I was 25 the first time I went skiing (I know it was after starting Sassy, because I was editing the whole trip). I used to liken it to the fact that I didn't lose my virginity until I was 19, both being things I wanted to do, but where the opportunities just hadn't presented themselves. My first time skiing was in my homestate of North Carolina, where it was probably 60° out, and there were nice grassy patches to slow down on. So I actually thought I was good. Then I went to Sundance and to the top of what was considered the beginner slope at Park City and fell the entire way down and hated it. I'm with you, Janine!
It took me getting divorced (and consequently being alone so much) to ski solo for the past two years. In December I finally had a moment of clarity and realized, "I hate skiing!" I hate wasting an hour driving each way, the cost, the blackout days on my pass (which tend to be when my kids have vacation), and the cost of food at the lodge ($19 for chicken tenders & fries, $14 for a wan salad). I even started resenting the men I saw on dating apps with pix of themselves skiing the "pow". The guys who describe a perfect Sunday as, "Coffee and skiing in the winter! Coffee and mountain biking in the summer!" No thanks.
WAIT...I'm a glasses wearing New Yorker who hates winter, hates skiing, loves blankets, books, and has an 8th grade son...ARE WE THE SAME PERSON????? I'm 53 so probably not, but still...I feel validated and seen!
No one can disagree with someone not wanting to ski! You do you! I learned late in life (in my 30s) and it wasn't the easiest sport to master, but spring skiing is a blast - it's warm but there is snow! It hurts more when you fall on groomed slopes, true. But it's pretty easy to learn not to fall. As for snowboarding, you fall a lot for 3 days, and then after that 3rd day mark, you find that snowboarding is actually MUCH easier than skiing, which takes way way way longer than 3 days to learn. And skiing groomers is not the same sport as skiing fresh powder, so you have to learn all over again, which is annoying.
I grew up in a family of non-skiers, but unfortunately married a man who is a heli-skier, so it was my destiny, I suppose, to learn how to ski passably well. The only religious experience I ever had was on skis...I was on a blue slope (moderately difficult) and somehow, without thinking about it, achieved a few minutes of skiing perfection - I literally could not feel my skis on the ground, I felt as if I were floating through space. I began to laugh and cry at the same time. I'll never forget that feeling. I suppose great skiers must be feeling that way all the time, so their mania totally makes sense to me.
Nowadays skiing is prohibitively expensive for people who are trying to learn as adults - who wants to spend $500 falling down all day? But you can still go on ski trips with friends, just pack/rent some snowshoes or cross country skis - shushing through the woods alone, no sound but you and your breathing, is just as magical as downhill skiing, imo.
I LOVE this comment and thank you for writing it, Sandra. I did not have the same experience of it being fairly easy to learn skiing. But I one day had a similar religious – type experience to what you're describing while ice-skating. I've never had it again, but I can remember the feeling and you described it perfectly.
PS what is a groomer? Is that like when they go over an ice-skating rink with the Zamboni type thing?
Yes, a groomer is a hill whose fresh powder has been smashed down by a Zamboni-type thing. Groomers are much easier for beginner and intermediate level people to ski than bumps (moguls formed by people skiing around hillocks of snow) and powder.
I love knowing someone else has felt that feeling of floating - like what I imagine to be a heroin high w/ less danger.
You will get no argument from me. In fact I’ll see you paying to be cold and wet, and raise you paddle boarding, ice skating and kayaking. I have made this crystal clear in my dating app profile to ward off all those aggressively outdoorsy west coast men over 60 who are still rock climbing: “Allergic to cats, skiing, sailing, camping and other pointless inconvenience. At this age many more interesting things await us!”
So cold! Why be so cold, all day. My version of this is sailing. I get it you like to sail. Sail on! But stop trying to convince me that I will like sailing. I won’t! I’ll puke all day, the end. Soooooo - meet you at the fireplace!
I refuse to disagree with you! I also hate skiing. I grew up in CT with an aunt who owned a ski house in Vermont and after spending a weekend trying to get myself off the Bunny Hill, I quit for life. My husband takes our son snowboarding and they hit the slopes, stink up their hotel room, and eat fried food and I say, Fine with me. It's horrendous and you are my anti-skiing goddess.
I just hit the slopes a couple of times recently after years of not being out there (I was born in the Rockies and skiing since I was just shy of three) and it was TOUGH! It’s one of those things I feel we need to do a few days a week to feel really good about - with a discounted ski pass and a chalet near the mountain! It takes a lot of effort and energy later in life… agree with so much of this!
I have never understood the appeal of any winter outdoor activities. I didn't like sledding as a kid, and I didn't envy friends who went on ski vacations over Christmas holidays (we went to the lake in the summer like normal people).
I will never understand the phrase: you don't feel the cold while_____.
I've heard people fill in the blank with skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiling, ice-skating, and probably other things and it blows my mind. How is wet and cold fun? Ugh.
It is WAY TOO EXPENSIVE. I have NO GUILT about never taking my three kids skiing, though two of them did do a snowshoeing thing with Girl Scouts.
I don't think parents should ever have to feel guilty about not spending for non-necessities. If any parent can't afford it, they can't afford it. There’s no shame in that. If you don't WANT to pay for it, guess what? It's your damn money.
Here in Massachusetts, we also have a "ski week" (February vacation). Growing up in Maryland, we had only a spring break around Easter, and then we got out of school in early June, so this February thing took me a long time to get used to.
I live in Boston, and I really hate leaving the city unless it's for a city or at least a cool little town like Northampton, MA or Lancaster, PA where there are a lot of things to do.
I totally get ants in my pants with being in the country. And camping is my HELL. I cannot relax. I like day hiking around here, but that's about it.
I LOVE THIS "UNPOPULAR OPINION". It may be more popular than you might think!
I am also TERRIBLE AT CAMPING. I've only been a few times in my life, and every time it was... not great. No one ever invites me to go camping, probably because they know I'll be miserable and complaining and freaking out the entire time, haha.
The only time it was fun was Girl Scout Camp...because it was like stay up all night NO PARENTS in a platform tent with ghost stories, smashing bugs, and eating secret stashes of candy.
The issue with both skiing and camping is the amount of crap you have to buy and bring with you. And then the camping food really sucks. It's nice to have a space to basically complain here. Commiserating over MISERY!
For GS camp, we only needed to bring a suitcase, a backpack, and a sleeping bag. There was awesome food in a mess hall; we only cooked s'mores. And a pool.
So we got to enjoy being outside without all the chores of setting up a tent and all that.
Here's another unpopular opinion--if you haven't skied in the western U.S. you aren't really skiing! As in Jane comparing skiing in North Carolina to real skiing at Park City. Come to the Rockies (Utah skier here, and blessed), that's all I can say. I started skiing at age 40 and my only sadness now is for the outrageous costs and crowds. So on second thought...don't come out west. I want the slopes to myself. Ha.
I grew up in the South and also from many, many generations of non-skiers. In fact, if you could find a skier in my family lineage I'd be shocked. I have made whole hearted attempts to learn. I took an unsuccessful group lesson with my kids as I spent the entire time trying to keep us all upright in a "pizza" stance. I took a beginner group lesson at a resort with some who had never been on skis before but nonetheless took off while I was lagging behind. I even took a fruitless private lesson at the behest of my husband who claims I prevented him from skiing for 20 years. (He has a free will). So of my 2 kids, I have one skier and one non-skier. My non-skiing son and I do not feel like we are missing out at all as the boots are torture devices, neither of us like being out in freezing weather or risking falling off a cliff or running into a tree. If your kid really wants to ski they can try it later in college or adulthood (or not). They may or may not become a skier but promise either way it will be fine.
I was 25 the first time I went skiing (I know it was after starting Sassy, because I was editing the whole trip). I used to liken it to the fact that I didn't lose my virginity until I was 19, both being things I wanted to do, but where the opportunities just hadn't presented themselves. My first time skiing was in my homestate of North Carolina, where it was probably 60° out, and there were nice grassy patches to slow down on. So I actually thought I was good. Then I went to Sundance and to the top of what was considered the beginner slope at Park City and fell the entire way down and hated it. I'm with you, Janine!
I’m from the Chicagoland area. Plains are rather flat. smh they built a “ski resort” Villa Olivia. Embarrassing.
My aunt got a compound leg fracture and was in a cast up to her hip.
I don’t think I’d be much of a snowboarder, but I can stay on a skateboard, and we used to DIY on sleds as kids.
*check out Audrey Hepburn at the beginning of, Charade. We’ve shown up to look fabulous, that is enough.
It took me getting divorced (and consequently being alone so much) to ski solo for the past two years. In December I finally had a moment of clarity and realized, "I hate skiing!" I hate wasting an hour driving each way, the cost, the blackout days on my pass (which tend to be when my kids have vacation), and the cost of food at the lodge ($19 for chicken tenders & fries, $14 for a wan salad). I even started resenting the men I saw on dating apps with pix of themselves skiing the "pow". The guys who describe a perfect Sunday as, "Coffee and skiing in the winter! Coffee and mountain biking in the summer!" No thanks.
Hahaha those guys sound so gross. I love your specific description. They deserve to be skiing.
Omg, yes! We must have been separated at birth cos meee tooo (see my similar comment below)
“The pow”? Ok, but were they wealthy kids pretending to be in nature?
Or, have they just changed their profile pic to the “in the car, with the worst sunglasses we ALLLLLL own.”
WAIT...I'm a glasses wearing New Yorker who hates winter, hates skiing, loves blankets, books, and has an 8th grade son...ARE WE THE SAME PERSON????? I'm 53 so probably not, but still...I feel validated and seen!
My sister from another mister!!!
No one can disagree with someone not wanting to ski! You do you! I learned late in life (in my 30s) and it wasn't the easiest sport to master, but spring skiing is a blast - it's warm but there is snow! It hurts more when you fall on groomed slopes, true. But it's pretty easy to learn not to fall. As for snowboarding, you fall a lot for 3 days, and then after that 3rd day mark, you find that snowboarding is actually MUCH easier than skiing, which takes way way way longer than 3 days to learn. And skiing groomers is not the same sport as skiing fresh powder, so you have to learn all over again, which is annoying.
I grew up in a family of non-skiers, but unfortunately married a man who is a heli-skier, so it was my destiny, I suppose, to learn how to ski passably well. The only religious experience I ever had was on skis...I was on a blue slope (moderately difficult) and somehow, without thinking about it, achieved a few minutes of skiing perfection - I literally could not feel my skis on the ground, I felt as if I were floating through space. I began to laugh and cry at the same time. I'll never forget that feeling. I suppose great skiers must be feeling that way all the time, so their mania totally makes sense to me.
Nowadays skiing is prohibitively expensive for people who are trying to learn as adults - who wants to spend $500 falling down all day? But you can still go on ski trips with friends, just pack/rent some snowshoes or cross country skis - shushing through the woods alone, no sound but you and your breathing, is just as magical as downhill skiing, imo.
I LOVE this comment and thank you for writing it, Sandra. I did not have the same experience of it being fairly easy to learn skiing. But I one day had a similar religious – type experience to what you're describing while ice-skating. I've never had it again, but I can remember the feeling and you described it perfectly.
PS what is a groomer? Is that like when they go over an ice-skating rink with the Zamboni type thing?
Yes, a groomer is a hill whose fresh powder has been smashed down by a Zamboni-type thing. Groomers are much easier for beginner and intermediate level people to ski than bumps (moguls formed by people skiing around hillocks of snow) and powder.
I love knowing someone else has felt that feeling of floating - like what I imagine to be a heroin high w/ less danger.
Truth!
You will get no argument from me. In fact I’ll see you paying to be cold and wet, and raise you paddle boarding, ice skating and kayaking. I have made this crystal clear in my dating app profile to ward off all those aggressively outdoorsy west coast men over 60 who are still rock climbing: “Allergic to cats, skiing, sailing, camping and other pointless inconvenience. At this age many more interesting things await us!”
I am not a get in the water person in general,but I've barely admitted it until you just gave me permission. Thank you!
So cold! Why be so cold, all day. My version of this is sailing. I get it you like to sail. Sail on! But stop trying to convince me that I will like sailing. I won’t! I’ll puke all day, the end. Soooooo - meet you at the fireplace!
You guys are cracking me up and writing your own perfect unpopular opinion pieces right here in the comments! Thank you!
I hate skiing too, for all the same reasons, plus I would always fall off the T-bar.
I forgot!
We’ve added a terror amusement ride, to take you on a terror ride on ice!
Hahaha! I've been waiting for someone brave enough to say this!
Haha You too, then?
I refuse to disagree with you! I also hate skiing. I grew up in CT with an aunt who owned a ski house in Vermont and after spending a weekend trying to get myself off the Bunny Hill, I quit for life. My husband takes our son snowboarding and they hit the slopes, stink up their hotel room, and eat fried food and I say, Fine with me. It's horrendous and you are my anti-skiing goddess.
"Stink up their hotel room" haha and don't hold back!
Hahaha omg anti-skiing goddess, I love that. 😍
EEEEWWWWWWWW
I just hit the slopes a couple of times recently after years of not being out there (I was born in the Rockies and skiing since I was just shy of three) and it was TOUGH! It’s one of those things I feel we need to do a few days a week to feel really good about - with a discounted ski pass and a chalet near the mountain! It takes a lot of effort and energy later in life… agree with so much of this!
I love how supportive you are, Sarah! You get as invested in boosting these writers as I do – which means the world to me.
I will be back here to share my skiing sagas shortly!
I have never understood the appeal of any winter outdoor activities. I didn't like sledding as a kid, and I didn't envy friends who went on ski vacations over Christmas holidays (we went to the lake in the summer like normal people).
I will never understand the phrase: you don't feel the cold while_____.
I've heard people fill in the blank with skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiling, ice-skating, and probably other things and it blows my mind. How is wet and cold fun? Ugh.
Great parenting piece!
It is WAY TOO EXPENSIVE. I have NO GUILT about never taking my three kids skiing, though two of them did do a snowshoeing thing with Girl Scouts.
I don't think parents should ever have to feel guilty about not spending for non-necessities. If any parent can't afford it, they can't afford it. There’s no shame in that. If you don't WANT to pay for it, guess what? It's your damn money.
Here in Massachusetts, we also have a "ski week" (February vacation). Growing up in Maryland, we had only a spring break around Easter, and then we got out of school in early June, so this February thing took me a long time to get used to.
I live in Boston, and I really hate leaving the city unless it's for a city or at least a cool little town like Northampton, MA or Lancaster, PA where there are a lot of things to do.
I totally get ants in my pants with being in the country. And camping is my HELL. I cannot relax. I like day hiking around here, but that's about it.
I LOVE THIS "UNPOPULAR OPINION". It may be more popular than you might think!
I am also TERRIBLE AT CAMPING. I've only been a few times in my life, and every time it was... not great. No one ever invites me to go camping, probably because they know I'll be miserable and complaining and freaking out the entire time, haha.
I think we may have another Unpopular Opinion assignment here....
Co-written!!! By two moms who hate all this outdoorsy ambition!!! LOL
The only time it was fun was Girl Scout Camp...because it was like stay up all night NO PARENTS in a platform tent with ghost stories, smashing bugs, and eating secret stashes of candy.
The issue with both skiing and camping is the amount of crap you have to buy and bring with you. And then the camping food really sucks. It's nice to have a space to basically complain here. Commiserating over MISERY!
For GS camp, we only needed to bring a suitcase, a backpack, and a sleeping bag. There was awesome food in a mess hall; we only cooked s'mores. And a pool.
So we got to enjoy being outside without all the chores of setting up a tent and all that.
Here's another unpopular opinion--if you haven't skied in the western U.S. you aren't really skiing! As in Jane comparing skiing in North Carolina to real skiing at Park City. Come to the Rockies (Utah skier here, and blessed), that's all I can say. I started skiing at age 40 and my only sadness now is for the outrageous costs and crowds. So on second thought...don't come out west. I want the slopes to myself. Ha.
Seriously, I enjoyed the column. Thank you!
Thanks for your alternate take and I will NOT be clogging up your beautiful Utah slopes! Perfect!
I grew up in the South and also from many, many generations of non-skiers. In fact, if you could find a skier in my family lineage I'd be shocked. I have made whole hearted attempts to learn. I took an unsuccessful group lesson with my kids as I spent the entire time trying to keep us all upright in a "pizza" stance. I took a beginner group lesson at a resort with some who had never been on skis before but nonetheless took off while I was lagging behind. I even took a fruitless private lesson at the behest of my husband who claims I prevented him from skiing for 20 years. (He has a free will). So of my 2 kids, I have one skier and one non-skier. My non-skiing son and I do not feel like we are missing out at all as the boots are torture devices, neither of us like being out in freezing weather or risking falling off a cliff or running into a tree. If your kid really wants to ski they can try it later in college or adulthood (or not). They may or may not become a skier but promise either way it will be fine.