SNOWSHOEING
Bowling party? Nope. Swimming? Nah. Gymnastics? Indoor Rock Climbing? No, thank you. Last December, when Frances, a.k.a. Icicle Girl, turned 7, she organized a snowshoe through the woods, followed by a bonfire and hot-dog roast.

For the better part of two hours, 15 kids age 5 to 10 zigged, zagged, and cavorted in the snow, taking turns as leader of their happy parade.

When the kids were toddlers, we led the way on snowshoes, packing out and shoveling mazes around the house. Some days, if you had dropped a small child out the front door, they would have disappeared altogether (this may be very tempting in deepest winter, but is generally not recommended). So, unless you’re into the indoor-circus lifestyle or have the physical and emotional strength to lug ear-grabbing, hat-tossing kids around on your shoulders, shoveling a kid-run is a good option. Joyfully, we imagined even gratefully, Ben and Frances shuffled behind, tiny green plastic snowshoes (which cost 50 cents at a yard sale) strapped to their feet.

Our kids have since graduated to sturdier snowshoes, with reliable, easy-to-use clip-on bindings and even small crampons for icy conditions and steep terrain. When snow is deep, they like to use poles for balance, and for whacking snow off trees and onto each other. They also take turns as leader, especially if the snow is deep and they’re breaking trail.

“Snowshoeing is not hard,” says Kellie Carim, a naturalist guide who leads AMC family snowshoe workshops. “If you can walk, you can snowshoe!” Eventually. Carim starts kids and adult beginners with snowshoe games that require lots of running, turning, and falling down. Tag and Red Light/Green Light are big hits.

As with cross-country skiing, you’ll want to start on forgiving terrain, and keep first treks short and sweet. Take a picnic, create a treasure hunt, or search for animal tracks. Better yet, plan a birthday party and a bonfire.

TRACKING
When Frances discovered one morning last winter the parade of miniature tridents marking a mouse’s tale, she jumped right in. Our mouse had come from under the stairs, she observed. It scampered across the step. It circled. And—look!—it snacked on sunflower seeds fallen from the birdfeeder.

“Good thing the chickadees dropped some,” Frances said.

Following prints, like punctuation signaling stops and pauses, questions and exclamations, Ben and Frances bob and weave in the footsteps of bobcat, porcupine, and deer, some imagined, some real. After who knows how long, they look up and find themselves far from where they started, having visited cozy, even dark imaginary dens, survived epic struggles, and performed bold feats of athleticism and agility.

“Kids have a fantastic imagination,” says animal tracker Lynn Levine. “If they see a bear in every track, that’s OK.” What’s important, says Levine, who co-wrote Mammal Tracks and Scat Life-Size Tracking Guide, is to “let them live in their imaginations.”

To find tracks, follow the advice of Nancy Ritger, a senior naturalist interpreter for AMC. “Shrubs with seeds or buds for browse, maybe an open stream or, at my house, the compost pile are all home to all sorts of critters,” she says. If no wildlife has left its mark, remember, the prints of a family pet will do.

Try these questions to get the juices flowing. What kind of pattern is it leaving behind? Did it go over or under anything, lose any stray hairs? What was it eating? Where did it find shelter? Is there any scat to investigate? Did the animal meet up with any other animals, prey or predator? How long ago was the track made?

Sure, you can bring along a book or two—I’ve listed some excellent choices on the previous page—but consider waiting until you’re back home and warm. Let them first walk awhile on winter’s wild side.

WINTER HUTS
We made our first annual overnight trip to Mount Mansfield’s Stone Hut as a family four winters ago. With gear-stuffed duffels, we rode one of Stowe Mountain Resort’s ski lifts to the top, unloaded and settled into the Civilian Conservation Corpsbuilt hut for the night. We kindled our fire, laid out sleeping bags, boiled water. We hiked to the summit and watched the sun go down, and galloped back in a glow. We woke up early and, for a few hours, had the mountain to ourselves.

It’s not quite the same experience as our pre-child backcountry skiing or camping adventures in the Adirondacks, the Tetons, Gaspé, or the Whites. But we couldn’t be happier. Now we’ve set our sights on AMC’s Lonesome Lake and Carter Notch huts. There’s no lift service there, and the terrain can be challenging, but our kids are very close to having the skills and maturity to ski or snowshoe the 1.5 or 3.8 miles, respectively, in. Both huts see families with middle-school-age kids, and sometimes, says AMC Huts Manager Eric Pedersen, kids as young as 9. Groups from Kearsarge High School and Hopkinton High School ski or snowshoe into Carter Hut each winter, Pedersen says.

Whether you’re riding a lift or skiing in, sleeping overnight in the winter mountains for the first time is a marvel at any age. Outside our Stone Hut, the wind blows, the stars burn, and snow and ice pile up until the world as we know it is all but unrecognizable. There’s no electricity, no running water. But with a warm fire burning, there is the discovery that you will not only survive the cold, but thrive.

Catherine Buni, former editor and publisher of AMC Outdoors, is probably on the trail trying to catch up with her kids.

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