Top tips for your mountain kids = Adapting for the weather

This might be an unpopular opinion, but here it is anyway: kids on holiday in Switzerland might not love all the activities adults think they will.

We went sledging the other day and passed several groups of families along the way, and in every single group at least one child was crying. Not just a little whimper either — full-on, unhappy tears.

Now, I’m sure the adults planned the day thinking their kids would absolutely love it. They probably imagined a magical alpine experience: rosy cheeks, laughter, snow gently falling around them. But that wasn’t the reality.

It was a blizzard.

Not the cute, postcard-style snow you see in winter brochures. This was the full white-out kind — wind whipping, snow stinging your face like tiny needles, visibility disappearing in seconds.

For adults it was exhilarating. For many of the kids? Not so much.

A lot of children who grow up in Switzerland start sledging almost from the moment they arrive in the world. I’m only slightly exaggerating. You’ll see newborns in carrier satchels strapped to mum or dad, bundled up and out in the mountains. They grow up in the cold, geared up properly, and used to the weather and the elements from the very beginning. Helmets are normal. Goggles are normal. Flying down a mountain on what is essentially a wooden bench on runners is completely normal.

But if you’re visiting Switzerland on holiday, your kids might not have that same starting point. It’s quite likely they don’t regularly wear helmets and goggles, they’re not used to freezing temperatures and strong alpine winds, and they’ve definitely never sat on a sled flying down a mountain with snow attacking their face like tiny icy bullets. So it’s probably not the easiest moment to introduce the experience while they can barely see where they’re going.

And honestly, it works the other way too. If I took my kids somewhere very hot, I’m sure I’d quickly find plenty of situations where they weren’t comfortable either. Extreme heat, unfamiliar environments, different physical challenges. The same logic applies here in the Alps.

What I saw this weekend was just one small example, but it made me think about something bigger, something that links back to my first blog about being spontaneous. Because if I’m honest, I’m the worst culprit when it comes to getting an idea stuck in my head. I picture how something will go and then become incredibly inflexible about making it happen exactly that way.

But the Alps have taught me this lesson the hard way: spontaneity is often the smarter path. Weather changes quickly here. Conditions shift constantly. What looked like the perfect activity in the morning can be miserable by lunchtime.

Sometimes the best decision is simply to say, “You know what… maybe today isn’t the day for sledging.”

And maybe the real alpine skill isn’t planning the perfect day, but knowing when to change it.

Because sometimes the best mountain adventure isn’t the one you planned at all — it’s the one where everyone ends the day smiling instead of crying.

And if you’ve ever tried to drag a freezing, snow-blasted child down a mountain while insisting they’re “having fun”, you’ll know exactly what I mean.