Family Adventures

Freeman Peak, Boise Mountains, Idaho

A 12-Year-Old’s First Time Skiing Wild Snow

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By Michael Lanza

The sun burns atomically from a sky polished to a flawless blue. Heat reflects up at us from the snow covering this mountainside in southwest Idaho, making March feel like June. New snow cloaks the boughs of the ponderosa pines and blankets the ground, powder light enough to scoop into your hand and blow away like feathers.

It’s a perfect day for any beginning, especially for a first time doing anything outdoors. My 12-year-old son, Nate, 85 pounds of expectation, clicks his boots into bindings and grins at me, displaying equal parts eagerness and curiosity for his first-ever day of backcountry skiing.

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Ask Me: Hiking With Preschool-Age Children

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Michael,

You are living the dream!  My wife and I are really enjoying your work through the magazine articles and your most recent book, keep it up.

We have two young daughters (2 and 3.5) and just relocated to the Seattle area. We are trying to have them grow up appreciating the outdoors and are getting out on the trail or snow several times a week. I am seeking your council since your kids are several years ahead and you obviously did it right. We are approaching that weird phase where the kids are getting too old for backpacks, but too young to be walking the whole trip.

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Skiing to Skyline yurt, Boise National Forest, Idaho

Key Ingredient to Family Yurt Trip: What’s Missing

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By Michael Lanza

The sun beats down warmly on us from a sky as fiercely and as flawlessly blue as a deep mountain lake. While we four adults ready our backpacks, the four kids already have their packs loaded and cross-country skis on and are dashing back and forth across the snow-covered parking lot—sled dogs straining at their harnesses to go. It’s the body language of enthusiasm and high expectations, and it infects us all like an aggressive virus.

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“Before They’re Gone” wins National Outdoor Book Award

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My book, Before They’re Gone–A Family’s Year-Long Quest To Explore America’s Most Endangered National Parks, has received an honorable mention in the Outdoor Literature category, the top awards category, from the prestigious National Outdoor Book Awards. In it, I write about spending a year taking wilderness adventures with my wife, Penny, our nine-year-old son, Nate, and our seven-year-old daughter, Alex, …

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