Bebe Wood: Approaching 90 And Going Strong
Skiing Since The 30s, She Has Seen Lots Of Changes.
In 1949, 23 year old Bebe Wood left her job at Dartmouth College and traveled to Idaho seeking adventure as a ski bum in Sun Valley. By then, she had already been skiing for about 10 years! Thus began her long association with the ski industry. Today, approaching her 90th birthday, she remains actively involved as a Host at Ragged Mountain in New Hampshire.
As a youngster in Marblehead, MA, she and her siblings taught themselves how to ski at a nearby golf course. By the late 1930’s her sister, five years her senior, had a driver’s license so they started going up to Cranmore in North Conway, NH. It was there that she became immersed in the sport.
Bebe Wood was an original ski bum in Sun Valley in 1949-50.
Credit: Bebe Wood
Following graduation from college, she went to work at Dartmouth as medical secretary. She and her friend Jean Adams joined the Dartmouth Outing Club which was an opportunity for travel around Northern New Hampshire and Vermont—Stowe, Cranmore and Suicide Six. They also skied locally at the Oak Hill rope tow in Hanover. “The DOC was a wonderful experience”, says Bebe. “We all loved to ski, yodel and sing. We had a great time.”
In the winter of 1949-50 Bebe and Jean Adams headed west to be ski bums in Sun Valley. They worked as waitresses and had plenty of time for skiing during the day. Bebe also had time to be a Sun Valley model for a Life Magazine shoot there and appeared in a February 1950 issue. “We had the best time there,” Bebe says. “Dartmouth was connected to Sun Valley back then and we were able to ski with some top notch eastern skiers.”
During the following ten years or so there was not much skiing in her life as she and her new husband were starting a family and moving around. But in 1963 they moved to Bristol, NH. And that move heralded her return to skiing in a big way.
In 1964 she began her long tenure at Ragged Mountain where she directed the junior program for school kids. She continued in this role until the mid 1980s when Ragged closed. During the next few years, Bebe taught at nearby King Ridge in New London, NH where she was part of the ski school until Ragged reopened in 1989.
All along the way Bebe found time to become PSIA certified, a first aid instructor, make two trips to the Alps skiing in Switzerland, Austria an Italy and a return trip to Sun Valley.
Bebe learned snowboarding at 70.
Credit: Bebe Wood
Bebe retired from instructing in 2007 but continued as head the Courtesy Patrol until it was phased out a few years ago. Not wanting to be idle, however, she remains active at the resort today as a mountain host. You can find her in the base lodge greeting skiers and boarders, chatting with folks as come in for a break, checking with patrol on the latest conditions and dispensing all kinds of local knowledge and information about the resort and the general area.
Bebe stopped skiing five years ago at the age of 85. “Not because I can’t ski,” she says, “but because I’m now too afraid of getting hurt. I have no one to take care of me if I were to get injured. I do miss it, though.”
Bebe sees the evolution of equipment and technique as a positive thing that has made the sport much easier to learn and continue. “Sometimes the technical details get confusing but if the continued development of new equipment and technique makes the sport easier that’s good for its growth,” she said. When asked about other changes she’s seen, she said that in the old days skiers were just one big happy family. They sat around the fireplaces in old ski lodges and never complained about rope tows that wore out ski gloves or conditions that were less than ideal. Now she says, skiers want everything to be perfect. And there are so many people you have to be a little more careful.
According to Bebe, “It’s still a wonderful sport. It should be available in all schools free of charge so all kids have a chance to experience it.” She thinks there are more seniors skiing now than ever before. “New and better equipment keeps people going longer,” she says, and hopes that “more people being on the hill does not discourage older skiers.” She knows some seniors in their late 70s and early 80s who still ski, including some 10th Mountain veterans. “But the group is dwindling.”
What keeps her coming back? Why does she continue to work even though she no longer gets out on the hill? Love of the outdoors, a desire to keep up with the sport and the people in it, the opportunity to meet new people with similar passions are just a few of the reasons. “You don’t have to be young to enjoy it. It brings family and friends together.” Of teaching she says, “I can still look at skiers and tell what they’re doing wrong. I can tell who has had lessons and who hasn’t.”
Bebe Wood today. Tuckerman’s Ravine was a favorite spot. Credit: Joan Wallen
Approaching her 90 th birthday in a few months and summing up her lifetime involvement in a sport she loves, Bebe states, “I wouldn’t have changed a thing.” Including, or perhaps especially, her ski bumming year in Sun Valley. “If young people have a chance to be a ski bum, they should go for it. It’s an experience to always remember.”
Master’s Clinic: Fabulous Idea For Senior Skiers
The Secret To Breaking Decades-old Bad Habits: Attending A Master’s Clinic At Dodge Ridge.
Jon Mahanna, creator of the Master’s Clinics, has class members follow his every move down the slopes.
Credit: Dodge Ridge
I hadn’t skied at Dodge Ridge, the closest ski area to the San Francisco Bay Area, in years. But as soon as I arrived at the base area a couple of Thursdays ago for one of its Master’s Clinics, a four-hour-long freeski instructional program designed for intermediate and advanced skiers over 50 years of age, the memories flooded back. It was the first place I had ever put skis to slopes back in the ’50s, unwittingly grabbing on to a rope tow and finding my 12-year-old self being flung into the nearest snowbank. In the ’60s, it was the area my friends and I headed to when classes were over for the day at San Jose State College, taking a hit of blackberry brandy from our bota bags each time we headed down the rudimentarily “groomed” slopes on our brakeless wooden skis with bear-trap bindings and with long leather straps bound around our leather boots.
Now a saner, much older me was back to do things right! My friends and I were going to get this ski season headed in the right direction: by letting a seniors-certified PSIA instructor spend a few hours with us, helping us to break bad habits we’d acquired over the years and showing us how to adapt our skiing styles to today’s more-efficient shaped skis.
We met up with our group of nine other fellow seniors, ranging in age from 58 to 79, at the base promptly at 10 AM and headed up the mountain to do a ski-off for our two instructors: Bryan Jarratt, 61, an Aussie who’s been with the resort for 15 years, and Jenny Matkin, 64, who has deep roots in the region and has been teaching for decades. As we all did our “exhibition” run down the hill, I could instantly tell when my fellow participants had learned to ski. Yep, those two guys standing tall and stately over their skis with their ankles seemingly tied together were from the Arlberg “reverse-shoulder” method days. And that guy making the quick turns probably learned during the “short skis” phase. Our instructors split us into two groups, those itching for some “black diamond, off-piste” skiing and we more-timid ones who still had some cobwebs to dust off our skis before going full-out.
After three-and-a-half hours of skiing with frequent instructional breaks, we learned at least four or five specific things from Jenny that we could take away and work on the rest of the season in order to ski with much more ease and efficiency and not be exhausted after a full day of skiing.
Dodge Ridge’s Jon Mahanna saw the need to help senior skiers adapt to the new, shaped skis. “Let the skis do the work,” he says. Courtesy of Jon Mahanna
Jon Mahanna, 68, explains the strategy behind the Master’s Clinics best. He, along with Dodge Ridge’s current owners, Frank and Sally Helm, came up with the concept three years ago. Jon had been Dodge Ridge’s ski school director for 15 years in the ’80s and ’90s, and after serving in various capacities at ski areas in Colorado, New Mexico, and back in California, the “retired” Mahanna saw a need for older skiers, Level 5 and higher, to improve their skiing technique, especially with the advent of all the new equipment. Says Mahanna, “I saw that a lot of older skiers, especially those returning to the sport, needed to work on creating a balanced, ‘stacked’ stance so that there’s the least amount of resistance on their skeletal frame and muscle groups. This open, athletic stance gives them better lateral stability and is easier on their knees and backs. Balance is the key to everything.”
The instruction focuses on medium-radius turns on groomed slopes. “The modern equipment out there lets you stand there and go for the ride while you let the skis do the work,” avows Mahanna. “The idea is to have fun and to be able to ski all day, where your knees and muscles don’t give out on you.”
When we all met up at the lodge afterwards for lunch (which is included in the clinic package), the participants, to a person, were Master’s Clinic converts, and most were planning to sign up for more. One of them, Ralph Purdy, 75, happened to be the son of Dodge Ridge founder Earl Purdy, who opened the resort back in 1950. Said Purdy, “This is the first lesson I’ve had in many years. I thought that there’s gotta be something I’m missing. I saw this as a drill, and today I learned about unweighting and keeping my legs apart a little.” Another clinic attendee, Mark Sahines, 58, skied a lot in his 20s and 30s, then kids and work put skiing on a back burner. “I want to get to an advanced level, and my goal is to be skiing at 75 or 80. A lot of the guys older than me in today’s class ski a lot better than I do. Today I learned to do a hockey stop, something I could never do before.” My friends, Jim, 65, and Kathy, 70, Clarke, have a cabin near Dodge and are season ticket holders. They’ll definitely be back for more Master’s Clinics. Kathy called her teacher “one of the best” and appreciated Jenny’s focus on older skiers and the different techniques required with the new equipment. Jim shared that “every year I fret about being ‘ready’ to hit the slopes. Will my legs hold up? Will my funky right knee start giving me problems? Jenny, our wonderful instructor, brought my focus back to the skills and techniques needed to get the most out of my fancy, red shaped skis. By the end of our class, I was able to remember and use several of Jenny’s methods for getting the most out of my skis. In the end, there’s no reason I can’t learn this stuff if I keep a positive attitude, pay attention, and practice, practice, practice.”
To learn more about Dodge Ridge’s Master’s Clinic program or sign up for one of its Thursday or Sunday clinics, click here. Tell them Rose Marie sent you! And if you love uncrowded slopes, sign up for a Thursday clinic.
[Editor Note: SeniorsSkiing.com salutes Dodge Ridge and Jon Mahanna for creating a program focused on helping seniors optimize their technique and continuing to enjoy skiing. If you, our readers, think this is a good idea, please forward a link with this story to your local ski area to show them how easy it is to support seniors skiing. Or, if you’re in the Bay Area, enroll in Dodge Ridge’s Masters’s Clinic. We hope to see the idea of focused events for seniors—especially mid-week— growing in the ski resort industry.]
This Week In SeniorsSkiing.com (Feb. 5)
Welcome New Subscribers, A Busy Week For SeniorsSkiing.
From the top of Snow King, looking at the Grand Teton and Jackson Hole.
Credit: Patrick Kearney
An article in the New York Times travel section last weekend has brought many new readers to our growing online magazine. We are really glad you’ve joined us. Please connect with other readers through the FORUM (see menu pick in blue border, upper right), comment on our stories and let us know what you think. Again, our mission is to help influence the snow sports industry to see the value of its most loyal, long-time and engaged participants. Hope you like.
This week, we feature Ski Ballet, a video clip of unknown provenance from the 50s (we think) with carefully orchestrated, synchronized skiing. It’s high camp and hilarious. Try those moves with your ski club. If you know where this comes from, please let us know. There might be more.
The bad news this week is that the on-again, off-again snow situation in the east is off again. Here’s a downbeat ski report from Mad River Glen and Bromley about closing down until this week. The good news is that it is snowing again—in fact right now—in New England, so we are on-again.
Salt Lake City Correspondent Harriet Wallis gives us a profile of Deer Valley, the “gold standard” of ski resorts, committed to top notch service. Her goal in this story was to provide seniors with an “insider’s training” guide that will help newcomers enjoy the resort.
Co-publisher Mike Maginn revisits Cranmore Mt. in North Conway, NH, to show you a snapshot of that venerable mountain. Cranmore is a two-and-a-half hour drive from the Boston area, a perfect, low-key resort for seniors with just enough terrain to keep things interesting and really wonderful prices. For seniors in the local area, it is a daily hang out.
Correspondent Roger Lohr from XCResorts.com highlights his top 10 Cross Country resorts for romantic Valentine get-aways. And Co-Publisher Jon Weisberg shows us Valentine gift for snow lovers that might impress your honey. Really, Jon, long underwear as a Valentine gift?
Correspondent Pat McCloskey reviews some really high tech sunglasses and goggles from Red Bull Racing. We’ve seen a lot of high tech eye wear lately, and we’re wondering what’s the big fascination with carbon fiber and exotic materials for sunglasses. Anyway, they look cool.
Finally, we have a very neat picture from the top of Jackson Hole at dawn from contributor Patrick Kearney. We are thinking of starting a photo gallery of interesting shots like this one in the near future. What do you think? Good idea?
Preview Of Next Week
We will be featuring a story from San Francisco-based Correspondent Rose Marie Cleese about the Master Clinic she attended at Dodge Ridge. We also should be hearing from a Senior Day event at Jack Frost ski area in PA. We believe that these senior-focused activities are really important events for snow sport venues to hold.
We will also report on the results of our recent Subscriber Survey 2016. Thanks to all who participated. The response rate was way over the average for an online survey. It’s great have that support. The winners of the prizes for participating have been notified and the swag is in the mail.
More pictures, more fun, and hopefully, more comments and input from you. Please use the FORUM to communicate with your fellow readers, get together, enjoy winter.
Remember: There are more of us every day, and we’re not going away.
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