Ski season is right around the corner and you might feel like you're ready... but are you really? Let me tell you how I'm preparing for this upcoming season to save me time, money, and stress.
Get in Shape
Skiing is easier, more fun, and reduces the likelihood of injury if you’re in shape. There are a few areas of your health to focus on in preparation which include: endurance level, balance, mobility, and muscle strength. Here’s a few examples of different exercises to try to increase your fitness levels in each of these areas.
Raising Your Endurance Level
Any form of cardio such as running, biking, hiking, swimming, rowing, etc will help to raise your endurance level. These are the exercises that everyone knows, but are so vital for making your day out on the slopes easier and last longer. Even more importantly, you’ll significantly reduce your chance of injury due to fatigue. You should aim to do some type of cardio at least 30 minutes a day, 2-3 days per week.
Improving Balance
Obviously, balance is key for staying upright while skiing and snowboarding. Balance is much more than that though. Having better balance will significantly improve your skills out on the slopes by giving you more control of your skis or board. With this increased control, a skier/boarder can be more aggressive in the turns and maneuvers of their equipment. Here are three exercises that you can easily try at home for improving balance: single leg squat and the lateral ski jump exercise.
Single Leg Squat:
This exercise helps to strengthen the balance in your quad muscles and the areas surrounding your knee.
Lateral Ski Jump:
This exercise helps you prepare for the bursts or power you need out on the slopes. Sometimes with these types of powerful movements, we can lose out balance, this exercise helps your body prepare for that change in power/inertia.
Increasing Mobility
A lot of people seem to overlook increasing their mobility, partially because they don’t really understand what it means. So first, what is it? Mobility is the ability to move your body easily and safely (emphasis on safely). The more mobile you are, the more freely your body can move without the risk of straining or pulling a muscle. So how can we increase mobility? Exercises like the articulating bridge and the pigeon pose.
Articulating Bridge
This exercise helps increase mobility in many important areas of our body. It increases mobility in your hips, back, and knees.
Pigeon Pose
I do the pigeon pose everyday, multiple times a day because it feels amazing. It really opens up your hips and increases their range of motion.
Gaining Strength
The muscles that get worked the most while skiing and snowboarding are the glutes, quads, hamstrings, thighs, and calves. A couple of my favorite exercises to work these areas are goblin squats and lunges.
Goblin Squats
I like goblet squats for a couple reasons. One, you get a true full body workout as it strengthens your quads, glutes, calves, and core. The other reason is that for me (a person with low back pain and knee pain), it is much safer than a regular back squat.
Walking Lunge
I feel like everyone knows the lunge, and there's a good reason for that... It's a really safe and benefical exercise! Not only will the lung work your hamstring and hip muscles, but it will also loosen them up and increase your mobility and balance as well (a three for one!).
Inspect Your Gear
Make sure to check all of your equipment to ensure it's safe and ready for the season. Start with your boots. For boots, be sure to check both the outside as well as the inside liner, making sure that there are no tears or rips in the equipment. Next, move on to your skis/boards. Check to make sure there is no obvious damage to the bases or top sheets of the skis that would need to p-tex work. If you don’t notice any real signs of damage, then you can just do a basic wax and sharpen tuning. If you’d like, we offer tuning services at our locations during the season. Set a reminder for yourself to bring your equipment into our shop. Finally, for skis, be sure to confirm that your DIN settings haven’t changed. If they have, adjust them accordingly.
Research Pass Options
Make sure that you get the most out of this winter by researching our pass options. Now is the best time to get a season pass as it’s on sale until August 31st and you can pay just $99 down per pass today. But you might be wondering, do I really need a pass? What type of pass should I buy? Let me walk you through it.
Why Get a Season Pass?
We asked our passholders after the 22/23 season what’s the biggest value you see in getting a season pass. Their answer was “THE FREEDOM” With a season pass you take away the worry of not getting a whole day out of your lift ticket. You can arrive whenever you want, and leave whenever you want with no worry. If you want to go for just a few hours after work, you can do that. If you want to get a few laps in on your way to visiting family and friends, you can do that. There is no time constraint and no day lost with a season pass. You have unlimited days and you can use them however you want. It pays itself back in just 6 visits to Little Switzerland!
What pass type should you get?
We have 2 different pass types at Little Switzerland. The Little Switzerland Season Pass and the SNO Pass. The SNO Pass is just $50 but comes with some big upgrades. First, if you’re planning on bringing a guest at any point this season, go with the SNO pass as you will get 2 FREE Bring-a-Friend Passes (Valued at over $60). For only $50, that pays for itself right away. Another reason to opt for the upgrade is if you want to try out other areas outside of Little Switzerland. The SNO Pass gives you unlimited access to The Rock Snowpark in Franklin, WI and Nordic Mountain in Wild Rose, WI, as well as free/discounted days at over 30 others resorts (all around the US). Check out this graphic below for a full breakdown on the differences.
Little Switzerland Season Pass |
SNO Season Pass |
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Unlimited Skiing and Snowboarding at Little Switzerland |
X |
X |
5 $30 Bring-a-Friend Passes (limit 1 per day) |
X |
X |
VIP Offerings |
X |
X |
Unlimited Skiing and Snowboarding at Nordic Mountain and The Rock Snowpark |
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X |
2 FREE Bring-a-Friend Passes and Unlimited $30 Passes (limit 1 per day) |
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X |
Resort Partner Discounts |
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X |
10% Off Pro Shop Items (Valid at All Three Resorts) |
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X |
Learn More About Season Passes
Ski season will be here before you know it. Make this the best winter ever by being prepared for it. We can’t wait to see you out on the slopes soon!
Written by Brandon
Marketing Director for Little Switz, Nordic Mountain, and The Rock Snowpark
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