Harriet Wallis

Seniors See Anywhere: ThinOptics Reading Glasses

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Accessible reading glasses, even on a ski lift, make reading fine print do-able again.

You’ll love these reading glasses, because you’ll always have them with you. No more passing glasses around to read the trail map or the menu. You’ll have your very own glasses, and you’ll know exactly where they are—because their case is on your phone. Now that’s the coolest thing since sliced bread.

ThinOptics "cheaters" are handy wherever your phone goes. Credit: ThinOptics

ThinOptics “cheaters” are handy wherever your phone goes.
Credit: ThinOptics

Teddy Shalon, the inventor and CEO of ThinOptics, is a serial entrepreneur who spent many years innovating in the Life Sciences. He’s constantly looking for ways to help people enjoy healthy and active lifestyles.

The “ThinOptics moment” happened on a bike ride with his friend. When they stopped for a break, his friend handed Teddy his iPhone and asked him to read a text message from his son. “Is there something wrong with your son?” Teddy asked.

“No, I just don’t have my reading glasses, and I can’t read the message,” his friend said. That’s when Teddy realized that phones are useless if people don’t have their reading glasses. On the ride back, the idea of ThinOptics was born—glasses that are always with you, right there on your phone.

Here are some of the nitty-gritty details. ThinOptics are powerful, durable and fit virtually every nose. They’re made from thermo-injection molded

ThinOptics super-convenient reading glasses can be stowed with your phone! Credit: ThinOptics

ThinOptics super-convenient reading glasses can be stowed with your phone!
Credit: ThinOptics

optical grade Poly-Carbonate which is shatter-proof and often used in safety and ballistic eyewear. The lenses are made by one of the largest and most advanced optical lens manufacturers in the world. The bridge is made of Nitinol—an alloy of nickel and titanium— which is 10x more elastic than spring steel, and it’s encased in medical grade silicon tubing and anchored in an injection molded Poly-Carbonate frame. ThinOptics readers come in three optic strengths from +1.00 to +3.00 and case sizes that will fit on your phone.

The bottom line: You get all this technology and convenience for under $40. Click for details on ordering. And there’s a great referral program, too.

Still not convinced? Check out ThinOptics’ torture test on this video.

 

Jo Garuccio

Still Time for a Winter Tune-up

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Get Ready Now to Ski and Snowboard!

Cold weather is approaching fast. Don’t procrastinate. There’s still time to get ready for the ski season. Fitness can help prevent injury, improve abilities and ensure a long, safe season.

Alpine fitness programs routinely include movements to enhance balance and stability, strength, power, agility, mobility and flexibility. Workouts

Exercise ball crunches tune up those all important abs. Credit: Harriet Wallis

Exercise ball crunches tune up those all important abs.
Credit: Harriet Wallis

often combine exercises in a circuit-type workout which includes an aerobic component. Although alpine sports are anaerobic in nature with short hard bouts of activity followed by rest, basic aerobic fitness can help the average winter enthusiast avoid fatigue related injuries. In addition to training more specific skills and energy systems, it’s prudent to include 60 minutes of aerobic activity 3-4 times per week.

Focus strength training on core, legs and shoulders. Incorporate exercises that require some twisting movements since many of our summer activities like hiking, biking and running are performed in a single plane of motion. Quad muscles and those in the lower leg are important for balance and turning. Hamstrings help protect knees. Hips play a role in lateral movements. Core and shoulders function as stabilizers.

Although gym machines can be helpful and certainly convenient, considerably larger benefits can be reaped with routines that use body weight, dumbbells, stability balls, kettle balls, medicine balls and exercise bands. Or check out TRX Suspension Training. Originating in Navy SEALs training,

Work on balance with one-foot lunges. Credit: Harriet Wallis

Work on balance with one-foot lunges.
Credit: Harriet Wallis

TRX is used in the NFL and in USA Ski and Snowboard Teams to prepare for the season. TRX classes have also become extremely popular at many fitness clubs and recreation centers.

Look for exercises that include multiple joints because that’s how we move in all sports. Squats, leg curls and dead lifts, overhead press and rowing movements are good examples. With the lower body, progress from two-legged exercises to one-legged and then add some instability to the exercises to improve balancing abilities. Eventually add plyometric—explosive movement exercises—for power. Progress from two-footed hits to one. An easy activity associated with this ability is jumping rope.

Don’t neglect flexibility. Stretch after training and include muscles that were worked during the session as well as problem areas. A good yoga class is great way to improve flexibility. Pilates is another option and adds a little more of a strength component to the mix.

I hope this will help guide your quest for winter fitness. I wish I could individualize an actual exercise routine for each of you, but you can get help by looking for a trainer or class instructor in your area who has a solid understanding of the concepts covered above.

Jo Garuccio is a PSIA Trainer and Examiner, and she teaches at Snowbird. She’s also a Triathlon World Champion and a USA Triathlon Certified Coach. She’s a mega athlete and a mega sports enthusiast who loves to get people moving to be their best.

Harriet Wallis

Knee Replacement Isn’t For Sissies: Part 2

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Tips to Kick Start Your Research

A Brighton, Utah, ski patroller with two artificial knees assured me there’s definitely life – and skiing – after knee replacement. Her unbounded success motivated me to launch into research. I’m glad I did my homework. What I learned affected the direction I took, the outcome and ultimately my success. Here are some tips to help you get started.

Metal Knee Model: Is there one in your future? Credit: Harriet Wallis

Metal Knee Model: Is there one in your future?
Credit: Harriet Wallis

Don’t be duped. Learn about the whole knee replacement process. Don’t be duped by a well-meaning friend who says: “I’d go to Doctor Smith. He’s such a nice man.”

That would be as stupid as buying a car because your friend says: “I’d buy a Honda. It’s such a nice car.”

Do your own research

Get on the phone. Call athletes you even vaguely know who might have some insights on artificial body parts, surgery, and rehab. I called several ski instructors, an operating room nurse, and a 75-year-old mogul skier. I picked their brains .

I also plopped down at the table with ski patrollers while they ate breakfast in the lodge. My question to all of them: What should I learn about?         

They’ll all have different angles, so write their answers down or they’ll become scrambled mush in your head.

Knees, glues and cadavers. With clues you gather from the athletes about what’s important, get on the internet. Do not start on the internet. There’s so much information you’ll get overwhelmed and quit.

Read up on bone-to-metal adhesives, quad-sparing technique, risks, new knee limitations and more. Be sure to separate information from marketing hype. If you have the stomach for it, I recommend that you watch a YouTube video of a knee replacement on a cadaver.  Warning: it’s not for the faint of heart.

Find the top docs. Use the internet to review potential surgeons. They’ll all have illustrious credentials, so do some creative screening. Call each one’s office and ask what his/her specialty is. The phone-answerer should be well informed. Listen carefully. If you get mixed vibes or uncertainty as to whether this is truly a knee replacement guru, it should be a red flag.

Get the inside track. Physical therapists work with patients after surgery. They have refined knowledge about which surgeons give the best outcomes. But they might be reluctant to blurt out a doctor’s name. You’ll probably have to phrase it subtly: “Do you think Doctor A’s outcome is better than Doctor B’s?”

Good luck with your research. Check back for the next installment: Questions for surgeons and how to interview them.

 Note: This is a five- part series in which I describe my knee replacement journey with tips to guide you if you’re anticipating knee replacement. Part 1: Inspired by a ski patroller with artificial knees. This is Part 2. Upcoming will be Part 3: Interviewing surgeons and questions to ask. Part 4: How I found the right doctor for me. Part 5: Rehab and why to love it.

Warren Miller’s Newest: “No Turning Back”

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This one is not to be missed.

Flipping out: Lofoten, Norway Credit: Oystein Aasheim

Flipping out: Lofoten, Norway
Credit: Oystein Aasheim

My first Warren Miller film was in the early 50’s. That was when the Master, himself, was present to narrate each showing. You knew the season was

Chute running: Mt. Olympus, Greece Credit: Josh Bibby

Chute running: Mt. Olympus, Greece
Credit: Josh Bibby

starting when Warren rolled into town.

I’ve seen many ski films over the years. After a while, despite camera tricks, ski gymnastics, and the latest soundtrack, they took on a boring sameness. How many times can you watch a daredevil huck the big cliff?

But I just watched Miller’s newest production, “No Turning Back”, and I’ve gotta tell you, this is not to be missed. It is a beautifully shot travelogue of some magnificent lines carved through some of the world’s best terrain.

For the SeniorsSkiing.com crowd, there’s a segment shot in Chamonix featuring a few 50+ skiers (52 and 60) and filled with wisdom about aging and skiing. One line sums it up: “When skiers say 50 is the new 40 (I’d make that 70 is the new 60), what they’re really saying is, Thank you, fat skis!”

“No Turning Back,” Miller’s 65th film, is narrated by Jonny Moseley, who, in his own way, channels the Warren Miller feeling with artful script laced with philosophy and humor. Interspersed throughout are great snippets of skiing history, including a northern Norway search for a ski that was carbon-dated to 3200 BC.

There’s a beautifully shot segment in steep powder runs in Cordova, Alaska, boarding in the bottomless powder of   Hokkaido, Japan, and a piece on skiing in Greece, where there’s more than 20 areas less than two hours from the Aegean.

Two skiers hike and ski Mount Olympus while the narrator links it to Daedelus and Icarus.

A few hundred miles west, we’re introduced to two “speed riders” in Switzerland, guys skiing with paragliding kites, which allow them to huck enormous cliffs, touch down on a stretch of snow and get airborne within seconds.

Throughout, the film pays homage to female skiers, featuring several carving great turns on incredibly steep terrain.

Powder running: Chamonix, France Credit: Mike Hatrup

Powder running: Chamonix, France
Credit: Mike Hatrup

For me, the most enjoyable segment was shot in Montana with big mountain skiers Julian Carr and the charming Sierra Quitiquit. (Julian has done any number on mind-boggling cliff jumps, including a 210′ front flip in Engleberg.) Montana has many smaller areas known for steeps and deeps. And their towns, unaffected by contemporary ski culture, remain time-warped, non-commercial, and down-home friendly.

“No Turning Back” is being shown around the country (locations and schedule). If ski films are your thing, or if you’ve been away from that genre for a while, find a hall where it’s playing. Regardless of age, it will make you want to be on the hill.

seniorsskiing

Special Edition: First SeniorsSkiing Ski Area Survey Results

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Free Skiing, Deep Discounts For Senior Skiers Plus “Senior Friendly” Awards

oldfashionedskierWhich areas are truly trying to accommodate 50-plus skiers? To find out, we surveyed 85 North American resorts. Several resorts stand out for giving senior skiers special attention and deals. They received the new SeniorsSkiing Skier Friendly Award. Those with the deepest discounts and best amenities received Gold awards. Those with better than average discounts received Silver Awards.

The survey had a 34 percent response and will be conducted annually. We hope that by asking the right questions for our readers, SeniorsSkiing.com will help drive greater recognition, discounts and amenities for senior snow sports enthusiasts.

SeniorsSkiing “Senior Friendly” Gold AwardsGold_Waterville_Valley_Resort

Of all respondents, six stand out with the best discounts and amenities.

  • Whitefish Mountain Resort, MT — Free skiing for 70-plus skiers
  • Hood Ski Bowl, OR — Free skiing for 71-plus skiers
  • Ski Whitewater, BC — Free skiing for 75-plus skiers
  • Alta, UT — Free skiing for 80-plus skiers
  • Lake Louise, AB — $20 season pass for 80-plus skiers
  • Waterville Valley, NH — Hosts Silver Streaks, the country’s longest running senior ski program. “We provide the structure and facilities; the members organize their own events,” explains Peter Sununu, Waterville spokesman. Members gather daily for coffee and pastries in a designated meeting area; enjoy mid-week NASTAR races, complimentary clinics, preferred parking, après-ski parties, awards banquets, other amenities.

Free skiing as a strategy to introduce the next generation

The percentage of all midweek senior skiers at resorts which offer free lift tickets for seniors is estimated to be about 50 percent. Mt. Hood Ski Bowl’s Hans Wipper explains the value of providing free skiing to the older customer, “We want to reward loyal skiers, and we want them to bring their extended families.”

SeniorsSkiing “Senior Friendly” Silver Award

Silver_Copper_MountainThese respondents had great discounts for seniors:

  • Sutton, QUE — 55 percent off tickets Tuesdays, January – mid February.
  • Okemo, VT — pre-December season pass purchase (includes Mt. Sunapee, Pico Peak, Killington, Crested Butte): 45 percent off for 65-plus; 70 percent off for 70-plus.
  • Ski Butternut, MA — pre-December season pass purchase: $125 for 65-plus
  • Sugarbush, VT — $199 for Mid-Week Boomer Pass for 65+ (was $99 before Sept 9).

Other Silver Awards went to:

  • Alpine Meadows, CA
  • Copper Mountain, CO
  • Vail, CO
  • Hunter Mountain, NY
  • Windham Mountain, NY
  • Deer Valley, UT
  • Snow Basin, UT
  • Snowbird, UT
  • Red Mountain Resort, BC
  • Whistler Blackcomb, BC
  • Mont Tremblant, QUE

Takeaways: Lift ticket deals are out there, especially for the early-bird, pre-season buyer. So are discounts in restaurants, rentals and other amenities. Look and ask.

We also encourage ski area management to consider the business benefits of catering to the interests of the senior skier: increased mid-week traffic, younger “tag along” full paying clients, and a loyal and vocal clientele.

mikemaginn

The 2014-15 Season Officially Starts: Guess Where

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Lifts are open in the high Rockies!

What we’ve been waiting for has finally happening.  Subtly, to be sure.  The lifts opened on Oct 17 at Arapahoe Basin, the first ski area to open this season.  Robin’s egg blue day.  Let’s hope we see more of those this year.

First run at A-Basin. Credit: Al's Blog

First run at A-Basin.
Credit: Al’s Blog

 

To read the scoop on A-Basin’s opening day, click here for Al’s Blog, the official Arapahoe Basin blog.  To scrutinize what is happening right now on the mountain, click here for A-basin webcams from OpenSnow, another cool ski website.

Snow is coming soon to a mountain near you.

 

seniorsskiing

Deer Valley Buys Solitude

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Pre-Season Acquisitions March On Through the Wasatch Mountains

Will Deer Valley Change The Sign? Credit: CityWeekly.Net

Will Deer Valley Change The Sign?
Credit: CityWeekly.Net

 

There goes another one.  First, Vail scoops up Park City.  Now we have Deer Valley, a top-shelf brand, picking up Solitude.  Who’s next?

Here’s the full story from the Salt Lake Tribune.  And here’s the official press release from Deer Valley. Operations at Solitude won’t shift over until May, 2015.  We wonder if bigger is better when it comes to ski area ownership.  Remember conglomerate corporations from the 80s? We shall see, won’t we?

What do you think?

[Thanks to Harriet Wallis, SeniorSkiing’s correspondent in SLC, for spotting this one.)