Ski Touring With Children (At Your Own Risk).
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

I think it must be normal, as parents, to want to impart some of the joy you experience - doing the things you love - to your children.
One of those things is ski touring.
More so for me than for my wife.
She likes it too, but not as much as biking in the summer.
However, it was winter at the time (a few weeks ago).
So, what are you going to do :) ?
We were actually inspired by friends of ours who did the same with their children a week or two before (and we borrowed some of their gear).
Admittedly, their kids are a few years older.
Anyway, start them young, as they say.
And so, we got our gear together and set off to a little valley I’m familiar with - and that’s quite safe - for our first ever family ski tour.
Now, they don’t make touring skis for very young children.
The solution?
They walk up on snow shoes, the parents carry their skis, and everyone enjoys the skiing down together.
Sounds simple.
But you (and we) forget the fact that 5 year old children are not that fond of walking for more than 5 minutes.
Especially uphill.
And especially for skiing when they’re used to going up by gondola.
“But why would we want to walk up to ski down, haven’t you heard of gondolas?”
After the initial excitement of the thought of the adventure wears off, getting them further uphill becomes a struggle of gigantic proportions.
In my mind it was all going to be so much easier.
Fresh air, fresh snow, family time, ski touring.
Alas, it was not to be.
Mostly, that is.
As I like to think: you always learn something, whether that something was a success or not.
Often more so when it was a failure.
And so we did as a family.
Well, it wasn’t a complete failure, to be fair.
Yes, we didn’t get as far as I would have liked, but we learned a lot about the logistics of attempting such an excursion and will be wiser (and quicker) next time.
We will also most likely be more tolerant with one another.
Especially me since I struggled with a 45 minute skin uphill for a 5 minute ski down.
Mostly on the snow covered forest road.
But then again, carving big lines in fresh powder was never the point of the family adventure.
Nope.
Apparently the point was to see how many sweets you could negotiate per step forward, for some of us.
It’s also funny how the questions / requests change depending on if you’re heading up / down.
Our son (when walking up for 5 minutes): “I want to ski down now! / I can’t anymore!”.
Our son (when we ski down): “Stop talking and goooooo!”.
Anyway, we all got home safely and had great fun on the (short) ski down.

Do you have any interesting stories or thoughts to share?
Simply hit reply and let me know / comment below.
Have a great week!
—
Until next time ✌🏽.
Cornelius
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