Skiing With Life-Long Pals: Annual Trips, Memories, Friendship
Do You Have Skiing Buddies From Way-Back When?
SeniorsSkiing.com polls show that most seniors like to ski with their friends. Our ski group of seniors has banded together for decades, getting together in March each year for epic skiing in Tahoe or Utah depending on the conditions. The common denominator in our group is our fearless leader Eric Durfee, Incline Village, NV. In the group picture, Eric is seen as second from left flanked by Mark Hutchinson of Vermont and Proctor Reid formerly of Vermont and now D.C. These guys grew up together and raced together as juniors.
Pat McCloskey’s gang of life-long ski buddies. This lucky bunch of seniors meets yearly for Big Skiing out west.
Credit: Pat McCloskey
The balance of the group on the right is yours truly and Bart Smith, formerly of Seattle and now residing in Utah. Bart was a college racing pal of Eric’s, and Eric’s wife Helen is an old friend of mine from skiing as a kid. I met Eric at his wedding, and we have had a lifetime of adventures ever since. Missing is our friend John Ingwersen who rounds out the group as a former college racing friend of Eric’s from Cornell. That was a long time ago.
Aside from Eric being the glue to this fun loving group, what makes a group like this stick together for those many, many years? Hutch says it best when he states , “We love the fresh air, the scenery, the exercise, the chats on the lifts, and dinners together.” He goes on to say, “We are lucky to have a leader who affords us a nice place to stay in Nevada. He does the planning of where we are to go and does a
Skiing pals at the top of Northstar where you can see forever.
Credit: Pat McCloskey
fantastic job of organizing us. He has taken a few individual, devoted, ski loving guys and provided them with an ideal situation to enjoy what we enjoy most.” Bart provides an alternative landing spot in Utah if Tahoe conditions aren’t terrific. Finally, Hutch states, “We have a wonderful mix of his (Eric’s) friends who have become great friends to each other.”
Between hip replacements, torn rotator cuffs, bad backs, and various worn out parts, this group of old guys managed to break an iPhone app record a couple of years ago when we logged on and managed 57,000 vertical feet of skiing at Northstar in one day. The next day, we each logged 52,000 at Mt. Rose. The app developer contacted me and asked who we were since we had broken the individual day record, and I recounted to him that we were just a bunch of old guys in their 60s who love to ski together and enjoy each other’s company. He was astounded.
The saying goes, if you finish your life with a handful of friends, you are a lucky man. This is our handful.
[Editor Note: Pat McCloskey is lucky to be skiing with friends he met many, many years ago. Do you have a group of stalwart skiing companions? Let us know your group’s story.]
The Colors Of Passion
An Artist Paints En Plein Air On Ski Slopes.
[Editor Note: We are pleased to present a painter-on-skis, Judy Calhoun, who regularly brings her artist kit to the ski slopes. Her biographical and contact information is below.]
Oil-on-canvas by Judy Calhoun captures the Wasatch.
I try to find a pleasant rhythm as my skis follow the feel of the mountain. With the weight of my cumbersome pack and the ten years I didn’t ski, I know I’ll need to learn to trust my legs again. I take my time making wide, cautious parallel turns. If I tip over, my imagination will turn my heavy pack into a make-believe shell and I’ll feel like a turtle on it’s back! Yikes, don’t want that! Right now, I am pleased in the knowledge the muscles in my ski legs are coming back. Hopefully, I’ll soon feel strong enough to telemark in more of the steeper areas.
Here’s Judy Calhoun capturing a scene on canvas at the top of an Alta run.
Credit: JCalhoun
The texture of the snow beneath my feet makes me feel like I’m flying. Up in the sky, an electric blue sparks my awe. Where shall I stop? Ahhhhh, here!! Perched on the ridgeline, I know that the wind will whip at my pochade box and canvas. I eagerly start setting up. My painting pack settles with a ‘plop!’ on the snow. I secure my tripod to the pack, knowing that its weight will prevent the wind gusts from playfully stealing anything from me. That was a lesson quickly learned from other times that I’ve dangled near the edge of these dramatic drop-offs. Ohhhhhhh, how I love to look out over everything!
Will I be able to capture the dazzling white of the distant peaks, the grayed, geometric patterns of color of the valley? What about the richness of the closer rocks? There seems to be one color family that my (totally cool!) goggles tend to change. I have to lift them up off my face to view with my naked eye, the colors of the evergreens.
A couple of skiers suddenly swoop past on the traverse just below me. Most of the time I am invisible to them as they are busy gauging where they’ll create their next few turns. A snowboarder playfully pops up from a mogul-turned-spring, “Whooooo hooo!! Beautiful!!!” I understand his exuberance. Love the purple Mohawk on his helmet.
Ohhhhhhh, how I love our mountains!!! They lift me up, keeping me physically, spiritually, and emotionally healthy. As I repack all my paint supplies, I secure the finished paintings. I don’t want to accidentally get any fresh oil paint on anyone else riding the ski bus! I don’t mind the flecks of color on my dark blue jacket, but others may not be as enamored with them as I am.
As I hoist pack over shoulder, I smile at my thoughts. I never know what’s better. Is it the painting or the skiing down? I guess I’ll just have to do it again tomorrow and see if that answer will come.
If you happen to see an invisible skier/painter on the hill, please holler a “Hello!” If you’re not going too fast, you may hear me ask, “What are the colors of your passion?”
[Editor Note: Judy Calhoun’s dad introduced her to skiing when she was a child. Weekends were spent skiing at Buffalo Ski Club, a small ski area just south of Buffalo, New York. After high school, the west beckoned to her and Alta, Utah became her home. The dramatic beauty of Mount Superior is what got her into painting. With a pack full of paint supplies, her days were spent ski touring in the winter and hiking in the summer in order to paint the intimate treasures of the Wasatch Mountains. For twenty years, she’d ski with her dad in the mornings. Nothing could compare to the twinkle in his blue eyes after bounding down a few mogul runs or ‘flying’ in the powder together. She would then be at her art display in the Albion Grill most afternoons. This skier/artist finds that both Snowbird and Alta present unlimited beauty, challenging runs, incredible conditions, and fellow skiers/boarders that feel like family. To inquire about her artwork, contact JCalhounFineArt@gmail.com]
Way, Way Out West, There’s Another Jackson Hole. Know Where?
Home, home on the range? Not really. This Jackson Hole is not where you think.
A few miles north of Beijing, there’s a town that is named Jackson Hole. No skiing, but…seriously?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRSenQu2GWw&feature=youtu.be
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