I had ample reason to bag out of the season-long adult learn-to-ski program I signed up for during a weak moment the previous summer. The lateral meniscus of my right knee had been repaired in November and, despite the fact that a hyper neighbor of mine had been back on the slopes within days of this surgery, I felt the important sounding surgical repair warranted a cancellation out of the dreaded program. That year, too, we were planning to entertain many visitors during the season and would not be around much on the weekends that we weren't. Finally, I was... Continue reading

The phrase "joey gap" may be foreign to those of you who have embraced skiing later in life. It certainly was foreign to me when I first heard it -- out of the mouth of a 10-year-old boy who had, conceivably, been skiing since he was a toddler. "You have a joey gap," Connor pointed out to my son, then about 7. Elias stared at him blankly. "What's a joey gap," I asked, turning to Connor's father, a friend of ours and himself a late-blooming skier. "You know," Michael said, "those geeky-looking dorks skiing in a pizza with the poles... Continue reading

For the beginning adult skier, there is no friendly way down. Let me first state that unequivocally. On the trail ahead there is demoralization, physical pain and a holy host of fear. But consider the choices: submitting to these trials (trials-trails -- there's a reason these two words are separated by a mere transposition) and embracing a lifetime of winter activity or being forced to move to a retirement community in FloridaArizona upon reaching age 65. Before I was dragged off to Maine for a weekend-long Sugarloaf, USA family ski, I had two experiences on the slopes under my belt:... Continue reading