Heading out to rip some turns on a snowy day can be really fun, until I remember that Im skiing with a six and nine-year-old who usually need help putting on their own mittens. Not that I don’t like skiing with my kids, but like everything with parenting, you have to give up a lot, andI’vehad to succumb to the fact that when Im on the slopes with them, I probably wont complete a run from top to bottom without stopping any less than a gazillion times. On a good day, I might be able to link three turns in a row on a blue. Were all good on greens, but the kids need to progress and be challenged, so we stick to blues for now.
Dont get me wrong, Im thrilled to be passing my love of the sport on to them. I know this wont last forever, and Im prepared for the inevitable day when my kids skills surpass mine. But until then, I find solace not in flying down an expert run like I used to, but rather in rediscovering the simple joys of skiing through my kids eyes, like shuttle busses, follow the leader and lunch.
With snow in the forecast, I wanted to go skiing, but the kids were not having it. Until I suggested we go to Copper. They love Copper, Im not sure exactly why because we ski a lot of places and they sometimes get the resorts confused, but Copper seems to stand out in their minds.
When we arrived at the resort and parked in the remote lot I told them wed be taking a shuttle bus to the base area, youd have thought I told them Santa was coming to live with us, they were over the moon excited. They love shuttlebuses basically anytime they can ride in a vehicle while standing up.
We were walking to catch the shuttle and Georgia, the 6-year-old, was spilling all the poles she was in charge of, I was balancing two pairs of skis, and Braedon, the 9-year-old, was clomping along in his boots and dragging his skis across the parking lot. Apparently we must have been a site to see because the shuttle driver actually got out of the vehicle and came out to help us. Score one for guest service!
The base area was looking festive for the holidays, and for Coppers 40th Anniversary Celebration. There were Christmas trees, disco balls, lights and tents with demos and samples.
We took a run and found that the best snow was on the edge of the run along the fence. Braedon kept snug along the boundary while Georgia kept turning into the fence and getting stuck. So I suggested we do follow the leader, with me being the leader, and we navigated our way down, bouncing from snow pile to snow pile despite Braedons insistence that we go in the trees.
Coppers superpipe was hosting the North Face Park and Pipe Open Series. We took the lift next to the pipe and the kids were blown away by watching the athletes pop up over the lip, spin and grab before dropping back down out of sight. Theyd never seen that before and wanted to watch more. So we skied over to the pipe butcouldn’tget much of a view. We decided that getting a seat in the lodge next to the window and watching from there would be a good plan for lunch.
As always, the kids eyes were bigger than their stomachs, but thatdidn’tstop Braedon from getting a hamburger the size of his helmet. (notice the pipe in the background).
The kid impressed and downed that thing in one sitting.
The snow was coming down good now and we had just enough time to do one more run before heading home, or at least heading to the closest Starbucks for apres: two small kids vanilla steamers and one two pump chai with soy.
