An Enormity Of Gratitude, Season Wrap, Mystery Retro, Survey Watch, Looking Ahead.

And, poof, it’s almost May. For most of us, the ski season is behind us, and this is our last regular snow season edition. This week, we close our season-long celebration of our fifth publishing year with boundless gratitude that we were able to come so far.

SeniorsSkiing.com has hit a sweet spot in providing a forum for older folks, many of whom have been pursing snow sports for a half-century or more. The only forum, we hasten to add. You know the role you, our readers, have played and are playing in making skiing and other winter snow sports a regular past-time for yourself and your family. We believe the industry is finally beginning to recognize that we bring more to these sports than our enthusiasm

At a recent presentation, Kelly Pawlak, the new NSAA (National Ski Areas Association) president, mentioned the role seniors have in bringing family members, especially grandchildren into the sport. We’ll call that a beachhead in the consciousness of the ski and snow sport industry. Clearly, progress has been made.

All of this cannot have been possible without the contributions of our stalwart correspondents. The people who write for SeniorsSkiing.com are long-time industry veterans, some of whom are or have been professional journalists and are members of the North American Snowsports Journalists Association and others are long-time skiers who love to write and have a message for our demographic in one way or another. Note that most of these contributors have been writing for SeniorsSkiing.com since we started.

We simply could not bring you SeniorsSkiing.com without their contributions. Our thanks to our wide-spread regulars:

• Harriet Wallis, Utah
• Marc Liebman, Texas
• Pat McCloskey, Pennsylvania
• Don Burch, Massachusetts
• Tamsin Venn, Massachusetts
• Yvette Cardozo, Washington
• Jan Brunvand, Utah
• Bob Nesoff, New Jersey
• John Nelson, Washington
• Roger Lohr, (Cross-Country Editor) New Hampshire
• Wendy Clinch, Vermont
• Joan Wallen, New Hampshire
• Janet Franz, Vermont
• Mike Roth, New York
• Casey Earle, Santiago, Chile
• Jonathan Wiesel, Montana

In addition to our regular correspondents, a number of readers have offered articles. This is the first year we have so many pieces come “over the transom” from our readership. We hope other readers feel motivated to offer a contribution next year,

Readers who contributed articles last year are:

• David Bairns
• Peter Schmaus, MD
• Bill Widman
• Ted Levy
• Hiller Hardie
• John Blagys

Since we started publishing five years ago, we have accumulated 1,073 articles which now reside in our archives and are accessible to you. That’s roughly 200 articles a year since we began.

This Week

Our final Mystery Glimpse of the season reveals the identity of the ski-joring-jumping character from last week. We also highlight a few of our most popular photos from the feature. Mystery Glimpse is made possible by contributions from ski museums throughout North America. This museums hold the history of our winter sports and are worth a visit, a donation, and your support.

We reprise Don Burch’s article on putting away your gear for the season. Give your equipment a little TLC, and it will be good to you next season.

Spring Subscriber Survey Coming

Be on the lookout for our Spring Subscriber Survey coming your way in a week or two. We’ve been conducting surveys of our readership from the very beginning, and the information we gather is extremely valuable in shaping our mission. Thank you in advance for offering your input.

SeniorsSkiing.com will be publishing on a monthly basis starting in May. Look for articles on non-snow sports, skiing in South America and Oceania, curious people and places, and developments in snowsports.

And remember, there are more of us every day, and we aren’t going away. On to year six!