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Philpug

Notorious P.U.G.
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Last year I hit 99 days. Did I have numerous chances at 100? Yes, but didn't pursue it. I also had 31 chances to hit 12 months in a row for the first time but didn't. Like some here, too much of a good thing reduces the specialness. This is one of the reason I avoided being an on snow professional. I want my on snow time to be on my terms.
 
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Rainbow Jenny

Making fresh tracks
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Definitely agree with the age, health and fitness issues. I'm hanging out in Taos this season. The bunch I ski with generally consisted of off duty instructors and locals. Several of the instructors in the group are over 70. We also have some young ones in their 20's. Most of our runs are steeps, bumps and trees. Usually nonstop. These guys are still killing it. In fact one of the guy is 76 years old and still found improvements in his skiing this season. Most of us are fairly proficient technically and ski a fluid low impact line. It keeps the wear and tear on the body to a minimum. The inspiration for all of us is the current Technical Director of the ski school - Jean Mayer. He is 83 years old and still killing it. He is on skis and teaching every day of the season. Just amazing.

@KingGrump, may I order some of that “ski a fluid low impact line” off the menu? I felt my knees for a whole week precisely starting the end of day 62, It wasn’t the cumulative effect from the season at all...think I almost forgot how to ski, having floated all season long.

Cannot say my skiing has improved at all this season, as you will see in person, but it’s been such a blast with smiles ear to ear every day on two planks!
 

Started at 53

Making fresh tracks
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Not Ikon, UT
Looking forward to living in the Heber Valley this coming ski season, ski DV in the morning, and fly fish the Middle Provo river in the afternoons, this allows for lunch at home to trade skis for the fly rod and waders.

I love the idea of double dipping my two favorite hobbies on a daily basis. I’ll leave the weekends for laundry and other stuff
 

Core2

Making fresh tracks
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This isn't even a question on this board.
 

DanoT

RVer-Skier
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As a retired old guy living 15 minutes from the mountain in winter, I have the option of skiing every day but prefer not to and most ski days are no longer full 8:30-4:00. The exception might be going all out on a stellar powder day but a rest day might then be required as i just don't have the strength or stamina of my youth. I am more fog adverse as well.

Minor injuries that once took a day or two for recovery now take weeks or months, and when it hits -18*C/0*F I usually don't ski. I also find that by the end of the season I get a bit jaded about conditions and tend to pick my days or only ski a few runs.

Years ago I did some volunteer patrolling and enjoyed it but when I went full time pro patrolling I found it turned skiing into a job and then I couldn't ski where I wanted, when I wanted, how I wanted, and with whom I wanted. I didn't last the season.
 

KingGrump

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@KingGrump, may I order some of that “ski a fluid low impact line” off the menu? I felt my knees for a whole week precisely starting the end of day 62, It wasn’t the cumulative effect from the season at all...think I almost forgot how to ski, having floated all season long.

Cannot say my skiing has improved at all this season, as you will see in person, but it’s been such a blast with smiles ear to ear every day on two planks!

Yeah, I really feel for you spending a season floating in Japanese powder. Poor kid. :D

Sure you can order the "fluid low impact line", but it is only available on the senior menu. :cool:
 
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TS
Guy in Shorts

Guy in Shorts

Tree Psycho
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Killington
Would ski every day I wanted to (which is most of them), if she who rules would let me.
Wife used to talk me out of going to the mountain on bad days preferring that I stayed home to work on projects and chores. After corporate America kicked her one final time I told her just ski everyday and be happy. Now she gets more days on the slopes than I do and I never have to stay home to do chores. Work, sleep, ski and shovel snow are my only duties.
 

ella_g

Getting off the lift
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I just had 4 months off work (sabbatical) and took my kids out of school to a ski town. I worried that wed get sick of skiing (my husband and mom were convinced), and that by the end of the trip one of my kids would never want to ski again. Ha wrong. We skied 5 or 6 days a week for 20 weeks. We got sick of each other sometimes, but never of skiing (tho we did mix it up with Nordic, some backcountry, kids a little snowboarding and a race program). It’s safe to say that were way more into skiing than we were when we left home. And, weve developed a theory that people who ski all the time (even if it’s an hour or two before / after school / work) tend to be fun to hang out with and psyched about their lives. So to answer your question, yes. Totally!! Sign us up!!
 

Eric267

Gettin after it
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Dec 10, 2017
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Are we being literal here? Like every single day, or 100+ day seasons?

Usually it's a pretty long season out here so every day would be 150-180 days. Ive had a few times over the years where I didn't really work in the winter or worked the 3pm shift. Broken 125, 100, and a few 90 day seasons. Even 90 feels like everyday.

You get a lot of days where it's just not worth going out..

We get some pretty crazy weather so there's probably at least 10-20 days a season where everything besides lower mountain or beginner lifts are "on hold".

Rain days & warm spells followed by extreme cold fronts that turn the whole mountain to boilerplate.

WROD conditions. Some years like this one in Tahoe winter dosent really get going until late so you have weeks or even months of the same old funky man made blue groomers.

Sometimes you decide to take into account personal safety and don't want to drive when it's nuking and there's likely to be road closures at any time.

Your likely to fall and get hurt at least a few times which might take you out of the game for a few days

Then you also get used to going out when it's not busy so you skip MLK, pres day, and xmas-nye (if your pass isn't blacked out anyways)


I think I could do it no problem if I lived ski in-ski out. That would really be the only way to strap on skis and ride "Literally" every single day. Go out for a run or two no matter what!!
 

Sibhusky

Whitefish, MT
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Here’s the question – Could you or would you chose to ski everyday after retiring? The answer to this has been clear in my head for years as we have already embraced living the active mountain lifestyle

My days have been falling off markedly this year. Fifteenth "retired season". My average for those seasons was 69.43, but it's looking like only 57 this year. On the other hand, the range for those seasons was 53-83, so not an outlier. I just find I need more recovery days as I get older. Normally I've hit over a million vertical feet, hitting 1.8 mill one year. This year I may not make 600k. Pitiful. And it's been four years since I had a 30k day.

I'm finding that I'm having more issues with fog and flat light as I age. And this mountain we have a lot of that.
 

hespeler

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@PinnacleJim is an inspiration to me. I'm 44 and live on Long Island. I have plans to retire from my primary job in my early 50's and do contract work but not take much during the winter and ski a lot more. We would like to get a place at Killington maybe 5-7 years from now. My wife will need to work a few more years. We just have to figure out how to get her retired a little sooner than usual.

Currently I ski about 15 days a year which continues to amaze me with two young kids at home. 75% is with my family and the rest are one or two solo trips or a wknd with my buddy who has a place in Sugarbush. We've taken ski vacations out West every year for the last few years which makes the ski days closer to 15 rather than 10.

I don't anticipate being able to ski 100 days a year until I get closer to 60 but even then I'm not sure I'd want to. 30-40 days seems like a good number to me. I just want some flexibility to be able to catch the good conditions more often.
 

Marker

Making fresh tracks
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I think just the option of skiing every day is huge.
At this point in my working life, this is what drove me to get a place at Killington and put up with 7 hr drives. When I retire (soon?), I want the option to drive up and ski as much as I can until I need a break. I've only been skiing since age 50 (10 years), so making up for lost time. I hope to hit the 100 club at Killington some day. And the wife is all on board, except she's getting pickier about subpar conditions and really cold days.
 

DanoT

RVer-Skier
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At this point in my working life, this is what drove me to get a place at Killington and put up with 7 hr drives. When I retire (soon?), I want the option to drive up and ski as much as I can until I need a break. I've only been skiing since age 50 (10 years), so making up for lost time. I hope to hit the 100 club at Killington some day. And the wife is all on board, except she's getting pickier about subpar conditions and really cold days.

If I was in your situation, come retirement I would trade the 7hr drive to Killington for a airplane flight to SLC, sell the Killington place and buy a place near SLC. Results in a lot less sub par conditions and really cold days.
 

SSSdave

life is short precious ...don't waste it
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Sure one with adequate fitness could ski every day if they wanted to. But I doubt many non-ski career people would. The obvious exception are those like ski instructors or patrollers that puts them on snow most every day as a necessary job.

Otherwise much depends on living the mountain life conveniently near good skiing and the amount of one's leisure time. Thus the local mountain person either wealthy, in retirement, or with job flexibility with options for a run or three any day. For not a few of those, lots of days but not many runs most days. Like others here I find the doing of anything including even fresh powder skiing too much too often, lacking. And am not alone as not a few heli powder guides said as much decades ago. Also depends on what one's interests are in life. For those where skiing is all, skiing every day would be it.

I personally have a long list of interests including outdoor pursuits and much else. Thus now in retirement, I only chose to make the long boring drive to Tahoe when conditions were reasonably enjoyable for my style and interests. During each of the 3 long dry periods this winter, I stayed away for weeks as avoid days with firm hard stale snow but rather seek soft loose packed powder. During warm high snow level storms and windy strong storms, windy days, likewise stayed away. Skied just a few weekend days to avoid crowds. But over the 24 days I have skied, have averaged 16k a day, 400k for the season skiing a whole lot of moguls. At my retirement age there are very very few others that might ski more than a few days mostly in moguls without needing to veg out and recover. If groomers could ski a lot longer each day without taking any days off. So it depends.
 

Marker

Making fresh tracks
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If I was in your situation, come retirement I would trade the 7hr drive to Killington for a airplane flight to SLC, sell the Killington place and buy a place near SLC. Results in a lot less sub par conditions and really cold days.
Nice plan, but that won't work with my family circumstances. Never been out west so don't know what I'm missing!

Even though I'm originally from Texas, I found I have a high tolerance for the cold.
 

Ogg

Skiing the powder
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Nice plan, but that won't work with my family circumstances. Never been out west so don't know what I'm missing!

Even though I'm originally from Texas, I found I have a high tolerance for the cold.
You really don't know what you're missing. Killington is a great place for eastern skiing(I spent many seasons there most weekends). 5 days at Snowbird followed by a few days in MT about 15 years ago changed my perspective forever. Do yourself a favor and go west for a week or so.
 

Crank

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I want to retire to a mountain town but not ski every day. Every day there is fresh powder maybe. Probably. Definitely!
 

HDSkiing

You’re Sliding On-Snow; Don’t Over-Think it!
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Hmmm, I ski around 100 days/season teaching skiing at all levels, kids & adults, generally in 5 day sprints with 2 off, but during peak times it’s sometimes 7 days for a week or more at a time.

Teaching, clinics, skiing with colleagues in everything from “rock skiing”to epic powder keeps it interesting. I think if I was just going out to “ski recreationally” I might grow bored with it, but then again maybe not.

I do know that those less than ideal days on snow builds you as a skier. We all love powder days, but if you want to rock it in epic powder, spend time on crud, ice (or what passes for it out here in the Rockies), floating in the fluff will feel effortless and rewarding:).
 

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