Friday, July 11, 2014

Geezer Friendly Ski Areas

   I have been thinking about an App that might be useful to geezer skiers.  (Even though it is the middle of July).  An App that could be on your smart phone, iPad or the like.    Last summer my wife and I used a tennis court finder App while we were traveling across the USA to find a public court where we would stay the night.  It was a great App since it gave the conditions of the court and either an address or GPS coordinates so we could navigate to the court.  Is there a need for a comparable App for ski areas?
     Perhaps we ought be able to offer to the geezer skier an App that would define and rate ski areas for geezer friendliness.   The 70+ Ski Club already publishes data on the ski areas that give us a financial break.   However, there is no information that defines the geezer friendliness of the area.
   So how would one define the geezer friendliness of a ski area?  What criteria would we use?   Here are a few suggestions.
1.  Is there a break on the lift ticket cost?
2.  Special parking for the senior skier?
3.  Discount for food and beverage for the senior skier?
4.  Lift access without a long trek with your gear?
5.  Automatic entrance and exit doors?
6.  Convenient changing areas?
7.  Elevators for multi level lodges?
8.  Hosts and hostesses as volunteer guides?
9.  Periodic complimentary instruction?
10.  Large print ski area maps?
11.  Patience of the service and lift operator staff with the sometimes slower geezer skier?
12.  Significant amount of groomed intermediate trails?
     I am running dry on ideas so readers, let me know if you can think of other criteria one might use.
     If one were to accomplish creating the GeezerSki App it would require assembling data through the cooperation of volunteer geezers across the United States at least.  Through a central clearing house we could assemble the data base and then write the App that one could pull up on their smart phone or computer and based on you location find the most geezer friendly ski area.
      Maybe we could get some young computer hot shot to take this on.  And who knows it could go viral!
     Dear Readers - feedback is welcomed!

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