How Old Were You When You First Tried Skiing? Our Readers Weigh In

It’s Sunday, and you know what that means—we’re back with the results of another POWDER Weekly Poll, thanks to the Department of Polls and Skier Opinion.

The subject of this week's debate is your age. More specifically, the age at which you first went skiing.

Keep reading to see the results of our very scientific (not really) query. Plus, some thoughts on the results.

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POWDER Weekly Poll Results

Poll Highlights

• Total Votes: 844
• Most Popular Choice: 0-4 Years Old (436 votes, 52% of voters)
• Least Popular Choice: 18+ Years Old (89 votes, 11% of voters)

Poll Observations

• Settle down, everyone! We are aware, at this point, that only people who take the time out of their days to respond to these polls fall into the “diehard” skier bucket. Many of those people, as the poll shows, grew up skiing. So if you happen upon these results, keep that in mind: this is not a survey of the general skiing population. While you’re at it, read about the thrill of discovering skiing later in life. 
• A bigger conversation about the accessibility of skiing lingers somewhere in this data. The older you get, the harder it is to break into the sport, which, from the outside, is quite daunting. While budget skiing is possible once you have the gear, getting a whole new kit isn’t cheap. Then, there’s the whole learning to ski problem—no small feat (that includes understanding the silly lingo we use). Meanwhile, those who go straight from the womb to the slopes quickly learn the customs and skills of skiing as if it's a second language. Once you have that, it’s a lifelong bug. Our take? Affordable ski areas and passes are the lifeblood of this sport. Without them, we won’t have a next generation.

What We Could’ve Done Better

• Another solid outing from our pollsters. Yet, this poll wasn’t as popular as some of our biggest hits, coming in below the 1,000 response mark. Why? We aren’t sure. On that note, if you have a question you’ve been debating with your ski buddies, let us know in the comments. Maybe one of our polls can settle it. 

About the POWDER Weekly Poll 

We launch our weekly polls at 3 p.m. Eastern Time every Monday. They remain open until 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time the following Friday, with the results dropping on Sunday at 9 a.m. Eastern Time. You can participate and see the results right here on our website or by visiting our Instagram page.

While you’re at it, drop us a line or leave an Instagram comment if there’s a poll you’d like to see next. Skiers have plenty of opinions and preferences, and we want to know which ones might land on top of the heap.