Daughter is ready to move off of bunny slopes, but too small for lifts

[crgildart]

A fine line to walk. Would the ski instructor at your hill take your daughter up the lifts?

Back when I worked in the local bump ski school we called toddler lessons "the 40 pound weight".

 

[Chris V.]

Do what?

Load small child on chair (walking up behind chair).

 

[sparty]

Lots of good info above. Most importantly, I do want to add another plug for the Kinderlift vests. We were gifted a hand me down, otherwise I probably would've struggled to cough up the cash, but having one led me to decide that they are worth the price premium.

For context, my kids are 2 and 3, so they're relatively easy to pick up; they are probably halfway between the carpets being ideal and the beginner lift here being ideal from a terrain standpoint. The three year old can ski from the lift on leash, the two year old has yet to make it all the way without demanding to be carried. The three year old could probably ski from the lift without the leash if we could close the trail for her, but her spatial awareness is non-existent. Both can have plenty of fun lapping the carpets, and despite some grousing because they like the chairlift ride itself, that's where we've generally been going when the carpets are open.

I don't know if you have other options that are geographically reasonable, but we have a smaller area plus a major resort nearby. The small area has a slow double serving some pretty mellow greens, while the resort has a detachable quad that has a significantly steeper pitch at the top. On the flip side, the resort has a much better carpet setup (more carpets, more pitch on the top one, and a lot more total vertical, plus the carpets are covered and don't ice up like the one at the smaller area).

 

[Wilhelmson]

Assuming the lifties will put the kids on the chair. At Belleayre, my kids know the lifties on the belleayre express so his crew always put the bars down for them. Give them a push if needed.

@BlueGrin Personally, I think making your kids ski bunny hill will hold back their development more than the lift issues. But being a dad, I know how hard that is though. A fine line to walk. Would the ski instructor at your hill take your daughter up the lifts?

That’s true. They don’t plop the kids on but do the bar and stuff. But that is when they are older and barely tall enough to get on themselves. I’ve never heard of an operator putting the kids on for a parent. Really, theres a lot more danger out there than needing professional help putting your kid on the seat. If your back was messed up or something you could ask.

 

[crgildart]

One pro tip is make sure you're not standing on their ski while you are trying to lift them to the seat

 

[BlueGrin]

Have you spoken with someone in management at the ski area? Ask how the lift attendant can help you.

No need to go nuclear and bring management into it, lol.

Carpet games:

These are great, thanks! I'm going to try a couple this weekend.

Bad idea. You have no leverage. Plus the arms just keep extending.

Yeah, sorry, to be clear, I didn't grab her BY her arms... we were lifting her under the armpit from either side and I had to grab her arm to keep her from going into full surrender position. It was to maintain leverage for my other arm that was doing the lifting under the armpit.

@BlueGrin Personally, I think making your kids ski bunny hill will hold back their development more than the lift issues.

This isn't a long term thing, we've probably got another 5-6 days on that hill (and 2-3 with the beginner lift). If she's had enough successes on the beginner lift, I'm not ruling it out in a couple of weeks. She's got friends who are a little behind her in their development, so she's happy to zoom around with them, and there's nothing wrong with just re-enforcing and practicing what she's already learned. But there's still at least a dozen hours to fill in the mean-time and want to use that productively.

 

[sparty]

One pro tip is make sure you're not standing on their ski while you are trying to lift them to the seat

Also, if you need to help lift them off the chair at the top, don't lift them high enough to hit their heel pieces on the bottom of the chair.

 

[BlueGrin]

I don't know if you have other options that are geographically reasonable,

We do and we're mixing in a different one with a beginner lift. But we bought a season pass for this one because that's where her friends are (and they all bought there because it's a half-hour closer to our house and half the price). So we're not locked in full time, but we're going to be there for a few more weeks this season.

 

[Henry]

No need to go nuclear and bring management into it, lol.

I was thinking of someone a level above the customer service rep who may not know lift loading procedure.

 

[oliver38]

My daughter is 5, and this season she's just starting to take to skiing. After about 10 days on the hills, she's progressed pretty far. She's easily able to conquer the bunny slopes. Starting to do more of a stem christie than pure snowplow, and her instructor this past week said she caught her starting to sneak in a couple of parallelish turns.

Here's the thing, she's still too small for lifts. We took her to a different place with a beginner's lift this past weekend, and it was workable, but we had to grab her arms to hop her up on to it and at least once I almost didn't make it - and that's even with the liftie slowing it down for us.

Her regular mountain (where her friends all take lessons) only has fixed-grip lifts, and I'm hesitant to try that with that little margin for error, and scared itless about her doing it with a 20yo instructor who we don't know.

Even though she has her friends there, she's a little ahead of them and I'm worried that she's starting to get bored and frustrated on the magic carpet. I'm also worried that the longer we wait to "go up the mountain," the more it becomes some big scary thing in her mind that we have to work through the fear.

I'm not trying to push her too hard, but I want her to see this as fun, instead of stagnating and getting bored. I think next season she'll be fine physically (and we'll have access to a gondola on our first big trip of the season).

In the meantime, are there any ideas for how to gently challenge and keep her interest?

1. Arrange friendly skiing races with her friends on the bunny slopes.
2. Incorporate small jumps or bumps on the magic carpet path for added adventure and skill development.

 

[BlueGrin]

Just as a postscript:
For a week or two, I kept her occupied using a bunch of the ideas here - "slalom" around cones that the ski school kept up, having her count turns, hopping, "racing" me (while I'm skiing backwards), and she never chafed at being on the magic carpet, which was the whole goal here.

We finally brought her up ourselves on the fixed lift. She was raring to go, but the loading process got her a little scared, which caused her to freeze up on the run itself (and go into a deathwedge and needing me to hold her hand all the way down). Back in a lesson that afternoon, the instructor confirmed that she's able to handle the slopes, but just needs the confidence. So we backed off a bit and let her toodle around on the magic carpet the next two days thinking she's the "best skier on the mountain."

This weekend, we went back to the other hill, and dropped her in a lesson with one of her best friends. They skipped right over the beginner lift and brought her up to the top on one of the detachable high speed quads, and she absolutely killed it. We ran into their group on the other side of the mountain: she had already been up the lift twice and was coming back to end their lesson taking a big blue run.

We were going to call it a day after that, but she demanded that we go back out so we can take that blue run together, and it was fantastic... she cruised right down it, and I even caught her hunting out little moguls so she could "jump" (hopping on the crest and then sliding down the backside, lol)

Thanks again, everybody. Looks like we're hurting for snow for a couple of weeks so I don't know if we'll get back out there, but I think she's got enough confidence that she'll handle the "scary" lift next time we try. Mission accomplished.

 

[LiquidFeet]

Just as a postscript:
For a week or two, I kept her occupied using a bunch of the ideas here - "slalom" around cones that the ski school kept up, having her count turns, hopping, "racing" me (while I'm skiing backwards), and she never chafed at being on the magic carpet, which was the whole goal here.

We finally brought her up ourselves on the fixed lift. She was raring to go, but the loading process got her a little scared, which caused her to freeze up on the run itself (and go into a deathwedge and needing me to hold her hand all the way down). Back in a lesson that afternoon, the instructor confirmed that she's able to handle the slopes, but just needs the confidence. So we backed off a bit and let her toodle around on the magic carpet the next two days thinking she's the "best skier on the mountain."

This weekend, we went back to the other hill, and dropped her in a lesson with one of her best friends. They skipped right over the beginner lift and brought her up to the top on one of the detachable high speed quads, and she absolutely killed it. We ran into their group on the other side of the mountain: she had already been up the lift twice and was coming back to end their lesson taking a big blue run.

We were going to call it a day after that, but she demanded that we go back out so we can take that blue run together, and it was fantastic... she cruised right down it, and I even caught her hunting out little moguls so she could "jump" (hopping on the crest and then sliding down the backside, lol)

Thanks again, everybody. Looks like we're hurting for snow for a couple of weeks so I don't know if we'll get back out there, but I think she's got enough confidence that she'll handle the "scary" lift next time we try. Mission accomplished.

Best follow-up report ever.

 

[Wilhelmson]

Best advice ever is to have non parents get involved.

 

[AltaSkier]

Gondolas. T-bars/pomas/etc. Cross country skiing. Waiting till you are more comfortable.

You forgot helicopter. The first 10-15 feet of the cornice drop are the hardest for 5 year olds, after that, they tend to do ok.