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How old were you when you started skiing?

  • In the womb - 5 years old

    Votes: 46 21.7%
  • 6-12

    Votes: 58 27.4%
  • Teenager

    Votes: 44 20.8%
  • 20s

    Votes: 27 12.7%
  • 30s

    Votes: 20 9.4%
  • 40s

    Votes: 10 4.7%
  • 50s plus, the AARP years

    Votes: 7 3.3%

  • Total voters
    212

Carl Kuck

Ambassador of Stoke
Skier
Joined
Jan 21, 2016
Posts
739
Location
Del Mar
24, to be precise. Actually I had gone twice when I was younger, just a single day each time on crappy rental gear with no idea what I was supposed to do; but I consider my ski "career" to have started the Christmas week in 1979 at Cannon Mtn. The rest, as they say, was downhill from there...
 

Dave Petersen

Graphic Designer/Social Media Manager
Admin
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Nov 16, 2015
Posts
9,875
Just turned 16
 

Bad Bob

I golf worse than I ski.
Skier
Joined
Dec 2, 2015
Posts
5,843
Location
West of CDA South of Canada
5, but a very young 5.
Pretty much started in loose snow because there was not grooming in the mid-50's on Mt Rainier.
 

Bill Talbot

Vintage Gear Curator
Industry Insider
Joined
Nov 9, 2015
Posts
3,166
Location
New England
I was eight years old and the whole family learned at the same time.
This is the bunny hill that my first lesson was on. The rope tow ran up this side of the tree line (and the fence was not there!)

Eastover Bunny Hill 9-09.jpg
 

pais alto

me encanta el país alto
Skier
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Nov 11, 2015
Posts
1,937
Location
First time on skis was in high school - 16 yo IIRC. But if you want to know when I really started skiing, and by that I mean really meeting my goals I'd probably say after I retired from my day job (on my 54th b'day) and started working as a patroller, getting >100 days/season in all kinds of conditions. That upped my game some.
 

Pat AKA mustski

I can keep a Secret
Ski Diva Tester
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Nov 15, 2015
Posts
4,865
Location
Big Bear, California
I started at 13 and skied 10 Saturdays a year for 3 years. For the next 12 years, I skied a day here and there, when I could afford it.I became serious about the sport in my late 20's when I attained some financial security. It's only in the last 10 years that I have been able to ski 35-40 days. I look forward to the 100+ day seasons!
 

Jim McDonald

愛スキー
Skier
Joined
Nov 15, 2015
Posts
2,101
Location
Tokyo
33.5, and quite reluctantly. I had no interest whatsoever, planned to go out and slide around for 5 minutes and then go back to the inn and spend the weekend reading.
So, I finally got the damn things on, slide about 200 meters down a 2-degree bunny run and stopped myself by crashing into the lift shack (a technique I pretty much relied on for the rest of that weekend and several more after). I knew I'd found heaven.
 

Johnny V.

Half Fast Hobby Racer
Skier
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
1,424
Location
Finger Lakes/Rochester NY
Skied for the first time at 29 (rather unsuccessfully!) but bought my first ski package on my 30th birthday, so I figure that's my starting date ( makes for a good number in a conversation). Got out of the sales rep business at 50 and had more time to ski and was talked into beer league racing at 51. Went from 20-25 days a year to 60+. Now at 65, I'm probably a better skier than I was when I was younger.
 

Jilly

Lead Cougar
Skier
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
6,410
Location
Belleville, Ontario,/ Mont Tremblant, Quebec
5 years old. Snow Valley, Barrie Ontario. My parents had a friend that was an instructor, plus 3 kids of his own. "Uncle Bob" was more excited than I was when I got my CSIA 2. Haven't had the chance to ski with him since those days. Not sure I will get too.

I remember sitting on the back to of the skis going down the hill. Riding the rope tow back up, again and again....Little did they know what they had started....
 

Jim Kenney

Travel Correspondent
Team Gathermeister
Contributor
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Nov 27, 2015
Posts
3,587
Location
VA
I started at age 13 in 1967 at a place called Blue Knob, PA. This is what it looked like back then, slopes go out of view to left.
blue-knob.jpg

BK is an "upside down" ski area with lodge, parking and service buildings at the summit, elev ~3000'. It had been a cold war USAF Air Defense Radar Station until the early 1960s when that closed and they started the ski area. A lot of the buildings in above picture from mid-1960s are leftovers from the USAF station. The ski area re-purposed many of them for a few years before they replaced them or tore them down. BK is a pretty cold and rugged place in winter by mid-Atlantic standards because of the exposed summit location. My family used to joke that the "Blue" in Blue Knob stood for the color of the ice on the beginner trails that was made from the crummy fire hose-like equipment that passed for a snowmaking system in the 1960s.

Here's another aerial view, I would guess from about 1980, summit is to the left:
51v3pLFexPL._SR600%2C315_PIWhiteStrip%2CBottomLeft%2C0%2C35_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
 

pete

not peace but 2 Beers!
Skier
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Nov 14, 2015
Posts
2,542
Location
Iowa
36 or 37 when my spouse proclaimed a yearly ski trip as she and her brother were part Norwegian.they were obligated by forces unknown.
 

Tricia

The Velvet Hammer
Admin
SkiTalk Tester
Joined
Nov 1, 2015
Posts
27,297
Location
Reno
18. I recall wanting to ski in high school when my friends went on ski bus trips, but my parents were small business owners without health insurance and didn't want me to do anything so risky.
As soon as I was 18 I went skiing with my boyfriend.
 

RickyG

Faction Fan
Contributor
Joined
Aug 12, 2016
Posts
274
Location
Littleton Colorado
I had to get out of my parents house, they didn't support the idea at all and I was so taken with the sport I just left. One of the best decisions I made in my late teens.
 

luliski

Making fresh tracks
Skier
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
May 17, 2017
Posts
2,557
Location
California
Seven years old, Alpine Meadows with my dad. Not sure how much I actually skied, but in the picture I've seen, I was lifting one ski and had a big smile on my face. I was wearing a windbreaker and no hat, so it must have been spring. The last time I skied with my dad was also at Alpine Meadows, about 40 years later..
 

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