We're a Ski Family

Magic Carpet Ride

We love love love to ski and snowboard, so naturally we want our children to share our passion. Our first experience was great. We stayed on the Magic Carpet at Marmot Basin. This is the best area for little ones and beginners. We stayed just long enough and everyone left happy!

The following trip to the magic carpet Elijah kept pointing at the chair. Yay! He was hooked already. From here we took him to the school house chair. This area is wide open and the chair isn’t too high up or very far up the mountain. So the run down is just long enough for little legs.

The rest of the season was great. My only complaint is that we didn’t make it up to the ski hill as much as we had initially planned.

Don't Skip the Lessons

man crouched next to child learning to ski - mountains and skiers in background

The following year Elijah is now 3 and we are ready to explore more of the mountain with him. I highly recommend purchasing an Edgie Wedgie for your child’s first time on skis. We also used a harness for a few days, but didn’t find it to be very helpful and some ski instructors will advise you not too as your child depends on you to stop. We were having fun until we were not having fun anymore.

This is when we needed to hire an instructor. We found that Elijah would lay in the snow crying for us, but somehow for her he would listen to his coach's instructions. He had a great time skiing with her and learned a lot. After a few lessons we were enjoying ski together again. We continued with the private lessons for the rest of the season and by the end he was really flying!

Mini Mountain Ski Program

young child with ski instructor and mascot jasper the bear at a ski hill — Getting Ski Tips From Jasper The Bear

The last two years Elijah has enjoyed the Mini Mountains Ski Program offered at Marmot Basin. He is now skiing everywhere and fast! (almost too fast for his mom).

We are already looking forward to next season already as Quinn will be old enough to attend their daycare program and Elijah will have the stamina to ski the whole day! He has already been asking when he can join the Jasper Freeride Ski Team.

Elijah talks about his Olympic dreams but the best part of watching him ski is his pure joy when he challenges himself.

Family Ski Vacations

Can you believe it? It’s time to start planning your winter ski trips. Marmot Family Ski Trips has custom packages for families & you can even register kids as young as 6 years old for ski school.

man teaching a child to ski - holding straps to the child's safety harness - snow-covered trees nad sign pointing to ski runs

But what do you do if you have a 6 year old and little ones not quite ready to manage the ski hill. It can be great fun to get out to play in the snow with your infants but you might not want to use up a day at the hill making snowmen when there’s plenty of snow at playgrounds in town for those sorts of activities.

It’s great to give opportunities for your bigger kids to fully take advantage of the hill by finding childcare for your wee ones. My Jasper Nanny will be happy to build snowmen in town, go skating, take adventure walks and other fun activities so that everyone at the end of the day is happy.