How to Plan a Ski Trip

10 years ago, nearly to the day, my friend Eric coaxed me into skiing for the first time. I couldn’t afford the trip and I didn’t have any of the gear. I knew about half of my tripmates, and only one other had never skied before.

But Eric’s convincing and persistant (and I was into one of the ladies on the trip), so, after just a few months of post-college employment, I begged for two barely deserved vacation days and took a long weekend trip to Blue Knob, “Pennsylvania’s Highest Skiable Mountain”. You haven’t heard of this mountain.

Ten of us stayed in a tiny two bedroom condo that had a bunk bed carved into the wall. I slept up top, but my nose was three inches from the ceiling, and I couldn’t roll over in bed without scraping a shoulder against the stucco. I didn’t sleep.

The high temp for the weekend was 12. Most of the ski runs had melted to patches the prior week and then frozen solid; only one trail was open, and it was a blue square. In jeans and a baseball cap that didn’t fit, I struggled through an awkward East Coast boot fit and ski/pole rental. I gangled to the lift. I pitched into the chair. I froze to the top. I fell off the chair and tangled up.

Eric, elated to be on the snow again, gave me a cursory lecture about “just shift your weight!” and zipped down the slope. The lady I was into tried to explain pizza and french fries. I commenced four awful, bitter runs. I crashed. I swore. I cried. I ranted. I slid sideways. I caught edges and toppled. In a fury, the other guy who’d never skiied broke a pole and whipped the other one into the woods. I gave up and hit the indoor pool.

The indoor pool had a poo floating in it, so I left. Eric dropped a plateful of spaghetti onto the condo floor. We went on a scouting mission for a Subway, and we got lost and returned two hours later. We got snowed in for a costly extra day. Eric and another guy got in a fight over some Playstation soccer game.

10 years later, I’m married to the lady, I own my gear, I know how to wax skis, and I can even ski pretty well. I’ve been to nearly all of the 9 consecutive ski trips that Eric’s planned since.

So here’s how to plan a ski trip:

First, plan to plan. Poll your friends. Who wants to go where and for how long? How many of them will actually commit a lodging deposit? Once you can answer those questions, you can begin the real planning.

Second, find 5-6 suitable ski hauses on Vacation Rentals By Owner. VRBO haus owners almost always overstate the number of adults their hauses can sleep comfortably, and beware the roll-out sofa or futon. Trust the lowest number in their range and don’t trust the high number until you’ve confirmed the bed-to-bedroom ratio on the haus’s details. Look for a haus that feels like a ski lodge, not a house. You’ll be spending most of your time there, lounging with friends, so make it feel like Austria or Norway. Antler chandeliers are good. Rough-hewn bedposts are good. An outdoor hot tub is a must. Tobaggan coffee tables are a nice touch. Once you have 5-6 places in your size and price range, you should get in touch with the owner to ask if the haus is available; never trust the online calendar. VRBO owners will almost always urge you to rent 4WD vehicles, and you will almost never really need them.

Third, money time. If your friends are staying for different lengths of time, splitting up the haus costs fairly can seem tricky, especially if friends are flying in from out-of-state. Out-of-towners don’t like paying a disproportionate amount of the hausing costs for in-staters to stay in an awesome ski haus for just two weekend nights. We’ve developed a simple, two-step process to keep it fair. List all your friends and how many nights each is planning to stay. Divide the haus cost by the number of nights. This is the “everyone pays the same” amount (aka “the pinko communist method”). Then add up the total number of bed slots that will be taken over the whole trip. Divide the haus cost by this number. This is the “hotel night” amount (aka “the pay for what you get” method). Multiply each person’s number of nights by the nightly amount. Finally, add the costs for both methods for each person and divide by two. This is a balanced way of making sure that the out-of-towners don’t get screwed because they’re staying longer and that the in-staters don’t subsidize the trip too much for the out-of-towners.

Fourth, limit the airport runs. And don’t let your friends book returning flights that depart at the crack of dawn.

Fifth, you may want to establish some haus rules. We have just two: no shoes in the haus. The other involves things you can’t do in the hot tub. Some other hot tub suggestions: last one out closes the lid, always clean up your bottle caps, snow angels highly encouraged, no hot dogs or nachos in the hot tub.

Sixth, make sure you plan out some forced friendly fun time. Have at least one family-style dinner. Play Catch Phrase or Taboo or Celebrities or a fun group card game like Durak. One of our favorite annual ski trip games is Sardines. It sounds lame, but it’s totally fun, especially if you turn off every single light in the haus and close all the shades. We’ve played for 4-5 hours before and had rounds go as long as 45 minutes.

Seventh, experienced skiers should always put in some community service time for the less experienced. Teach someone to ski. They’ll appreciate your help and, years later, you’ll always have someone you can take on ski trips!