What made you try skiing?

[mahgnillig]

I always wanted to ski as a kid and never really had much opportunity. I watched Ski Sunday devoutly every week, and when my school announced there would be a spring ski trip to Austria, I signed up for a paper round at the local newsagent and saved enough money for the trip! That was when I was ~14 or so. I loved it! Sadly that was the end of my skiing childhood, as I didn't have another chance to go on a school trip again and our family holidays were usually spent in south-west England (not a lot of snow there!).

I moved to Las Vegas in 2002, and discovered that there is actually a ski hill nearby (Mt. Charleston). Hubby announced he hated snow and never wanted to try skiing again after the one day he went with his uncle as a kid, but I did convince him to try snowboarding one year as my birthday treat. We both loved it and took a few short trips to Utah to snowboard. In 2010 we had the opportunity to move to the Tahoe area and jumped on it... the first thing we did when we got here was buy 2 passes to Heavenly. At some point in there I decided to try skiing again as I was never really very good at snowboarding, and something just clicked. Now here I am 2 seasons later ripping up the black runs and having a jolly good time doing it

 

[ski diva]

I grew up on the Jersey shore, and when I was 13, my dad took us on a family trip to the Catskills in New York State. The inn we stayed at had a small hill with a rope tow so we all tried skiing. I absolutely hated it. The rope dragged me up the mountain, and I fell all the way down. I actually remember crying. After that, we'd take family ski trips to Vermont and northern NJ (there were a few small areas there), and I had a few lessons. I never went a lot -- maybe 10 times a year til I was 23 or so, when I stopped entirely. Didn't ski at all til about 18 years ago, when, during a particularly snowy winter, my DH asked me if I wanted to go skiing. As he puts it, it was like handing me a crack pipe. I became totally addicted, which I am to this day.

 

[geargrrl]

My late husband, who grew up skiing the little local hills outside of Boston,

I'm impressed it took 14 posts to get to "SO".
My then boyfriend, now husband. He totally introduced me to skiing and winter sports. We started with XC backcountry back in the early 80's. He had grown up alpine skiing, so I started doing that. Basically, "if you want to be with me you need to learn how to ski". Young and in love, I did. I don't regret it at all. Skiing together is one our our best ways we have fun together. There have certainly been some adventure and meltdowns along the way.

 

[Celestron2000]

When I moved out to Colorado a few years ago I figured I couldn't live in a world class ski destination and not know how to ski. Invested in an Epic pass and had an incentive to get up as much as possible.

It seems to be one of the few "sports" I really enjoy, and am actually half decent at, and as others have said, now addicted.

 

[B.E.G.]

Two years ago, I had just broken up with my boyfriend of 3 years from law school, decided not to be a lawyer after graduating from said law school, was having a minor career crisis, and had just moved back home for a year until I figured out what I wanted to do instead of being a lawyer. Miserable, depressed, my best friend (who lives in my hometown and was possibly tired of my teary moping) said, "Hey! Let's get you out boarding. My husband boards, but I suck at it, and you can take lessons with me." We get out there, we take a private lesson, both of us decide we hate it, and then BFF says, "Well, next week let's trying skiing!" I take a ski lesson, and I'm in love. Fast forward 3 months, and I had clocked 20 days for my new obsession, had bought skis (ok, did that before the first lesson - I was determined to like it!), sold those skis, bought new skis, bought new jackets, pants, goggles, helmet, etc....

 

[naskis]

My oldest son. First time I tried skiing 9 years ago and I did not like it, but my son did. He is a natural athlete. Then in the third grade he started taking after school lessons and there was no way I could let him ski along on weekends. And he wanted to ski! I could not let him get on ski lifts by himself. So I had to learn how overcome the fear of heights and ski lifts and ski at least easiest of the greens! And when one day I realize that somehow, in some weird masochistic way I like it... And then I found this forum and bought my first skis and boots and real fun began!

 

[MaineSkiLady]

Do you have a poll on this? So far I've seen:

- start as a kid
- friend/boy friend
- start as parent (kids want to ski)
- live in place with long winter
- Just for the heck of it!
- others?

Other: boredom. Sheer, total boredom with the big city, singles scene > ugh.

It had been on my "bucket list" for years.
Changed my life, in far more ways than I have time to write!

 

[Pequenita]

In second grade, my friend Jenny brought her dad in to "show and tell" at school and he talked about his role as a ski patroller at the local bump. I went home and told my parents I needed to learn to ski. So they took me and my brother to the local bump and we got a semi-private lesson because they didn't have group lessons for kids our age.

 

[Ashleigh Lawrence]

I had skiied a bit before, first on a school trip, then a couple of times when I first got married and was living in Switzerland. Then had ten non-skiing years. Last October I was thinking of something nice we could do as a family, and skiing occurred to me as the perfect family sport. Since that momentous day, we have had our first holiday in ten years, and we are all going away again in a couple of weeks, to ski .....of course!

 

[Blondeinabmw]

My now husband took me on a "ski trip" to the primo ski destination of Hawks Nest, North Carolina. We had only been dating a couple weeks and he thought it would be fun to show me how to do it and get out of town over MLK weekend. I was 18 years old and trying to impress him, I guess. He borrowed his stepmother's bright pink snowsuit for me to wear. Ugh, it was awful. We drove a couple hours in the middle of the night, tried to sleep a little in his Jeep CJ7, and woke up to rain. Pouring rain. Undaunted, he dragged me out to the bunny slope. I had no goggles. And no waterproof mascara either. I think the rivulet of water running down the "mountain" made me stop after about 15 minutes. He and my girlfriend took a couple turns on the "expert" runs, then it became near white-out conditions and they closed the mountain. We made it to a cheap motel, then drove another 30 minutes down to find beer only to have to go back up to our cheap motel in horrible, icy conditions.

The next year, he splurged and took me on his fraternity's ski trip to the world-class resort of Beech Mountain, North Carolina. I borrowed a girlfriend's sexy Schoeller stretch pants this time around, so at least I looked cuter, and remembered my waterproof mascara. We went night skiing. Correction: We went night icing. They blow snow horizontally across the runs there, which frosts all who pass through the pellets. It feels about as good as I'd imagine sand blasting in the cold would feel. Of course, I wore the cute headband to cover my ears and fixed my hair. It was absolutely covered in white ice. We were ski-in/ski-out, and somehow I made it to the base of the lift. I'd never been on a lift and was THAT girl who fell getting off, couldn't get up without help and had a massive yard sale all on the ramp. I found myself at the top of the "expert" run, which to a newbie might as well be K2. After about 12 feet and as many falls, I took my gear off, threw my skis down the fall line and walked the whole way down. I took a shuttle back to the house, slammed the bedroom door, locked it and didn't speak to him until the next day.

Honestly, it is a miracle I married him.

 

[Lilywhite]

Blondeinabmw! It's a wonder you ever wanted to ever ski again with a start like that!

 

[Blondeinabmw]

I know! When I turned 30, we took a family vacation to Colorado with my in-laws. It was shoulder season - before Thanksgiving, I think. Copper Mountain was open (barely) and my in-laws and husband wanted to ski at least one day. I decided to give it ONE more try. I took a lesson this time, explained my horrible past experiences to the instructor and told her this was the last shot. If it didn't go well, I was done. She pawned the other students off on one of the other instructors and worked with me privately. After lunch, she asked me if I felt like I could go up the one run that was open, a wide intermediate groomer. I gave it a shot. I did okay until about the half way mark when altitude and exhaustion caught up with me. We talked about it, and she made sure I understood there was no shame in getting a sled ride down the rest of the way so that I could enjoy the rest of my vacation. She radioed the HOTTEST ski patrolman ever - like 6'4" mountain man...yum...They strapped me in, but let me sit up to ride the sled. I told him to go fast, which he graciously followed instructions. It was awesome!

We've gone skiing every year since...

 

[Inoffensive Nickname]

My parents went a few times locally when I was a kid and it sounded like they had fun. Then 10 years later, a local ski shop was going out of business and we had an early snow that year, so my then-fiance (now DH) bought me XC skis (which I never got the hang of, but tried a few times anyway). Fast forward another 15 years, and my DH started downhill skiing with some buddies and I hated winter, but moving isn't an option, so I decided to take up a winter sport and since DH was downhill skiing and it was something I had always wanted to try, I asked him to take me. After about 4 years on skis, a few lessons, and countless bruises, I consider myself a decent skiier. (Good for the midwest, but not that brave in the big mountains.)

 

[Sarah]

I was 24 living in London, writing up my thesis with a job planned in NYC a few months later, when 6 friends booked the cheapest ski holiday they could find in Andorra. Feeling jealous another 6 of us found the cheapest way to join them. I had a lot of fun and am very glad I went as after moving to NYC I dragged myself onto some bus trips from the city to Hunter or Windham to teach myself to ski. Looking back I can't believe how cheap Andorra was, I think I paid £400 for flight, bus transfer, hotel, 6 day lift pass, 5 morning lessons and 6 days of ski rental.

 

[Indianaskier]

As a young teen, many moons ago, I knew kids who went on ski vacations although none of them were close friends. I loved winter and when there was any skiing on TV I would watch and wish I was there. We didn't have the money to take ski vacations, so I pretty much put the who notion out of my mind, as the closest ski areas to me were in Michigan, I believe. It might as well have been Europe. After I got married in my early 20's, a ski area opened a couple of hours from here and my husband and I, along with his sister and her husband took off a day to go check it out. The place was packed and had no more rental equipment, so we left, never to return, much to my dismay. A short time later a very tiny ski area and I mean TINY, like one hill with a tow rope, opened a few miles from us. We went over there one bitter cold evening and "skied" on ice. I had one of those puffy bib and jacket sets and my husband had coveralls. We about froze and I hit a patch of ice and ran head first into a bale of straw being used as a barrier. No injury, I was like a rubber doll then I guess. A year or so after that another area opened just a couple of miles from the other one, but it had lifts and several nice runs. We went there a few times, then babies came along. I didn't ever really learn to ski properly in that time, but I loved it anyway. When the kids were about middle school age we talked about going, but it ended up being when my daughter began high school before we took them skiing. Our daughter wanted a snowboard and taught herself. She was a natural. I could make my way around the easiest hills, but it wasn't too pretty. My husband much the same. Our son, could do okay, but was not advancing, so I signed him up for a lesson. It was like night and day after that. He did great. I knew I needed some help and got the nerve one weekday to take a lesson from the same man who taught our son. I worked nights, so had daytime free and loved to go over to ski every chance I could, which was almost daily. I was asked to teach, got my certification and haven't looked back, even though the area has since closed and I've had some major health setbacks. I love it and love seeing new people get into skiing, especially those who thought they could never do it. I still can't go on expensive ski trips very often, but thankfully we do have two nice areas here within 2 hrs of home.
A fun little side note, A boy who grew up skiing at the area where I usually go now has won several medals in freestyle skiing nationally. He learned, practiced and still skis here. Although we don't have a lot of vertical I always like to let new skiers know that it doesn't matter how huge the runs are, just that you learn to ski safely and that it makes you smile all over when you do it.

 

[Indianaskier]

Actually I could check "like" for all of the stories here. Fun reads.

 

[eSki]

I was working on an insanely busy project where I was working 18 hours a day for about 6 weeks. I'm a single mother and my DS who was only 5 at the time was really missing out on my time.

We had a huge snow storm in DC (snowmageddon 2010) and I wanted to get away and spend some quality time with my son. A friend mentioned his kids had just returned from Seven Springs and had a ball. So we hoped in the car on Friday and drove to PA. DS went to ski school in the morning and I took a "never skiied before" group lesson. By Monday DS and I were able to ski their easy greens together showing each other what we learned in class.

Fast forward a few years and rather than teaching each other I'm trying to catch up with him - while he trys to convince me to go on bumps and jumps.

 

[Jilly]

A fun little side note, A boy who grew up skiing at the area where I usually go now has won several medals in freestyle skiing nationally. He learned, practiced and still skis here. Although we don't have a lot of vertical I always like to let new skiers know that it doesn't matter how huge the runs are, just that you learn to ski safely and that it makes you smile all over when you do it.

Many people I know comment about our local 200' hill. A friend of my Dad's stated - you only do one turn at a time, so it doesn't matter how long the hill is!

As for nationals - Steve Podborski, Sarah Burke to name a few come from Ontario. The land of 400' hills!

 

[pinto]

Great stories.

I don't remember ever not skiing, really. (except for stretches in the 90s when I lived in DC and was having babies and skiing only once or twice every couple of years)

My parents grew up in West Texas, between Lubbock and Midland (yes, there is life there, barely). When dating, in high school, they would drive over to New Mexico and ski. This was the 1950s, and the gear was unwieldy and they had no idea what they were doing, but they were hooked, and have been ever since. My brother has been making a living (well, in winter) on skis for more than 20 years, and after moving back here in 2000, I've returned to the addiction.

Three generations, Christmas 2011

 

[HeidiInTheAlps]

Gosh...not sure how to answer this. I hardly remember *not* wanting to ski.

My Dad was on weekend ski patrol in Park City, and although that isn't a paid job, the family got ski passes as compensation.

Starting at about age 10, every Saturday, every Sunday, first one on the mountain, the last one down.

Then I had kids, gained weight...at the weight I was at, one could argue skiing was dangerous for me. But, because I loved skiing so much, I put my kids in ski school at age 6 and 7, even though I didn't dare myself. Also, I didn't have ski clothing to fit.

Then, the next season, I got size 24-26 clothing, and got out there, and eventually I decided I was between a rock and hard place with losing weight, so had GBP surgery, and now have lost more than 100 pounds. Now I'm back out there again, slowly reaching a level worthy of my youth...thanks to reading all your stories, I'm not going to be satisfied to only ski reds because I'm over 40....nope, back on the blacks and double blacks and getting my ski legs back!