jimk
Active member
Are some of you guys retired?
Where, when, and how has being retired affected your skiing?
For me it's been pretty dramatic. I spent over 40 years primarily skiing small resorts in the Mid-Atlantic US. While there were a few years in my 20s when I skied 40-50 days, I usually averaged about 10-20 each winter over the decades. I was lucky if I escaped the Mid-A one week per winter to ski New England or US West.
In early 2015 I went from full time to half time working hours (semi-retired) and started doing 2 or 3 one-week or longer western trips per winter. This coincided with my adult son (avid skier) moving to Utah in 2015 and most of my skiing being redirected from the Mid-A to Utah and CO. In early 2019 I fully retired and started doing 3 or 4 month stays in Utah with my average ski days per winter increasing to 40 or 50. I might have been tempted to ski even more, but my non-skiing wife accompanies me and I take quite a few days off to be with her.
I was never a super strong skier, but it's possible my abilities have actually improved a bit since retirement. This is basically because of more slope time, but also skiing in the Rockies (mostly at Snowbird) instead of the Mid-A tends to force you to raise your game or die. O
Perhaps the best thing about skiing while retiring is that I now in the position to mostly ski partial days. I don't have to ski bell to bell to feel like I'm getting the most out of my precious few ski days. I can ski when I feel good/strong, rather than ski because it's the only chance I can. A quality over quantity thing. 40 half days is definitely more fun than 20 full days when age 65+
Where, when, and how has being retired affected your skiing?
For me it's been pretty dramatic. I spent over 40 years primarily skiing small resorts in the Mid-Atlantic US. While there were a few years in my 20s when I skied 40-50 days, I usually averaged about 10-20 each winter over the decades. I was lucky if I escaped the Mid-A one week per winter to ski New England or US West.
In early 2015 I went from full time to half time working hours (semi-retired) and started doing 2 or 3 one-week or longer western trips per winter. This coincided with my adult son (avid skier) moving to Utah in 2015 and most of my skiing being redirected from the Mid-A to Utah and CO. In early 2019 I fully retired and started doing 3 or 4 month stays in Utah with my average ski days per winter increasing to 40 or 50. I might have been tempted to ski even more, but my non-skiing wife accompanies me and I take quite a few days off to be with her.
I was never a super strong skier, but it's possible my abilities have actually improved a bit since retirement. This is basically because of more slope time, but also skiing in the Rockies (mostly at Snowbird) instead of the Mid-A tends to force you to raise your game or die. O
Perhaps the best thing about skiing while retiring is that I now in the position to mostly ski partial days. I don't have to ski bell to bell to feel like I'm getting the most out of my precious few ski days. I can ski when I feel good/strong, rather than ski because it's the only chance I can. A quality over quantity thing. 40 half days is definitely more fun than 20 full days when age 65+