Sloan Henderson was 14 months old, had only just learned to walk, and was already riding a snowboard. In January 2016 her parents filmed her first trip to Park City Mountain Resort in Utah, and the clip of the tiny rider in a mint bobble hat went around the world within days.
Who is Sloan Henderson, the 14-month-old snowboarder?
Sloan lives with her parents, Katie and Zach Henderson, in North Salt Lake, Utah. Both parents are board-sports people who wakeboard and surf, and Katie told ABC News that her husband has “always had good balance” on a board. She also said she wanted her daughter to grow up outdoors more than in front of screens.
Sloan got her snowboard for Christmas 2015. For a few weeks her parents let her practise at home, standing on the board on the carpet, being pulled along by her dad and sliding down snow in the backyard. Then came the real test at Park City, where she kept her balance and rode down a small slope on her own while resort staff and other guests stopped to watch.
How the snowboarding video went viral
Katie first posted the video on Facebook. The quality was poor, so she uploaded it to YouTube, and from there it travelled fast. Salt Lake City stations KUTV and Fox 13 ran the story on 29 January 2016, Mashable picked it up the same day, and within a week it had appeared on Time.com, ABC News and local TV sites across the United States, with viewers as far away as Hong Kong and Norway.
“We were just so proud of her. We were just so impressed that she could ride,” Katie told ABC News, adding with a laugh that she was jealous because she does not pick up sports as quickly. The family joked about the Olympics or a pro career, but Katie told Fox 13 that “we just want her to have fun”.
On 4 February 2016 the family brought Sloan and her board to KUTV’s trending-news show The Refresh, where she walked around the newsroom. Her dad joked that the half-pipe would come later. The parents also answered viewers who had asked about a helmet: the smallest one they could find was still too big, slid over her eyes and kept coming off, and they said they were still working on it.
Park City Mountain Resort, where Sloan rode
Park City Mountain sits about 32 miles (51 km) east of Salt Lake City, which makes it one of the easiest big resorts in North America to reach from a major airport. Vail Resorts bought it in 2014 and joined it with neighbouring Canyons for the 2015–16 season, the very winter Sloan made her debut, creating one of the largest ski areas in the United States with about 6,700 acres of skiable terrain.
The base sits at about 6,900 ft (2,100 m) and the top reaches 10,026 ft (3,056 m), a vertical drop of around 3,200 ft. During the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics the resort hosted the giant slalom, the snowboard parallel giant slalom and the half-pipe, so Sloan’s first run came on a mountain with real snowboarding history.
Tips for a toddler’s first day in the snow
The American Academy of Pediatrics’ winter guidance gives parents a simple checklist for little ones on the slopes:
- Dress children in warm layers with a hat, mittens and waterproof boots, and change wet clothes straight away.
- Bring them indoors regularly to warm up; small children lose heat faster than adults.
- Use equipment that fits, and a helmet for skiing and snowboarding.
- When they are ready, book lessons with qualified instructors in a programme designed for children.
Like the Hendersons, start on flat ground or carpet at home, keep sessions short and let the child decide when the fun is over. Most resorts run ski-school programmes for small children, and they will tell you the youngest age they accept.
If your family would enjoy something on level ground, our creative snowman gallery has shapes and characters to spark ideas. You can also borrow the pattern-making idea from Simon Beck’s snow art and stamp out a few simple footprint designs. For more outdoor families, see the Born Wild mothers’ outdoor photographs.
Related reading
- Ava’s Early Snowboard Ride at Mammoth
- Born Wild: Three Mothers Sharing Outdoor Life with Their Children
- Tandem Snowboarding Friends: Kinsley and Emma’s Family Film
- A Frozen-Inspired Backyard Snow Day in South Carolina
- Zoe’s First Skiing Days: A Family Film at Seventeen Months
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