Still Skiing After All These Years
We’ve all seen the classic posters: “Old skiers never die, they just go downhill” or “You don’t stop skiing when you get old—you get old when you stop skiing.”
Even though this year’s ski season is winding down, there seem to be a lot of active, over age 70 seniors who can identify with those posters and they’re out participating regularly at the many ski areas around the country. I see them everywhere here in Mt. Washington Valley, New Hampshire.
Take Peter Theriault, 76, of Jackson, N.H., for instance. He started teaching skiing at Wildcat in 1970. Yes, 1970! And he taught there every year until just this past season. But, he still goes downhill skiing as Vail Resorts, which owns both Wildcat and Attitash in Mt. Washington Valley, gave him a lifetime pass for his years of service.
And, on top of that, he continues to teach cross country skiing to both local school children and adults at the Jackson Ski Touring Foundation (JSTF). “I’ve been involved in the Jackson elementary school after-school program since 1975. What’s that? Fifty years!” he said recently. “In fact, I’m now teaching some grandchildren of my first students--Jeff and Sally Maynard’s daughters were in my classes and their children are in the program now.”
Add that Theriault also teaches adult cross-country lessons on weekends at JSTF and on Fridays he teaches downhill skiing to school children via the Eastern Slope Ski Club program at another local area, Black Mountain.
While all that might exhaust someone half his age, Theriault says it keeps him young. “I get a little winded – huffing and puffing keeping up with the kids,” he noted. “They have boundless energy back like I used to have.”
More older skiers?
Yes, the average age of skiers is increasing. Melody Nester, assistant director of Ski New Hampshire, noted, “Nationally, the median age of snow sports participants indicates a gradual aging trend. According to a demographic study conducted by the National Ski Areas Association, the national median in the 2023/24 season was 37 years of age, compared to 35 years of age in the previous year.”
But it’s not just the aging Baby Boomers who are skiing into their seventies. The trend started decades ago. There’s even a 70 Plus Skiing Club that was first formed in 1976 by Lloyd Lambert, a retired sports writer and radio and TV announcer who covered skiing during his career.
When he turned 70 back in the 1980s, Lambert was dismayed to find his contemporaries had to pay full fare for a lift ticket, which he thought was wrong because not many people over 70 could spend a whole day on the slopes so they never got their money's worth. As a result of the efforts of Lambert and the 70 Plus Club, the older skier now enjoys free skiing or reduced rates at almost any ski area in the country. Plus, the 70+ Ski Club hosts trips for members to top areas in the U.S. and Canada, plus to resorts in the Alps and even to Argentina. Find more information at www.70plusskiclub.org.
Keep on keeping on
Olympian (Sapporo, Japan, 1972) Tyler Palmer, 74, is still out skiing at Cranmore in North Conway, N.H.. It’s the same mountain where he started skiing at age two. “My best days as a kid were Monday afternoons, just skiing with the other kids and former Austrian ski racer Edi Mall. I realize now what a total privilege it was to have Edi Mall, Herbert Schneider, and other Austrians teaching us,” Palmer said, adding that because of Cranmore’s St. Anton and Hannes Scheider connection, he was recognized throughout his skiing days in Europe.
Now he acknowledges that while he’s still into skiing, he’s just a little slower. “First off over 70, it’s hard to get into your boots, it’s hard to get your jacket on, and it’s hard to get out of your boots. It’s just hard to get in and out of all the stuff that you have to,” Palmer said. “But, when you get up there and you’re skiing, none of that stuff makes a difference. I really enjoy it, even if my body doesn’t.”
“I still ski, but not racing,” said Danielle Dion, another local over-70 skier who noted that her parents skied into their 80s. “I decided I’d rather ski at my own pace.”
“Seventy is the new 60,” added Dion with a smile.
And then you have Karen Dolan, who also is in her 70s and has been Cranmore’s ski school director since 1989. She is still out there skiing regularly in addition to all her duties. She says that while there are many skiers over age 70 some do sign up for lessons.
“We do have people who are over 70 coming in for lessons,” she said, noting that they are usually people who haven’t skied for a while and want to get back into it. “We often have to go a little slower with them, but our instructors are very good at adjusting to progress at their pace,” she added.
Winning their age group
Yes, I just won my over 70 age group at the Hannes Schneider Meister Cup Race at Cranmore (there was no one else in it) and, of course, Tyler Palmer won his division, too.
On the other hand, Kevin Donohoe, 77, of Jackson competed in his sixth long distance cross country race of the year on Feb. 22 in Cable-Hayward, Wisconsin—the American Birkebeiner, a nearly 35-mile cross country ski marathon. This year alone, he and his wife Laurel Smith have participated in marathon races in Germany, France, Argentina, and New Zealand, and, also in February, near Ottawa, Canada.
“My wife says, ‘If you can’t be the fastest, be the oldest,’” Donohoe said, adding, “I can still ski for a long time, but I can’t do it very quickly.”
In addition to his cross country skiing, Donohoe and his wife, who is merely in her 60s, still downhill ski at least once a week. “I volunteer with the Mt. Washington Valley Adaptive Sports Program, which is both alpine and Nordic so we get to downhill ski whenever there is a lesson,” he said.
The couple train regularly to stay in shape. “You have to stay on top of it, “ Donohoe said. “I think everybody is on the same curve. There’s an end to it all, but you can postpone the inevitable.”
Peter Theriault agrees: “The idea is not to stop – if you consistently stay with the sport throughout your entire life you can carry on into your 80s.”
“Try to stay in the best shape physically that you can and get out and enjoy the stuff that you enjoy doing,” adds Tyler Palmer. “I can still tell my body what to do and it will actually try to do it.”