Why We Don’t Use Leads with a Ski Harness

Unpopular Opinion from a Former Ski Instructor on using ropes or leashes with safety harnesses.

I love a ski harness for teaching young kids how to ski. I do not love attaching leads, leashes, or any kind of rope to it. Yes, this is an unpopular opinion but I’m going to unpack my reasons why. Also, please note, I have no frame of reference for snowboarding at all, so this post only applies to ski instruction. With that, I guess I’ll dive right into why we don’t use leads with a ski harness.

Ropes and other tethers are becoming popular means of parents teaching their children how to ski. We’re seeing them pop up all over our resort. I do appreciate that these tools can for some parents, make teaching their children more attainable. But, for every way they help parents, they hinder children.

Safety

I have a few safety concerns with these leads. The longer the lead, the more the safety concerns grow. This being said, I do use a ski harness on my 23 month old for safety but again, we do not have one that has any kind of lead or rope attached.

Vision

When you are using these leads with a ski harness to teach your child to ski, you are behind your children and looking down hill. You aren’t able to keep an eye on your child and look uphill to see who is coming. This severely hinders your response time if someone is headed towards you out of control. Yes, this is a bigger issue at smaller, more crowded resorts but that is also where I tend to ski with my child.

Falling

Yes, children are going to fall. They are lower to the ground and generally do not hurt themselves. When you are using a harness and leads though you are generally further away from your child and unable to catch them or correct them as they fall. This means your child is likely to fall more often unless you add something like an Edgy Wedgy to prevent tips from crossing, or from one ski catching an edge.

Some parents use these apparatus as they are not able to ski backwards or do not have the leg strength to ski virtually in a squat. If this is the case, I suggest putting your child in a ski lesson so that they can gain the strength and skill to ski independently and not be at risk.

Can’t correct as you ski.

By skiing with my son, in proximity to him and backwards, I’m able to give him cues and use my hands to correct him as he skis. This in the moment teaching is much more impactful than stopping and talking about the situation. If he is favoring one leg, catching one edge, or looking off in another direction, I can correct it on the spot.

Confidence

When a child is constantly tethered to you, they aren’t learning to ski on their own. By seeing you’re close and being able to try something new, they gain confidence. This confidence allows you to take teaching them to the next step and continue growing.

Independent Learning

For as much as I teach my son, there are things that he is learning on his own. I can see it by the way he corrects himself. As they get time and grade on skis, and as you teach them, they’ll start to make little corrections on their own. Just the other day I saw him pick up his ski as he was catching an edge and set it back down so that he didn’t fall. When you are holding your child or their ski’s via a tether they are missing out on these little learnings and relying on you to control their speed, skis, etc.

You Lose Out On a Lot Being Behind Your Kiddo

Mirroring

When you are in front of your child you can demonstrate something as you talk them through it. This goes much farther in terms of teaching them a skill than trying to talk them through it from behind them. We do this a lot by saying “make your skis look like Mamas” or “Point your toes like Dada”.

Attention Spans

When you are behind your child, their attention wanders. They have a tendency to tune you out and stare off at the lift or other kids skiing. If you are in front of them you can hold their attention and channel it into what you are trying to teach them.

Your Kid Can’t Hear You

When you are trying to talk to your kid from five feet behind them, half the time they literally cannot hear you. If they can hear you they cannot see what you are talking about.

Teach Poor Form

Skiing is unique where it’s one of the only sports you want to lean downhill. Cycling, horseback riding, they all require your weight to be backwards. When teaching proper form for a child learning you ski you are fighting an almost natural inclination to lean back. The moment we touch our son’s harness he leans backwards, or stops standing up and his weight transfers back. This makes it very difficult for him to control his skis. In the grand scheme of things you might argue that a really young child isn’t controlling their skis much but mine 23 month old already doing just that. He’s learning what edge pressure does, and how to wedge because hiss weight is over his skis.

So What is a Parent to do?

I won’t leave you hanging. Keep reading or check out this post for tips on how to teach your little one to ski. If you can, ski as a family. Someone can always be in front demonstrating techniques, capturing and holding the little one’s attention. They also can see who is coming close and alert you for danger. You can also take turns holding or skiing your little to help ease the physical burden on your quads. If you are worried about skiing backwards, twin tip skis do make it easier. They aren’t necessary though.

Tip Holders Help

A small investment makes a big impact on their skiing. Replace the hooks on their bindings and your manipulation of their skies with a tip holder and give your kiddo the freedom to learn and play. Tip holders like Edgie Wedgies keep kids from crossing their tips and falling. Something that no teaching harness will. This means safer, more productive ski runs! Their other main function is to help teach kids how to wedge which again is something no teaching harness can do.

Teach in Pairs

Whether its a partner, parent, or friend, having someone else to tag in is a great help. Kids get excited to ski with more people so it captures their attention and keeps them hooked. It also helps save your back to be able to do a hand off. We love skiing together as a family. One of us can focus on teaching and the other can keep a better eye out and help corral the kiddo now that he’s skiing independently.

Trust the Process and Your Little One

One of the biggest reasons to get a harness is the idea of letting go of your child. I get it, it can be hard to overcome. You don’t want them to get hurt, to go off the trail, or get too far away from you. You don’t want them to cut someone off and risk both getting hurt, or worse, someone accidentally hit them. But if you teach them gradually, building one skill at a time you can trust them to do it. You’ll be showing them that you trust them and that you have confidence in them and that goes a long way!