Debbie Overeynder has skied better at 75 years old than ever before.
She said this is thanks to women’s ski clinics and the annual ski day hosted by Pitkin County Senior Services and Aspen Skiing Company on Aspen Mountain.
Around 120 spots were open, and they filled up in one day.
The group of skiers headed up on the Silver Queen Gondola to the Sundeck for a free breakfast and a raffle.
“This gives everybody an opportunity to come up and see everybody,” Overeynder said.
Overeynder also said clinics and ski days build community, and discounted senior ski passes allow older adults to continue to ski once they retire.
A lifelong skier and Aspen resident of 30 years, Overeynder has been coming to the annual ski day for as long as she’s been a senior, which is about 15 years.
But she said many retirees have moved downvalley due to the cost of living in Aspen.
Many sell their Aspen homes and move so they can afford to live in their retirement.
“The income level of people and the short term rentals push so many people out,” she said. “We are so lucky that we have the affordable housing program, because that keeps many of the seniors here. And I have to tell you that many of the seniors here are still working. Most of my friends, maybe they’re retired from one job, but they’re picking up another.”
But for this one day a year, people come back to Aspen to see one another.
“I’ve been in Aspen for 30 years, so I’ve seen all these people,” Overeynder said. “I might not know their names, but I worked at the library for five years, so I recognize their faces. And you see all the old timers. And we’re still skiing. I’m 75. I’m still skiing. And I have a friend, he’s 90, and he’s still skiing.”
Overeynder’s friend, Kathy Goudy, who still works, moved to Carbondale 25 years ago, and she didn’t start learning to ski and snowboard until about 15 years ago at 52 years old.
But she recommends everyone should learn sooner than she did.
“You know what could go wrong, because you’ve been in the ER with your kids and then you start and then you try to teach yourself and everything you think is wrong because skiing is not intuitive,” she said.
When Goudy first learned, she skied and snowboarded.
But now she just skis due to a wrist injury from two years ago. She did not get this injury from a snowsport, but wrist injuries are one of the most common injuries snowboarders face.
And Goudy thinks skiing is easier at her age.
“Snowboarding is harder on an older body, because it's like pilates,” she said. “If you fall a lot, you have to core up and core up, by the end of the run you're like, ‘oh my gosh.’”
She also thinks there’s another reason there’s not that many older snowboarders.
“I think for a lot of old timers, snowboards came after they learned how to ski, but my son's generation is learning to snowboard,” Goudy said. “There was a lot of animosity toward snowboarders 20 years ago.”
Aspen Mountain did not even allow snowboarders until April 1, 2001, so Goudy thinks in the coming decades more older snowboarders will be carving down Aspen Mountain.
In the last few decades, however, ski equipment has evolved, according to another longtime skier and Aspenite.
Gail Mason has lived in Aspen for nearly 20 years. She said evolving equipment helps to reduce injuries and allow older adults to continue to ski.
“We used to paint our skis because they were wooden,” she said. “Sand 'em down, paint ‘em a new color every year, bear trap bindings, horrible, horrible equipment. I don't know how we made it.”
“But now the equipment is very good, and it's easier for older people to ski,” she added. “We used to back in the day, you'd put your hand up, and the tips of your skis went to your wrists. I was skiing on 185s and then I went to 170 and I thought, ‘oh god they’re short,’ and now I'm on 149s.”
Although this is her first senior ski day, she is a lifelong skier.
“SkiCo was our babysitter,” Mason said. “Whenever my parents wanted to go out, they just dumped us at the ski hill.”
Mason came to Aspen because she worked at a theater back east, where she also learned how to ski, and the executive director of the Wheeler Opera House at that time was a friend of hers.
When the Wheeler had a job opening, her friend brought her out here, and she’s been in Aspen ever since.
And she’s continued to ski ever since, too.
Reflecting the sentiment that ski days build community for older adults, Mason is grateful for the sport.
“It’s my entire social life,” she said. “You come out and meet people. I met the ‘Over the Hill’ people when I retired last year, and I ski with them everyday at Snowmass. And it’s the thing we need when we get older to keep us from being isolated.”
