What Is Your Ski Partner Etiquette

When you ski with your partner, and when I say partner, I mean your husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend/significant other partner, do you have a practiced "ski etiquette"?
I will try to explain mine, so that you understand what I'm talking about. The Mrs. and I have been together for almost 40 years, and we have skied together for as long as we have known each other. She is a competent skier, who has great form and the skills to ski whatever she likes. She has no aggression or drive to conquer anything that is not a groomer.:fmicon:. There came a point when we would argue about how to spend our ski day. Overwhelmingly, the discussions concerned where to ski. She urged me to leave her on her own, and ski where I'd like. On the other hand, I have always thought that we decided to ski together, so I was not leaving her. She skis with me 2x/wk. and rarely with her friends. This year, I have decided that on the days when I ski with my wife, I will allow her to pick the lift and piste. Upon getting off the chair, we say our good-byes, and meet at the bottom of the lift. Both of us like to ski from chair to chair without stopping, but we ski at much different speeds. I feel confident that she has no problem getting down anything groomed and looks good and fluent while doing it. She just is comfortable doing it at her own pace. There is a lot of time waiting at the bottom.

We have a different plan due to skiing different speeds. There is no waiting at top, and if we are close at bottom a short wait is accecptable, but not normal. When getting close to a lift it is normal to look for each other and meet for the ride up. No waiting and we do tend up riding togeather more often than expected. Looking for each other on the way down works well for us.

Wife only wants to ride lifts 4-5 times a year (i thought). We do more xc together. And she is an intermediate that doesn't like being over her head. And a fair weather skier who won't deal with crowds. OK...that's simple. I just suck it up and we have a few great weekdays on groomers in the spring. I bring a great lunch. we hang on the decks in Adirondack chairs, etc.

She impulse buys an epic pass this year. No discussion. I've had A-basin pass basically my entire adult life, so we have no days in common. May or may not being trying to tell me something.

The couple that skis apart, stays together.

Mornings alone, afternoons together. Or apart.

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Originally Posted by yeahman

The couple that skis apart, stays together.

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Just because we slept together last night doesn't mean we're skiing together today.


My wife gets 1 or 2 days if she wants. We have vastly different intentions and levels. When we used to ski into FS cabins I would wait for her on the skin track though.

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My wife keeps up.
That’s why I married her.

But.
If it’s not a pow day I’m a social skier.
I’ll ski with kids or intermediates for a few laps. Then I’m gone.
We can schedule a meeting later.

If my wife were a slow skier I would take a few laps then arrange a meetup. I hate waiting at the lift. But I would still spend a few runs waiting for her. But not all day. Just shoot me instead.

My main ski partner is my son. He is ex Squaw professional patroller, I am a rapidly fading advanced skier who prefers off piste but due to multiple injuries, operations, and pandemics is not good for very long. When we do our yearly ski trip we ski separately in the morning while he skis the hard lines and I try to leave something for the afternoon. In the afternoon he takes me around the mountain to stuff he knows I would like, can handle, and would not try on my own. I've skied some great lines that way. I couldn't ask for a better ski partner. With my other son--not nearly as good and not in shape but we can handle about the same terrain, he much faster--we ski together, and that's fine too. If I'm lucky enough to ski with both, we do the same thing as when I ski with the first, although lately I've been letting the better skier show the other son around while I quit early.

We ski as much as possible and it is 95%+ together. Not together is generally due to unavoidable work (meetings, conferences, etc). Skiing with buddies is great for going faster, but she is super consistent and always game (usual instigates it) for another lap or to skin further. Bonus, she prefers “cut up” pow (going second), so I’ve opened a lot of untracked slopes for us over the years. 10/10 great ski partner.

Fine with skiing with her inbounds. She'll ski anything, within reason (sometimes taking the slightly easier way around, which is often faster). I'll usually wait a bit at the bottom, but not long enough that it's an issue. Due to kids / schedule / life, we don't end up skiing together all that often though.

We ski tour together rarely. The difference in speed on the uphill is fairly substantial these days. Also just hard to find the time for it with schedules and kids. Pre-kids, we toured together often (and we both toured a lot more than we do these days).

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We ski together, bike together, backpack together. Always have, hopefully always will. Though she is free during more weekdays than me so she skis with girlfriends a lot then.

She’ll ski or bike anything at any time and likes technical difficult stuff, but is definitely less agro than me and our college age kids. She’s a happy skier. It’s generally pretty awesome to hang with. Plus she hates greens and blue groomers. Which is nice.

Every once in a while I’m charging a little hard and she’s skiing a little mellow and we have to recalibrate. Not very often though. Oh yeah here’s something: she’s solidly anti ice. I don’t mind ice at all. That’s sometimes a little friction…

I ski a lot with my lady friend, but ski a lot without her too. She doesn't ski much without me. She's good and can get down most things but definitely isn't aggro and doesn't like trees, which are my favorite thing. Occasionally I'll ditch her for a few runs and she's happy with that, and we'll often split at the top and meet at the bottom. I don't have to wait much because I'm skiing harder terrain which slows me down.

Mach looney down the groomer for a hundred yards, stop, wait for her. Repeat until she’s had enough then I go solo for a bit and meet up later.


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My missus books the time off work well in advance

I pick the destination less than a week out based on conditions

We get on the mountain in the morning when she's ready

Ski until 11ish when it's time for coffee and a snack

Take a late lunch preferably in a restaurant with a view and an easy run back to the base

We ski with each other all day, although I might forego mid-morning snack for a couple of quick laps

In the afternoon once she's familiar with a few runs I may duck off the side but I can always see her

Later in the week when she's got her ski legs we'll head into the mellow trees and off-piste

Evenings are for drinking and eating and if we're based in the valley strolling around the town

We may take an afternoon or day off the snow if there is something to see nearby. For example we visited Sarajevo for the day when we were skiing at Jahorina, Bosnia

It's her holiday

14 winters and counting (that's over 20 ski trips) with no dramas

I get my fill on the holiday and she doesn't bat an eyelid when I ski locally in Wales and spend 6-8 weeks out of the country instructing

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Originally Posted by wendigo

We ski as much as possible and it is 95%+ together. Not together is generally due to unavoidable work (meetings, conferences, etc). Skiing with buddies is great for going faster, but she is super consistent and always game (usual instigates it) for another lap or to skin further. Bonus, she prefers “cut up” pow (going second), so I’ve opened a lot of untracked slopes for us over the years. 10/10 great ski partner.

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Sounds like me and sweetbippy. She’ll go anywhere off piste with me, prefers to follow and I’m never waiting more than a minute or less but that’s only on uncrowded pistes if I’m skiing really fast. She’s as fast as I am on the skin track, we hike and backpack a lot. We’re closing in on retirement, have the same schedule and kids are grown. Ski most days together. We have a large group of friends at our local hill but socializing is usually kept to breaks and apres. If we ski with others it’s usually touring.

My older daughter is working at the hill this season and it’s nice to ski with her regularly again. She’s super solid and skis fast.


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I pack her shit and try to take a couple of runs together before the end of the day. Possibly eat together but that’s not always possible with kids. Recently I’ve been trying to get my kids to ski on their own because my girlfriend said she’s not comfortable getting on and off the lift with a kid who needs help on and off the lift. So she rides with my son now and with my daughter soon. Hopefully she will progress with kids and they can ride together but when the kids leave her, I suspect I have to ride with her more than one or two runs a day…..


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this probably belongs here.
Saw it last year and it still cracks me up

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C11UB...RpN3VwMHd0NmZy

We don't ski together. It's healthier. She's a beginner that just picked up skiing last year. I'm a coach. If I try to help her it goes badly. She's ready for lessons, but it won't be from me. I wish she were good enough or had the drive to ski with me, but I've already learned this lesson on bikes. I either ski/ride with friends or my kids. The oldest son will out ski me in the next year or two.

This is a real struggle for me right now!

Skiing with partner. Synonyms: Getting yelled at all day for going too fast, skiing "the hardest shit you can find" and not waiting every 100 feet. See also "Oh I'm sorry I thought we were skiing together" and "No it's fine I'll just go by myself".

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If it's a big pow day, I'll go take a few laps just by myself, and then meet up with Mrs C. Otherwise I'll ski with her, more or less - meet up at the chair at the bottom if I want to ski something she doesn't, but she can ski most things.

However, she doesn't believe me anymore that those "cliff area" signs are where the good snow is hidden.

I wait for @Harry at the bottom, and we go back up. I watch @BaconMeCrazy as he slithers through bumps and wonder why I can't be that smooth. And then I wait at the bottom for him too.


Mrs Axe hates skiing, but loves the mountains and snow-shoeing. So we go our separate ways in the morning, but keep in touch with our BCA 2-ways. I wait for her at the bottom, and then we go have food and drink when the time is right!

It just kinda works.

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Originally Posted by AK47bp

Mach looney down the groomer for a hundred yards, stop, wait for her. Repeat until she’s had enough then I go solo for a bit and meet up later.


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Pretty much this for us. I can't complain - she gears up in the morning and makes a snack without a fuss, she's just over the cold part of it. We'll make about six runs like this, she'll go into the lodge to warm up, I'll meet her after a few more runs on my own and we'll call it a day.

No complaints either. I’ve been skiing for forty years, my wife is a beginner and skied maybe twenty times her entire life. She won’t listen to a word I say when I try to teach her, so I let her do her thing and rescue her when needed. Then I’ll ski solo the next day.


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My ski partner is not my wife.As many of you have brought up, I tried to teach my wife to ski 35 years ago - it didn't work. My (ski) partner and I have skied together for probably 30 years ( her husband,a good skier, has a job) we've skied a lot together,and like the same conditions. She has gotten better over the years, while I just got older.Sometmes we don't even talk about where we're going to ski - we just know.

CK