Kid Stoke!

A couple of my 7 yo from the Platty Cup race this year when she took 2nd in her age group:

Relatives from Italy in town tonight. Haven't seen them in ten years.

They have kids now, who speak no English.

Pretty cool to watch it happen.

Neve had her second day in the climbing gym today and she really digs it.



She really has almost no fear (unlike her dad).

I did climb with her a bit, because she really wanted me too.  I get clutched at the top, when you are supposed to just push off and let go, putting faith in the auto rappel.

I don't really have any way to judge since I know squat about climbing, but she is very comfortable and does seem natural.

OK, I don't have a pic, but last week at Gore all three girls skied Open Pit, their first black diamond.  I watched from above as the youngest raised her arms in victory when she reached the first flat part after that steep drop.  Next time up to the top they wanted to do it again.  Both times we cut over to Cloud, but yesterday they all agreed that next time they will do the entire trail down to Headwaters.  Feeds the stoke!

Petronio

Petronio wrote

OK, I don't have a pic, but last week at Gore all three girls skied Open Pit, their first black diamond.  I watched from above as the youngest raised her arms in victory when she reached the first flat part after that steep drop.  Next time up to the top they wanted to do it again.  Both times we cut over to Cloud, but yesterday they all agreed that next time they will do the entire trail down to Headwaters.  Feeds the stoke!

Petronio

I get more stoke from watching the little ones charging new Terrain than I do from charging myself.

One of my fondest memories has maybe 4 years ago when I took my daughter down Dogleg chute at Alta. She gave a look as we skied passed the cliff area sign and into the chute, then she dropped in. As she skiied through and under the Supreme lift people whooped and hollered at her from the lift. That made the trip that year. These are experiences that we pass from generation to generation.

Just an important safety FYI about rappelling ESPECIALLY for girls. When rappelling, your boob can get snagged in the rappelling device/rope which will pull it in and draw tighter and tighter. I know a girl who this happened to and she lost her nipple. It could have been much worse. Once it's caught, you're faced with a nasty choice if it doesn't free easily as your weight is hanging on it and going farther down makes it worse.

I had it happen to me once. I was using a figure 8 and was hanging free from a bridge, not leaning back enough. Luckily I pulled free quickly but it did tear my tee shirt. Would have been very nasty if it caught better and one isn't strong enough to pull yourself back up. The pain would be excruciating and if no other rope was set up/available rescue could be none existent. Naturally, girls protrude more than men and as such face this issue more even if leaning back some. Be careful !

PS - The above could also happen with long hair.

Sometimes I wonder about you Snowballs, did you get the repelling rope snagged around your neck a little too long? you certainly come up with the weirdest stuff sometimes.

Well, haha. I know you were just kidding. I'm motivated to help others, always have been. I never heard anybody teaching rappelling or rappellers in general warn about this. None the less it happens.  

No need to get your tittie in a wringer over it PT.

The reason I haven't skied the whole mountain . . . who can blame me



Petronio

Abby on her first Poma ride yeaterday at K-Mart.  The poma had the best snow and least crowds on the mountain. We ended up lapping it for about 2 hours in the afternoon. It was the first day of top to bottom skiing and they were blowing all over and will most likely be opening the Snowdon and Superstar quads with Skylark to Bittersweet open over there. A great first day of the 2015-2016 season.



And at the base of the North Ridge Triple to show you the coverage up there:

Marcski wrote

The poma had the best snow and least crowds on the mountain.

Plattekill represent!

A few from the Copper State and some repeats from the Arizona thread.

Had a fun "proud dad" moment at Whiteface today...

Almost at the bottom of the mountain I pulled off to the side of the trail to give my legs a rest.  As usual the kids were just ahead of me.  A patroller skied over to me and said "Are those your kids?"  Whenever I hear that, I automatically think "uh oh, what have they done now?" but the patroller said "Wow those kids are good skiers!"  I didn't recognize him, but I glanced at his badge and let's just say he's a well known patroller, got a trail named after him (his dad actually).  Made a great day even better.

Good work Jeff


For reasons I can't totally explain, I am moving Kid Stoke into The Woodstove.

That is all.

What a day. Neve and I went to Gore this morning and the skiing was good. We did maybe 6 or 7 laps, and quit due to a lack of patience with the "lift line."

Lunch in town and back to the cabin.  The snow on our trails was hanging in with a soft crust (35 degrees) on the untracked snow. Tracks themselves were soft enough.

I headed out to do a little crust busting. Neve asked if she could come.

"It's funky out there you sure?"

"Yes!"

We worked on step turns and stem turns and we did some grooming by sidestepping up the steepest parts and around the corners.  We probably skied four miles, with a decent amount of climbing.

She was awesome, learning, copying and loving it.

"Dad this is like skiing and hiking at the same time."

She was so into it, and really good too. Plus I am rocking Merrill Doubles and Karhu XCD GTs, while she was on kids rental slippers.

Our trail system is like a mini nordic BC learning area.

I can't express how pumped I am by how jazzed she was.  

I think we both knew that today, my daughter "got" me.

Harv,
Learn from Petronio, cultivate a friendship for your daughter with some other kids at Gore. Maybe someone else on the forum has a daughter near the same age. Otherwise you will find yourself all alone in that cabin or heaven forbid, becoming an indoor winter soccer family. Here is the tough love - by the time she is 13 she will not want to ski with you and the best you can hope for is that she at least wants to come up to the cabin during ski season to see her friends. You may think I am being an asshole by saying it but ask others who have been through this and see if they don't agree.

PeeTex wrote

Harv,
Learn from Petronio, cultivate a friendship for your daughter with some other kids at Gore. Maybe someone else on the forum has a daughter near the same age.

 Harv's fam (and anyone else) is more than welcome to ski with my family posse at Gore.  We ski with a couple other families and typically have 4 to 6 kids (2 are mine) and 3 or 4 adults in our group.  We ski the whole mountain and have as much fun on greens as we do on double blacks. Heavy preference for trees when they are in play, but there are always some kids and adults who stick to the trails.  Age range 8 to about 14, but younger and older are welcome.  PM anytime, we are at Gore most weekends (well, not so much so far this year, but...)

Or look at the season long programs
Mt Adventure at Gore, Cloudsplitter Club at WF, Nysef at either
The kids form long term friendships with the other kids in thier groups
When they reach teen years then the apprentice program or become instructors.  Those kids are an incredibly tight knit group especially the ones that I know that were Cloudsplitters and now teach together.

Ski teaching also looks really good on college applications especially if they get thier Psia level 1 cert.  I've had parents tell me it was the difference maker in getting into a better college.