Tag Archives: Family Skiing

Flips Are Fantastic

flip

We took our Flip Mino for a test-drive on our recent trip to Whistler, so today for Photo Friday I’m going to showcase some video clips which we took on that trip instead of still photos – just for fun.

Setting up the Flip is incredibly easy. Literally, you take it out of the box, connect it to your PC and once charged, it just works. It’s also tiny, a truly pocket-sized device. The geek in me loves the fact that there are no memory cards or other storage media to fiddle with. This is truly a well-designed product. Taking videos is just a snap, so easy in fact, that I was able to record this short clip while snowboarding along-side CAM.

And here’s one the WanderDad took of BigB and me coming in towards the Catskinner chair on Blackcomb.

I have two small criticisms of the Flip Mino: firstly, 2x digital zoom isn’t quite enough for filming your children tearing down mountains. They become indistinguishable dots on the horizon very quickly. The range of the zoom is only about 30 feet which is OK, but not great. Secondly, within moments of downloading my video clips to my PC, I found myself hunting around online for video editing software. The application supplied with the Flip is very good at helping a novice user navigate through downloading and copying videos from the device to the PC, but does very little else.

Wander on over to DeliciousBaby for some more Photo Friday fun. And if you’re so inclined, Amazon.com has a great selection of Flip camcorders.

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Whistler Trip Report Jan 2009

CIMG0650

We hadn’t actually planned to go to Whistler for New Year, but the whacky pre-Christmas weather in Seattle meant that by January 30th we had spent most of the previous 10 days rattling around the house and everyone was suffering from cabin fever. WanderDad heroically took the boys sledding and we went for some walks in our neighborhood, but the weather was truly conspiring against even these feeble attempts at exercise. The precipitation seemed to be switching randomly between snow, sleet and rain causing us to get sopping wet on each expedition.

Just for kicks, late on January 30th, we had a look at deals and specials on the WhistlerBlackcomb website. Surprisingly, even with the recent economic woes, there didn’t seem to be any significant reducations available for accommodation (our biggest expense on a trip to Whistler). Interesting, but suspicious. I checked a few of the internet booking engines, but again, didn’t find anything which jumped out as a recession-worthy pricing. At this point, the WanderDad, his heart set on a few days of hardcore powder fun, dismissed my obvious ineptitude and took the driving seat. Going straight to Priceline.com he entered a ridiculously low bid price ($150) for a 4-star hotel room in Whistler Village – and it was accepted! For New Year’s Eve!!

It’s exciting to see how Whistler is pulling out all the stops for the 2010 Olympics, starting with the improvements to the Sea-to-Sky Highway (Hwy 99) from Vancouver. Our trip to Whistler took 4.5 hours door-to-door including 20 minutes at the U.S.-Canadian border. More passing lanes and better road surfaces on Hwy 99 are welcome improvements and definitely make the road safer to drive.

CIMG0646Whistler Valley from the Peak2Peak Gondola

The Peak-to-Peak gondola is definitely an exciting addition to the resort. Before our trip, I was adamant that I would wait a few seasons before taking the 11minute ride between the Roundhouse Lodge (on Whistler Mt.) and the Rendevous (on Blackcomb Mt.). As we all know, when you travel with kids, you will do anything to keep them happy and so my terror of unsafe engineering, collapsing gondola towers and almost 2 miles of unsupported span was tossed aside and I marched into the super-sized gondola. We skied Whistler in the morning and Blackcomb in the afternoon and didn’t loose the hour it has taken in prior years to download from one mountain and upload to the other. I’ll just need to work on my worries before we visit again.

For various reasons, making the pre-season ski swaps and sales didn’t quite make my list this fall, so we found ourselves packing the car for our trip without any equipment for our boys. Without time to check out local retailers, we decided to rent at the resort ‘just this once’. So, here’s a quick summary of this year’s equipment rental pricing:
The resort offers rental packages which can be booked in advance with a 30% discount at Equipment Rentals. You can ignore this. The rates – with discount – are higher than rates for comparable packages at rental locations in Whistler village. We used Summit Sports paying $60 for a four-day skis/boots/poles package + a 10% discount since this outlet was in the hotel where we were staying. Affinity Sports has slightly better pricing ($50 for four-day rentals). For comparison, a weekly rental for the same package costs $30 at the Joe’s Sports store in Seattle. (Guess where I’ll be this coming weekend.)

When you ski with kids, it takes longer than you think it should to get out in the morning; they need take an unbelievable number of food and potty breaks; and if it’s too windy, too cold or just too something, you may end up coming down the mountain early. But on a good day, it’s so worth it. We committed to learning how to ski and teaching our children to ski ten years ago when we first visited Whistler – inspired by the many multi-generational family groups we saw out on the mountain together. Our investment is finally paying off. On this trip, we were definitely playing catch-up to our kids.

If you’re visiting the Whistler area soon, here’s our choices for ‘run of the day’ (chosen by BigB and CAM):
Day 1: Whistler Mt. Roundhouse to Creekside: Pony Trail to Franz’s – a long, long run to get your ski legs going.
Day 2: Blackcomb Mt: Wishbone to Zig Zag – fun, fun, fun. Some wide sweeping sections, some narrow steeps and a long curve around to the Excelerator chair.
Day 3: Blackcomb Mt: Dragon Alley (Kid’s Terrain Garden) to Connector. This is what makes Whistler such fun for families: kid-sized gladed tree runs – groomed, no less. Dragon Alley and it’s pair run Black Forest both let out onto Connector for a lazy swoop down to the Solar Coaster Express.

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powder-pigs

planning family ski trips

powder-pigs
CAM and BigB at Snoqualmie

It’s just about that time of year when, in my household, we start thinking of winter sports. It’s hard not to, we get mail or email almost daily from one of the many ski resorts in Washington or British Columbia enticing us to buy season passes or to book a ski trip early this year. Ha! Not in this economy. But since we’ve skied for the past ten years with our kids (you have to do something to get them outside in the wet and miserable Pacific Northwest winters) I have some tips on planning a ski trip with kids which hopefully, you’ll find useful.

If you are planning a ski trip, the first step is obviously to choose where you want to ski. Start by choosing a region: e.g. the Rockies; the Northeast; British Columbia. Once you have made that choice, you will probably find that there are multiple resorts in that area. The Lake Tahoe area in California is an extreme example of this: there are 15 different ski resorts around Lake Tahoe. When we visited this area in 2004, we skied at three different resorts during the five-day trip and even the kids enjoyed comparing the resorts.

skiing-with-kids-first-time
BigB, three years old, first time on skis – again at Snoqualmie – taking lessons with Powder Pigs, a local ski school.

Childcare Facilities
A must for any family with infants and toddler. Not all resorts have childcare facilities for infants. Even where such facilities are available, advance reservations are usually required since the number of available places is limited. Additionally, the location of these facilities is also important: the best option is that the childcare is on the ski hill for ease of access for you in case of emergency.

Ski Schools
Most resorts have some form of ski school. If you are looking for lessons for children, it is important to look for a school which advertises this as Kid’s Clubs or Kid’s Programs. For younger children look for small group sizes and half-day lesson options paired with a suitable childcare program.

Choosing a resort
For ease and comfort, choose a resort where all the off-mountain facilities are clustered in a village-type location at the base of the mountain and select accommodation which has convenient access to services. Get a copy of a resort map either from the resort website or by calling guest services in advance to help with this.

Accommodation
Most ski resorts provide a variety of accommodation types: from typical hotel rooms to condos and houses. Check a resort map before you book your accommodation choices. For example, if you know you’re going to use the childcare facilities and they are located down the mountain from your ski-in-ski-out condo, you will find yourself trudging uphill every evening most likely carrying your child and his or her equipment.

Pricing
Skiing is expensive. You can pay up to $90 for a daily lift ticket at some of the major U.S. resorts. Ticket prices will vary across resorts within a region and over time during a ski season, based on holidays and school closures. Christmas is more expensive than any other time during the season for lift tickets and accommodation. Equipment rental prices do not usually change within a season.

Additional Activities
Cross-country skiing, snow tubing, snowmobiling, sleigh rides, snowshoeing. These are all winter activities which may be fun if you want to take a break from downhill skiing or snowboarding.

Equipment rental
Renting ski equipment at resorts is usually more expensive than off-mountain. To save money, look for a retailer in your neighborhood from whom you can rent equipment more cheaply than at your resort. However, if you are flying to your ski resort, keep in mind that your airline may levy additional costs for odd-size baggage. If your kids are new to skiing, equipment rental may make sense while they adjust to the new activity.

skiing-with-kids-independent-skier
CAM, my independent skier.

There are no ski resorts in Ireland and skiing was a tremendously exotic sport to me until I first tried it. And then I fell down – a lot. We are lucky to live in an area where day-trips to ski are possible and this has meant that it is more affordable for us to get our kids out on the mountain during the winter. Now I’m hooked. I will watch the weather reports for about six different resorts from now through the end of the ski season. My many years of driving to a local ski hill weekend after weekend in snow, sleet and rain are starting to pay off: last season we skied as a family (i.e. we didn’t have to enroll the kids in ski school) and the boys even took some runs on their own.

Do you have a favorite family ski resort? What are the features or facilities which make it better than others? Do you have a tip for planning a family ski vacation to add to the list above?
Leave a comment with your recommendations and suggestions.

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