We all enjoy the moment it’s time to get the suitcase out of the cupboard and start packing for our highly anticipated holiday. However, for families heading off for a ski holiday, the packing process is essential for ensuring that there aren’t any tears during the holiday (and it’s not the kids tears I’m talking about!)
Pre-kids our skiing holidays were very different, most involved epic days on the hill followed by après-ski and a good soak in the bath. With kids our days are spent battling with zips, asking a thousand times whether they need the toilet before zipping them into their ski suits, the relentless promise of hot chocolate and Nutella crepes for well behaved kids.
Because we love to ski, we want our kids to love it too, we dream of the day that we can ski as a family, each under their own effort, battling with their own zips and responsible for carrying their own skis! We know the kids will be faster than us and out-ski us but for a few runs we can enjoy the mountain as a skiing family. This dream rests upon on our kids enjoying skiing from an early age, so how can we help that?
- Don’t push them – Listen to your kids and if they want to stop and go for hot chocolate then do it. I’ve seen kids crying their eyes out and parents held to ransom in the hope of one more hour skiing. Don’t put yourself or your kid through that, quit whilst you’re ahead.
- Skin protection – Sun cream before you head out and re-applied during the day. Also for poor weather days a cold cream to protect delicate
skin on their faces and hands. - Warm kids are happy kids – You know your child, do they get cold quickly, how many layers will they need. Ski mittens are warmer than ski gloves, buy a pair of liners for extra warm hands? It’s so easy to leave items of clothing in restaurants and on lifts so I always pack a spare, easily to replace than spend time retracing your tracks.
- Flasks – Sometimes it’s not possible to reach a restaurant for a hot drink. Pack a flask filled with warm Ribena or hot chocolate to ensure you can keep the kids warm in the inside
- Treats – Skiing as a family will more than likely be during the school holidays and that means bigger and longer queues for lifts and time sitting on the lifts. Plan a game you can play in the queue and chair lift and have a pocket full of rewards/bonbons to keep the little ones happy. Remember to find ones that are unwrapped then there’s no need to take their gloves off or take any additional rubbish onto the mountain.
- Warm up for Skiing – Whatever sport you do, it’s important for adults and children alike to prepare your muscles for exercise by warming up and activating the muscles you’ll be using in that sport, this improves performance and can help prevent injury. Begin good habits for later life by warming up as a family, follow these simple warm up exercises from our BeFitApps video
Happy Skidays!
- Leaving your Ski Fitness to the last minute! - November 15, 2017
- Tips for a kid-happy Ski Holiday - November 9, 2017
- How to download and play our SkiFit programme - September 5, 2017