Is My Child Ready To Ski?

"I got Timmy on skis at 18 months." "Maddie was skiing blues at 2." If you are a skier, you have probably heard some parents "proudly sharing" the age at which they first got their children on skis. And if you are a parent, or aspiring parent, who skis you have probably wondered what is the right approach to introducing your own children to the slopes.


How old should my child be? How will I know when she is ready to ski?

Is Caveboy (3.5 years, 2.5 year when I started this post!) ready to ski? Maybe.

To start out with you should probably try to ignore or try to filter through what other parents tell you about how early their children started skiing.  Focus on your own child's wants, motivations, and abilities. It can be easy to get excited to introduce your children to something that you enjoy so much, but try to remember that this will be their adventure, not yours.  I have been teaching children to ski since 2005, and even with the experience to know what it really takes to get a kid skiing and loving it, I still find myself wanting to get Caveboy out there right now.

I started this post at the end of the 2015 ski season, and I think it's about time I finished it.  Caveboy has been on the snow a couple of times now, and I will try to keep you up on how that is going as I give my opinions on how and when to start skiing.

For most children and circumstances the absolute earliest I would start your child skiing is kindergarten.

I'll start with the optimal, but keep reading past this before making the decision to wait.  Your families circumstances (access to skiing, etc.) in addition to you ability to afford lessons and your child's individual aptitudes are all part of the consideration. I will talk about the best ways to help your pre-school age children learn to ski in a later post.

For most children and circumstances the absolute earliest I would start your child skiing is kindergarten (between 5 and 6 years old). If you have a child of this age I am sure you have seen their global capabilities explode since starting kindergarten or first grade.  They are becoming very aware of their surroundings, their use and understanding of language has become on par with some adults you know, and physically they have become quite strong and agile.  For some people who don't play sports later, this may be the most fit they will ever be.

Sure there is something to be retained from skiing at four, or even three, but I have often seen that a five year old can catch up to kids who have been introduced to skiing at three or four years old in only a couple of weekends.  This is mostly due to the fact that the four year old likely only skied on the hill a couple of times, and of course they were not as strong and coordinated as they are now.  They didn't really learn that much.

The other reason that the five-year-old newbie catches up quickly is that 99% of the time the younger skier was over terrained and has developed bad, defensive skiing habits, that are very hard to break.  Conversely the five-year-old newbie, who is stronger, more patient, and better at learning physically and cognitively, and is more attuned affectively, is able to learn and perform proper fundamentals on their first day of the season.

...you have now put yourself in the same space as that Dad who hauls their kid to the top of the bunny hill and yells "Pizza Pizza Pizza!!!" at their back as they torpedo through my class and out into the parking lot.

If you get your three year old stuck in that power wedge their first season, it may take years to break them out of it.  Sure it's fun to brag that they got down that really steep green (Sundance at the Basin) stuck in the power wedge, but now you can probably be assured that your child will still be skiing like that at seven.  Even if you were smart enough to put your child in lessons, or introduce them slowly, you have now put yourself in the same space as that Dad who hauls their kid to the top of the bunny hill and yells "Pizza Pizza Pizza!!!" at their back as they torpedo through my class and out into the parking lot.  After all, that's how you learned to ski, and it totally worked.

If you don't ski every weekend it is probably best to wait until your children are at least five years old and in kindergarten or first grade to introduce them to skiing.  It will be more fun because they will learn faster, and they will be more in charge of their own adventure.

....now if you live near enough to you ski area, and will be up nearly every weekend, and have the time/money/patience, you can totally get your pre-school age kids skiing.  More on that next week.

I will also write a bit on how to prepare your kids for learning to ski, and a bit on how to teach them yourself (not recommended, but you'll still do it).