Kid Stoke!

Outstanding!  Neve is steering to shape and will soon be tippin' to rip.  Very coachable, looks like she's following a real pro, soon to out-ski her Dad.  All the best.

Most excellent!   

We'd promised Neve a new Polly Pocket when she completed her Mountain Adventure lesson program.

The goods were delivered by both sides.

Actually, Zelda, a noted egalitarian, purchased TWO Pollys including GASP - a snowboarder:



The only reasonable thing to do was to prove the skier's superiority in a contest of skill and speed:



Of course the snowboarder cheated...





While the skier held her head high, and raced with dignity...



...she tried to close the gap, but it was too little too late...



In the end, it was ugly...



We need more snow!

Darn snowboarders, always straightlining while skiers make the turns....

Today could be the day....

  

Best wishes Danzilla, Mrs. D and the Danzillettes.

EDIT from Danzilla's FB Page:

"Baby Charlotte born Wednesday at 4:39 pm. Mommy and baby (and daddy) are all doing well!"

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Both of my girls started at 3, with the old play and ski program at Gore as well as days at Hickory.  To answer when is it not cool to ski with dad...They are now 15 and 17 and it goes day to day and it depends on the kind of skiing dad will do...and what friends are around.  I skied all day yesterday with my 15 year old (see TR on JasonWx visit to Gore) but it was a cruiser day.  If it was bumps and trees all day she wouldn't do it but my elder one would..again provided what friends are around.

Years ago, I was riding up the Straightbrook quad. There, on the cut off trail to Rumor, stood a man and his little son. I said " That's amazing. How old is he? "

" Three " was his reply.   " He's home schooled and he skis 100 days a year ".

They went on and skied down Double Barrel, which had very poor coverage. It was amazing to see a 3 yr old do it. He didn't rip it, but he did ski down it.

Later that day, I saw them skiing the Gondi liftline below Foxlair. I believe the father's name is Ben or maybe that is the son's name.

That kid would be 10 or 12ish now. I bet he's an awesome skier.

My son is 10 now and has been skiing since he was 4. He was in Play and Ski from age 4 to 6, and then joined the CloudSplitter Club at Whiteface when he was 7. He usually prefers to ski with his friends from the club, so we don't generally spend too much time skiing together. He's become a very good skier over the years. This week, he's been skiing with me and some of the people I usually ski with and he's been ripping it up!!!

We skied about 28500 feet of vertical yesterday and about 28800 today!!! I'm amazed that I'm even walking right now, never mind my son! It's been a REAL joy skiing with him these past couple of days, and has reinforced the whole reason I introduced him to skiing years ago. It's just been awesome!!!

My daughter, who is 14 now, has been skiing since she was 7. She also spent a lot of years in the Whiteface CloudSplitter Club and is now working as an apprentice instructor at Kid's Kampus at Whiteface.

I'm really hoping, and looking forward to be able to take a trip out West with them next season for their first Rocky Mountain skiing experience. Skiing is an AWESOME family activity!!!

P.S.: For anyone who may be interested or may have considered it, the CloudSplitter Club at Whiteface is a fantastic program and I highly recommend it!

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Thanks ... It held up well on the groomed stuff ... in today's powder on the other hand ... OUCH!!!

Harv: Neve repeat after me: "Tomorrow is my first powder day!"

Neve: Daddy what is powder?

Harv: Neve, powder is snow that is especially magic. It's extra good to ski on.

Neve: "Tomorrow is my first powder day!"

Not sure she totally gets it, but she did a bit of dance. She does it a lot.

Usually I tell her not to jump on the futon, but not this time. She was wondering what was up...


Powdance

Nice!!!

Gore's photo of the day, featuring Season Long Mountain Adventure kids:

http://www.goremountain.com/multimedia/photos.cfm

Harv I love the mini-me avatars.  Just stumbled across this thread again today.  Baby, wife and toddler are all doing great.  We spent a long weekend at Gore last weekend to get the wife her first turns of the year and do a little riding with the 2 1/2 year old.  I only got a few runs in, but what I did get were pretty sweet.

The 2 1/2 year old did one run each day and that was about all either of us could handle.  We checked with the ski school on Friday afternoon and they were able to get us a private lesson for her on Saturday morning which was great. She came down Ruby to Sunway on Friday and Saturday.  On Sunday we came down Ruby to Twister.  The only big trouble we had was at the bottom when we hit mashed potatos.  It took a while to get down each run but it was time well spent.  Lots of breaks, snowball fights, snowfort building and a few face plants.  It is tough doing a wedge all the way down with a toddler on the end of a pole - especially when I haven't been on skis for a few seasons.  Looking forward to more fun this coming weekend.  

Danzilla ... updates?

The Albany Times Union Blog "Outdoors" just published a two part interview with Jeff Alt, who gives tips about hiking with kids...

Good stuff:

http://blog.timesunion.com/outdoors/on-the-trail-with-kids-jeff-alts-words-of-wisdom-part-i/5677/

http://blog.timesunion.com/outdoors/on-the-trail-with-kids-jeff-alts-words-of-wisdom-part-ii/5514/

Anybody have their kids in Karate?

We just discovered it. It's way cheap and all about discipline.

Diggin it!

We actually just enrolled Daniel (age 7) in a karate program a few weeks ago, he really loves it.  He had checked it out about 2 yrs ago, when he was right around Neve's age now, and he didn't like it at all - too loud, more than he could handle.  That experience left me skeptical that he would like it now, but in fact it has been just great.  I can't wait until Sylvie's old enough (3 and a half now) - she's adopted from China and she's a total firecracker - I love the image of her running around shouting hi-yah, hi-YAH!

And here's more kid stoke.  I assumed 7 was too young to paddle, but one of Daniel's first grade classmates had a kayaking birthday party about a month ago.  The party was at a place called the Kayak Shack that rents kayaks on Fish Creek, the outlet of Saratoga Lake.  All the kids got their own boats and did surprisingly well, here's Daniel:

My parents live in Bolton Landing on Lake George, and Daniel used to love going out in the canoe with me, but ever since the birthday party he wants to kayak instead - my folks have a pair of kayaks, so it works out great.

At the risk of being accused of shameless self-promotion, here are links to TRs from a couple hikes we've done with the kids over the past couple weekends:
Snow Mountain via the Deer Brook Flume, Keene Valley
Cat Mountain, Bolton Landing
Like skiing, hiking with kids can be challenging but very rewarding.