Do Black People Ski
Like most Coloradans who are older than 30 and grew up here, I learned how to ski as an adult. There are a number of reasons why and you’ll find that there is a large cohort of Coloradans who also learned how to ski as adults. In more recent years Utah and Colorado are the happy beneficiaries of programs that teach kids to ski for free, allowing families to enjoy the slopes for a lot less money and insures that there continues to be a demand for and interest in skiing in the future. Do Black people ski? Yes.
No one in my family skied, they are from the Midwest, snow sports can be really expensive and you need time to enjoy it. Do Black people ski? “Yes!” but there are some things to consider. If you’ve never skied before and are wondering how to learn and what to consider, read on.
By the way, I’m using ski and snowboarding activities interchangeably when I’m asking “Do Black people ski?”
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Cowtown Denver
How Much Does It Cost to Ski
Part of the problem with skiing is that it can get pretty expensive really fast. In order to keep trips from getting out of hand and catching your budget off-guard here are some expenses to take in to account as you’re planning your trip.
- Annual Ski pass around $1300-Great for when you’re skiing at least 9 times in a season.
- 4 pack-depends on the resort that you’re buying your pass from. The price could range from $200-$500
- Local passes can range from $30-$150 depending on the resort that you’re going to. If you’re flying into Denver and plan on skiing at a resort within 2 hours of town expect lift ticket prices to be at least $80 dollars (depending on where you go)
Sample Daily Budget (In-Town)
- Gas-Depends on your car. Gas prices in the mountains tend to be higher and at the time that I’m writing this post were around $4.04 a gallon.
- Ski pass-Reference the section above
- Food/drinks-mocktails or cocktails/coffee or tea/snacks-$80-$100 if you’re not paying attention (per person)
- Tip: bring snacks, good quality instant coffee and creamer so that you can make this in your hotel if you’re staying overnight.
- Staying overnight**(optional) $50-$450+ ranging from hostels to nice hotels.
- Tip: Credit card hack and use rewards points towards accommodation ONLY if you’re good with managing your credit cards.
Ski Tourist Sample Daily Budget
I thought that I would share a very vague budget and list of line items that may impact the cost of a ski trip. If you’re going up for a day or several days, here are some of the expenses associated with most ski trips.
- Transportation
- Flight-coming in from out of town
- Transportation to the resort
- Car-free ski travel
- Accommodation
- Tips
- Ski Pass
- Equipment
- Rent
- Own
- Borrow
- Food/drinks
- Random Fun
- Book a fun tour
How to Learn How to Ski
I learned how to ski because I used to work at a university and big part of my job was programming. I would take the (adult) students to Denver Nuggets games, paintball, camping and skiing. As a result, I got to learn how to ski for free. Then, as luck would have it, I had a friend who moved out of state and gave me her equipment. She was moving to a state that didn’t have skiing. As a result, I’m a snowboarder and I really enjoy it.
Make Sure You Have Travel Insurance!
- Travel Insurance-Check your insurance coverage and pick up some additional travel insurance-Skiing is not without some measure of risk. Check out what it does and does not cover.
5 Tips to Learn How to Ski
Just like with anything new, it’s important to learn the fundamentals. If you’re new to skiing it will likely take a few trips to the slopes to feel comfortable. Here are some helpful tips.
- Take the lesson-Seriously, if you’ve never skied it makes no sense not take a lesson. A lot of times these lessons are offered at a discounted rate and may include equipment.
- You don’t have to be cute-People invest a lot in ski clothes that they never wear again. Save your money and just see if you like it. Don’t be cute, be warm!
- Don’t go to the most expensive resort to learn how to ski-Save your money. Most of those expensive resorts are in ski towns that aren’t that welcoming to Black people. Go to spaces that are. My favorite Colorado ski town is Breckenridge. I continue to be baffled by all of the Vail and Aspen love.
- Learn to ski with a group-If there are opportunities to learn how to ski with a group of people that you know-do it! It’s a lot of fun. There are a number of organizations with chapters across the US and the world that you could join. Some are locally based on exist on Facebook, Meetup.com or offline.
- Here are some suggestions.
- National Brotherhood of Skiers
- Outdoor Afro
- Black Ski
- BIPOC Mountain Collective (Global)
- Ski Noir 5280
- Mount Noire
- Here are some suggestions.
- If you don’t like it try something else-There are several types of skiing to experience. If you don’t enjoy one try another. Cross country is the lest expensive and a lot of fun to do.
- Cross country
- Downhill
- Snowboarding
Apply for scholarships or grant programs. There are programs to introduce African-Americans to skiing.
What to Expect: Typical Ski Day
Typically, I prefer to stay overnight when I go skiing because it can end up being a really long day. Most of my skiing is done in Colorado. This means I’m having to think about mountain traffic, an issue that has gotten increasingly worse over the years.
Here’s an example of a typical ski day if you’re not staying overnight.
- 6:00 am Pick up everyone and head to the mountains
- 8:00 am (ish) depending on traffic-get coffee, food and wait for the ski lifts to open up. Once your equipment is one-it’s time to enjoy the mountain.
- 9:00 am (ish) Lifts open up enjoy your day.
- 12:00 pm (ish) Eat lunch, grab a beer or something warm to drink and relax, hangout, etc.
- 1:30 pm (ish) A couple of more runs
- 3:00 pm (ish) Pack the car up and head back down from the mountain. Traffic will suck if you’re traveling during the weekends in Colorado.
- 5:30 pm (ish) if you’re lucky and there weren’t any accidents or snow conditions on the roads, you’re home.
- Unload the car, shower
- Eat dinner
- Bed-time
My Ideal Ski Trip
When I go skiing, the itinerary below is my ideal trip. It’s a lot more enjoyable and I get a lot more runs in.
- Head up to the ski resort or mountain that you plan on skiing at the night before. Relax, go for dinner, sit in front of the fire.
- 7:00 am-Wake up and enjoy a leisurely breakfast
- 8:30 am (ish) Lifts open up enjoy your day.
- 12:00 pm (ish) Eat lunch, grab a beer or a hot chocolate relax
- 1:30 pm (ish) A couple of more runs
- 3:00 pm (ish) Head back to the cabin, bougie hostel or AirBnB that you’re staying at. Get ready for Aprés ski
- 5:00 pm Aprés Ski-go for drinks, etc.
- 8:00 pm Soak in the hot tub-When I go skiing I only stay at places with hot tubs-This is a non-negotiable. Ideally there’s also a fireplace.
Day #2 Get a Few More Runs In
- 7:00 am-Wake up and enjoy a leisurely breakfast
- 9:00 am (ish) Lifts open up enjoy your day.
- 12:00 pm (ish) Eat lunch
- 1:00 pm pack the car and head back home
- 3:15 pm (ish) Arrive home and avoid rush hour traffic
What to Wear When Skiing
I briefly mentioned this earlier in the post but I find that people are investing in fashionable ski wear vs. ski clothing for the slopes. Be fashionable for when you’re off the slopes.
When you’re skiing you want to make sure that you’re warm and protected from the elements. If you can also manage to be cute-awesome. But, warmth always comes first.
- Black Girl Sunscreen (get the travel size if you’re flying)
- Beanie-for when you take your helmet off
- Insulated Gloves
- Heated Gloves (don’t have to be skier for these!)
When is the Best Time of Year to Go Skiing
There’s an unspoken art and science to deciding when to begin hitting the slopes. There are hardcore people who start skiing as soon as resorts begin opening up a couple of ski lifts.
I personally prefer to wait until there’s a base of 30+ inches of snow. This could happen through the resort making snow + actually snow conditions. I also like to wait until after the holiday season because I find the conditions to be better from January-March. Again, it depends on the amount of regular snow ski resorts are getting.
Which Ski Pass Should You Get: Ikon vs. Epic
This question has kept me up at night every single year. There are a number of things to consider and I want to walk people through what to think about.
- Your budget-Skiing is expensive AF. Starting with the ski pass. These passes have gotten ridiculously expensive and so being thoughtful about your budget before making a purchase is important.
- How often You Plan on Skiing-Last season I had long COVID. It sucked. Thankfully, I didn’t purchase a ski pass before the beginning of the season. This year I do plan on buying a pass but I’m going to sit down and really think about how often I REALLY plan to go skiing. I go to the mountains A LOT, but going SKIING is a different conversation (I snowboard btw)
- Will you have to travel from out of state to get to the ski resort OR are you able to go to resorts in state?
- Do you plan on skiing with other people? What is the pass that they’re all getting? In my case, I plan on skiing with a number of Black ski groups that have all said they are skiing resorts on the Ikon pass.
- Should you get a regular pass OR 4 packs or some other variation for your ski season? In my case I’m looking to spend $1,000 but will likely get an Ikon 4 Pack + Epic 3 day. I also almost always plan on staying overnight when I go to the mountains so I’m also factoring in the cost of accommodation and transportation.
- Are there payment plans-Yes, there are payment plans available as long as you meet the credit qualifications to be approved for the plan.
The lesson learned? Spend time thinking about your personal situation, proximity to skiing and how often you think you’ll be going skiing during the skiing, then create a budget. Finally, start saving money now.
How to Prepare for the Cost of Skiing
It is May as I’m working on this post. It’s my hope that people will begin researching future ski trips now so that they can think about the total cost of a ski trip now vs. being caught off guard later. Here are a few financial steps that I’m taking to prepare for the next ski season.
- Creating a budget and then adding 25% to the budget-Ski towns are expensive!
- Travel Hack-Travel Freely is a great FREE resource to help people work through which credit card would be good for getting points towards a flight, accommodation or some other aspect of their trip. Sign up HERE for learn more.
- Booking accommodation relatively early when it makes sense. I stay at hostel + hotel hybrids. They are very nice here in Colorado and people are shocked when I show them where I stay. One of my favorite places to stay was in Architectural Digest.
- Open a savings account-Start setting money aside for your skiing adventures. I don’t care if you’re rich, not rich, etc. It’s always good to set money aside.
- Side-Hustle-Start doing fun side-hustles and place all of those earnings in your ski savings account.
Will You Be The Only Black Person Skiing
It depends. Very rarely have I been the only Black person on the slopes. BUT, it does’t mean that I’m seeing giant groups of us every time I’m on the slopes. Fortunately there are a number of groups that you can join to make your ski day more comfortable and fun.
Tip: Join local chapters of ski communities (including allies) that are in the state/region or country that you plan to visit. These groups typically have weekly trips to the mountain, helpful tips and just are great folks to know. Because I’m located in Denver I have a several groups that I’m a member of and I love that these groups are actually active all year long. This summer one of the groups went to Sand Dunes National Park for a camping weekend and went sandboarding.
National Brotherhood of Skiers
BIPOC Mountain Collective (They have different regional chapters)
Rocky Mountain Region for CO
Meetup.com (look for outdoors or ski related communities)
Vibe Tribe Adventures (Colorado based) numerous adjacent communities umbrellaed under Vibe Tribe
Black Ski-Washingtomon, D.C.
Vibes on the Mountain
Each resort is different. I would love to hear about your experiences at the different ski resorts around the world. Because I live in Colorado I’m very familiar with with the resorts around the state. That said, typically most people are focused on enjoying their time on the mountain and safety.
Tips
- Don’t let any “annoying vibes” impact your time on the mountain.
- Remember that there are a lot of tourists that bring their mojo to the town you’re visiting. There’s a specific ski resort that I dislike because of this. But, I still visit from time to time. I’m just am never surprised when bullsh$t happens.
- Assume goodwill. Sometimes people are just being weird and it has nothing to do with you.
Black People DO Ski
If you are “Ski or snowboard curious” don’t let weird ideas about what activities Black people should or can enjoy dictate what you would like to enjoy. Save your money and I look forward to seeing you on the slopes!