u/wezworldwide

Hi everyone! My husband and I ski/snowboard and really would love to get our 4 year old up the mountain so we can all ride together this season.

He has toyed around on both skis and a snowboard over the last two years, but we’ve hit a few roadblocks and could really use some advice from fellow skiing parents:

• He gets tired very quickly. We did one private lesson last year, and it completely exhausted him to the point where he couldn't finish.
• We haven't been able to get him on a chairlift yet.
• We’ve been using a racer chaser (leash/harness), but now I’m worried that might have been a mistake

. A instructor told me too never start a kid this way bc they’ll only learn to skip straight (we were mid bunny hill during this)

Our ultimate goal is to keep him excited about the snow without pushing him too hard.

Private

1. vs. Week-long Group? Would a one-on-one private lesson be better to gently get him over the chairlift hump, or does the social aspect of a week-long group program keep kids more motivated?

Both are a big expense for us, but we are not instructors (clearly) and want to get him off on the right foot

Would love to hear your experiences with this age. Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Sorry didn’t mean to come off really intense — we definitely don’t push him when he’s clearly done. when he’s done, we go in and have a cookie. Sometimes we get to the mountain and it’s just playing in the snow with ski boots on feels like a win for the day. not trying to force it on him, just foster a love… sometimes we see 3 and 4 year olds at the top of the mountain and we’re like are we missing something?

It is prepared for you. If you don’t catch anything, you go hungry.