A Day in the Life of a Geezer Skier

  One day this week I was inspired by the events of the day to muse on a day in the life of a geezer skier as I experienced it.
    Some ski days are special and some days are more routine.  The morning ritual at home consists of the usual physical preparation for the day.  Bathing, shaving if necessary, and the usual breakfast of a  mini-bagel and two cups of hot water.  No coffee at breakfast!  One of my former colleagues, long passed away now when he was in his mid nineties inspired the hot water regime!  He was a hardy individual that I wanted to emulate.  Post breakfast and a morning devotional it is time to prepare to travel to the ski slope.  
    Preparation means assembling appropriate clothing and gear for the day.  Ski boots get packed into my bag as they come off the hot air register along with my warmed socks.  Hand warmers stored in an air tight bag from the previous day are placed in the mitten pockets.   Mid morning coffee has been made and goes into the thermos.  De-caf only!   Also the most important item for the mid-morning break- an apple fritter is stowed as well.  After donning all the gear, it is time for the 10 minute commute to the ski area.
     On the particular morning of inspiration this week when I opened the garage door, I was dazzled by the winter scene of my driveway.   On this particularly bright, sunny and brisk morning the new fallen snow sparkled like diamonds.   A most brilliant display that twinkled in the early morning light.   The scenes of the countryside were equally dazzling.   With the satellite radio tuned to the symphony channel, I enjoyed the sound of Beethoven's Piano Sonata.   The music enhanced my appreciation of the hoarfrost enveloping the weeds and trees.  There were beautiful shapes and shadows from the sun's caress of the environment.   In the still air smoke rising from the chimneys hung in sun etched clouds, gently rising into the atmosphere.
    Noting the temperature of about 15 degrees F as I arrived, I enter the lodge to join the assembly of geezers.   The booting up ritual involves exchange of friendly banter and a check of the trail report.   Geezers in my area are first track people.  We are on the slope ready to ride right behind the ski patrol.
   On this sunny day, with the need for more snow we are greeted with the roar of the snow makers.   Often making it hard for us to hear as we travel up the slope.
For some of us there is the ritual of skiing a series of trails in sequence and even keeping track of the numbers of runs.   On this day, with the sunshine and sparkling snow it was a simple pleasure to enjoy the views both close up and across the hills.
   The morning ritual continues with a mid-morning coffee break.   The geezers will gather to get their "senior" coffee and or cocoa.   Conversation ranges from the serious to the mundane to the ridiculous.    Often we are catching up on the condition of some that are dealing with ailments,  volunteer work of many, and of course the latest jokes.
   Post coffee, we are on the slopes for additional runs or in some cases, calling it a day to go off to other activities
   For me the day typically ends in the early afternoon.   The geezers disappear and we all go home to prepare for another day on the slopes.
  On my return trip home, I typically tune into the 40's music station for entertainment of my youth.  I love the old tunes and the big band sound.  Not only do I know many of the lyrics, for the ones I don't know the enunciation of the words are clear to this old brain.
   Depending on the day, the remainder of the day brings other rewarding activities.   Volunteering for various needs fills some of the afternoons and maybe a nap or two can be fit in too.
    Life is good for the geezer skier!  Accolades go to my wife, who tolerates my skiing absence.   Her warm embrace upon my return warms the tough old geezer skier beyond description.  
   May all you geezer skiers out there have a magnificent ski season and life.

Skiing - The Good and The Ugly

    Fourteen days of skiing into the ski season and one would expect to be in prime form.   After one day of skiing in December, January 3rd marks the beginning of non-stop skiing hopefully until the spring shut down.   What a strange season!  Only occasionally conditions have been considered good.  For the most part only man-made snow has been available.   Although the grooming has been quite good, the surface remains quite firm.  Sharp edges are necessary almost every day.  However, in contrast today we had a new challenge.   An overnight rain and warm temperature produce a "wet groomed packed powder" the consistency of wet cement!
    I would like to pride myself having the ability to ski almost any type of surface.   However, at what cost?   While the "wet cement" was skiable, the combination of the consistency with the stick-slip variation in slipperiness was a great challenge.   It was ugly.   None of my geezer group on the hill.  Based on how my knees felt after a couple of hours on the slopes, I know why they weren't there.
     I guess I still have the old tenacity of the farm boy in me.   If you want to ski every day you have to accept the good, bad and the downright ugly.   At least I got a workout and will not have to use the treadmill for exercise.
 

Finally - Opening Day- A Great Feeling

      The long awaited opening day at Greek Peak has happened.  Today was day to ski just the Alpha slope.   Rather decent surface even if there were a few mud streaks in places.   It was good to get a ski fix.
     Alpha slope is basically a beginners slope that works for early instruction in skiing and boarding.  So if nothing else is available, what should one do there?   Obviously a good time to work on fundamentals.   Although I did a bit of free skiing,  I did also spend a bit of time on edge control, body positioning and the like.   Still trying to lay down those perfect parallel tracks.
       After so many years of skiing, one would think you would not get so excited about being on the slopes again.  Not so!  The old heart quickens and the enthusiasm kicks in.  Almost like being a teenager again.   Hooray for day 1 of a new season.  May the snow gods dump on us in the coming weeks.
   If anyone of of you regular readers need photos of opening day, go to my Facebook page.  Come on you old geezers get with the modern social media if you haven't already.
   Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays or whatever you like.  All good wishes to everyone.

A Skier's Lament

    As  an avid geezer skier I always look forward to the start of a ski season and hope for an extended period of good snow and cold weather.   This year has to be one of the most vexing delays to the start of the season that I can remember in over 20 years of logging the characteristics of the season.  The latest start for me in the past was December 22, 2001 for the 2001-2002 season.   Even so, I was able to get in 8 days of skiing before the first of January.   Greek Peak predicts and December 22 opening day this year.  Based on the rain today and the warm weather predicted for next week, I surely doubt that we will get any skiing before January!   Oh that I will be wrong!   I can only hope for a miracle that Greek can make enough snow this weekend with the predicted brief cold spell.
      However unsettling the delay of the season is for me, it is devastating for the people who rely on the ski season for employment.  I know that many of the lift attendants count on shifting from their summer employment to the jobs at the ski area.   And no doubt the ski instructor staff, wait staff and others suffer from the snow drought as well.  Their pain is much more critical than mine.
      Meanwhile, the only alternative I have is to be distracted by other projects or transport myself to some place there is snow.  Oh how I envy son Colin and his family departure for Utah later this week!  The Wasatch is getting a dump of snow and Alta and Snowbird will be swimming in powder.   Although traveling to a snow area is an alternative, I have reached an age where the rigors of airline travel severely discourage the effort.
    So while my skis languish in my locker and my boots and ski clothing remain in storage, I find myself into the decluttering mode.   Over many years of various construction and remodeling projects, I have accumulated odds and ends of tools, nails, screws and a miscellany of hardware.   With my extra time I will trash, sort and give away this debris.
       Thankfully I have 20 years of ski logs to relive those past great days on the slopes.  

I Hate Global Warming

    My commute to my Cornell office gives me time to muse about the state of the world both locally and globally.   On this early December day I lament the mild and rainy weather.  It should be snowing and cold.   Our local ski area should be making snow at least.  However neither of those conditions exist.   Dairy cows that normally reside in their snug barns are grazing on  green grass.   Harvested soy bean and corn fields lie bare to the sullen low flying clouds.   And the bare, recently manured fields spice the air with the pungent odor of cow manure.
   I hate global warming!  Post Thanksgiving, skiers in Upstate New York should be on the slopes.  Perhaps I was spoiled by last years ski season.   We were on the slopes shortly after Thanksgiving and I even had a record 20 days of skiing before January 1.  Doesn't look like skiing will start much before Christmas.  Sunday I passed by Greek Peak.   One slope had the appearance of a dappled horse's flank.   Small separated patches of white against a dun brown background.   Alas, warm weather is predicted for at least the next 10 days.
   While the delayed start of my ski season is an annoyance, it is not such a dire circumstance as the potential change in sea level inundating many cities and parts of the world.   Nor is it as dire as the disruption of the ecosystems.   It is predicted that global warming will increase extreme variations in weather.   Perhaps we are seeing that this year.   Parts of the Western United States and the Midwest have been inundated with snow and rain, while the East has been dryer and hotter.
     Meanwhile my geezer skier friends in the East, we will have to be patient for the time being.   However, Going to the gym, walking the treadmill, or simply walking the neighborhood will have to do for now.

Farm Machinery Boneyard and Pluto

    Hopefully the title of this blog will pique your interest!   The two parts are related.  Some of you may know that Clyde Tombaugh was the discoverer of Pluto in 1930 while at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.   Tombaugh was a farm boy from Kansas who was mostly a self taught astronomer.   While on the farm in his youth and early adulthood he made his own lenses and telescopes.   The telescopes were made from scavenging the remnants of old farm machinery.   How great it is that old farm machinery morphed into a scientific instrument.
    Tombaugh corresponded with the people at the Lowell Observatory and convinced them to hire him even though he had no formal training in astronomy.  He was assigned all the nitty gritty tasks to maintain the facilities as well as the opportunity to make observations with a telescope.  There were theoretical calculations that there had to be another body beyond the 8 planets already discovered.   Variations  in the orbit of Neptune seemed to indicate the presence of an additional planet.    Tombaugh was given the tedious task of looking for the elusive planet.  The process was to use a blink comparator which would photograph the same area of the sky at defined times.   By comparing photographs one could observe points of light that move and thus track an object moving in space.    It was an onerous task but farm boy Tombaugh stuck with it and succeeded where others did not have the same tenacity.
     Tombaugh stayed with the Lowell Observatory over most of his career and lived to a ripe old age of 90.   He did complete bachelors and masters degrees in astronomy too.   Ah yes, he became an esteemed geezer with several international awards!
     Recently my wife and I visited the Lowell Observatory and viewed the telescope that Tombaugh used for his discovery.   How timely, in view of the recent fly by of Pluto by a space probe!
     Is there a connection to skiing here?   Of course!   While in Flagstaff  we made a side trip to the Snowbowl Ski Area.   Perched at a base elevation of 9200 feet in the San Francisco Peaks the lifts will elevate you an additional 2300 feet to a breath taking 11,500 feet.   As I hiked there, I struggled to get enough oxygen from the thin air.  There was a dusting of snow on the higher elevations.  A precursor to the over 200 annual inches of snow recorded  there.  
   Our stay in Flagstaff was a nice mix of science/engineering and ski area exploration.
 

The Pluto Dome and Telescope

Pluto Telescope - An Astrograph

Arizona Machinery Boneyard - Potential Telescope?

 

Silos and Ski Lifts

    Question:  What do silos and ski lifts have in common?   I think the answer is they both are indicators of the progression of successful businesses.  
   As I travel the dairy country of upstate New York, silos are typically skyline markers.   As consolidation of the dairy industry has occurred over many years, abandoned barns and silos are frequent indicators of this trend.   However, over the same time, successful dairies sport a progression of larger and larger silos.   Also as the dairy has expanded the barns get larger as more cows are added.
  As I observe the ski industry, a similar trend has occurred.   Some ski areas have been abandoned or in some cases they have been absorbed into larger more successful operations.   For the successful ski areas, a progression of more and better ski lifts occur.   Also just as the dairy farmer adds more structures to house the larger herd, the ski area expands the lodges and service facilities.
    So, I conclude silos and ski lifts have an interesting connection.   I think the two photos below confirm my conjecture.  Note the dairy with a progression of larger and larger silos  from right left in the photo.  Also note a larger barn from right to left plus a large free stall structure on the far left.   I regret that my ski lift photo does not capture all the possibilities at a ski area.   However, I have been at ski areas that show a progression form a rope tow to t-bar, to double chair, to triple chair and even to quad chair.
    Perhaps all these musings confirm that my interests in engineering, agriculture and skiing do converge.   I like making connections between disparate things!

A prospering dairy of Cortland County, New York

New quad chair on the left replaces a double chair.