I picked up skiing in 6 hours??? ⛷️

2 weeks into 2026 and I already decided to take a vacation 😂 but I'm proud to say that I've now picked up a new winter sport!!! I went all the way to Taicang (30 min away from Shanghai Hongqiao via the Gaotie) to learn and it was worth it 😍

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🌸 Why learn in China??

My friend and I wanted to learn snowboarding/skiing and we did our research to determine our budget for this trip. Aside from cost, location and accessibility was very important since I don't drive and my friend isn't confident driving overseas, much less in snowy conditions. We also knew we were going to be extremely tired from lessons, so having a hotel close was important. Hence, an all-inclusive resort or a similar ski-in-ski-out hotel was important.

Going all the way to popular skiing destinations like Hokkaido or even Harbin was really expensive. Like, a stay for a minimum of 5 nights at a Clubmed resort is ~$3k per pax, not including flights or coaching fees... we thought it wasn't worth going to an actual mountain since we would be spending most of the time struggling anyway 🤡 and thats how we ended up deciding to learn at indoor snow resorts (which xhs affectionately calls "big fridges") in China. Here's a breakdown per pax for our trip:

⛷️: Taicang Alps Resort tickets - ~$65 per 4.5h ticket x2 (preferential rates from our hotel)

👨‍🏫: Lepoon乐普体育 - ~$480 for 6h of instruction (we split 3h over 2 days; found this company on xhs)

🏨: Clubmed Taicang - $173.62 for 2 nights (inclusive of only breakfast)

🚄: round trip Gaotie tickets: $10

✈️: $554.70 via SQ Economy

TOTAL: $1,348.32

These costs only cover the skiing portion of our trip! We also spent another 5 days in Shanghai city and did a small outing to visit a nearby attraction to our hotel in Taicang so it's not counted here.

I picked Taicang instead of the other 2 indoor snow resorts in Shanghai or Shenzhen mainly because it's much newer and not as run-down 😂 but honestly, I also felt that the other resorts were not very beginner friendly, and we wouldn't be fully utilising the slopes our ticket paid for. In Taicang, I was able to advance to the steepest slope! But that means that I've now outgrown this place too 😅

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🌸 Skiing as a (intermediate) figure skater???!!!

Calling myself a figure skater is a bit much considering I'm relearning all my turns now after being away from the ice for so long 🤡 but if I have a $500 pair of white skates with a toe pick, well, it is what it is.

I skated consistently for ~4 years before covid hit and have been on-off the last few years! To get ready for this trip, I went back on ice after a year away (for health reasons) to remember how to balance and to train my edges, weight transfers, and slaloms. I tried finding resources online for skiers to cross-train in the other seasons to figure out what could be carried over and went from there.

Needless to say, this revision session paid off 😂 my coach was very impressed that I was able to get snowploughs and wedge turns almost instantly. Within 2 hours, I was going down the steepest slope with wedge turns. But at the last hour of Day 1, I was really struggling with half-wedge to parallel turns 🤡 I think I was too tired to translate this for my skating monkey brain to understand.

Make no mistake - I expected this to happen 😂 for ice skating, it took me 8 hours (~4 sessions) to figure out how to move forward. So I was not surprised that I hit a roadblock like that at all! Something clicked in my brain in Day 2 and I finally understood the transition (basically, I was thinking wayyyy too hard about feet placement instead of letting my knees do their thing) which I then spent 2 hours drilling into my brain and the last hour figuring out parallel skiing on my own! Coach was impressed, I was also impressed 😂😂

I 100% expect needing a coach for a refresher class when I do ski again. Skiing on a mountain is different from a big fridge after all. But for anyone curious, here's the interchangeable skills I translated skiing for my skating brain:

✨️Snow plough - exactly like how you do them on ice; for stopping and slowing down

✨️Changing direction - determined by putting weight on the inside edge of the skiing/skating foot (e.g if turning left, use inside right edge. if turning right, use inside left edge)

✨️Wedge turns - C-cut drill exercises

✨️Half-wedge parallel turns - Knee + ankle movement is similar to doing inside edge stroking (e.g bend knee during turns, straighten knee gliding forward)

✨️Parallel skiing - 2-foot slaloms, with emphasis on the inside edge of the skating/skiing leg

✨️Hockey stop - same as on ice

What I found super handy to also have was awareness of other people 😬 skiing is a dangerous sport so having a sense of where people are around you and being able to react fast is key to avoiding collisions. I would like to thank the Sunday hockey kids for that one.

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🌸Tips and tricks

1. Avoid skiing on weekends to escape crowds!

2. PLS BUY KNEE SOCKS. They will save your shins from abrasions because ski boots are very stiff and you will be putting your full weight on the front of the boot constantly.

3. For the girlies: BRAID YOUR HAIR. Ponytails don't survive falls that well and I also lost my scrunchie at some point.

4. You WILL be sweating. Skiing is a full-body work out. Your base layer should be an exercise shirt (long sleeve is best), followed by a sweater, and then a ski jacket. For pants, I wore yoga pants and ski pants.

5. BRING PROTECTIVE GEAR or rent the turtles. They say that people dont fall on skis - but I did 😂 if your knees are achey like mine, bring protection!

Needless to say, I loved skiing! 10/10 would do it again - maybe on a mountain next time 👀

#skiing