I would love to know how many expats taking up skiing when moved to canada. I have never skied and dont know if I would even enjoy it but is it something that everyone tries or do a lot not bother.

Don't try it, you'll hurt yourself and become hideously disfigured as a result.

R.

I already love skiing and I haven't moved yet, so I suppose that doesn't count. I even worked a ski season as a rep 5 years ago in Canada in BC so it won't exactly be 'conversion upon emigration' for me!

Once you've got the skiing bug though, that's it! (And sadly it's not a cheap hobby to have...)

Go for it (just make sure you're insured!)

Yep, none of us had touched a pair of skiis before moving here and are now addicts (well the rest of my family is, I am slightly less so although still get out there on the green/blue runs). A great way to spend the weekends. The rest of my family have even come out (from UK and Singapore) every Spring Break when we've rented a house and skiied every day.
Having a group lesson to start us off and then private lessons to keep us going was the way we did it.

We along with the Rhodeys are going to give cross country skiing a go this winter, really looking forward to it

Yep - we've taken it up since getting here - did have a practise go on one of our winter recce's though.

Picked up the ski-passes last week and will head out in a few weekends' time. My husband and both daughters are pretty proficient now. I'm, um, well, let's just say it ain't graceful - but I am looking forward to getting out there again. Just gotta love those burning calf muscles

It's still not a cheap hobby mind you - I don't think - though you can minimise costs by shopping for gear out of season and getting the kids second hand stuff. Ski-passes are still a decent chunk of money, but again, if you have the money, buy the pass at the end of one season when they have the sales on. And don't forget to factor in half a tank of petrol each time aswell

But hey - what else are you going to do on a cold, snowy Sunday in January?

I buy an early bird pass each year and ski 25+ times, so it's roughly $25 or less per day out, plus $10 for gas. I can't think of many cheaper things to do for a full day.

Good ski gear's not cheap, but choose carefully, take advantage of sales, then factor it over the years it'll last you, and it's not really so bad.

We have done this too- but annm is right, when you have a family that number multiplies up and all of a sudden it is quite pricey.

But we used to spend the same amount on skiing one week in Europe as we do here- skied 23 days last season including quite a lot of nights away/roadtrips.

Just curious....but where do most people from Calgary tend to get their ski passes for? And what do you all consider to be the closest/best resort?

Thanks

Sunshine\louise. Open on which is the best of those two is pretty much divided. I prefer Sunshine. The closest is Nakiska, adequate enough IF you dont want extreme skiing AND you dont mind repeating the same runs over and over.

Costco sell some passes,

We already go skiing in europe just need to improve a lot
thats one of the reasons we want to move to CA

In the 8 years I lived in Canada I never tried skiing but then I'm not exactly the sporty type. I also didn't have any friends who went skiing (all of them Canadian BTW).

We chose Nakiska this year. For us (rank beginners) it offers all that we need although I suspect we will upgrade to the Sunshine/Louise resorts sometime in the near future.

In addition, we have two little ones. At Nakiska, we are more than happy to let them have the run of the hill themselves (our youngest will turn 6 in February), as they can't really go very far and locating them is not that difficult. It means that we can ski "on our own" with, relative, peace of mind.

Louise is too far for us with young kids, the sort that want instant gratification and I've heard that it requires an early morning start to get relatively good parking at Sunshine, again not great with young kids. The parking lot at Nakiska still has spaces if one turns up at 10:30.

This will be our first full season and I am sure that we may progress sufficiently to give one of the other resorts a go before the season is out.

We're skiing in Ontario today. Good snowfall in Collingwood, 90 miles from Toronto.

I don't think I'll ever ski, knackered knees.
I'd love my kids to learn but what can none skiers do while skiers ski?
There's only so much coffee you can drink and I'll probably be driving.

SM