Geezer Gear - Retire that Jacket

Geezer skiers have a way of getting attached to a favorite piece of gear. Mostly a jacket that seems to become an old friend. Just the right number of pockets in the right place. A fit that feel like another skin. After a few years, however, the jacket begins to take on the appearance of the garb of a homeless person living on the streets. I have a yellow jacket that I still hang onto because I like it so much. I'll roll it out in the spring when the crud drips off the lifts.

Our friend Bob O. is about to retire one of his jackets and ski buddy Pat R. plans to bring a burn barrel to the slopes so we can have a ritual burning. Great idea. Maybe we all should contribute.

The picture with this blog today gives you a glimpse of the jacket to be retired. I'll get a better picture of it tomorrow so you can fully appreciate its character.

I might further comment that there are a few geezer fashion plates who appear with a different jacket almost on a daily basis. We may not recognize the jacket but everyone will identify themselves by their skiing style. No matter how technically proficient or not proficient one is, everyone has a unique character for their skiing.

Geezer Support Group

Coffee talk among the geezer skiers often wanders off into the challenges of the senior years. As the medical statistics show most of us men past 50 develop some sort of prostate problems. Often starting with enlargement and for some progressing into cancer. In one way or another we learn to cope with this ailment and for some of us radical prostatectomy is the solution. As a skier I was fortunate to have a urologist that was also a skier. Often when a 70 plus guy develops prostate cancer the urologist will recommend wait and see or relatively non-invasive treatment. The thought is that something else will get you before the prostate cancer does. However, my doctor offered me the surgery solution. Since I was in good health at that time his attitude was to give me the chance to be hitting the slopes when I was ninety. So five years later I am looking forward to that 90th year fifteen years from now. At my ski area I have a model of this possibility. Skier Pret will be ninety soon and yesterday he was ripping up the slopes. It's good to have a hero for encouragement.

Meanwhile it is good to have a few laughs about our geezer ills and encourage each other to keep on skiing. We don't have to seek out a support group. We already have one. Here's to good health and more laughs.

Geezer Friendly Ski Areas

I received my 70+ Ski Club newsletter today with a listing of the lift ticket benefits for senior skiers. Nice to know that there are over 100 areas that offer free skiing and 300 that give seniors a break. A geezer friendly ski area is not just identified by ticket cost breaks but also by other attitudes and amenities that seniors enjoy. Among the things I can list that are appealing are,

1. Happy and accommodating lift attendants that give your a smooth transition to the chair.

2. Parking reasonably close to the lodge/lifts or at least transportation from the parking lot boonies.

3. A break on the cost of food/drinks.

4. Special days of free group lessons.

5. A reasonable number of groomers for the physically challenge.

If I were a ski area operator I would be thinking now of how to attract that bulge of baby boomers reaching geezer hood to my ski area. I think this demographic would be a valuable income source and a means of increasing skier days. Many would benefit from a season pass deal since most of us are inclined to ski 3 to 5 hours a day.

Today we had especially good loaders on the lifts. Nice to avoid the whack on the back of the legs!!

Do You Need a Checklist

National Public Radio today had a piece on checklists as a way to improve the performance of surgeons. The point was that experience and knowledge is great, but a checklist provides reminders and can improve the outcomes. Maybe I should have a checklist as a means of improving my skiing day.

I fall into a routine during much of ski season that means arising early enough to gather my gear, make sure I have my lunch prepared and warm up the ski boots over the register before departing at 8:50 A.M. This gets me on the slope by 9:30 A.M. start. However, unless I concentrate, I may forget my hand warmers, leave my cell phone at home or miss including my newspaper for my lunch break. So maybe I do need a checklist!!

Probably a check list would help improve my skiing. Am I edging properly, do I have my hips, arms and body in the right position? Did I finish the turn. Lots to think about.

Know Your Limitations

Geezer hood does bring limitations. Most of my buddies are checking out at noon at my local ski area. A few years ago we were gathering for lunch and exchange of stories followed by at least an hour or so of afternoon skiing. Today Otto was the only one of our group out in the afternoon with me. Some get their fix for skiing for the day with morning runs. I am still excited about getting in a few more runs after lunch.

Knowing my own limitations, I hope I will not push myself beyond my safety and health limits. Today was a fabulous day of powder skiing. We were blessed with about 8 inches of really light stuff overnight. I was still finding untracked lines even at 2:00 PM today. I knew enough, however, not to push the umbrella and cut out about 2:30 PM.

For those of us that have had a hard competitive edge all our lives, it continues to be a challenge to back off and just enjoy the ride and quell the desire to conquer the hill. A reminder we don't have to prove anything anymore.

Cheers Geezers!!

Hero Snow Day -Old Geezers Remembered

A fantastic day on the slopes at Greek Peak. Six to eight inches of new snow - mostly powder and the temperature hovering around 10 F. Great first tracks in the morning and still untracked spots in the afternoon. As one companion on the ride up said, "It's hero snow!"

Had a couple of chair rides with Carmen in the morning. We had a good time recalling a couple of geezer friends that no longer ski at GP. We fondly remember Bob Jenkins who passed away a year or so ago. Bob was a great guy who was a great skier and a great person. He had skied all over the world and the U.S. and I always enjoyed stories of his ski adventures. His philosophy for the tough skiing was pointer down the hill and go. I well remember the one day we did that in a heavy crusted untracked Olympian trail. Bob ended up on his nose. When he didn't show up at the lift I had to ski the same crud to see if he was all right.

We also remembered Jim Melia who now resides in State College, Pennsylvania. Jim would come into the lodge on many a day when we were having coffee and boast about the great stashes of deep snow he discovered in the woods or the edge of a rarely skied trail. We all thought they were exaggerations. So the joke in hearing reported snowfall was to ask whether it was true inches of depth or Melia inches.

All this reminds me that the geezer group at GP keeps changing. We will have to keep recruiting as some pass away or move. All you have to do is survive at least three score and keep on skiing.

Skier's Psalm

Tough old geezer skiers need all the support they can get to keep them safe and happy. Many years ago I was in Vermont and in a little shop where I noticed a coffee cup with the Skiers Psalm written on the side. To my surprise it was the 121st Psalm from the Bible. The opening of the Psalm is "I look to the hills! Where will I find help? It will come from the Lord, who created the heavens and the earth." As I ski daily on and in God's creation I enjoy reflecting on my good fortune and comfort in the words of this Psalm. My special license plate is SKI 121 as a tribute to the protection of God that I feel.

Here's to another safe and injury free year for all of you on the slopes and elsewhere.