Yes, he's a skier!

I’ve done it. Finally this year I’ve managed to teach my six year old son to ski. First of all you have to know that my wife and I are avid skiers – I’d better clarify that – we don’t actually like skiing in ski areas with lifts and pistes etc. but we are crazy abour ski mountaineering(I’ll be doing some posts about this later on with some amazing photos). That’s the kind of skiing where you pick a mountain, walk up it with skis and climbing skins, enjoy the invariably incredible view on the way up and on the top, and then ski back down. All of this without seeing more than maybe ten people (though sometimes none at all) in the whole day. Now we use to able to do this every weekend for the whole winter season and through most of Spring – until of course when Elia arrived which kind of put paid to that kind of activity. So we’ve got big plans to get him doing the same thing in the future but first of all he has to learn to ski and to do that we need to use the ski areas with lifts and pistes and people etc.
So a couple of years ago when he was four and a half we decided to make the first attempt. We booked a week in a Family Hotel (specially organised hotels ideal for families) in Santa Cristina, Val Gardena which is in Northern Italy. The idea was for him to have lessons with a ski instrutor every morning and then, if he was still up to it, to do some skiing in the afternoon with us. The first morning we got him dressed, ski suit, helmet, goggles, boots. I know……………. doesn’t he look cute!
He’s looking less cute in this one because he’s realising that he’s about to be abandoned to the mercies of the ski instructors. I’m still trying to look confident.
When the bus arrived the crisis exploded. He definitely didn’t want to get on the bus, he didn’t want to ski, and he didn’t want to get separated from his parents. I ended up putting him into the bus in what probably looked like an All Blacks scrumming practice. We could still hear him shouting and crying as the bus drew away. We also drove up to the same ski area in the car but since the ski instructor had asked all of the parents to keep away from the school area we went to ski on the other side of the mountain but where we could still see the piste where they were having their lesson (we could also hear him (yes him, not them). He was not enjoying it. We went and picked him up at midday, as we had been instructed. “How was it?” – No answer , very non commital. We had some lunch and actually convinced him to do some more descents on the school piste during the afternoon. OK, maybe he is actually getting the hang of it. The next morning we experienced the exact same reaction – crisis, tears, howls – me bundling him into the bus like a Maori tight end. Not good. The rest of the day went like the first. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea after all. The third day was an absolute refusal and we couldn’t face having to force him into the bus a third time. OK, we’ll go skiing together – who cares about the € 200 of ski lessons I had aleady paid for. So for the next three days we skiied in the morning – skiied!! We descended various easy pistes with Elia in tow – sometimes enjoying, sometimes complaining but invariably refusing to go beyond the morning. The afternoon was dedicated to other activities – the hotel’s organised play area for him, running and sauna for us. Though he did enjoy the tobogganing afternoon we organised. And so the week ended with very little progress having been made.
Last year passed by without any possibility to go skiing. As this year came round and it started snowing in early december we thought that it was the time to make it or break it. For a first try out we went to a local ski station (just over an hour away in the Appenine mountains) and spent most of the day together on the school piste, though we did convince him to do a couple of descents on a blue piste (any progress is to be taken with open arms). Then at the beginning of the year we decided to take four days holiday in the western Alps (Bardonecchia, Val di Susa) where we would be together with some other friends who have similarly aged kids. Well, let me tell you – it was a huge success! Four days of perfect skiing – let’s say about 5 hours a day and by the end of it all of the kids were flying down the red pistes and whistling while they did it. So much so that we never even got the chance to take any pictures. We followed that up with another day session at the local ski area and I can safely say that my son is now a skier. Now I’m not saying that he’s a champion, or he’s going to win any medals but we are definitely on our way and for the time being I’ll take anything I can get.
Now where can I find a small pair of mountaineering skis and boots???