Each issue of SeniorsSkiing.com has a picture to help test your skiing knowledge. The pictures are from collections in a variety of participating ski museums, which we encourage readers to visit. The hairdo’s scream late 1960s. But these co-eds weren’t the only students of the man in the middle. He trained members of the US men’s and women’s Olympic ski[Read More…]
We had an unfortunate reminder that “skiing is an inherently dangerous sport” with the untimely death of Ron LeMaster, ski writer/photographer and certified PSIA instructor. The 72-year-old was killed earlier this week after colliding with a snowboarder on Eldora Mountain (CO). May he rest in peace. Like so many things in life, sometimes fortune is not on our side, even[Read More…]
No impossible steeps, flips or cliff-hucking. Don Burch creates kinder and gentler ski videos showing normal skiers doing normal things. His editing, use of interesting digital enhancements and choice of scenic shots have a warm, old-school quality appealing to skiers and boarders of a certain age. “Calling Me” (about 3-minutes) is Don’s most recent production. Click on the image to[Read More…]
Even though senior skiers ski more and spend more per capita on skiing than younger generations, there’s a perception throughout the industry that the older cohort is made up of tight wads taking up otherwise valuable space in the day lodge. Jon touches on the issue in this week’s Short Swings! column. In his typical light and informative style, Skiing[Read More…]
Each issue of SeniorsSkiing.com has a picture to help test your skiing knowledge. The pictures are from collections in a variety of participating ski museums, which we encourage readers to visit. This big time skier was hardly stilted when it came to skiing or to publicity stunts. He was ski school director of the ski school of a New England[Read More…]
Ever since Vail Resorts and Alterra started gobbling up ski areas, there’s been industry chatter about corporate vs. independent resorts. Among other topics, this issue’s Short Swings! weighs in on the issue. Ski instructor and contributor, John Gelb, reports on Alta’s Intermediate Breakthrough instruction program and suggests ways to replicate it at other areas. One suggestion: take lessons on Sunday, when[Read More…]
Each issue of SeniorsSkiing.com has a picture to help test your skiing knowledge. The pictures are from collections in a variety of participating ski museums, which we encourage you to visit and to support. This image was submitted by the Alf Engen Ski Museum, located in Park City, Utah. The museum is dedicated to preserving the rich history of skiing[Read More…]
Each issue of SeniorsSkiing.com has a picture to help test your skiing knowledge. The pictures are from collections in a variety of participating ski museums, which we encourage you to visit and to support. This image was submitted by New Mexico Ski Hall of Fame and New Mexico Ski Museum, located outside Albuquerque, at the base of the Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway.[Read More…]
Welcome back, fellow Senior Skiers!!! This is the first issue of SeniorsSkiing.com for the 2021-22 season. As usual, there’s a lot of original content. Ski instructor and contributor John Gelb offers excellent advice about taking lessons at the beginning of the season. Day 1: ski around and take notes on what you want to strengthen or improve. Day 2: Have your[Read More…]
Each issue of SeniorsSkiing.com will have a picture to help you test your skiing knowledge. The pictures are from collections in a variety of participating ski museums, which we encourage you to visit and to support. This image was submitted by The New England Ski Museum, a non-profit based in New Hampshire with locations at the base of the Cannon[Read More…]
Three Costumed Spring Skiing Characters Put A Cap On The Season. Our Vicarious Vacation series winds up in Park City, UT, on April 12 this year, the last day of the season. Our three characters head down from Cloud Dine to the Tombstone Lift on the “canyon side.” We’ve never skied Park City, but this run follows trails which look[Read More…]
We Have It For You. Here’s a note from Shelley Canalia, a reader, who has come into possession of this old hat with numerous pins from resorts and events. My brother is Anthony Isham West. Great guy, comes from a Nordic ski family on his Father’s side. In 1985-86 he was working at Beaver Creek in Vail. He found[Read More…]
Here’s A View Of A Quad-Busting Run At A High-Altitude Colorado Classic. Our Vicarious Vacation series heads west to the major destination resort with a Victorian mining town heritage and lots of mountain to ski. At 8,750, the town sits at the base of mountains that range to 11,000 feet, making some of the highest, longest ski runs in North[Read More…]
To Buy Or Not To Buy (Yet): That Is The Question. It should be clear by now that if you intend to ski more than two or three times a season at mid-large resort, a season pass is required. Basically, walk-up tickets are major resorts are in the $15o to $200+ range which is fine if you have limited interest,[Read More…]
Stay Till The Final Melt, Or Had Enough Already? We know skiers who save up their skiing days until springtime. Fair weather skier, they are. March is when they go out in earnest, conditions permitting. And there are others who decide to bag the season after President’s Day. Or St. Patrick’s Day. Still others make the weekend trek to the[Read More…]
North Carolina Has The Highest Ski Resort In Eastern North America. Have You Been? The next stop in our Vicarious Vacation series is a hop down to North Carolina’s Beech Mountain. Located in the western mountains of the state, Beech Mountain has a summit elevation of 5,506 feet, making it the highest ski resort on the East Coast. The mountain[Read More…]
One Year On, It Is Time For Reflection. This year of sudden shut down when everything about lives has changed has thrown a lot of plans out the window. While many readers have found a way to get out in the snow, others have given this season a bye, and still others have taken up alternative snow sports, like cross-country,[Read More…]
By Ernest Hemingway (This is an excerpt from the short story which appeared in the collection In Our Time (1927). To read the complete story, click here.) The funicular car bucked once more and then stopped. It could not go farther, the snow drifted solidly across the track. The gale scouring the exposed surface of the mountain had swept the[Read More…]
Non-Stop, Two Mile Run on Polecat. Here’s the next in our Vicarious Vacation series: here’s a nice, calm run on the longest green trail in New Hampshire. Polecat runs from the top of Wildcat to the base, nice wide trails, mostly, taken at a leisurely pace. That’s Mount Washington on the horizon on the Tuckerman Ravine side. Spectacular bluebird day[Read More…]
Small Ranch Resorts And Large Scale Nordic Centers Span The State. [Editor Note: This article by Pete Wilson first appeared in The Nordic Approach.] In this state of mile-high life, opportunities to elevate your outdoor activities abound. Taking a page from the book of their Alpine resort neighbors, these cross-country ski areas center their offerings around the spectacular peaks of the[Read More…]
Take A Vicarious Vacation On A Beautiful Blue Run. Here’s a long (15 minute) run down the front side of Vail on a really nice blue. For those who haven’t been there, seeing wide, groomed slopes at Vail may be different from the mental model you’ve had of what it’s like at the fabled resort. This is not the Back[Read More…]
If You’ve Been, Tell Us So We Can Have A Vicarious Vacation. We have an interesting article this week from Dave Chambers, the “Traveling Australian.” He takes us to Appi Kogen, a resort in the north of Honshu, the big island of Japan. He spent a week skiing powder in the back end of the resort in perfect conditions he[Read More…]
Cascadia Contains Cross-Country Resorts Close To Metro Areas. [Editor Note: This article by Pete Wilson first appeared in The Nordic Approach.] The Pacific Northwest of the contiguous US is a wonderfully strange bit of geography. The Western edge is home to the fjord-filled Pacific Coast, where long beaches and towering seaside rock formations make for otherworldly getaways. Go the other direction, East[Read More…]
Are You A Hucker, Ripper, Park Rat, Or Just A “Sick” Planker? Sorry for the jargon. This week, we’d like to explore on which end of the risk spectrum our readers reside. We have a sense that some readers have slowed down, taken down the speed a notch or two, search for corduroy on on sunny days, and switched to[Read More…]
Here Are Five At The Top Of The List. [Editor Note: This article by Pete Wilson first appeared in The Nordic Approach, the site of the Cross Country Ski Area Association.] Generally speaking, the midwestern states make up an overlooked bit of the country—literally, the fly-over states. And sadly, this wild misjudgment often extends to the world of outdoor activities.[Read More…]
