Love and Skiing: What Couples Have Learned From Skiing Together

Growing up it seemed every ski resort gift shop had a wooden frame with something similar to the phrase, "a family that skis together stays together", the name of the resort, and a place for a picture of your family on a ski trip. Now it seems you can find this phase on everything from coasters to ornaments. And it was a phrase my family used - even our Connecticut license plate 5SKIRS proclaimed our love of skiing all together. Growing up before the 6-pack lifts were plentiful, the only drawback to being a family of 5 who loved to ski was that we couldn't all fit on one lift. By the time 6-packs were common our family had basically grown to eight with each of my sisters now being married to a fellow skier. It seems like a love of skiing is a requirement to join my nuclear family.

In honor of Valentine's Day we turned to our followers to ask what they have learned about themselves, love, and their relationship by hitting the slopes together. We didn't limit it to only married couples, yet 10 married couples responded - as well as an engaged couple.

Throughout the responses, themes emerged that apply to both skiing and life:

• Patience
• Teamwork
• Trust
• Communication
• Importance of shared experiences / spending time together

Also, non-factual but interesting tidbits:

• Out of the 11 couples, three had a women named Jen/Jennifer, so if you're still looking for a skier gal, find a Jen?
• In 5/10 of the married couples, at least one of the partners didn't know how to ski or wasn't a good skier when they started dating (two couples mentioned watching YouTube videos to improve their skiing)
• Our couples hail from 7 states

Here is what the couples shared with us, ordered from engaged through 40 years of marriage: