Deb, actually my sister, an asthmatic, requires/uses dry cold air to keep from getting an attack. Her bedroom is about 55* with an auxiliary air conditioner to keep it that way. My mother was the same.
Donna has basically hijacked the thread with her dire and often wrong statements.
AND yes, different people have problems--or DON'T have problems--same person. There is very little way to tell--just as the child might have an attack in his bedroom.

Park city altitude is lower than most other ski places in the West - lower than other places close to SLC (Alta/Snowbird etc) and much lower than many Colorado resorts. TENS of thousands of children have great ski vacations there every winter. So yes I think you are worrying too much. Watch them, hydrate them, enjoy the snow with them...

Park City Mtn Resort base altitude = 6800 ft., top goes up to about 10,600 ft.

Deer Valley and Canyons slightly higher at the top of their highest chairs.

Snowbird base is 8,000 ft. and top is 11,000 ft. Alta slightly higher.

Sundance actually has the lowest base elvation in Utah.

Some CO resorts have higher elevation, but not all.

<<Babies DO have trouble on takeoffs and landings because of ear pressure stabilization. That is one reason that mamas nurse or feed them so the sucking will equalize the pressure--since you asked!!>>

Gretchen, breastfeeding is irrelevant, given the ages of the children, and feeding (?) won't help.

<<We have been able to explain to our children first, and now our grandchildren how to stabilize their ears also>>

You can explain this to children of those ages? Really? You think "explaining" will "stabilize" their ears?

<<--it isn't a permanent situation and it is easy to fix.>>

Well, when I was very young (5 going on 6), I flew with my family, a short flight from Baltimore to Charleston, WV. On landing, I thought I had gone nearly deaf. When I told my parents my ears "felt funny" and I couldn't hear very well at all, they told me to yawn and swallow, which did not help at all.

One ear seamed to clear up after several days, and several days or more later, the other.

But, I have had inner ear problems ever since with one or both ears. Difficulties with hearing in school and intermittent dizziness. All that along with ringing/banging in one ear or the other or both.

Over many years, I've also had bouts of sudden and dreadful vertigo. I've been examined by many ENT's and other specialists over the years to no avail.

Since you do agree that "Babies DO have trouble on takeoffs and landings because of ear pressure stabilization.", why would you insist that this is no concern, or that "it isn't a permanent situation and it is easy to fix".

How would YOU know?

I was old enough at the time to realize the cause of my ear problems going forward.

But, there are tons of folks with inner ear problems who have no idea, nor do any doctors...

To suggest that this should be of no concern whatsoever is positively ridiculous - to me, anyway.

DJK, you might be the one exception to the millions of kids who fly daily. everyone has some trick that they do to relieve ear pressure, whether it is chewing gum or yawning. and yes it can be taught. what do you think people do that scuba dive. All airplanes are compressurized, so that eliminates the same situation that a person experiences when diving.

So now not only should we not let our kids out to play in the snow, we shouldn't take them flying because they might go deaf and have ear problems the rest of their life.

sorry I mentioned the scuba diving, dear lord, what if a kid gets water in its ear. you know all those parasites in the water and not to mention the salt. Oh my goodness.

Back to the original post. I think your kids would be far more likely to break a leg than to have asthma problems as a result of being at a higher altitude. Asthma is usually triggered by allergens. Is this the case with your child? Trees, grasses, dust,food,pets, air quality? The trees might be the only thing that I would be worried about. But you have trees at lower elevations as well. As far as alititude sickness, you won't know about that until you get there.

So Judge, did you decide to go skiing or not?

Don't let the previous posts disuade you from travelling w/ kids. Just wanted to let you know that my DH has asthma but he doesn't seem to have trouble until we get over 9000 ft. Just take it easy for the first day or two and take note of change in behavior. The shortness of breath sometimes comes on slowly so your child might not have any idea what is happening that is making him feel weird. Don't be nuts about it though! If he is expecting to have a problem, he will.

most people do experience a shortness of breath at high altitudes, with or without asthma

So I checked with my husband on this topic--he is an ER MD at a major trauma center in town. If you have altitude sickness, the odds are very good that you would be in his ER. He said, bottom line is that most people (kids included) don't have problems at this altitude. Some people do--he saw someone who was here for an annual convention and when he looked up the records, he had see the same person last year for the same problem! So it CAN happen--very rare. Staying in SLC for one night would help. Staying in SLC to sleep and going up to the mountains to ski would be most helpful. Turns out a lot of it has to do with how you acclimate during your SLEEP--not during the day time.

I have a 4 and a 7 year old. I take them from 5,500 (we live in SLC) to 10K every weekend. No problems. And remember, most small kids are going to be at something more similar to 8K. 10K is the TOP of the mountain and most little ones are not sufficiently experienced to ski from the tip top.