Walt wrote:

I never suggested that there are not any seniors on the ski hills. My original
comment was that if the OP was old enough to have a 14 year old, he would likely
be one of the oldest people on the hill. Pointing out that there are some older
skiers does not negate that observation.

But pointing out that there are *alot* of older skiers does negate your
observation.

Only if you want to live in denial. Sure, there are some older people out there on the
ski hills. They are a minority. It's much like equestrian sports. Sure, there are
some older riders, there are some male riders. When you go to a top level hunter
jumper show more than half of the competitors will be men, mostly in the 30-45 age
group, a few older, but if you go to local horse shows most of the competitors are
female and most of those are under 25. And if you take a tour of riding schools you
won't see many male students anywhere. So when we watch the Olympics or Spruce
Meadows we can point out the older male riders and use them to prove our point, but
the reality is that the vast majority of English riders are female.



There are a lot of older skiers. I'm 45 (today! happy birthday to me!)
and I'm not one of the oldest skiers on the hill. Far from it. You can
have 14 year old *grand* children and not be in any real danger of being
one of the oldest people on the hill.

Congratulations. You are two years older than I was when I took up downhill skiing.
And when I started I was usually the oldest person in the lift line or on a hill at
any given time. I did see others my age and older, but they were few in comparison to
all the kids.

Especially if you ski midweek before noon. (c:

Yes, exactly.... before the buses arrive with all the kids, or when the teens show up
after school and on weekends. The hills are a lot busier then.

Aside from the Niagara Escarpment area in Ontario, private ski clubs
are few and far between. There's Holimont in NY, Otsego Club in
Michigan, and Yellowstone in Montana. Any others? Private ski clubs
are a Toronto thing. Not sure why.

There are private ski clubs that have their own hills and then there are the ski
clubs, groups of people who travel in groups to various ski resorts. Whichever is the
case, I would suggest that when you are talking about a club you are usually dealing
with people who have a close association with the sport and keep it up, not one of the
hordes of teens that flock to ski hill son school trips and weekend excursions.

he overwhelming majority of ski areas (in North America, anyway) are
public facilities. And most of them have a cadre of 70+ regulars who
take their skiing seriously.

And I never questioned that they are lots of older people who still ski, only that
they would make up more than a very small percentage of the people on a ski hill at
any time.

FWIW for 5 years I accompanied the local high school ski club every Friday night
during the winter on trip to Ellicottville and my inlaws have a chalet right at the
bottom of the hill at Blue Mountain and I have skied there many times. As I said in a
previous post, if people honestly think there are more older folks on hills than I
have observed, thinks must be quite different where they ski.