Not babysitting: Lessons are geared to children.
By: Val Geist | Special to The Morning Call
January 16, 2009
You’re never too young to start skiing, according to skiers whose children are learning to make turns and have fun on the snow at local ski areas.
Howard Bonk of New York City has been skiing in the Poconos and elsewhere all his life.
Now he has a new partner to join him on his mountain adventures. His 8-year-old daughter, Hannah, is literally following in his tracks.
”We started her out in a papoose at Elk Mountain, but we got kicked off after three runs,” Bonk recalled of his first time taking his 2-year-old onto the snow in a backpack-like carrier. ”The next year, we put her in the Scout Ranger program at Elk and the first year she learned all the basic skills plus the Skiers Code.”
In the last five years, Hannah has advanced to the ninth level of achievement as classified by the Western Standards taught at Colorado resorts such as Buttermilk in Aspen, where she attends ski school at least one week annually outside of her time at the Pennsylvania resort. The highest level is 10, said Bonk, who said Hannah is skiing everything on the mountain and just lacks more experience in powder and bumps.
”She follows me everywhere now and she doesn’t miss a beat,” Bonk said.
Jim Mancuso, ski school director for Elk Mountain, says the program at Elk is not a childcare or babysitting service.
”It’s an outdoors program,” Mancuso said.
The lessons are designed to teach children to ski and board using games and familiar toys such as hula hoops to encompass their tiny bodies and keep them from getting away from the instructor, Mancuso said. Devices such as the Edgie Wedgie, a rubber band-like device that holds the ski tips together, also are used.
”The first thing we teach is the wedge. The device keeps them from pulling their skis away from each other and helps the children to use the correct muscles and strengthen them,” Mancuso said.
The focus is on fun at Big Boulder and Jack Frost, sister resorts in Lake Harmony and Blakeslee, according to Jack Frost’s ski school director Patrick Terry, who has been starting skiers at the Pocono resorts for 21 years, and has taught children and adults.
”Kids are like adults in a lot of ways and they do want the same things, but they want to do it on their own,” Terry said. ”There is a lot more demonstration involved with children, where adults need a little more of an explanation.”
Jack Frost and Big Boulder offer a package that includes a lift ticket, rental equipment and a three-hour lesson for $80.
Children are grouped according to age, and then within age groups and experience, Terry said. He said the youngest lessons are for skiers age 3 to 4.
”It basically just introduces them to the snow and then we teach them how to use the Magic Carpet lift,” he said. A Magic Carpet is an escalator that moves people up the mountain and is easier to learn to ride than a chairlift since it just involves standing in place as it moves up the mountain, Terry said.
The young skier program is not offered at most resorts, Terry said.
”It’s to get them out on the snow with ski equipment and work on basic movements,” he said.
Later, the children advance to the program for 5-9 year olds, when the goal is to get them skiing. The older children are taught to stop and turn, and eventually, ride the chairlift.
Focusing on the kids
Kate Burnside, owner of AdventureFamilyTrips.com based out of the Poconos, works with local ski areas to create ski vacations for families with children. She is also the mother of two young boys who are learning to ski and snowboard.
As a single mother, Burnside says she knows the importance of traveling with children and selecting destinations where youth activities are the focus.
”Big Boulder definitely has one of the best ski schools for beginning youngsters,” she said. ”I look for the instructors, I look for the terrain and I look at the programs. At Big Boulder, the instructors are one on one.”
Burnside said she grew up skiing at Elk and takes her children there as well.
”I remember looking at the bigger lift next to me and thinking someday I’ll be on that lift to the top of the mountain,” she said. ”Besides the bunny hill, Elk has some of the longest beginner trails in the Northeast that are safe for kids to ski.”
Ski school directors at both mountains offered the same tips for parents.
”The biggest tip,” according to Terry, ”is that they research the program they want to come to, know what the lesson times are and make sure they dress their kids properly.”
Elk’s Mancuso agreed.
”Children should be wearing the same clothing as their parents, dressing in layers and waterproof pants and jackets and should wear helmets, goggles and sunscreen,” Mancuso said.
