Skiing with a 2yr old... Ye or Ne?

[NewbarnsleygirlWalliams]

We're booking a holiday to Lapland for xmas 2005 skiing. DD will be 2. The tour operators say that the children can ski aswell (aww mini skis, how cute!) Or there are kids clubs.
What are your thoughts on these holidays and the kids clubs? Dh is not taken with idea of leaving dd with a stranger!

OMG. Thank you.

lunavix - I don't know of anywhere in the UK which will actively do skiing/sliding for tinies. They have snow play at Diggerland in Kent if you're anywhere near there.

Also there's a snow play area at Tamworth Snowdome , but it's age 2+ only.

You might persuade a dry slope to let you pull them around on the flat if you have your own equipment, but most places won't have kit small enough at that age.

Lunarsea - do you still have your pole??? Fancy renting/ selling it????? (we're off in 3 weeks to Austria...)

Mo2 - I'd have been happy to let you use it, but unfortunately the pole used to "live" in our garage, which you might remember someone kindly set fire to in the middle of one night last summer, and as the pole was made of wood, sadly it is no more....

I can't believe they don't sell them in the UK - they look great!

Do you have any views on the 'usefulness' of the little 'toddler skis' that you can buy in places like Snow&Rock for the 2-3 year olds??

Mo2 - the plastic skis can be useful for getting the feel of "long feet" (and you can use them indoors on carpet without doing any damage!) or for very small feet!

Most of the plastic skis are nordic-style (i.e. the heels aren't fixed down) and don't have edges or releasable bindings, and of course snow boots are nowhere near as supportive as real ones. So as soon as ds's feet were big enough for real, but small, ski boots (I think they were they equivalent of about a UK size 6) we switched him to real, albeit only 70cm, skis.

I'd say that the plastic skis, as an introduction, are better that no introduction, though, and you might have trouble getting hold of real kit in such small sizes (we had to buy ours in France as we couldn't get it here).

Do you think there'd be a market for the pole etc here if we imported some (or got permission to have them made to the pattern)?

LunarSea - re importing - I don't know - but my gut feel is 'yes- perhaps'. Certainly I don't know why the ski rental shops don't have more of them?

Do you already have a snow sports retail business? If not, and you were interested in trying /setting something up I might be happy to help - I have part share in a small business web marketing business (as well as a lot of marketing and PR expertise)

Perhaps we should have a chat off-line??

If you do can MN's get discount please

We've had problems getting dd's skis and boots for a whole seasons's hire so think it would be chancy in a resort. She is a 24 shoe and about 95cm tall ! Used plastic strap on ones for her last year a bit for her to shuffle about and dh took her down a nursery slope from a magic carpet lift holding her in front but they don't really glide so he was supporting her weight.

Quick update on this thread, now I've been with a 5 yr old and a 3 yr old. I wouldn't do it again!! The 3 yr old - although nearly 4 and quite active didn't like skiing. She was miserable and not happy to go to classes etc.

I would not go with my kids again until they are 5 and 7.

Hi Crunchie, how did it go otherwise ?