It was blizzard conditions at the top of Telluride’s main mountain the day I encountered a dad skiing with his 18-month-old daughter strapped to his back.
Visibility was so low that it took a minute to make out her bundled-up form in the backpack. The only shiny spot on her was the dull gleam of the duct-tape that secured her mittens to her jacket.
I remember thinking to myself, “There’s got to be a better way.”
Thankfully, by the time I became a parent someone came up with one.
Dedicated to their sport and their families, new parents are forming babysitting co-ops that allow them to ski and give the little ones a fun experience at the same time.
Sure the resorts offer day care, but avid skiers who squeeze every last cent out of low-priced season passes aren’t likely to pony up about $100 a day to put their child in the nursery.
“A lot of our friends were having their first child when we were having ours,” said Kyle Henley, founder of a babysitting co-op that is operating for its third season at the Mary Jane lodge at Winter Park Resort. “We were all dedicated to an outdoor lifestyle and trying to figure out how to fit children into it.”
I was one of those friends. A life-long skier (well, my parents waited until I could walk before putting me in ski boots), I had timed my first pregnancy around the ski season. My daughter was 3 months old when the 2004-05 season – and the Mary Jane babysitting co-op – began.
A gathering place
Here’s how it works:
The first person to arrive at the lodge secures a spot for the group. When the children were tiny, we needed only enough floor space to lay out a blanket and a few toys. Toddlers require enough room for a game of Ring Around the Rosie, including ample sprawling space for the “all fall down” part.
The co-op can swell to eight or 10 families, but typically there are three to five families who bring three or four kids to the slopes each weekend.
Parents take turns in the lodge and on the mountain. Often couples go out together, something they weren’t able to do with the traditional babysitting arrangement where moms and dads take turns in the lodge. Other times, groups form according to ability level, gender or terrain preference, as in, “Anyone want to hit the chutes?”
Which brings us to one of the few sticking points of this babysitting situation: parity.
Typically each “turn” would involve taking two runs. This became a problem only when the definition of “run” got a little fuzzy on powder days. One snowy day, the guys tried to convince the women that they thought “a run” meant all the way from the top of the bowl to the lodge, not just one lift ride up.
Powder days in general are the greatest challenge for a group made up of fanatical skiers. I consider it a testament of dedication to our families that no matter how deep the powder, our kids have never been left alone in the lodge with a bag of Cheerios.
Powder days also pushed the parent-to-child ratio. Early on we could go as high as three children per adult, but then mobility happened. It’s tough to corral children who are invariably going in opposite directions – especially when you’re wearing ski boots.
The more organized among us would bring shoes to wear during our turn in the lodge, but equipment schlepping quickly becomes overwhelming for co-op parents. Ski equipment can be dropped off outside, but not baby equipment – especially not the baby.
Gen-Xers hit parenthood
For some, the beginning of parenthood is the end of skiing – at least for a while.
“We’re seeing a drop off in the number of Generation X skiers,” said Troy Hawks of the National Ski Areas Association, which tracks skier demographics. “They’re reaching a stage of life where they are starting to have their first babies, and there is a connection there.”
Families with children living at home made up just more than half (51 percent) of skiers on the slopes during the 2005-06 season, according to the NSAA National Demographic Study. But while the number of teen skiers has increased in recent years, the most skiers leaving the sport are in the 25-to-34 age group, an age where many start their families. With only 1 percent of the skiers under the age of 9, it seems that most families wait until their children are older to introduce them to the sport.
Not wanting to lose skiers once they become parents, the resorts aren’t standing in the way of the babysitting co-ops.
“As long as there’s space available in the lodge, we don’t have a problem with these arrangements,” said Matt Sugar of Winter Park Resort. “A lot of locals grew up on this mountain and want to bring their families back here.”
Our group chose Mary Jane because many of us do think of it as our home mountain and because the lodge is easily accessible. I’ve observed groups making a babysitting co-op work at bigger resorts. But because the lodges aren’t as centrally located, they just take longer turns.
The group has grown, both as other parents who have met in the lodge join and as families have more kids.
“Now we have babies and toddlers, some of whom are out on the Galloping Goose (Mary Jane’s beginner lift),” Kyle said. “There are more logistics to figure out, but we’ll make it happen.”
Fort Collins freelance writer Chryss Cada has two kids already primed for the slopes.
