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AROSA, Switzerland
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When on the road with small children, parents have the formidable task of leading them to experiences of surprise and joy that are mixed with security, balance and comfort. That is why, for our ski vacation this year, my wife and I chose to bring our toddler, Ryan, to Arosa, a winter resort in the Swiss Alps. Reached either by train or a famously twisting mountain road, Arosa has traded on its relative inaccessibility to make itself into a genteel and engaging family destination.
Day-trippers and weekenders, as anxious as they are everywhere to cram a good time into a few hours, are relatively infrequent here because it is hard to make a quick journey by road to and from any of the major Swiss cities. Visitors to Arosa tend to come and to linger. When families arrive, it can be in caravans stretching for three generations: The grandparents, who first discovered Arosa, still come, even if they no longer ski; the parents take to the slopes; depending on the age of the kids, they are either just learning to ski or are being taught how to snowboard without crashing into one another. Arosa is filled with walking trails for those who once skied or who snowboarded or never did, and at several points when we skied, we had to break for pedestrians crossing our path.
With 69 kilometres of runs and 13 lifts, Arosa is comparatively compact by Swiss standards, and yet there are four complete kids鈥� areas where children can learn to ski in safety, under the patient and expert supervision for which Switzerland is famous. Across the mountains of Arosa, children in colour-coded vests follow in line behind blue-and-yellow uniformed instructors like ducklings trailing their mothers. They learn the Swiss method, which stresses technique and attention to what the mountain is telling you in the angles of the slopes, in the weather and in snow conditions. It is mixed with a uniquely carefree Alpine celebration of the fun of it all.
When you ski like a Swiss, you embrace the predominance of nature, respect it and follow its lead, all in the service of having a good time. The instructor/ guide we hired for a day, Bruno Tobler, had a big smile, engaging personality and a hawk鈥檚 eye for correct technique, which we practised under his supervision. After a few decades of skiing, I believe I am at last getting close to correct Swiss form. The small children who scooted past us behind their instructors seemed poised to reach that goal a week from Thursday, latest.
Ryan, exposed to it all for the first time at just over 31脷2 years of age, skied for a bit 鈥� I鈥檓 estimating about two, perhaps three minutes. It made no difference that Swiss children younger than he were already on skis. Instead, he developed other interests. He liked sledding with other toddlers in the child-care centre at the ski school. He liked the play room as at the two hotels we visited, and the staffers and the children he met there. And he developed a taste 鈥� surely to become lifelong 鈥� for Swiss chocolate.
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> See LOW-KEY, page D2
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