A child under six who pays to ski in Colorado is paying too much — almost every ski area in the state offers free lift tickets to anyone that young. That offer has been available for about five years, but for the past three years, Colorado areas have pushed even harder and have become even more serious about catering to this market.
The late 1980s saw a rush in Colorado to beef up children’s centers, ski schools and other programs. The square footage of Steamboat’s children’s center, for example, was doubled with an expenditure of $2 million in capital improvements. Breckenridge doubled its children’s center in 1989 and today needs more space. Crested Butte remodeled its children’s center for $250,000, and operating on a $300,000 budget for the season, spends 35 percent of the money on labor.
In addition, almost every ski area offers a children’s theme play area somewhere on the beginner’s slopes. Buttermilk has 20 children’s trails with banked turns and other attractions. Steamboat Springs has an Indian Village, Bear Cave and Frontier Camp on the beginner’s slopes with plywood cutouts and structures that children can ski around and through. In 1987, Vail put “Sport Goofy” on the slopes and expanded cartoon costume dressing to other employees.
In 1991-92, the results of efforts like these were encouraging. Buttermilk had 15 percent more skiers under 12 than it did in the previous year. Snowmass was up 19 percent and Winter Park’s children’s center business increased 15 percent.
“Areas in the last five or six years have put a greater emphasis on children because we believe children make the decisions in the family,” said Cathy Kruzic, spokeswoman for Colorado Ski Country USA. “They play a stronger role in determining a family’s vacation, so ski areas in Colorado decided they had to begin meeting their needs.”
In addition to capital expenditures on buildings, trails and infrastructure, ski areas even began paying some children’s ski instructors more than the adult-class instructors.
“I feel it’s the instruction and the relationship with the instructors that can make or break a ski school,” said Victor Gerdin, director of the Snowmass ski school. “At many ski areas, the children’s instructors are paid less, but we didn’t want to lose the geniuses to the private lessons. We thought they deserved to be paid as much or more (than the adult class instructors). A similarly qualified kids instructor has the chance to make more money than a private-lesson instructor. I think that’s where our strength comes from.”
In the 1979-80 season, Steamboat had one supervisor and a staff of 10 instructors for the youngest children’s school. Today, Steamboat’s “Kiddie Corral,” which takes infants to kindergarten-level children, has three supervisors and 105 instructors. In 12 years, the resort has gone from 60 children’s instructors for the Rough Riders school, first grade to age 15, to 195.
Vail has 350 instructors specifically assigned to children, and 30 percent of the skiers who take lessons at Vail and Beaver Creek are children. The resort was up three percent in participation in the children’s program (ages 3 to 12) in the 1991-92 season, and it was up five percent the previous year.
“We’ve taken ski school from teaching to entertainment,” said Vail spokeswoman Pat Peeples. “We stress adventure more than sport. The emphasis is on fun.”
Beaver Creek has also instituted a hassle-free, one-stop shop in the children’s ski school. At one window, a parent can rent his child’s skis, buy the lift ticket, pay for the lesson and order the child’s lunch. The child, depending upon his ability, will then follow a fairy tale on the mountain, scripted by John Alderson, the ski school supervisor. As they live the fairy tale, children might ski into a goldmine, remove their skis, walk on carpet, discover gold (iron pyrite) and put it in their pockets. They might also ski through “Tombstone Territory,” a children’s race course, or take the luge, Ricochet Ridge, through a ghost town.
While these programs are designed to meet the needs of baby-boomers, many ski areas are looking beyond today. Some are offering organized races for children as they grow older and more proficient. Some are appealing to children’s daring, such as a children’s ski jump at Snowmass. Buttermilk provides a challenge with its Terrain Garden, teaching older children how to handle uneven surfaces on the slopes.
Once children learn the proper technique, they have to learn how to ski without hurting themselves or others, Kruzic said. Beaver Creek has a beginner’s ski run where the speed limit is that of the slowest skier on the slope. “The next evolution of ski school programs will be to teach children to ski safely,” she said.
Pat Peeples, spokeswoman for Vail, is excited about the market for young skiers. “For so many years ski industries have lamented flat growth,” she said. “This is a real bright spot.”
Midtown Mountain
Realizing they couldn’t easily bring the children to the mountains, two years ago the Colorado ski industry marketers decided to bring the mountains to the children.
In conjunction with Colorado Ski Country USA and the Denver Children’s Museum, ski areas in the state sponsored a KidSlope built out of plastic tile and put it in the heart of Denver. In addition, use of the KidSlope was offered free to all fourth-grade children in the city’s school system.
Since its inception in November 1990, KidSlope has attracted 25,643 children and is used in summer — plastic tiles instead of snow — as well as winter.
The hill has three slopes, 120 feet to 150 feet long and instructors are interns from various ski schools. Children 4 to 13 years old are permitted to ski with their parents, or the parents can cheer from the sidelines.
“One of the benefits of having this unique program is that it allows kids the opportunity to ski whenever they get the urge,” said John Alderson, supervisor of the Beaver Creek Children’s Ski School. “Our assistance in training the instructors not only benefits KidSlope, but also benefits all of Colorado’s ski resorts. Our aim is to teach ski school philosophies.”
The facility opened with tickets priced at $9, including equipment. But the cost was recently dropped to $3 to attract even more children, with half-price coupons available at Gart Bros., one of Denver’s largest sporting goods chains.
At those prices, KidSlope is a clear money-loser, according to many business sponsors. A sponsor such as Colorado Ski Country will probably never see the $500,000 it contributed to the project — unless executives take a close look at its resorts years from now. That’s when KidSlope is expected to pay off when children want to expand on their experience from plastic tiles to snow.
To urge children in that direction, KidSlope allows a three-time visitor to pay a nominal fee, for a “graduation packet.” It includes coupons for a lift ticket and one ski lesson at any ski area in the state.
In its first season, the graduation packet ended up in the hands of 100 budding skiers, and Colorado Ski Country hopes to add another 120 graduates this year. — S.C.
