Question For You 10: Classifieds?
Help Us Decide If/How SeniorsSkiing.com Classifieds Should Work.
At SeniorsSkiing.com World Headquarters, we get frequent requests from readers looking for ski partners, places to go, house or condo rental information, and many other topics. So, we decided to create a classified ad section within SeniorsSkiing.com to accommodate these kinds of wants, needs, and desires.
What we are planning is a relatively inexpensive way to post stuff for sale of different kinds. Options include a one-week insertion all the way up to 10 weeks in the classified ad section. Prices range from $10-$50, depending on duration of the ad. Readers can post the ad themselves, including pictures (to some extent), and pay using a credit card. Nice and simple.
Here are the categories we are thinking of. Please let us know what you think. Here’s the question for you:
What do you think? Good idea? Bad idea? What categories are missing? Which of those listed are not important or irrelevant? Would you post a classified on SeniorsSkiing.com?
Please write your response in the Reply Box below.
Proposed Classified Categories
| Alpine Equipment For Sale | Nordic Equipment For Sale | Accessories, Gizmos, Electronics For Sale | Non-Winter Sports Gear For Sale |
| Guides/Instructor Services | Seasonal/Weekly Rentals | Trucks, Campers, Trailers, Cars For Sale | Ride Share |
| In Search Of | Looking For Ski Buddies | Ski Club Trips Open To SeniorsSkiing.com Readers | Vintage equipment, collectibles, antiques |
Covid Fitness
Pat in his ‘Rona mask, riding into great shape.
A Lot Of Us Are In The Best Shape We’ve Been In For Many A Year.
Gasping for breath up a steep climb recently on the mountain bike with my riding friends, I thought to myself, “Where is the race? Nobody’s going to the Olympics, why are we racing on this ride?”
Then it occurred to me that my group and a lot of other groups of cyclists, runners, and other fitness enthusiasts are in really great shape. People are not traveling for work or pleasure just yet, and a lot of folks have a lot of free time to get their work done at home and then go ride, run, walk, hike, or some other form of exercise. I am calling it Covid Fitness. and it is a national phenomena.
I recently went into my local bike shop, Dirty Harry’s, in Verona, PA and learned their business is booming. Barry Jeffries, the owner, told me that they have 350 bikes on back order and their repair business is off the charts. Barry, Scott, Brocc, and the boys will have a record year in sales and service because a lot of people are turning back to cycling as a recreational activity during this pandemic.
The health clubs are not fully operational yet and people need to get out. What better way to do it than on a bicycle? As the bikes roll in the door from the manufacturers, the boys at Dirty Harry’s build them up as fast as possible and out the door they go. Sold!! All kinds of bikes. High end mountain and road bikes, E-Bikes, kids bikes, commuter bikes, you name it. They are selling like a fish sandwich in Lent.
The Peleton home cycling exercise equipment is back ordered by at least six months and that is the case with a lot of sports equipment providers. Most outdoor equipment manufacturers have had a strain on supply because of the surge in purchases due to the Covid 19 crisis. A good news-bad news scenario for the sporting equipment industry in that record sales are being offset by a strain in supply. They have the customers, many new to the sport, but are having a hard time keeping up with demand.
So back to my group. We have guys and gals who travel for work, guys and gals who are retired, and many working from home. These folks have always been active but recently, they probably have ridden mountain bikes and road bikes more than they ever have in recent years because the distractions have been put aside due to this pandemic. I have complimented a lot of cycling friends on their fitness and their response has been, “Hey, Pat, I don’t have much to do.” And, “We have not been able to go to work at the office, or sit and socialize in a restaurant, or go to a movie or concert, so really, outside of exercise, what do we have to do besides work at home and read a book?”
The end result is that a lot of us are in the best shape we have been in for many a year and my group keeps pushing, pushing, pushing every week on scheduled rides in various venues around our area of the country. The CDC says nothing better to combat this virus than boosting the immune system with sunshine and outdoor exercise. The texts and emails buzz every week with the proposed riding schedules, and the good thing is that at least we are not sitting around with nothing to do.
So, again, the pandemic has caused a lot of disruption to our lives as well as to lives all around the world. It has caused a lot of us to reflect on what is really important in life and how we have taken things for granted. This too shall pass, and the world will learn to live with these kinds of viruses and change our daily habits on how to deal with them. But in the meantime, there have been some good things that have come out of this time and the great outdoors has been calling to a lot of us.
SeniorsSkiing Guide: Jackson Hole—Not For Experts Only
There also are dozens of trails and cirques for the rest of us mere mortals.
Now, that’s a blue cruiser at JH looking delicious. Credit: Jackson Hole
I’ve been skiing here since I was locked into that famous and frustrating “intermediate plateau” and took a chance on defying Jackson’s reputation for experts only. Besides, the town sounded like fun, with wooden sidewalks and real cowboys coming into town from the ranches that ring the resort.
If you’ve never skied trees, this is the place to learn. The short bursts of glades under the Sweetwater Gondola or Casper chairlift are ideal, because you if you get into trouble, you can bail out to one of the blue or green groomers alongside, or just wave or shout up to a lift rider if your trouble is serious.
When you get better, head into Moran Woods, in between the Casper or Teton lifts.
I always plan my day to be at the lodge at the bottom of the Casper quad for that mid-morning pit stop, and sometimes for lunch, since it’s always less crowded than the other mid-mountain lodges and restaurants.
The Teton is one of Jackson’s newer lifts, and accesses a network of blue and green cruisers that you can take back non-stop to the base area, down some 3,000 of the resort’s massive 4,129 vertical. The Kemmerer trail off the top is named for Jay Kemmerer, who bought the resort in 1992 and credited with turning it into a world-class destination.
It’s a fast groomer that links to the Werner cruiser. That one is named for Buddy Werner, an internationally renowned ski racer and member of the US Olympic ski team, who died trying to outrace an avalanche in the Swiss Alps in 1964. You could do laps here all day. I have.
Werner was the choice of the resort’s original owner to be the first ski school director. That went instead to Pepi Steigler, who won a gold medal in slalom and a bronze in giant slalom in the 1964 Olympics. It was the same Olympics in which Jimmy Heuga and Billy Kidd became the first Americans to medal in the slalom, a couple of deep breaths behind Steigler, who ran the Jackson Hole Ski School for more than 40 years before retiring.
But I digress.
Of course, you must take the famous Jackson Hole Tram to the top, and pick your way down Rendezvous Bowl to the groomed trails below. Be sure to do it on a sunny day, unless you want to hear my near-horror story about skiing it in socked in weather. Jackson Hole often is subject to inversions, when it is bright and sunny at the bottom and socked in up top. If the tram isn’t busy in the middle of the day, that’s the reason.
My favorite spot on the mountain is Laramie Bowl, off the Thunder quad. It’s really more a funnel than a bowl, with VW-sized bumps on the right and “regular” bumps on either side of a bail-out groomer.
Jackson Hole is also a great destination for multi-generation winter vacations with the grandkids. The really young ones get to ride to their own dedicated teaching slope in a wagon powered by a snowmobile. The kids love it, and we grandparents love taking photos of it.
Where you stay in Jackson Hole depends on whether you prefer base area convenience or downtown shopping and restaurants.
JH has prioritized improving the intermediate ski and snowboard experience to give guests a variety of terrain. Here’s a blue blue. Credit: Jackson Hole
Convenience is the Teton Village base area, with hotels, condos and restaurants in all price ranges and amenity levels. Best, I think, are the Four Seasons with heated walkways for no-slip snow-free access, and the Alpenhof, with a true European vibe, one of the first hotels to open when the resort opened in 1965.
Apres ski in the Village centers around the Mangy Moose, named for the dusty taxidermy moose for which it is named.
Downtown, the premiere place to stay is the Wort Hotel, one of the members of the Historic Hotels of America group, known for its rustic charm and attentive service.
The Blue Lion is known for its elk filets. Another top dining choice is the Snake River Grill, whose menu identifies the local ranchers and farmers who supplied the lamb, pork or artisanal cheese.
Apres ski downtown means The Cowboy, which features live music and country western dancing in season. This is where I learned to two-step at free Thursday night lessons. Just keep walking past the saddle-shaped bar stools in the front to the tables dance floor in the back. The burgers are pretty good here, too.
Locals and any visitors in the know head for The Stagecoach in nearby Wilson, at the base of the Teton Pass, on Sunday nights. A five-piece band has played here for more than 40 years, including a few of the originals still wielding a banjo or guitar. Be forewarned that the repertoire is usually sprinkled with a few ditties that could make a sailor blush.
Take an afternoon off the slopes to visit the National Elk Refuge just outside town, where thousands of these majestic creatures spend the winter. If you time it correctly, you can also visit the National Museum of Wildlife Art on the other side of the road, with its impressive collection of landscape paintings and Remington sculptures.
Jackson Hole is a member of both Ikon Pass and Mountain Collective, neither of which provide discounts for seniors. If the only place you intend to ski or ride this season is Jackson Hole, the best deal for the 2020/21 season is the Plus Pass, which offers 25 days of lift access for $505.
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