Sierra at Tahoe, our local ski area opened this weekend and we were very excited. In September We bought season passes for the family not sure if James would like it enough to benefit from the season pass. James loved it and actually said "this is awesome!" as we were going up the lift. He didn't want to leave at 3:00 but I talked him into it. We were beat. We had gone skiing in New Hampshire at McIntyre Ski Area a couple years ago and he seemed to like it, but it was raining and he was a bit young and got frustrated.
We started late at about 10 or so in the morning, we went up to the top of the mountain and took a long run down, it took us a while and it was slow going. For the rest of the day we mostly stayed on the bunny slope and let him get a feel for the skis
and get his confidence up. Later in the day he wanted to try the big slope again. After we did that run again, he remarked at how much faster he did it the second time compared to the first. We did the long run a few times and then called it a day. Very impressed at how James had progressed. He was in awe of the big kids who were doing jumps and tricks on their snow boards. One time we rode up the lift with a 9 year old who offered to take James down the terrain park, but James declined. He wanted to get a bit more experience before he did any tricks, I do not think it will be long before he does venture off to the park. He was jumping a bit as we went down the slopes as it was and this was only his second day on skis. When we were in New Hampshire, we purchased a TrySki by Techno-Synthetic that helps keep the ski tips together and the learning skier with wedging so they can stop. This helped James a lot and gave him the confidence he needed to enjoy himself. Other parents had asked about it and we were glad we had it. I am not sure if the ones that are softer would be better, they may allow the ski tips to cross causing more difficulty in learning.
A funny thing happened while I was at our car. During lunch I put our skis in the pod, a guy was walking by looking at me and he finally said, "I like your car, man!". It is the base model Subaru Outback wagon with a Thule Cargo "pod" on the roof. I thought nothing of it until we were leaving and the fella next to us asked if our car was all wheel drive and whether it had snow tires. All Subaru's are full time AWD but it only has all weather tires on it. He had a Ford 150 pickup. Seems to be a popular car among skiers.
