little kids skiing [was: Weekend Woodsy "Water Ski" Report]

On Tue, 8 Mar 2005 wrote:

We drove to Tawas Michigan and skied our sleds in 2 miles to a cabin,
thru 24" deep snow.

I ended up leaving all sled
contents along trail and skiing in to cabin with 4-yr-old girl laying
out exhausted (from tantrums) in sled. 7-yr-old boy was a trooper. I
then skied back for bags. Lesson: little kids who aren't good skiers
yet need to be sledded into deep-snow wilderness cabins from the
get-go. They ain't going to walk or teeter on tall sleds very happily.

We found out this year that keeping 4-yr-olds skiing requires bribes
of candy about every 20 meters.

They did just make the transition from strap-on skis to sns bindings
last month. Wow, can they ski now! I'm very impressed w/ the little
kid boots from Fischer. Way better than Salomon. The Fischer's are
real boots for small feet. The Salomon's are more flimsy, like they
expect you're only going to use them for 1 year anyway. And don't
look to be as well insulated either.

They're on SNS Jr bindings now and have to have an adult put their skis
on and off. I think I'm going to get them some of those SNS snow
monster bindings for next year so thry can hopefully do it themselves.

-Mitch

[Ken, I tried 3 times to post this via piper and it never came
through. Now that I'm at work I can post it via the news server.
Will be curious to see if it comes out on the e-mail list. I'm
wondering if it's being spam filtered for some odd reason.]

Mitch Collinsworth wrote:
On Tue, 8 Mar 2005 wrote:

We drove to Tawas Michigan and skied our sleds in 2 miles to a cabin,
thru 24" deep snow.

I ended up leaving all sled
contents along trail and skiing in to cabin with 4-yr-old girl laying
out exhausted (from tantrums) in sled. 7-yr-old boy was a trooper. I
then skied back for bags. Lesson: little kids who aren't good skiers
yet need to be sledded into deep-snow wilderness cabins from the
get-go. They ain't going to walk or teeter on tall sleds very happily.

We found out this year that keeping 4-yr-olds skiing requires bribes
of candy about every 20 meters.

They did just make the transition from strap-on skis to sns bindings
last month. Wow, can they ski now! I'm very impressed w/ the little
kid boots from Fischer. Way better than Salomon. The Fischer's are
real boots for small feet. The Salomon's are more flimsy, like they
expect you're only going to use them for 1 year anyway. And don't
look to be as well insulated either.

They're on SNS Jr bindings now and have to have an adult put their skis
on and off. I think I'm going to get them some of those SNS snow
monster bindings for next year so thry can hopefully do it themselves.

-Mitch

[Ken, I tried 3 times to post this via piper and it never came
through. Now that I'm at work I can post it via the news server.
Will be curious to see if it comes out on the e-mail list. I'm
wondering if it's being spam filtered for some odd reason.]


Had they done lots of skiing with strap-on skis and with hindsight do
you think the strap on ski stage was useful to them ? Did it help them
with coordination or does the "shuffling" come easily for kids ?

What about towing them ? Is a pulk a necessary option just in case they
feel tired ? I remember seeing a post here about a towing belt for
uphill sections for kids. Do the runners on pulks have the right
separation for groomed trails ?

We're thinking about getting our 4 year old onto skis for next winter
(too late now) and would like advice, hints, tips, links, etc ?



And just to completely try to highjack the thread and throw it into
confusion :

By the way, any good places to take him over Easter for late snow ?
We're in QC, Canada and are thinking about Duchesnay as it offers other
activities, but I have this feeling it will crawling with people... I
believe they hire pulks and the like though...

On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 16:58:16 -0500, Mark wrote:

Mitch Collinsworth wrote:
On Tue, 8 Mar 2005 wrote:

We drove to Tawas Michigan and skied our sleds in 2 miles to a cabin,
thru 24" deep snow.

I ended up leaving all sled
contents along trail and skiing in to cabin with 4-yr-old girl laying
out exhausted (from tantrums) in sled. 7-yr-old boy was a trooper. I
then skied back for bags. Lesson: little kids who aren't good skiers
yet need to be sledded into deep-snow wilderness cabins from the
get-go. They ain't going to walk or teeter on tall sleds very happily.

We found out this year that keeping 4-yr-olds skiing requires bribes
of candy about every 20 meters.

They did just make the transition from strap-on skis to sns bindings
last month. Wow, can they ski now! I'm very impressed w/ the little
kid boots from Fischer. Way better than Salomon. The Fischer's are
real boots for small feet. The Salomon's are more flimsy, like they
expect you're only going to use them for 1 year anyway. And don't
look to be as well insulated either.

They're on SNS Jr bindings now and have to have an adult put their skis
on and off. I think I'm going to get them some of those SNS snow
monster bindings for next year so thry can hopefully do it themselves.

-Mitch

[Ken, I tried 3 times to post this via piper and it never came
through. Now that I'm at work I can post it via the news server.
Will be curious to see if it comes out on the e-mail list. I'm
wondering if it's being spam filtered for some odd reason.]


Had they done lots of skiing with strap-on skis and with hindsight do
you think the strap on ski stage was useful to them ? Did it help them
with coordination or does the "shuffling" come easily for kids ?

What about towing them ? Is a pulk a necessary option just in case they
feel tired ? I remember seeing a post here about a towing belt for
uphill sections for kids. Do the runners on pulks have the right
separation for groomed trails ?

We're thinking about getting our 4 year old onto skis for next winter
(too late now) and would like advice, hints, tips, links, etc ?



And just to completely try to highjack the thread and throw it into
confusion :

By the way, any good places to take him over Easter for late snow ?
We're in QC, Canada and are thinking about Duchesnay as it offers other
activities, but I have this feeling it will crawling with people... I
believe they hire pulks and the like though...

On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 16:58:16 -0500, Mark wrote:

Mitch Collinsworth wrote:
On Tue, 8 Mar 2005 wrote:

We drove to Tawas Michigan and skied our sleds in 2 miles to a cabin,
thru 24" deep snow.

I ended up leaving all sled
contents along trail and skiing in to cabin with 4-yr-old girl laying
out exhausted (from tantrums) in sled. 7-yr-old boy was a trooper. I
then skied back for bags. Lesson: little kids who aren't good skiers
yet need to be sledded into deep-snow wilderness cabins from the
get-go. They ain't going to walk or teeter on tall sleds very happily.

We found out this year that keeping 4-yr-olds skiing requires bribes
of candy about every 20 meters.

They did just make the transition from strap-on skis to sns bindings
last month. Wow, can they ski now! I'm very impressed w/ the little
kid boots from Fischer. Way better than Salomon. The Fischer's are
real boots for small feet. The Salomon's are more flimsy, like they
expect you're only going to use them for 1 year anyway. And don't
look to be as well insulated either.

They're on SNS Jr bindings now and have to have an adult put their skis
on and off. I think I'm going to get them some of those SNS snow
monster bindings for next year so thry can hopefully do it themselves.

-Mitch

[Ken, I tried 3 times to post this via piper and it never came
through. Now that I'm at work I can post it via the news server.
Will be curious to see if it comes out on the e-mail list. I'm
wondering if it's being spam filtered for some odd reason.]


Had they done lots of skiing with strap-on skis and with hindsight do
you think the strap on ski stage was useful to them ? Did it help them
with coordination or does the "shuffling" come easily for kids ?

What about towing them ? Is a pulk a necessary option just in case they
feel tired ? I remember seeing a post here about a towing belt for
uphill sections for kids. Do the runners on pulks have the right
separation for groomed trails ?

We're thinking about getting our 4 year old onto skis for next winter
(too late now) and would like advice, hints, tips, links, etc ?



And just to completely try to highjack the thread and throw it into
confusion :

By the way, any good places to take him over Easter for late snow ?
We're in QC, Canada and are thinking about Duchesnay as it offers other
activities, but I have this feeling it will crawling with people... I
believe they hire pulks and the like though...


Skip the strap on binding stage. Our first kid had strap ons to start
with and was frustrated most of the time. As soon as we got him into
real boots and bindings(75mm) he enjoyed skiing much more and when we
put him into SNS he took off. The youngest we've kept in NNN since he
was two and he is able to keep up for 5ks now at age 7. Anything
longer and we end up linking ski poles and doing a little towing.


System bindings are easier to get in and out of than strap ons too,
IMBO.

g.c.

I find that when the kids want to play they do OK with any kind of ski,
but also that a proper ski for the conditions that things go a lot
better. We had undersized narrow skis for our 7-yr-old boy for rough
yard skiing this year: it was a little lame, they sliced in, not
stable, reduced glide. I just got a set of longer wide boards and they
seem much better. I also note that they have skis and appearances that
they like, but also that they grow to like the ones that are 'theirs'
even if they're old ugly.

I find that the boy doesn't want to go out skiing but he does want to
go out and be chased and if there's snow then chasing with skis is the
way he wants to go. It's funny finding what works to get them out
there.

I sensed a little role model / peer action happen, too. A 'leader'
neighbor kid declared that he liked XC skiing and liked doing it at our
house and did only KDP. I then noticed our boy doing KDP and also
having a more positive view of skiing. (Since the big boy did...)

Both of our kids are kind of oblivious while they ski or bike or
whatever. The 4-yr-old will especially toodle along looking up at the
sky mostly or kicking in the snow. They're not "skiing" per se. They
proudly *call* it skiing but they don't really care if skis are on
their feet.

Fun stuff.

--JP