Buttermilk ski instructor Paul Britt can still recall the moment he got hooked on the sport about 30 years ago in the mountains of North Carolina.
“I can remember the very first experience that I had skiing at four, going on five years old — pizza, french fries, magic carpet — and a deep knowing that originates at that young of an age that it was something that I would always do,” Britt said in an interview on the Summit Express chairlift at Buttermilk last week.
He finds inspiration in the Roaring Fork Valley locals who ski well into their golden years. Seeing others on the slopes in their 60s, 70s and 80s has inspired Britt’s own commitment to the sport, he said.
“Years ago, I was house sitting for an old (ski) pro who'd had both knees replaced. He was back on snow, skiing quite well that winter. … And he said, ‘You cannot give these things that you love up because you don't have time or energy, and tell yourself that you're going to come back to them when you retire, when you have more time,’” Britt recalled. “‘Because you won't get them back. You have to keep doing it. You have to keep moving.’”
