The Wild Mountain Children’s Center comes highly recommended, and many of you may already know of their outstanding reputation. Every ski school has it’s own character, which is formed by terrain, budget, corporate structure and philosophy, pricing and staff, among other things. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to talk with Karen Houser, in order to get the inside scoop for SnoWoman on the mind behind Wild Mountain Children’s Center. Supervisor Karen has had a very interesting, distinguished, and long-term career in the ski industry. She also rates pretty high as a trend-watcher, and was one of the first people to initiate programming targeted specifically for woman in the early ‘90’s. As we ruminated, she observed that 20 years ago family and kids programs were sort of like a "B" movie – maybe well-liked, but lacking in budget and established talent. These days, kids programs are hot, and women’s issues are still keeping people pretty interested. Coincidence?? Karen and SnoWoman think not! One reason women’s issues are still hot is because women are controlling more and more of the family finances. Yay!! In order for a woman to feel she has had a successful day at the ski resort, she will have different requirements than a man. A woman with small children skiing with her will have yet another set of requirements. Amazing as it sounds, this was not obvious to people in the ski industry as little as ten or twenty years ago. We are lucky that now, in the late ‘90’s, quality children’s and family programs, like the one at Wild Mountain, are continually being developed and improved , as is equipment designed specifically for women and children.

One good thing about almost any children’s ski school is that a ski-instructor is usually trained to look for different learning styles in people. This is a tremendous asset for young children, including those with ADD and other learning disabilities. The instructors receive pre-season training, as well as ongoing training throughout the season. Since going skiing with children can be expensive, moms need to feel that they are getting a good value for their dollar. Almost all young children want to try skiing, and it is thrilling to watch them push through fear into gaining some degree of control and a feeling of success.

Another good thing about the ski industry is that it promotes travel, both domestic and international. SnoWoman thinks that although travel can be tedious and even give you a stomach-ache, travel also promotes understanding between people of different cultures and backgrounds. Sierra at Tahoe is proudly hosting two young men from Argentina this year, and I hope their families in Argentina are reading SnoWoman right now!

Back to Karen – Karen and her husband spent a whole summer working at a ski resort in Australia during the summer (USA style) of 1994. It’s great when our local talent can live abroad for awhile and then come back to us, because it helps keep the resorts at Tahoe in the world-class league.