It is a sunny and cold Thursday morning in early February.  There are a handful of other skiers on the mid-New Hampshire ski area lift.  I decide to go right at the top.  Trail is untouched, the corduroy grooming marks fresh and waiting.  I turn, effortless.  Ahhh.  I turn again, making a big, wide arc.  The feeling is like floating, my new skis carving and then, almost without a conscious notion, shifting to the other edge.

Hard to believe this is my first real run in thirty-five years.  Okay, there was an expensive, uncomfortable holiday weekend on rental skis and boots in the 90s with cranky children, cheesy condo and unrelenting cold.  It was an exception.  I had left my real skiing behind long time ago.

I started in college, in the mid-60s.  Back then, it was blue jeans and rice-paddy parkas with Moriarity hats, wooden skis, leather boots and Cubco bindings.  In the early 70s, I lucked out and worked as an assistant editor at Skiing Magazine working and rubbing elbows with some of the greats.  Now, that was fun.

I was Associate Editor in the early 70s

The next few decades had me running a business, flying here and there, finding and keeping clients.  No time, no interest in skiing.  Too cold, too time consuming.  The closest I made it to the slopes was working on my laptop while watching my wife kids from the day lodge window.

Then I came back.  With retirement came time.  I looked at boots and skis in a ski shop one day and said to myself, “I can do this now.”

I find almost everything about skiing has changed for the better during my long hiatus.  The skis are magical instruments, boots are comfortable, clothes are warmer, the lifts are faster, the trails well groomed and, because of my senior status, the lift tickets are relatively cheaper.  And, there is no more need for speed.  Instead, I relax into the slow turn, pressing down to feel the slice of the edge.

Parabolic skis rule! Turning has never been more easy or more fun.

Apparently, I’m not the only veteran coming back to skiing.  Although we are still a small percent of the total, the number of skiers over 65 has doubled since the 1997-98 season, according to a National Ski Areas Association demographic study published in 2013.  And we ski more often than younger skiers, too.  We get in 9.5 skiing days per season compared to a national average of five days.  We are using the gift of time that retirement has bestowed.

What does it take to get back?  Fitness for starters. That’s a good idea, regardless. A good ski shop to fit you out with the proper equipment, maybe starting with decent rentals.  A lesson might be helpful, too.  A couple of friends to go with.  A nice winter day in the middle of the week.  More and more runs.

What’s your return-to-skiing advice?