How Not To Teach Your Kids To SKI

It was the coldest month of the year in the coldest place in Colorado. We’d pulled into the parking lot at Ski Cooper on that February morning and dashed into the lodge, vicious wind whipping any exposed skin. I briefly wondered if maybe this wasn’t the ideal first ski experience for my toddler. But no. We came here to ski, and damn it, we were going to ski.

- Samantha Berman

I’d driven up to Leadville the night before for an assignment for this magazine, bringing my two-year-old son along. I’d been eager to get him on skis all season, and this was our first real opportunity. I’d grown up in an East Coast ski family where, if were at a resort, we were skiing. No rolling to the lifts at 11 a.m. and knocking off after a late lunch at 2. Bell to bell.