Skiing Small : Hitting the Slopes With the Kids Is More Fun--and Cheaper--If You Stay Away From the Big-Deal Resorts

After 40 years on the slopes, Barbara and Stan Olson can handle most any mountain. But each ski season, they head back to the same small place where they started, and where their children and grandchildren learned to ski--often bringing the grandchildren and as many as a dozen friends along.

Given the chance, the Olsons, who live in Brea, will talk for hours about the joys of skiing Badger Pass at Yosemite National Park, California’s oldest operating ski area. “We’ve met some of our best friends skiing there,” says Barbara.

It’s admittedly not like skiing Aspen or Deer Valley. Badger Pass has just nine runs, and is 45 minutes from the nearest lodging (though there’s a free shuttle bus). But, like other modestly sized ski areas around the country--among them SilverCreek in Colorado, Red River in New Mexico and Smuggler’s Notch in Vermont--it’s got a lot to offer budget-minded families who want to introduce the kids to skiing. Not only are these places cheaper than larger, more glamorous sites, but they also tend to offer special services and facilities designed to lure the family trade. (In fact, according to a recent National Skier Opinion Survey, some 60% of first-time skiers, many of them children, are learning the sport at small resorts.)

Smuggler’s Notch, for example, has just 233 skiable acres--less than half what you’d find at its better-known Vermont neighbor, Stowe Mountain Resort--but it has consistently won awards from publications like Snow Country magazine and Family Circle for the quality of its children’s programs. And its packages are bona fide bargains. For example, a child can ski for five days in ski camp, including lunch, lessons, rental equipment and dinners at the Village Restaurant (when dining with their parents), all for $179. The resort even throws in one evening’s activity so parents get a night out. Call (800) 451-8752 to get a free “Guide to Planning the Perfect Winter Vacation.”

SilverCreek in Granby, Colo., which bills itself as “the smallest true destination ski resort in America” with just four lifts and 25 trails, enables mom, dad and two kids, ages 6 to 12, to buy a daily lift ticket at the resort for $74. (Kids 5 and under ski free.) That’s less than half what a day’s skiing would cost the same family at Vail. For more information, call (800) 448-9458.

Yosemite touts its midweek packages. For $100 a day, a family of four will each get lifts and two lessons. The kids’ ski rentals are free, as is baby-sitting for the preschool set. Even the regular lift prices are a bargain--$11.75 for kids and $26 for adults. (It costs close to $50 a day for a child’s lifts, equipment and lessons at many of the major ski resorts.)

At New Mexico’s Red River Resort, with 57 trails and 235 skiable acres, one child may stay and ski free for each paying parent who stays a minimum three nights and buys at least a three-day lift ticket. The only blackout period is two weeks at Christmastime. “At a larger area, the kids get on the wrong lift and you won’t see them all day,” says Red River General Manager Drew Judycki. For more information, call (800) 331-SNOW or (505) 754-2223.

In the Midwest, Michigan’s Nubs Nob offers a free 10-acre beginner slope and various “kids ski free” deals all season; children 8 and under always ski free. Call (616) 526-2131.

That’s not to say you can’t have a wonderful time with kids at one of the larger resorts--they’re all working hard to cater to families too--or that you can’t find bargains at such places. Consider, for example, that half of Utah’s ski areas charge under $30 for an adult’s full-day lift ticket and even less for kids. Call (800) SKI-UTAH for a vacation planner.

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But you may not need a big place, especially if your kids are small or just learning to ski. The kids certainly aren’t going to miss the night life of a major ski resort--and neither are you after a day of skiing with them. If you’re anything like me, you’ll conk out as soon as they do. Youngsters don’t miss having the choice of umpteen runs, either. Observes Chuck Carter, assistant director of Yosemite’s Badger Pass Ski School, “It doesn’t take too much of a mountain to look big to kids.”

Robb Yarger would agree. The 23-year-old accountant grew up in Vermont, mostly skiing smaller areas like Bolton Valley. “You don’t worry about getting lost at a smaller place,” he explains. And once they found a run they liked, he adds, he and his friends frequently would ski it over and over.

Skiing takes on new appeal for parents, too, when they’re skiing with kids just learning. Every time our family goes skiing, I try to encourage my husband to head off to the expert areas--but he’s usually having too much fun skiing intermediate trails with the kids to leave. Even if you’re a terrific skier, you can have a wonderful time making turns down a gentle hill with your 5-year-old or hitting every mogul you can find with your 10-year-old dare-devil.