THE
YOU NG
&
THE
RESTLESS
Keeping kids – and parents – happy at Vermont resorts.
By Peggy Shinn
“Do I have to go?” Samantha whined.
“Ski lessons are boring. I don’t want to ski in a line all day.”
We were at Smugglers’ Notch, and if kids spent their days playing follow-the-leader, the resort
wouldn’t have earned its accolades as one of America’s top family ski resort. “Give it a try this
morning,” I offered. “If you hate it, you don’t have to go back.”
I was on assignment to find out exactly what makes a ski resort a great family resort, and to get the real
inside scoop, I turned to an expert – my seven-year-old daughter. As any parent of a seven-year-old
knows, kids are rarely shy about letting you know what they like and what they don’t like.
At 9 a.m., we met her group at the base of Morse Mountain’s Village Lift, and six hours later, she
was all smiles. They had skied in a line, but it was anything but robotic. They had followed each
other through a slopeside play-schoolhouse and rung the bell. They had ducked into the cave-like
King Billy Bob’s Den and learned to climb herringbone-style out the other side. They had skied
through the woods. And they had tried carving down Snow Snake, the steepest groomed trail on
Morse Mountain.
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