What is your skiing history?

[wonderpony]

There are obviously some very, very, very good skiers on this board. I just read the TR on Tuckerman Ravine. People have experience skiing in avalanche country. Meanwhile, there are some days that I just can't get my shit together on the bunny slope.

Did you grow up in a skiing family? Did you race? How did you learn to ski?

Thanks!

WP

 

[Brownski]

I started skiing senior year of high school. I broke my collarbone.

Edit: it’s actually a good story

Jiminy Peak: My First Time

The day after the big school dance in 1989 my friends thought it would be fun to head to Jiminy Peak to try out skiing for the first time.

nyskiblog.com

 

[Joneski73]

I started in ski club in 7th grade and was immediately hooked. I got away from it when I was in my 20’s for one reason or another. Got back into it in my mid 30’s with the hopes that my kids and wife would share the same passion for it as me. Unfortunately, after a few years, they all lost interest??‍, I however have not!

 

[Harvey]

I don't think I get three "verys" before "good", but in the last two years I think I've become a decent skier.

I started cross country skiing in 1990 at 30 years of age. Pure nordic at first on the trail system at Garnet Hill Lodge. Over the next 10 years we started to explore the Siamese Ponds backcountry, doing looong day skis, and then we started to winter camp. I've slept out in temps as cold as 35 below, and loved it.

When I turned 40 I skied downhill at Gore for the first time, on my BC skis: 210s with leather lace up boots. I was jonesing to ski, and in November and there was no snow in the woods, so I started to ride lifts.

A few years later I skied with my nieces in Switzerland and they owned me. I decided to move to plastic boots and turnier gear, so I could keep up the next year.

A few years ago I got rockered skis and it changed my life. It is so much easier to ski deeper snow.

I've never had a lesson, probably a big mistake. It took me years to learn to really ski down the fall line.

Great idea for a thread.

 

[Johnny V.]

My wife talked me into trying skiing at 30 (actually 29 but 30 sounds better!) Bought my first new gear on my 30th birthday and skied Bristol at night with my buddies. My wife and I skied on and off and got our daughter into it. Bought our first season passes at Bristol in '95 or so and started skiing more. Changed careers in 2001 to a semi retirement job and got more days in.

A buddy convinced me to try beer league racing the winter of 2002-3 when I was 50. After being totally humbled my first trip through the course, I worked on getting better (obviously equipment-couldn't be that I sucked!) Started doing some NY Masters races around 2006 or so. Still did Bristol's Adult Race League and a couple of Masters GS races this year. It's still fun and give you a reason to keep trying to improve (or not decline!)

I get in a lot of days and am very fortunate that my wife still loves to ski. We're having fun teaching and skiing with our three granddaughters and we got our 3 year old grandson on skis this year.We're both 69 and plan on going as long as we can.

 

[Warp daddy]

Been skiing for over 40 years : Took up downhill skiing at 50 yrs old and then ratched it up,when i retired from fulltime employemt at 52 . I had a side consulting business for 25 years .

When i retired from higher education and ran my consulting business (Executive Development seminars in residence ) my schedule was purposely designed Monday thru Thursdays for 30 weeks a year between September to May so i had long weekends for skiing .

Had been an enthusiastic XC skier since mid 30's . I kept skis in my office at the college and skied most noon hours . I was very lucky we had 15 k of trails on adjacent recreational land the college owned . Every weekend our entire efamily skied in various XC venues around NNY ( the Adirondacks , the Gatineau north of Ottawa and the 1000 islands region all within an hrs drive

I am at the great point in life where i skied with my grandkids since when they were very young pre schoolers . They now range from 21 -26 so it's a family thing .

I am self taught but learned chasing my RED GROUP ( Retired Extremely Dangerous )? buddies all ex college skiers or Hockey Pucks ?from either SLU or Dartmouth back in the day

 

[witch hobble]

There is no hashtag worthy of how #blessed I am to have been born onto skis.

Dad was a weekend warrior volunteer ski patroller; lived for the weekends. Maybe you know the type.

I have 0 recollection of learning to ski. Total little kid osmosis. Photographic records show I spent first winter of my life mostly under a table at the lodge, second winter walking with custom cut off skis around the outside of the lodge on nice days, then riding the lifts and skiing around from there on out.

I have two siblings who are both solid, competent but often disinterested skiers. Afforded all the same opportunities as me. I’m the middle child. It has been a major gravitational pull in my life forever. So it goes.

 

[Campgottagopee]

Similar to Witchy I have zero recollection of the first time I skied, they say I was 3.
I grew up in a skiing family, mom dad, cuzins, aunt's, uncle's, grandparents, all skied. It wasn't until sometime in grade school I realized that there were people who didn't ski....lol
Ski bummed for 4 years up in VT but had to quit due to an injury. I may still be up there had I not gotten hurt. Skied Greek Peak my entire life, knee injury 5ish years ago has slowed that down, now I'm more of a sledneck, but that's fine with me as I was ready for a change. I've been skiing for over 50 years...gezzus!

 

[Face4Me]

Did you grow up in a skiing family? Did you race? How did you learn to ski?

This thread takes "New Member Intro" to the next level ...

I started in ski club in 7th grade and was immediately hooked. I got away from it when I was in my 20’s for one reason or another. Got back into it in my mid 30’s with the hopes that my kids and wife would share the same passion for it as me. Unfortunately, after a few years, they all lost interest??‍, I however have not!

My story is VERY similar to this ...

I am the youngest of three and no one in my family ever skied until I started night skiing with my middle school ski club when I was in 8th grade. The only lesson I've ever taken was the first time I went, and my lack of "technical" skill bears that out. I don't think I'm a "bad" skier, but any instructor could quickly point out all of my flaws. It's just not something I ever cared about. I can ski pretty much anything I want, and I'm happy with that.

I continued to ski regularly throughout high school, college and well into my twenties, but by the time I reached my late twenties, I had started to lose interest, and would only go once or twice a year. My wife was never a skier and never would be, but in my late thirties, the spark was reignited in me, as I hoped to get my kids into it. That's when I bought my home in Lake Placid and have been skiing 40 - 50 days a year ever since.

Twenty years later, my kids seem to have drifted away from it, but I've maintained my passion. I guess I'll have to wait and see what the next twenty years will bring!

 

[Peter Minde]

When I was ~22 or 23, my friends took me out to some mountain in the Poconos, they set me up with boards. They were / are good skiers. We took the lift to the top of the mountain. I nearly got decapitated getting off the lift. Then I fell all the way down the mountain.

Later that winter, they took me cross country skiing and I like that much better. I still fell a lot, but hey. I'm here to testify that one can fall while skiing uphill.

Another time that winter, we talked our way into skiing at the now-defunct Cortina in Tannersville on nordic skis. Yellow klisterwax did not work as a speed reducer. Terrifying.

It took me a long damn time to become a half decent skier. Had a few technique clinics / camps over the years. I still want to be the first one at the ski center and the last to leave.