How snow sports can transform a child’s life
“This is a lot more than teaching kids how to turn on the mountain. This is about using sports to do character development.”
Travel advice and reports on ski resorts and other winter destinations
“This is a lot more than teaching kids how to turn on the mountain. This is about using sports to do character development.”
I’ve forsaken the slopes today, as terrific as they are at the brand-new Spruce Peak base area at Stowe Mountain Resort. I’m snowshoeing at the nearby Trapp Family Lodge
Haley Woodland may be freezing but she’s all smiles. So is her mom Eilizea. Four year old Haley has Cerebral Palsy and has just come…
Plenty of light fluffy snow—close to 400 inches a season. Plenty of sunshine. A place that really loves families.Welcome to Park City, Utah, home to Park City Mountain Resort, famous for its world-class parks and pipes that tweens and teens especially love, as well as innovative children’s programs that are changing the way kids learn to ski and snowboard.
Eleven-year-old Nate Gourd, an avid snowboarder from Manchester, Vt., couldn’t agree more. “You feel like you’re flying when you come down the mountain,” he says, adding that kids “definitely should wear helmets.” Meet Vermont’s vice presidents of fun. Bridget — who says she’s always waiting at the bottom of the mountain for her “slowpoke” family
What are you waiting for? Spring Break is looming and you haven’t planned a getaway. We’re not talking a Big Trip — a cruise, for example, or an adventure trip to Costa Rica, though, according to Travelzoo.com, there are good last-minute deals to be had in Costa Rica.
A gem of a mountain (no lift lines here!) just minutes on a free, festively painted shuttle bus from the tiny (less than 2,500 people) town of Mt. Crested Butte, so steeped in mining history that most of the downtown area, with its wooden, multicolored, 19th-century buildings, is on the National Register of Historic Places. (Ever see a two-story outhouse?)
We’re in family ski trip mode. Everyone having a big bacon and eggs breakfast in pajamas. A lot of teasing is afoot. Thirteen year old Eva decides she’ll ski with us rather than go to ski school. We’re all impressed at how well she skis.
Mel seems to be rebounding from her fall and disappointment during the Junior Extremes qualifying run down a terrifyingly steep slope. Everyone has been telling her it’s a lot better to give your all than to not try. That she didn’t succeed just goes with the territory. It helps when she learns a lot of other kids fell on the same run.
All Mel wants is to qualify, which means skiing in control down what looks to me like a sheer cliff studded with rocks and boulders! Only about half of the teens who are here will actually qualify.