Did some silly teaching examples and did alot of laughing.At the end of the day we were all(about 10-12 of us)waiting to see if we would get hired! They hired us all! Best darn thing I ever did!

Terry

 

[Lilgeorg]

Okay, you asked for it. I started at the age of 45! My daughter, Lola, married this guy named Phil. Phil had been skiing for many years where as no one in our family skiied. My youngest daughter had just dropped out of gymnastics and was looking for a replacement sport. Phil suggested skiing. she took to it right away and with Phil's help encouraged my husband and I to give it a try. We started out on the bunny hill at a little placed called Doe Mt. in Pa. We did ok but since it was already late March that concluded the year's adventure.

The following summer I got a call from Phil. "Mom, Lola and I would like to invite you and Jim on a ski vacation with us next January." Wow my married daughter and her husband are inviting us on vacation. Great I said, but you must let us pay half the cost. Sure says Phil, your half is $$$.

A month goes by. Phil calls. "I was thinking it would be cheaper for you and
Jim to buy equipment then to rent for a week. How about coming up and we will just check prices and then you can take us out to dinner?"

We went. We walked out of Nestors ski shop with boots bindings, skis,poles, and against Phil's advice...ski totes. AND WE BOUGHT DINNER.

Another month goes by and we get a call from guess who. "Well, there was a problem with our condo reservation" Oh no, we just bought all that equipment!! "Not to worry ," says Phil "I booked us slope side you only need to pay $$$ more."

We got to Mt. Snow ,Vt and took lessons for 5 days. And Phil was right. We have loved the sport ever since. We credit Phil with keeping us active in our old age and for causing us to buy our retirement home in Vermont. The entire family skis now and it has been a wonderful way to share the outdoors with our children and grandchildren

 

[SnowHot]

Lil, I was just about to post about the young age everyone learned to ski. And then you posted this totally cool story. It is definitely a great thing to take up a new sport as an adult.

First of all COOL AVATAR!

Second, I want to be you when I retire!

Third, I hope you can make it to Stowe for a bit of skiing when I'm up there. I think you'd be a ton of fun!

 

[liquidfeet]

When I was a senior in college in North Carolina a thousand years ago, there was a big blizzard to our west and one of my profs cancelled his next day's classes to go skiing at some place in the mountains two hours away. He invited us to go with him if we wanted to, so two friends and I took him up on it.

I rented gear that day and skied alone without lessons. This must have been in 1972. I loved it. I sang as I went down the slopes. I fell. I flew. I laughed out loud. This was the best thing I'd ever experienced. I went one more time that year (both of these were day trips, mind you), skied on my own again, and decided that after graduation I wanted to be a ski instructor forever. I went up to the mountain in the spring to one of those ski instructor-to-be meetings, and came back to school with a job offer but really scared. We had watched Warren Miller movies, which blew my mind, and everyone there REALLY knew how to ski (not like me after only two days)! I took out some books from the library, read all about stem christies and garlands, and realized I knew nothing about skiing. I turned my attention to getting a job that I could actually do that would put a roof over my head, and that was it for about 30 years while I moved around parts of the country far from ski mountains.

Then three years ago I moved to the Boston area, and at age 53 I took it up again. I joined a ski group, skied with them, skied alone, took lessons, bought books, joined a ski club with a lodge up north, the whole thing, and now I own my first pair of skis and have all the equipment under the sun. I started racing last year at age 55, and joined a second race team for this upcoming year. My husband thinks I've gone crazy.

This makes me feel like I'm 25 again, and have gotten a second chance. Did I say this was great? That I love it?

 

[cnewbound]

I dont really remember starting to ski as such.. Its something that i just always remember doing! .. The person who gave me my first lesson though (totally awesome guy and wicked skier) worked at my resort in Oz the past season..

It was strange because he was not only the person who taught me to ski, but he was also my coach later in my ski racing years....


and as it happened, I was his supervisor/boss the past season!

 

[dburdenbates]

It's so refreshing to hear about others that learned to ski later in life.

I went on a church group ski outing to Paoli Peaks, Indiana when I was 12. Let's just say, I developed my love of hot chocolate in the ski lodge during that trip. :D

Then in my earlier 30's, my husband and I were planning a trip to Tahoe to gamble one February. My boss at the time was an avid skier and basically threatened me when he said, I absolutely could not go to Tahoe in February and NOT ski. So, the January before our trip to Tahoe we drove to that same ski hill in Indiana where I had previously had my one and only experience on skis. My husband had never skied. We took lessons and absolutely loved it!

Our trip to Tahoe included much more skiing than gambling and I have been in debt to my former boss ever since.

It has been nice for my husband and I to have developed a new hobby and progress together.

 

[SnowHot]

It has been nice for my husband and I to have developed a new hobby and progress together.

And a whole new way to Blow your money!:D

 

[dburdenbates]

And a whole new way to Blow your money!:D

Yep! At least this vice seems to be taking over some of the less enjoyable ones. :D

 

[SnowHot]

Yep! At least this vice seems to be taking over some of the less enjoyable ones. :D

And provides a good share of the basics for good health.
Fresh Air
Sunshine
Excercise
Laughter
Water(Don't forget to hydrate when you ski)

 

[ski diva]

Any newer members care to share?

 

[volklgirl]

When I was 14, my parents got hired to video tape a very important cross-country race at Boyne Mountain. It was OMG cold....waaaay below 0! Much of the camera equipment froze up! My Dad had previously been an avid skier, so he got rentals for all of us the next day and lessons for Mom and I. We spent much of the day on Top Notch....I was instantly hooked! Mom, I think, wasn't so very enthusiastic ;) .

Fast forward 2 years. Again hired to tape the cross-country race except we had freezing rain. The next day it was bullet proof ice . We still ventured forth, but Mom took a spill and sprained her ankle. Her hip and thigh was seriously black and blue the next day.

At 17, I joined the school ski club but broke my pinky finger, so never went on any trips .

Fast forward another 2 years. A friend in college convinced us to go skiing again at a little place called Lansing Ski Club (closed long ago :( ). What a great day! We laughed and skied and had a wonderful time.

OK. Another 2 years go by (I'm now 20). Turns out my then S/O comes from an entire family of skiers. His Mom took me under her wing. After 1 year of every-other Sunday at Boyne Highlands and Boyne Mountain, I learned to either keep up or putter along alone. Then I won a season pass to Mt Holly. A year of skiing several days a week, then I took the hiring clinic to be an instructor. Best thing I ever did for my skiing! Got my Level II in 1994.

 

[RachelV]

I'm not even sure how old I was the first time I skiied... it was my sophomore or junior year of high school, so I must have been 15 or 16. I learned to ski at a tiny hill in CT near my parents's house - Powder Ridge. The first day I absolutely HATED it. I had signed up for a lesson in the afternoon, thinking I'd use the morning to kind of get the hang of it myself. Big mistake. All I remember is not even being able to stand up for more than 5 seconds without falling over, and one terrifying run down the bunny hill in a totally straight line that ended with me a good 50 yards past the bottom of the bunny hill. The lesson in the afternoon was better, and by the end of the day I could wedge my way down the bunny hill, but I definitely didn't consider it fun.

I didn't ski that much for the rest of high school or college... maybe 5 or 6 days total in high school and about 10-15 days total in college, all because I had a few friends who skiied casually and they'd talk me into going along. By the end of that I was a passable intermediate skier and was starting to enjoy skiing a lot more.

Then 3 years ago I started dating my now-husband, who was also an ok intermediate skier who had about as much experience as me. He grew up in Miami and had just gone on 2 weeklong trips out west when he was a kid, along with spending a few weekends in VT here and there. We started driving up to VT a lot of weekends, mostly for something to do, and got hooked. We've both improved A TON over the past 3 years, and now try to ski about 30 days a season. It's funny how if I hadn't met him i probably never would have advanced beyond being a casual intermediate. It's also nice that we have a hobby we both got into together.

 

[skigirl]

Hi to all,
I have been trying to remember my first time on skis. This is what I remember. I was 8 years old and my sisters had been going skiing with our school's ski club. They decided it was time to take me, so off we went to Greek Peak in upstate NY. I can remember being on the chairlift for the first time and banging my skis together. My rentals had spadmen binding with straps, now you know how old I must be, and one of my skis fell off. My sister some how got my ski back on before we got to the top. The next thing I can remember is going from the bunny hill to the lodge and going through an opening in a line of trees and running into a small pine tree on the other side. I was going very slow so I ended up just hugging the tree!! My sisters had to help me get off the tree!! I was hooked from then on. My sisters took me a few times each year and then when I was 13 we moved closer to the local ski areas here in upstate NY. I was able to ski more often then. By the time I was 16 my mother told me I had to pay for my own skiing if I wanted to continue to ski. I became a ski instructor that winter. I loved it and have been teaching ever since. My husband was also a ski instructor for many years and then in college decided he could make more money working on the hill. He has been a lift operator, snowmaker, groomer, and eventually he became the Mountain Manager. We have both moved on from working full time in the ski industry but we still love the the sport and the industry. We have season passes at another ski area down the road from us and try to go out west once a year. It is a great sport to do with the family and for life!!

 

[Lori_K]

Hmm. Never got to ski as a kid, although I always wanted to. (Parents never had the money). Our childhood winter sports consisted of sledding, and ice skating.

I married my husband when I was 26, and I think I went skiing for the first time when I was 27. My husband had been skiing since he was a young teenager. We lived in Illinois at the time, and although there were a few local hills where I could have learned, the hubby would have none of the 200 vertical feet that was the closest hill. So we drove the three hours (one way) to Devil's Head in Wisconsin for my first ski trip. Rental boots, rental skis, and wearing jeans. I was the perfect gaper. :D

I think the early experience with ice skating & roller skating helped, because I got the wedge down pretty well, and even wedged down a "black diamond" trail on my first outing. I did fall off while exiting the chair lift a couple times, one time getting cracked in the head with the chair. (Ouch!)
That was pretty much it for that winter. Over the course of the next few years, we went skiing a total of 3 more times. (Crappy snow and the long drive to the ski hill kinda turned us off of going more often). We went to the Play it Again Sports store near us, and I picked out a set of used ski boots and some old Dynastar straight skis, just so I wouldn't have to wade through the rental lines.

In 2000 (I was now 34 years old) we moved to upstate New York. (Skiing nirvana for someone from Illinois, let me tell you!). I skied my straight skis a couple times, and then both of us took the plunge and bought new boots and gear. Woooo...shaped skis! Considering I'd only been on skis a few times, I was sold beginner gear (Rossignol Cut skis). The hubby got some K2 skis. Took a lesson with the new skis, and things started improving from there. We started putting in 10-20 days per year, and driving all over to different ski hills in the state. I participated in a 2-day women's ski camp at Gore Mountain, and learned a lot and had a lot of fun.
Then, in 2006 we moved to New Mexico and I got my first taste of skiing "out West".

So, other than the few days early on, I consider this my 6th season of skiing. And ya know? It just gets better and better every year! :D

 

[Cambridge Kate]

Beginnings

Waaayy back in 1960 my dad used to work with a Norwegian immigrant. He gave dad a pair of long wooden skis with upturned tips that had knobs on the ends, leather bindings, and a set of poles with huge baskets. At the first snowfall, the whole family trooped over to a farm field down the road. It was a gentle slope that ended at a fence. Dad strapped the skis to his snowboots, gave a push with the poles, and off he went straight down the hill. The fence stopped him at the end. We all whooped and hollered as he trudged back up to do it again. Thus was the family introduced to skiing.

We bought "modern" skis a few years later, when I was about 10. The local department store carried them - wooden skis, beartrap bindings, leather "safety" straps - and leather lace-up boots. We held our arms up above us and measured to the wrist - that was the right length for the skis. We all went to the local hill - Charnita in Pennsylvania, now called Ski Liberty - in our stirrup stretch pants and cotton waffle long underwear. They had a rope tow there that would eat through mittens in a single night. We were definitely cool.

I was a crummy skier - my bro always outshone me - and I ceased to ski at all for the first 20 adult years of my life. But after the divorce... first thing I did was go back on the slopes. Been at it for 15 years now. It's a lot easier with the Nordica skis and Atomic boots!

Cambridge Kate

 

[marta]

My parents put me in a lesson at Mt. Snow when I was 12. But never encouraged me to continue? Then one day late in high school, mom bought me used rental skis and boots from a tent sale. Skiied now and then until in college, where I took skiing as a phys ed and got hooked. $70 for a season's worth of weekly group lessons, and passes, for pass-fail, one credit. Best $70 ever spent! :D