Having watched multicoloured snakes of tiny children on the ski slopes, many parents are desperate to take their own offspring skiing. They have this idea of what fun it would be to glide elegantly en famille down the blue runs, their grateful children glowing with health and grinning from ear to ear...
It can happen like that, and when it does there’s nothing better, but there’s a lot of work along the way before you arrive at that stage.
Children can start to ski a little at two, if they are confident, co-ordinated and relatively fearless. Little boys seem to take to it earlier than girls, perhaps because they don’t have the intelligence to imagine how much careering into a tree could sting! But you need good weather, good snow, a very gentle nursery slope and lots of time and patience, one to one. They can manage about an hour per day, probably at lunchtime, when the weather is warmer and the slopes at their emptiest.
Possibly the best preparation for skiing is tobogganing. The combination of speed, terror and lack of control is good practice. Beware, however: sledges are faster and more dangerous than skis. You need to pick your slope very carefully!
When your child is ready to start skiing, don’t be fobbed off with plastic imitations of skis: he should have proper little skis and rear-entry boots. He does not need poles, however. He must have sunglasses or goggles. He probably won’t be skiing fast enough to crash hard himself, but could always be fallen on by a twenty-stone beginner, or hit by a drag lift, so a helmet is essential
Two-year olds will probably start by being pulled along the flat, holding the end of one of your poles. After half an hour or so they’ll be ready to be carried or dragged a few yards up a gentle slope, and allowed to slide back into the arms of Mummy, or someone else in whom they have total confidence (probably not Daddy!).
It can happen like that, and when it does there’s nothing better, but there’s a lot of work along the way before you arrive at that stage.
Children can start to ski a little at two, if they are confident, co-ordinated and relatively fearless. Little boys seem to take to it earlier than girls, perhaps because they don’t have the intelligence to imagine how much careering into a tree could sting! But you need good weather, good snow, a very gentle nursery slope and lots of time and patience, one to one. They can manage about an hour per day, probably at lunchtime, when the weather is warmer and the slopes at their emptiest.
Possibly the best preparation for skiing is tobogganing. The combination of speed, terror and lack of control is good practice. Beware, however: sledges are faster and more dangerous than skis. You need to pick your slope very carefully!
When your child is ready to start skiing, don’t be fobbed off with plastic imitations of skis: he should have proper little skis and rear-entry boots. He does not need poles, however. He must have sunglasses or goggles. He probably won’t be skiing fast enough to crash hard himself, but could always be fallen on by a twenty-stone beginner, or hit by a drag lift, so a helmet is essential
Two-year olds will probably start by being pulled along the flat, holding the end of one of your poles. After half an hour or so they’ll be ready to be carried or dragged a few yards up a gentle slope, and allowed to slide back into the arms of Mummy, or someone else in whom they have total confidence (probably not Daddy!).
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