Editorial Regardless of whether the steady elimination of season pass senior discounts is personally insignificant or presents a financial burden, you should be aware of the lack of fairness and gratitude exhibited by this new policy. Through Vail’s EPIC Pass and Alterra’s IKON pass, the companies are advancing elimination of senior discounts, while acquiring more areas. In fairness, some localized Vail[Read More…]
Are older skiers the Rodney Dangerfields of the slopes? Sometimes it feels like ski resorts show us no respect. Consider that there are no Epic or Ikon senior discounts, and, in the case of some Ikon resorts, there no longer are local season passes and the senior discounts associated with them. Some of the big players are doing very well.[Read More…]
Grandparents who ski or board play a major role introducing their grandchildren to the sport. This is one of several significant findings from the April reader survey. It was the fifth SeniorsSkiing.com reader survey, and it produced the largest reader response to date. Fifty-eight percent of respondents identified as grandparents. The introduced more than 68% of their grandchildren to the[Read More…]
The first rule for skiing powder is to get to it before anyone else does. It skis best when untracked, and it doesn’t stay untracked for long. The other day at Grand Targhee in Wyoming, I bought a ticket that gave access to the lifts an hour before opening to the public. The other option would have been pricier cat[Read More…]
Will Historic Victory Raise Profile Of Competitive Cross Country? [Editor Note: SeniorsSkiing.com thanks XCSkiResorts.com publisher Roger Lohr for this article on the incredible Olympic accomplishment of Randall and Diggins. An expanded version first appeared in XCSkiResorts.com.] Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins made American Olympic history, winning the gold medal in Pyeongchang for the Women’s Team Sprint Freestyle Cross Country Ski[Read More…]
[Many expenses for technicians, designers, and others are associated with delivering SeniorsSkiing.com free each week and developing and publishing Subscriber-Only content. Please help by making a modest donation by clicking here.] George Jedenoff, 100, Is In Love With The Mountains, The Snow, And Life. Everyone Who Meets Him Says, “I Want To Be Like George.” “Age is just a number,”[Read More…]
When I heard of the book Soft Skiing I had to check it out. At age 84, that’s how I ski— with minimal effort, smoothly, cruisin’ the blues. The subtitle of this small paperback was encouraging: “The Secrets of Effortless Low-impact Skiing for Older Skiers.” The author, Lito Tejada-Flores, was “born at 13,000 feet in the Bolivian Andes,” and he[Read More…]
Several years ago I did the unthinkable at Thanksgiving. I abandoned my wife and young daughters and went to Alta for a long weekend. I had my wife’s blessing, but she has a long memory, and I still get reminded of that mid-1980s lapse. But I also have sweet memories. It dumped 3′ and, except for the lack of a[Read More…]
This will be my 64th consecutive year on skis, a factoid I should have mentioned at a recent ski industry event where each of the 50+ people gathered for lunch were asked to say something brief about what they do. I was the oldest in the room and spoke about older skiers and how we comprise 20% of the US[Read More…]
SeniorsSkiing.com Needs You! …especially if you’re willing to write articles that would be of interest to our readers. Articles can cover prepping for the season (exercising, nutrition, personal accounts, etc.); thoughts on equipment, gear, clothing; technique; profiles of older skiers (well-known or not), destinations, planned trips, nostalgia, ski/board/snowshoe history, skiing with kids and grandkids, etc. We prefer articles no longer[Read More…]
Snow Has Arrived Around The West. Half-Price Subscription to realskiers.com: Jackson Hogen, publisher of realskiers.com, publishes short essays related to the the sport. The current one, about older skiers, is titled “Not Dead Yet.” You can sign up for the essays and receive them free. I recommend getting a paid subscription where, among other things, you’ll find intelligent and comprehensive ski[Read More…]
We Have Hurricanes And Wildfires. Oz Has Big Snow. Sound Like A Theme? The news from Down Under is that the snows are prodigious, the depths of which haven’t been seen in 17 years. The snowpack in Australian snow fields is up to 97 inches, eight feet, which sounds awfully similar to the monster snow this year in the North[Read More…]
According to NSAA (National Ski Areas Association) last season there were 8.4 million active U.S. skiers and boarders: 6.5 million skiers; 2 million boarders. The number is significantly lower than reported by SIA (Snowsports Industries America), which, for 2015-16 reported 11.6 million skiers and 7.6 million boarders. NSAA collects its information from a sample of resort skiers. SIA uses other[Read More…]
