Helpful Tips for the First Time Skier

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The House of Fauci’s recently went skiing as a family for the first time ever. We had a group of 5 adults and 4 kids under the age of 11. The only person in our group that had ever skied was Daddy Fauci, but the last time he skied was over 20 years ago! Since this was our first ski trip, we wanted to make sure that we had fun and that we did it right. Before we got to our ski destination, we did a lot of research on how to make the best ski trip ever and while we were there we learned quite a bit. Since I know there are a lot of first time skiers out there, I decided to compile a few helpful tips for the first time skier.

Here are some helpful tips that my family and I learned while enjoying our ski trip:

• Research your ski resort and find out the variety of slopes that they offer. Make sure that they have a simple ‘Bunny Slope‘ so you can practice and build confidence. In addition to contacting your resort, you can also search your ski resort on YouTube and look for videos that are posted from guests.
• Enroll your kids into ski school. This is important for a variety of reasons. It is important to enroll your kids into ski school so that a trained professional can give them the training and confidence that they need to ski successfully and not be scared. In addition, it is important that you enroll them in ski school so that the grown ups can focus on practicing their new skills without having to worry about the kids skiing uncontrollably down the hill and falling.
• Enroll yourself into a ski class. For the safety of yourself and others, learning the basics of skiing is a must.
• Try and schedule your ski trip during a time that the resort is not completely packed, aka not during the holidays. A packed resort makes it difficult for a new skier to focus and concentrate on skiing because there are so many people to ski around and dodge.
• Dress appropriately. Make sure to wear layers of clothing and have a place to put your clothing such as a locker or rented bin when you feel like you need to remove these layers. It is very important to be comfortable.
• Take it slow and do what works for you. If part of your ski group is ready to advance to a more challenging level and you aren’t, then don’t sweat it. While you are learning to ski, focus on you and do what makes you feel comfortable.
• Take breaks! It is so important that you don’t push yourself because skiing can be exhausting. There is a lot of climbing and moving your body in ways that you normally don’t move it, so please remember to take as many breaks as possible.
• Stay hydrated! It is so important to drink water while you are skiing. If you don’t, then like me, you may become very tired, get a headache, and not be able to focus. My advice is to take breaks and drink.
• Try your hardest not to beat yourself up. I will be very honest, I was not the best at skiing and I think it was partially from not taking enough breaks and exhausting myself but also from beating myself up. I was so focused on doing as good as the people around me, so I quit. There will be kids and senior citizens that ski better than you, but just keep trying and tell yourself that they were once you.

Do you have any helpful tips for the first time skier? Did I miss anything? What was your first ski experience like?