Still teaching skiing at age 90

As an encouragement to TAYers who may wonder how long it's possible keep skiing, I thought that this might be of interest. Last Wednesday my father Lon, age 90, taught his first ski class of this season at Stevens Pass.

Dad started skiing in the early 20's at the Boy Scout cabin at Annette Lake. The group would take the train to Rockdale, then hike up the summer trail. The equipment was basic; wood skis with a slot for a leather strap that crossed over the toe. That was it.

In the 30's Dad was a member of the University of Washington Ski Team. The picture below is cropped from the 1936 team photo taken at Mt. Rainier. (Left to right: Walt Page, Bob Lamson, Lonnie Robinson, Harold Stack.)

That was a remarkable group of I think twelve. It included the long time Chief of Staff of Children's Orthopedic Hosp Jack Doctor M.D., the well known local naval architect Phil Spaulding, Harold Stack (Stack Steel), and Dad's buddy Johnny Woodward. See Lowell's Alpenglow website for more about Johnny, who is still ski racing on the masters circuit!

[edited to add:] Dad and Johnny competed in a number of Silver Skis races in the mid thirties and later Dad 'went to Europe to race'; that is he was an early ski bum over there.     By the way, the Silver Skis race was a *big* deal at the time. See Lowell's page on some of the press coverage.

www.alpenglow.org/ski-history/notes/news...html#spi-1936-apr-20

Also during the thirties Dad worked at Sid Gerber's ski factory mounting steel edges among other things, and at another time  managed the Filson Ski Shop here in Seattle.

After Dad retired from Boeing, he started teaching for Ski Klasses Inc. at Stevens Pass. SKI went out of business last year, and this year Dad was surprised and honored when he got a call from Olympic Ski School wondering if he wanted to teach for them. Doubt that there are many other ski schools with a 90 year old instructors on their roster.   

Oh, yes, Dad can still *ski* (as opposed just skiing).


Larry

Great story, and photo. Thanks for sharing!!

Your Dad sounds like an incredible man! Someone to admire, respect and hopefully emulate....
-Bill

Thanks for sharing this Larry. Very encouraging and inspirational to someone like me who is now over 1/2 way to 90. It's good to know I can get at least another 40 years of skiing in!

Congratulations Lon! Thanks Larry!

A recurring comment made by skiers of that generation is that they skied better in retirement than they did in their racing days. Better gear is the reason. I wonder if ski gear can possibly advance enough for us to say the same thing.

It's encouraging to hear about people still skiing in their 90's. My dad organizes a bus up to Stevens every Wens during the ski season. He's 73, which is inspirational enough, but he has guys on the bus that are pretty close to 90. I've gone up with them once and had a great time. A very social group. He bikes with some of the same people in the summer and a couple years ago went to Italy on a bike tour with a two guys in their mid 80's.

BTW, if anyone is interested in the ski bus let me know and I can forward on your contact info to my dad. He likes to have about 40 people on a bus that can seat 60 so that people have a little space to spread out.