Skiing has been a blessing for our family. While our kids didn’t grow up in the era of cell phones attached to their bodies, there were plenty of distractions for them and, frankly, for us, to splinter the family unit. One experience that pulled each of us away from personal distractions and brought us together was skiing.

As an avid skier, my forever hope was that our kids would come out of the womb saying, “Take me skiing.” Of course in my images they would have just appeared with ski clothes and skis on. My wife didn’t think that was such a good idea given she was more directly involved in the birthing process than I. Go figure. Fortunately, I married an avid skier (we shall leave aside for now whether that was a prerequisite…), and a skiing family was born.

What followed in many ways is both imprinted in my memory banks and fuzzy as in a picture you love that is a tad out of focus – weekends in northern Vermont with howling winds, deeply low temperatures and occasionally deep soft snow, and crazy mornings with one kid on your shoulders and one between your legs as you snowplowed your way down to the Snowbird ski school. When the kids got a little older après ski was non-alcoholic and instead centered on snowball fights.

Amazingly enough, some of the best memories are of nights spent with the five of us playing games or watching a stupid movie ensconced in the ski condo. Yes, we as parents had to sometimes say, “No, you can’t play hockey and no you can’t stay home for the high school party of the year”, but it worked. The family unit was glued together for those brief periods as time paused.

All this comes with a true confession…we didn’t teach our kids to ski. Particularly in hindsight I am not proud of that, but I suppose I was too selfish of my ski time and wasn’t patient enough. Hence the morning dashes to daycare and ski school. We would often try to ski with the brood after ski school, but usually the kids were spent and needed hot chocolate and a warm fire. And then the shock of all time – once the kids were good enough to ski with us they were too embarrassed to be seen in the same county with their parents. We continued to ski as a family, but they were off with their friends and we were with ours. (One of my biggest fears was that one group would run into the other deep in the woods partaking in the evil weed.)

The kids ended up with their favorite ski instructors. Some weekends were even planned around whether Bridget was working at Jay Peak in Vermont. One weekend Bridget wasn’t supposed to work, but did when she found out we were coming up. Bridget – wherever you are…thank you for that! In fact Bridget, your name came up last night at the dinner table as we shared tales about about the astounding Alta powder day we had just shared. We hope you are skiing the steep and deep.

Several of their favorites at the Snowbird Ski School had a stock phrase – Get Speed; Stay High. And as the kids finally realized how incredible their parents were and would ski with us, this became a mantra for the whole group. Alta and Snowbird have many traverses, and much of the best terrain can be reached by getting speed and staying high on the traverses. Rarely does a ski day transpire without this phrase being used several times. And since skiing is life, it has in my mind seeped into the other parts of my life. It has come to mean stay active, stay lively, don’t slow down! And for some reason this phrase for me captures the family ski journey we have been on. We have gotten speed and we have stayed high (and almost always without the help of the evil weed).

Be Well; Ski Well.

By Kevin Dennis
conSKIerge co-founder

Kevin Dennis is a life long ski bum with a 34 year legal career on the side. Now retired, he skis 80+ days a year. While he lives in Alta UT in the winters, he has traveled extensively through skiing and has skied almost every major resort in North America (and many you have never heard of). He continues to hit the road often throughout the western United States and Canada and trips over the last several years have included ventures in British Columbia, Montana and Colorado. Whether you want to know about the behemoths like Aspen or Squaw or are interested in the road less travelled (Lost Trail Powder Mountain in Montana or Whitewater in BC anyone?), Kevin has been there, has an opinion and you will most likely have to tell him to shut up after a half hour!