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Senior schussers: The slopes beckon the young at heart, not just the young
By JUDI HUNT 
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
A twentysomething skier watches intently as a nearby couple dips and turns effortlessly, following each other down an intermediate hill at the Stevens Pass ski area.
As they sweep smoothly past him, his mouth drops open.
"Why, those are two old people!" he exclaims. "I didn't know old people could still ski. I thought they weren't supposed to risk breaking brittle bones and such. Crazy, man."
He shakes his head and takes off.
He should have stuck around. He could have met the pair: Julie Fiorini, 75, who started Fiorini Ski School 50 years ago, and Larry Linnane, 82, who ran Ski Klasses Inc. for 58 years.
He also could have watched Don Snyder negotiate the same hill, a little less expertly but still with skill. As a teenager, Snyder, now 67, skied intermittently for three years, then quit and didn't put on skis again until seven weeks ago, after a 50-year absence.
He's part of a growing trend at Northwest ski areas: older sports enthusiasts who left skiing and are coming back, and seniors trying skiing for the first time.
John O'Connor took ski lessons for the first time at age 78. He'd tried it once before, in the '30s, when Mount Rainier was the only "ski area" and skiers had to climb the hills because there were no tows or chairlifts.
O'Connor got hooked on skiing seven years ago, when he married a pioneer Northwest ski instructor, Willa Woods Hiltner, who at 75 was still teaching at Ski Acres at Snoqualmie Pass. From her and other older skiers, he heard so much about the thrill of floating down a powdery hill that he wanted to experience it.
O'Connor took lessons from older instructors who had formed the group Ancient Skiers. Currently listing 700 members age 60 or older -- 350 of them women and 80 percent married couples -- the club skis locally and puts together weeklong ski trips to popular destinations such as Sun Valley, Aspen and numerous Utah resorts.
"John took to it like he'd been on skis all his life," says his proud wife, who at 82 still teaches at Ski Acres.
"Now at nearly 86 (in April) he's a natural, improving each time he goes up, especially now that he's acquired a pair of the new-shaped skis. He believes they've advanced him three levels just in the short time he's had them."
Snyder, an enthusiastic golfer and tennis player, hadn't given skiing a thought until his wife, Sally, 60, took up skiing last year.
"I knew I needed more exercise, but I'm not much of a jogger or walker -- I like sports with an edge to them," he said.
He ignored friends who called him foolish and warned that he would break something. Instead, Snyder followed the advice of expert elder skiers, bought some skiwear, rented his equipment and signed up for a beginner's class.
"The first day I was very unbalanced and didn't have a good experience," he says. "But my instructor and everyone else on the bus said not to give up -- not that I would have, especially after I fell the second week and discovered I could without getting hurt."
His instructors told him he had good natural balance, and to relax. He has advanced from the rope tow to the chairlifts and coaxes himself to higher hills and a bit more speed.
"Now I'd say I'm a 'beginning intermediate,'" he says. "I'm actually surprised how fast I'm learning."
Snyder enthusiastically recommends skiing to anyone over 50 who's had an active lifestyle from youth.
"Yes! Go for it," he roars.
The O'Connors echo that sentiment but recommend that first-timers spend some off-season time at a facility like Mini Mountain in Bellevue, learning balance and building confidence on the artificial indoor skiing surface before trying it on snow.
O'Connor also firmly believes older beginners should sign up for classes with an older instructor who understands seniors' need to go more slowly.
Greatly improved equipment in the past 15 years has made learning much easier for seniors, Linnane says.
"Boots fit much more comfortably, bindings release quicker so there aren't as many broken legs and ankles, clothing is warmer, most local ski slopes are constantly groomed for freer, less bumpy skiing and that, too, is bringing people back," he adds.
"Some old-timers are even bringing grandchildren, creating a new generation of downhillers and keeping the sport alive."
Many senior schussers advise linking up with a bus service to get to ski areas. If it's Jean Tokareff's "Gypsy Bus," newcomers can absorb a lot of advice from the "old-timers" riding with them, learn a lot about the Northwest's skiing history, sing, tell jokes and snack on cheese and wine without worrying about road conditions.
Tokareff, 77, schedules a trip to a different ski area weekly. If a scheduled area is cut off because of heavy snow and/or bad roads, she chooses another destination.
Read on:
First, listen to the doctor
What the schussers say
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