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Colorado A boy's first Highlands Bowl hike

Wade

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I just got back from a week with my family and some friends at Aspen and Snowmass. What a fantastic week! It started with blue skies and mid 40s with north facing aspects up high still holding good snow, and finished with consistent snow over the last two days, and skied deeper than reported from first chair Thursday to last chair on Friday.

My son, Finn (6) and daughter, Milly (almost 4) were scheduled to each spend four days in ski school, and ski with mom and dad for the other two days we were there. Unfortunately, Milly didn't feel well for a lot of the trip, and wound up just skiing three days,all with the ski school. She had a great time regardless. She has the ability to make anything she does fun, is the world's biggest fan of ski school, and after 10 or so days on snow before the trip, made a lot of progress while she was there. She wound up her trip by skiing a couple of blue runs, and had a blast.

Finn suffered a little from altitude on his first day skiing, and was a bit out of sorts at the end of that day. By day two he was better, skiing well, and his ski school instructor gave us a great report on his skiing. In the same way as I'm careful not to oversell Finn's abilities when signing him up for ski school, I'm always a little skeptical of the reports I get back from his instructors - I try to ask detailed questions to make sure they're not just telling me what they think I want to hear. By the instructor's account, he was killing it, but I'd get to see for myself the following day.

On day three, Finn skied Snowmass with the grown ups. There was a group of 8 of us, a couple of intermediates, with the rest advanced or expert skiers. We started the day on groomers, and he was skiing very well, making nice round turns, and generally comfortably keeping up with the adults. The group split after that and he skied some off piste stuff with me and a few others. We skied Garrett Gulch, and he'd obviously improved in the bumps, linking some very smooth turns together in between some not so good ones.

At lunch, one of our group had a friend join us. It turns out he was a race coach, and Finn quickly had a great rapport with him. Over the course of the afternoon, he gave Finn a couple of tips (keeping his body facing down the hill and a small adjustment to his hands). These weren't anything Finn hadn't heard before, but whether it was because they came from the race coach, or they were phrased in a different way, he instantly incorporated them into his skiing, and took it up another notch. Skiing behind him that afternoon was an incredible experience for me. I just couldn't believe how well he was skiing, His turn shape was fantastic and the way he was moving his body was like a good skier, rather than a little kid learning to ski. It was one of the funnest days on skis I've ever had.

We got lucky with Finn's ski school experience the next two days. He had been placed in the top level group for his age, and he was the only kid in the group for those two days - he had a two day private lesson. He had the same instructor as his first two days, and they obviously had worked well together, and got on great.

On the morning of his fourth day at ski school, Finn tugged on my pants and whispered in my ear that he wanted me to ask his instructor if he could ski Highlands Bowl. He'd seen pictures of his mom and me hiking / skiing it. We'd talked about it before the trip, and I told him that I didn't think he was ready for it, but I promised to talk to his instructor about it, and if the instructor thought he could hike and ski it safely, then we'd do it. So I asked the instructor. He said they'd work on skiing some steeper terrain that day to make sure, but as long as Finn was with other people who knew what they were doing, he thought he could handle it.

So Friday morning, Finn, my wife and I headed over to Highlands. It was cold. We headed up for a warm up run, and skied down to the mid mountain restaurant. Finn's hands and feet were cold so we grabbed some hand and toe warmers, and some hot chocolate. We talked some more about the Bowl and how we'd ski it. We talked about the importance of listening and following instructions, about self arrest techniques, and about staying calm even if we're uncomfortable or scared. Finn said he was good to go, so after riding the lift up and stopping by the patrol shack, we skied over to the cat.

We had a one cat wait, and got a seat on the second one. While we were riding up, Finn seemed pretty focused on what we were about to do, which made me feel a little more relaxed. My biggest concern for the Bowl wasn't really that Finn couldn't hike it or couldn't ski it, it was more that he wouldn't pay attention or wouldn't immediately do the things I asked him to do while we were out there.

After getting off the cat, we got our gear together and talked a little more about the hike while we waited for the other groups to start moving. We talked about concentrating on our next step, how to use his poles to help him hike, and being considerate of faster hikers. With that, we set off, and the hike went very well. Almost everyone who passed us (and a few that we passed) gave our little guy a shout out and some encouragement. It was great.

We had no illusions of hiking to the summit that day. Our "summit" was about 100 yards past the Rock Out Gate. We got there, rested, took a few pictures, and talked about skiing down. We talked about some of the technical things Finn had been working on and how they still applied even in very steep terrain. We talked about how to use our poles and reaching down the hill and keeping our body moving in the right direction. We talked again about self arrest techniques and being safe, and then got our skis and gear on and got ready to ski.

We dropped in a little before Boxcar and traversed over to the more north facing side of that chute. Given the snow report showed 6" or so in the last 24 hours, I was surprised that the snow was as deep as it was (between boot top and knee deep for me). That would have been awesome if it was just me and my wife skiing it. It was less awesome for a 53 lb 6 year old without any real experience in that type of snow. The snow was almost waist deep for him and it was clear it was going to be a struggle.

We talked again at the end of our traverse about how we were going to ski the run. Because of the amount of new snow, we decided I'd ski first, then Finn, and then my wife, and that Finn would ski in my tracks to help mitigate the issue he was going to have skiing in that much powder. I'd be in a position to get in front of him to stop him if he fell and started sliding. My wife would be in a position to help him up if he fell.

The first few turns went great. I was purposely moving a lot of snow as I was skiing, and Finn made a couple of pretty good turns in those tracks. After about 6 turns, Finn fell. It wasn't a bad fall and he didn't slide. Unfortunately, one of his poles came off his wrist, and after 10 minutes of searching, we couldn't find it. That rattled Finn quite a bit. After working on his pole plants so much, he didn't think he could ski the run without poles, he was upset about losing his pole, and he was getting cold. It was a difficult few minutes trying to get him past that stuff, and focused back on what we were doing. I eventually convinced him that it would be fine and that I'd ski it without poles also (I held his remaining pole and mine in one hand which seemed to be good enough for him).

The rest of the run to the gully was basically slow linked traverses as I was now more concerned about just getting everyone down safely than I was about anyone skiing it well. We got to the gully without any more incidents or falls, and had a pretty good, fun ski through the gully back to the lift. Finn was still a little pre-occupied with having lost a pole and not wanting to "ski with his hands out like a baby", but he got over that pretty quickly.

We headed up the Deep Temerity lift and skied down to the mid mountain restaurant to warm up and grab some lunch.

Looking back at it, it was a great experience. Watching my son hike up and seeing the happiness and the sense of accomplishment on his face when we got to the end of our hike was something I'll never forget. That said, if I had to make the decision again to go or not to go on that day, I would have chosen not to go. In the conditions we had two days earlier, I know Finn could have skied it well, and would have had a great time doing it. The day we went though, there was much more snow than I expected based on the reports, and it was just too much snow on that terrain for his size and level of experience. Regardless, we had a great time, and we each have a great memory of something not that many kids Finn's age get to do,

Finn is pumped for the rest of the season, and looking forward to our father / son trip to Stowe at Easter (assuming there's some snow left). Here's some pics of the hike:

Finn Highlands Peak.jpg Finn Highlands hike.jpg Finn hike.jpg Finn cat.jpg
 
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Bob Barnes

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My father taught me to ski, skied patiently with me when I was a little boy, challenged me, and planted the seeds of what has become a life-long passion for skiing and everything that surrounds the sport for me. He was a great skier--still would be, I'm sure, although he now only skis cross-country. I am, and will be, forever grateful for his inspiration!

Wade, your son is fortunate to have you as a model and guide! He will remember that day, and many more, and you'll have a great ski buddy (for as long as you can keep up!).

Glad you had a good time at Aspen/Snowmass. It was good to see you, even if just briefly, at Highlands. I hope we'll get a chance to ski together again sometime soon!

Best regards,
Bob
 

Tricia

The Velvet Hammer
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This is such a special thread. Featured it on our FB Page. :thumb:
 

SkiNurse

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The pictures of the smile on Finn's face are the best I've seen in a long time. Nice job Finn & family!!!! Thank you so much for sharing.
 

Fuller

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That's a great experience for you both. For a six year old to even get down the mountain in those conditions is quite an accomplishment. But the best thing is that he has built up a reservoir of confidence in himself plus the methodology to acquire the skills to move forward. I also like the way he had to get over the emotional setbacks to keep going.

Good job, Dad.
 

Phelmut

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I can imagine him going back to school completely stoked about the trip and his accomplishment. Kids in class won't have a clue how cool that is. Maybe he could work it into one of his reports or projects with pics of the bowl from afar and from the top. He'll be a big man on campus for sure:)
 

graham418

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What an awesome dad you are. You will have fun at Stowe, I'm sure. Now that the boy has that experience, it will be nothing for him to hit the Front Four! That was where my dad started taking me, from when I was 10. Nothing like trial by fire!
 

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