Family Ski Trip Tips, Ski Resort Insights, Ski Gear Reviews & Ski Travel Stories from Ski Industry Experts and Mountain Moms
The Ski Moms podcast is an award winning weekly (in winter) podcast in our 5th season with over 150 episodes! Join hosts Sarah and Nicole every week as they welcome ski mom guests from ski industry insiders to experienced mountain moms, sharing knowledge, stories, and lessons from the slopes. Whether you're planning your first family ski trip, looking for ski resort recommendations, or seeking advice on ski gear and techniques, you'll find practical tips and inspiration here. We cover everything from beginner skiing tips to navigating ski season with kids, making winter sports accessible and enjoyable for the whole family. Ready to make this your family's best ski season yet? Tune in and discover how to get your crew to the mountain confident, prepared, and excited to return for more adventures!
In this episode Annie Fast, Oregon-based freelance writer and former professional snowboarder, joins the Ski Moms to discuss two critical barriers facing ski families: accessible childcare at resorts and mothers competing at elite levels. Annie's investigative work for Ski Area Management revealed a troubling trend of resort daycare closures post-COVID, including Vail's Small World, Jackson Hole, and Bridger Bowl facilities, while highlighting success stories at Mount Bachelor, Mount Hood Meadows, Brundage, and Tamarack with year-round programs. She explains why finding childcare information on resort websites is nearly impossible and how this impacts both visiting families and employee retention. Annie also previews her coverage of the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, spotlighting Olympic moms competing with young children and the challenges of decentralized venues. The conversation covers practical advocacy tips for ski families, the reality of split-day skiing for toddlers, and why true "family-friendly" resorts must offer guest childcare.
"If you're going to call something a family-friendly ski area, it has to have childcare for guests. I just can't imagine how that works otherwise."
"Let them know that if you do decide not to go to the resort because there is no childcare, that was a deciding factor. Otherwise they just won't know that's something that's missing."
The Patio Place and Ski Haus helps you make the most of outdoor living. Stop by Salem, Woburn, or Framingham, and head to skihaus.com
In this episode, the Ski Moms head out west to explore Mount Bachelor with Lauren Burke, Director of Marketing and Communications at one of the Pacific Northwest's largest ski resorts. Lauren shares her unconventional path into the ski industry, from growing up in San Diego with childhood trips to Mammoth, to falling in love with mountain life at University of Colorado Boulder. After over a decade at Mammoth Mountain, Lauren made the move to Mount Bachelor in Bend, Oregon, where she discovered a unique ski destination unlike any other.
Lauren paints a perfect picture of what makes Mount Bachelor special: affordable lodging in nearby Bend and Sun River, free parking, 410 inches of annual snowfall and 360-degree skiing on a dormant volcano with over 4,000 skiable acres. She emphasizes that spring is the absolute best time to visit, with the whole mountain open through Memorial Day and sunny weather that allows families to combine skiing with mountain biking, hiking, and outdoor concerts.
For families, Mount Bachelor offers year-round daycare, Kids Ski Free passes, extensive beginner terrain on both base areas, and affordable lesson packages. Lauren also highlights the resort's four-season offerings including downhill mountain biking, zip tours, whitewater rafting and fine dining experiences at the mid-mountain lodge.
Quotes:
"There is no winter destination quite like Bend, Sun River, Mount Bachelor. I just cannot find a comparable ski destination that is anything like this."
"My number one tip for families visiting Bachelor is come in the spring. It is so good in the spring. The whole mountain's open. The weather is good, you get snow, but when it's not snowing, you get sun."
Rhonda Swenson: Designing for the Ski & Mountain Lifestyle at Krimson Klover
In this episode, Nicole and Sarah sit down with Rhonda Swenson, founder and creative director of Krimson Klover, a women's outdoor lifestyle brand known for its vintage-inspired illustrated base layers and bold, colorful knitwear. Rhonda shares her journey from Texas ski slopes to building a successful Boulder-based company, emphasizing her commitment to slow fashion, ethical manufacturing, and sustainable practices. With a 15-person team (plus up to eight dogs in the office!), she's built a brand that takes 18-24 months to bring products to market, working with renowned international artists and maintaining 20-year relationships with factory partners.
The conversation covers Rhonda's entrepreneurial path—from flight attendant to ski industry rep to serial founder—and her philosophy on work-life balance, with no one working more than 40 hours per week. As an avid backcountry skier who calls Vail her home mountain, Rhonda embodies the outdoor lifestyle her brand represents. She shares practical advice for ski moms building their wardrobes, highlighting the bestselling Switchback jacket and the versatile Carving Skirt. For aspiring entrepreneurs, her message is clear: "Go for it. What have you got to lose?"
You can find Krimson Klover at www.KrimsonKlover.com, on Instagram @krimsonklover, and in ski shops nationwide.
Memorable Quotes
On entrepreneurship: "I always just say, go for it. What have you got to lose? You'll have regret if you don't go for it. I think fear drives people's hesitation to jump in and do something new."
On failure: "Failure wasn't an option for me. I had to pick myself up and keep on going. I've made a lot of mistakes along the way, but you learn from them."
Getting Strong For Ski Season with Dr. Leslie of ACL Strong
In this episode, we talk with Dr Leslie Desrosiers, PT, DPT, OCS, CSCS, a Doctor of Physical Therapy and the creator of ACL STRONG. ACL Strong is a program that simplifies injury prevention training so that anybody can learn to protect their knees and avoid getting hurt. Over the 6 week program, ACL STRONG transforms athletes (skiers!) making us stronger in the right muscles, more aware of movements, and more resistant to knee, hip, and ankle problems.
Dr Leslie shares her ski origin story, which started at age 7 in Dubuque, Iowa. Dr Leslie always knew she wanted to be a physical therapist, she went from graduate school into orthopedics private practice. Later she built her online program focused on ACL injury prevention. We were fascinated to learn that in a 4-6 week training program we can reduce our risk of injury by 50-67%!
Dr Leslie has designed a program specifically for skiers called “Snow and Beyond” - that we are doing to get our bodies strong and ready for ski season! We want to keep skiing for as long as possible and do our best to keep up with our kids!
Resources:
Join us as we get ready for ski season with ACL Strong and use code SKIMOMS for 20% off your membership!
Keep up with the Latest from Dr Leslie and ACL Strong!
In this episode, we share our favorite money saving websites and stores for looking stylish on the slopes. Moms it’s time to update your ski season wardrobes! We’ve done the research so you don’t have to. Happy shopping.
Resources:
Sierra - www.sierra.com (used to be Sierra Trading Post)
Ski moms, you might want to consider becoming an REI member. Members get LOADS of benefits (including free tuning). When it comes to your purchases, Co-op profits go back to their source—members get 10% back annually on eligible purchases. (10% is typical but not guaranteed.) Member get extra coupons and savings too. Right now members get an extra 10% on trade-ins.
We talk with Mardi Fuller, a backcountry adventurer, who lives in Boston where she works as a nonprofit communications director and volunteers with the local Outdoor Afro network. Mardi has appeared in Outside Magazine, the BBC, PBS and NPR. We talk about making the outdoors more accessible to everyone! Mardi grew up in New York in a Jamaican-American family. She tells us about her early ski experiences as a child and young adult with her church groups - which ended with a broken ankle. A few winters ago, Mardi explored winter adventuring and skiing. With the support and guidance from her friends in Boston, she’s fallen in love with backcountry skiing (also known as skinning or ski touring). Mardi tells us about the alpine touring (AT) equipment she uses to get uphill and earn her turns. And Mardi’s clear, she is enjoying moderate terrain and not outrunning avalanches. We were super impressed to hear that Mardi was the first black person to join the Appalachian Mountain Club Four Thousand Footer Club. Mardi passes along her love of the outdoors through a number of programs to that aim to make the outdoors more accessible.
The Ski Moms are trying something new with some short episodes meant to help you problem solve and get ready for the season. In this podcast, we’re focusing on things you can do in early fall to get your family ready for ski season. We're giving you the pre-season checklist you need! Here are some of the resources we mention in the episode
Finally we talk fitness! Now is the time to add resistance and strength training to your workouts. Sarah and I are starting the ACL Strong 6-week program. It’s an easy way to ramp up your fitness before hitting the slopes. Use code SKIMOMS to save 10% here.
The Patio Place and Ski Haus helps you make the most of outdoor living. Stop by Salem, Woburn, or Framingham, and head to skihaus.com
Celebrate your love of the laid-back ski life. Shop cozy gear made for the mellow skier: 👉 Shop the Slow Skier’s Club
In this episode, Sarah and Nicole introduce ourselves to new listeners that may not be familiar with the story that led us to starting this podcast. We became friends 12 years ago at a wonderful, little family mountain (Mohawk Mountain) in Cornwall, Connecticut.
We’ve come a long way since our first (awkward) episode in 2021. We are very proud of our 75+ episodes and counting. We have interviewed ski moms from mountains big and small, from Olympians to first timers as adults.
We started this podcast because we believe that ski moms are the unsung heroes that buy the gear, organize the equipment, start the crock pots and plan the ski trips. But we also want to make sure we are enjoying ourselves on the slopes and playing outside - both with and without the kiddos.
And most importantly, we want to thank you for coming along on this journey with us. We hope to be your ski mom friends on your weekend trek to the mountains and helping you plan your next ski trip adventure. And we hope you have as much fun listening as we do making these episodes.
Send us an email and let us know what guests and topics you’d like to hear next!
Thank you for being a Premium Subscriber. This bonus content is just for you. Kikkan Randall, shares her insiders tips on how to organize your garage and how to tap into the joy of being a ski mom.
In this episode, we talk with Kikkan Randall, ski mom, 5x Olympian, gold medalist and breast cancer survivor.
Kikkan was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and both her parents were skiers. Kikkan was wearing ski boots and sliding down the hill before she could even walk. At age 3, Kikkan’s family moved to Alaska where she first got involved with nordic/cross country skiing.
Kikkan walks us through her progression from middle school nordic ski racing to her Olympic gold medal. At age 19, Kikkan and her coach mapped out her 10 year roadmap. Kikkan kept her head down, kept working hard and 16 years later she accomplished her lifelong goal of winning a gold medal. Kikkan tells us about taking time off from competing to start her family and later taking her son on the road as she ramped back up.
Kikkan shares her breast cancer survival story which started shortly after she won her gold medal. Kikkan was conflicted about sharing her struggle publicly, but in the end she decided that getting support and talking about her journey would benefit her and other women. Kikkan has become an advocate for early detection and a supporter of numerous cancer research programs.
"The summit of Mount Bachelor is a true bucket list ski experience. It's skiing from the top of a dormant volcano... you can ski a true 360 degrees around the mountain, which you really can't do anywhere else."
The Patio Place and Ski Haus helps you make the most of outdoor living. Stop by Salem, Woburn, or Framingham, and head to skihaus.com
Opening June 20, Portillo Chile is one of the most iconic ski destinations in the world—gorgeous, uncrowded, and incredibly easy for families since everything’s right on-site.
Ski Moms listeners get 10% off stays from June 20 to August 1.
Email reservations@skiportillo.com and mention SKIMOMS.
Celebrate your love of the laid-back ski life. Shop cozy gear made for the mellow skier: 👉 Shop the Slow Skier’s Club
On work-life balance: "We pride ourselves on work, life, balance. Nobody works more than 40 hours in a week. We all take a lot of time off. We encourage travel."
On her South American knitters: "My knitters leave a little piece of their soul in every sweater they make. You can turn these sweaters inside out, and they're as beautiful as the front side."
The Patio Place and Ski Haus helps you make the most of outdoor living. Stop by Salem, Woburn, or Framingham, and head to skihaus.com
Opening June 20, Portillo Chile is one of the most iconic ski destinations in the world—gorgeous, uncrowded, and incredibly easy for families since everything’s right on-site.
Ski Moms listeners get 10% off stays from June 20 to August 1.
Email reservations@skiportillo.com and mention SKIMOMS.
Celebrate your love of the laid-back ski life. Shop cozy gear made for the mellow skier: 👉 Shop the Slow Skier’s Club
Opening June 20, Portillo Chile is one of the most iconic ski destinations in the world—gorgeous, uncrowded, and incredibly easy for families since everything’s right on-site.
Ski Moms listeners get 10% off stays from June 20 to August 1.
Email reservations@skiportillo.com and mention SKIMOMS.
Celebrate your love of the laid-back ski life. Shop cozy gear made for the mellow skier: 👉 Shop the Slow Skier’s Club
Opening June 20, Portillo Chile is one of the most iconic ski destinations in the world—gorgeous, uncrowded, and incredibly easy for families since everything’s right on-site.
Ski Moms listeners get 10% off stays from June 20 to August 1.
Email reservations@skiportillo.com and mention SKIMOMS.
Celebrate your love of the laid-back ski life. Shop cozy gear made for the mellow skier: 👉 Shop the Slow Skier’s Club
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