Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship
Stowe seems to breed daredevils of all seasons of the year — and seasons of life. In a place where toddlers share sports with their grandparents and a shuttle to Stowe Mountain Resort runs all day long, seniors are biking, running, hiking and skiing with no plans of slowing down, even if the rest of the world encourages it.
Seniors have always been a demographic at the resort, which spans Mt. Mansfield and Spruce Peak, receiving discounted passes. The popular trend is to ski weekdays, before the lines get long and the groomed part of the trails have been skied to bits.
There are benefits to the ritual: Southwestern Vermont Medical Center suggests seniors cultivate outdoor hobbies, including skiing and snowshoeing, to stay fit, reduce anxiety and improve sleep.
The regimentation is part of the lives of three Stowe skiers who just happen to qualify for certain Epic discounts because of their age — something of a badge of honor.
Virginia “Ginny” Huber, 79, is a longtime Stowe skier who lives in Montreal but visits her Vermont property weekly. She started skiing in Ontario at age 7, but her passion took off when her family moved to Geneva, Switzerland, when she was 10.
Conquering European peaks felt like enough to prove her status as a dedicated skier, but she really earned her wings when, at 26, she had her daughter while on a ski trip to Stowe. The girl was six weeks early and, unexpectedly, an American citizen.
Huber doesn’t think skiing feels much different now than it did back then. In fact, she said, it still brings her the same feelings. When she skis, time doesn’t matter and her mind goes to meditation, she said, especially when cross-country skiing.
In skiing she has always felt she doesn’t need to think, just do. That’s how she gets out on the slopes as much as she does, she said.
“I don’t think about it too much. I just have my equipment in the car, you jump in the car, head to the mountain, boot up at the car, you know, and think, ‘Oh, I’ll do a few runs,’ and you end up spending two to three hours, and it’s wonderful,” she said. “I find if you think about it too much, you don’t do it.”
That muscle memory isn’t going anywhere — Huber has no plans to stop, even if the recovery time for injuries might increase, or she might need to slow her speed some. Skiing makes her happy, she said, and keeps her health happy. The outdoors are her place, then and now.
“I’ve never minded the cold. I love the snow. I just think it’s very beautiful,” she said. “And then people are so nice. It keeps you absolutely young. I think it extends your life. You feel vital, you feel happy. I’m going to continue to do it, absolutely. Absolutely, probably until my death, dying day, I would imagine.”
Back in February, Huber completed the 80th Stowe Derby, one of the oldest cross-country ski races in America. Asked why she wanted to ski the 20 kilometers, she said she simply thought it would be a beautiful and fun day.
Dave Burton Siegel, 76, is a native New Yorker who moved to Stowe at 56 from Maryland. He had wanted to retire to Park City, Utah, but his wife preferred New York City — Stowe became an unlikely compromise. In Stowe, Siegel began to fill his time with early-morning runs. It was in those trips that he met members of the Dawn Patrol.
The Dawn Patrol is something of a local legend, as explained by Siegel. It is composed of folks generally in their 60s to 80s who ski each day except Saturdays. They arrive for the first chairlift of the day and generally disband by lunchtime. As Stowe Magazine reported over a decade ago, the group’s motto is “10-by-10” — meaning 10 runs on the mountain before 10 in the morning. The structure is loose, but the connections took skiing from a solitary to a social act for Siegel.
“ I rarely ski alone. It’s much more fun to ski with friends. You know, we chat on the chair; there’s always stuff to talk about,” he said. “And it’s my social time. In fact, some of the people, we get together in non-ski season every Friday at the Round Hearth and we have a coffee or breakfast. Some of them have become my close friends.”
Siegel said he’s befriended athletes of all ages, abilities and walks of life. Some have slowed as they’ve aged, and some have kept their speed, he said. Patrol members have adapted themselves over the years to be able to continue their sport.
He turned to another of his hobbies — golf — for an analogy to describe his mindset.
“You may have been somebody who could really hit the ball a long way. Well, as you get older, you know, your drives are shorter. If you still enjoy the game, you learn to play that way, even though you’re not up to your standard that you were 20 years ago,” he said.
Lynne Paul Altadonna, 80, first visited Stowe in the 1960s for a job interview, he said, accompanied by some prime spring skiing that got him hooked on the sport. Years later, after his children had grown up and started families, he moved to Stowe and met his wife Mary at Blessed Sacrament Church. They have actually skied with their priests, he said, one of the mountain town quirks they love.
Altadonna credits his skiing routine for helping him stay fit and involved with his favorite activities.
“Rhythm — I’ll call it rhythm for retirees that have an athletic interest,” he said. “We ski to keep our legs strong. So we play golf in the summer and carry our golf bag, which we do in order to keep our legs strong so we can ski in the winter. So that’s a rhythm of life for a retiree — for as long as you’re blessed with good health and continue to do that.”
That rhythm has kept him in good health and good spirits — both a big win to Altadonna. Things change with age, but some parts of his routine have yet to — like where he prefers to put on his gear. The lodge is the enemy, the parking lot king.
“It’s a big deal to be able to put your boots on in a parking lot when you run a certain age,” he said. “I chuckle because we have seen people that carry metal folding chairs in the back of their car with their skis, and they take them out, unfold them and sit down and put their boots on.”
But even if over time he must start trekking to the lodge to suit up, he said, he won’t stop getting out there. He can’t think of a greater joy than when he is at the mountain, doing this whacky thing humans have created, because he can.
“You have these stupid things called skis, and you got this crazy stuff called snow, and there are days where you’re just in balance with the whole universe because you’re getting all the joy you can out of every turn,” he said.