A Natural

We hit the sweet-spot; that age between too young to get past the cold and discomfort and too old to be fearless and full of pure excitement. “SkIan” hit the slopes for the first time, and he was so good. He had Mom and Dad’s undivided attention, as Maggie had Grammie’s, and he was good to go. He strapped those boots on, clipped into those skis, and down the bunny slope at Breckenridge we went. About ¾ of the way down with Dad we had a moment. Ian was down, knees twisted and skis entangled. It was HOT at the bottom of that hill in the sun with the helmet and all. Ian looked up and said very calmly but very seriously, “I can’t do this.” We looked at him and said “oh yes you can… come on, get up, we’re almost to the lift”. Having ridden on the chairlift this summer at Copper Mountain, he was really looking forward to doing it again. So that got him back up on his skis and down the rest of the hill. We passed up the “magic carpet”, passed up the T-bar, and went straight for the SuperChair. He sat between us on the lift and looked around and took it all in: He looked as though he’d done this a thousand times. We got to the top and made our exit strategy, which was to each take an arm and go straight. He didn’t falter, didn’t fall, and when we came to a stop he said “does Jace know how to ski already?”. When we responded yes, he does, that was it. Down the hill we went, and he wanted nothing to do with “pizza pie” slowing down or stopping. By the second run down, Ian was not only flying next to Daddy with his skis perfectly parallel and steady as a rock, but he wanted to go faster. Finally we decided that the kid really needed to learn how to slow down and stop, or it would be trouble shortly. So we picked a nice quiet side-slope, and he did it alone. We told him to turn his skis before he got to Daddy, waiting a few yards down slope. He did it! He fell, but every time he did he got more enthusiastic. His skis naturally formed the “snow plow” as he turned to slow down, and just like that, he was skiing. Suddenly Matt and I started to dream out loud of the family ski trips, the new equipment and season passes; the life with slightly older kids we’ve been excited for. We’re going to Jackson, Telluride, Taos, the Alps! But first, we’ll do a few more days on the bunny slopes. We’re pretty proud of our little alpine athlete.