Up With Kids

Stuffed into layer upon layer of bulky attire in the swelter of our living room, red-faced and complaining--”I’m hot,” “Me too!”--sons Kenny, 7, and Forrest, 3 3/4, had to admit they were ready for the chill of snow.

It had all started after the holidays last year with a simple goal: Get the kids on skis for the first time ever. Mountain High Ski Area’s breezy sales pitch, “Spend your time on the slopes instead of in the car,” seemed the perfect match for our busy schedules and our young boys’ short attention spans.

It was an early Saturday morning in late January when, breakfast consumed and snacks packed, we were up and out. The roads were clear all the way of both traffic and ice, making the trip to the other side of the San Gabriel Mountains no more taxing than a morning commute.

Long before we expected it, we were zooming through Wrightwood, which is little more than one main street running perpendicular to the highway.

We found easy parking at the Mountain High Ski Area--a 600-acre resort on Angeles National Forest land (which has undergone significant upgrading since it was purchased last summer by a Los Angeles-based management company). Despite a freezing rain that forced us to change into our ski gear inside the car, we were soon outfitted and ready to go.

Then we encountered the first glitch, which explained the abundance of parking: The power was out. And the second: The only guy who knew how to hook up the generator was sleeping in after an all-night KROQ ski party. And the third and most definitive: Winds had kicked up to 80 mph along the ridgeline, making boarding a chairlift a life-threatening endeavor.

It was clear there would be no skiing that day, which even without power outages is a risk common to resorts at lower elevations--Mountain High is just 6,600 feet at the base--where the quality of natural snow and the ability to manufacture more can be ruined by the next desert wind. (Typically, snow is manufactured on any nights that drop below 30 degrees, according to Heather Von Helms, the base operations manager).

With no power to manufacture snow, we were forced to ad lib. Kenny was willing to hike up the face of the slopes with his skis on his shoulder, then glide down a few times, while Forrest found sliding on his backside unusual enough.

Seriously winded and hungry, we headed back to town for a late lunch. We settled on an Italian restaurant. The pasta was al dente and spicy, and we had the place all to ourselves, which was just as well because Forrest managed to spill his not-too-hot cocoa--twice.

By the end of lunch it was raining heavily, dissolving the snow and dashing any thoughts of returning to the slopes that afternoon. Instead, we sloshed around town, stopping in an old-fashioned confectionery, Sugar & Spice, to shiver through ice cream cones.

Then, on to our lodgings, the eight-room Sky Lodge Motel, where accommodations turned out to be more spartan than we had imagined--certainly not as nice as the rustic Mountain View Motel and Cabins just across the highway, which manages the Sky Lodge and where we picked up our key. But the advertised whirlpool tub was a sparkling gem, large enough for all of us.

We took turns hopping in and out. Then my husband, Bob, headed to the grocery store for playing cards and munchies, returning thrilled that Jensen’s Finest Foods stocks a wide array of fine wines, cheeses and crackers. We snacked and played Go Fish until the boys began to nod.

Sunday morning we awoke with the memory of rain pounding the windows all night, certain that the planned ski experience had flopped.

None of the restaurants in town were open at 8 a.m. so we headed over to Cinnamon’s Bakery, where my husband scored some terrific pumpkin muffins and crossed paths with a ski instructor, who shared these words of advice: “Get your butt up on the mountain!”

We barreled back up to the resort’s parking lot and there discovered that temperatures had dropped enough overnight for the hundreds of snow-making hydrants, which draw from two reservoirs and recycle snowmelt, to churn out a duvet of snow.

(As of press time Wednesday, the resort reported clear skies, mid-40s temperatures, and a 24- to 36-inch base of machine-groomed packed powder.)

The Mountain High resort exudes equal parts friendliness and organization. It is an amazingly clean place, with workers perpetually scrubbing the bathrooms. Several of 10 cabins located next to the slopes function as the children’s ski school, and we had no problems enrolling both boys in the morning’s two-hour ski lesson--although by the time we huffed and puffed our way up to it in our ski boots, Forrest was about ready to give up.

He brightened when one of the red-jacketed ski organizers got down on one knee in front of him and asked his age. “I’m 4,” he said, exaggerating by several months. The school accepts children ages 3 1/2 to 8 in its half-day programs and ages 5 to 8 for full days.

Confident that things were under control, Bob and I snapped on our own skis and headed for the lift, testing our downhill skills for the first time in a decade. We passed the ski school’s corral, where a small fence protects kids from downhill skiers.

On our fifth run down, Kenny was standing near the outer corral fence waiting for another instructor to take him and three other older kids up on the chairlift. We tried not to worry as the instructor struggled to keep two squirmy first-graders seated all the way up the hill.

We all met again at the bottom and, lesson over, retrieved the boys and their “report cards.” Kenny was cleared for traveling solo on the beginner slope, while Forrest needed more work on stopping. By 2 p.m., it had turned colder and windier, and we opted for an early departure to beat snowplows and Sunday evening traffic.

As we prepared to load up gear and family, Forrest pulled his hood back and looked up at the icy snowflakes--the first he had ever seen falling from the sky. He had but one unfulfilled desire: “Where’s Santa?” he asked.

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Budget for Four

Skis, ski rack rental: $46.00

Lunch, Mojave Queen: 45.00

Snacks, Jensen’s Finest Foods: 22.00

Sky Lodge Motel, one night: 104.00

Snacks, Cinnamon’s Bakery: 12.00

Lift tickets and ski lessons: 120.00

Lunch, Mountain High: 27.00

Gas: 11.00

FINAL TAB: $387.00

Mountain High ski area information; tel. (888) 754-7878. Ski school; tel. (760) 249-5808, Ext. 226. Sky Lodge Motel, 6110 Spruce St., Wrightwood; tel. (760) 249-3553.