Know anyone who learned to ski after 50? Be honest.

[scott43]

To anyone learning to skate: WEAR A HELMET!! No excuses. Don't try to be a hero. I've played hockey for 45 years and I still wear one when pleasure skating.

 

[jwtravel]

Since you have skates already, I'd suggest working on gliding on one skate as a balance exercise. This will be much more challenging that balancing on a single moving ski. And use wrist guards and helmet for this! At first it will be just picking up one skate briefly, or shifting weight to 90%/10% or something like that.

I have worked on this with inline skates, and balancing on a single ski is very easy for me now after working on this with my skates. Ability to shift balance at will to one or the other ski is very useful (critical) when skiing.

Working on fitness specifically for skiing (ie excessive focus on lots of weights training and leg strength) is not critical to your stage of learning. Some basic aerobic capacity is certainly good, but you should work on fitness more for overall quality of life, not specifically for skiing (IMHO). More fitness certainly has benefits in all aspects of life and resilience vs. injuries and falls (bone density, flexibility, etc). But if skiing is a good motivator for getting in shape, sure, use that as a carrot to keep exercising

“Working on” gliding on one skate - translation=I’m going to fall a lot and get practice trying to get up off the ice, which will require abdominal work. Perhaps doing this will work on everything? Definitely getting wrist guards tomorrow. Thx for advice.

 

[Seldomski]

“Working on” gliding on one skate - translation=I’m going to fall a lot and get practice trying to get up off the ice, which will require abdominal work. Perhaps doing this will work on everything? Definitely getting wrist guards tomorrow. Thx for advice.

I think you can work up to this by doing 'scissor' move with skates - ie one skate in front of the other. There are some others here that may have a safe progression to offer. I think @cantunamunch may have a recommendation?

Injuring yourself working on this is not the point! Please be safe.

 

[mdf]

Learned how to ski PROPERLY after 50 started around 14 took 36 years slow learner

Me too. I started at 18, but a ski camp at age 49 made me realize I was doing it wrong. I'm 64 now, and pretty happy with my skiing (though there are still things to work on ... I'm still gettiing better.)

 

[oldschoolskier]

Years ago I was skiing at Blue Mountain (Ontario) and saw this old guy on the slopes having fun, finally got a ride on the chair with him and we spoke. Commented on how I’d like to continue skiing into my old age, and he said he was 80, neat. Then he said he started at 77, never skied before. WOW! I asked why he started so late, worked, got married, had kids, wife died and he finally had the time to learn. Enjoys as much as he can.

Skied extremely well, add in age and short time skiing, what can I say WOW.

Point is, if you want to and enjoy it who cares what age you are.

 

[scott43]

Somebody else mentioned it..don't progress too quickly. I still learn things on easy slopes...basics..they're important.

 

[Tony Storaro]

Learned how to ski PROPERLY after 50 started around 14 took 36 years slow learner

LEGEND!!!

 

[cantunamunch]

I think you can work up to this by doing 'scissor' move with skates - ie one skate in front of the other. There are some others here that may have a safe progression to offer. I think @cantunamunch may have a recommendation?

Don't want to get too specific online - other than to suggest a broad focus on controlling the center will help with every specific skill OP wants to point focus on. That and checking if OP's skates were tight enough would be on my checklist working with her in person.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

I taught someone yesterday who was 57 and had started at 53. I had him and his wife for three hours. When we started they both skied like elevators with the cable cut loose. Just straight down the mountain swishing the skis a little bit to grind and try to retard their speed a little. It was honestly pretty scary to watch. We worked for a few hours on using the skis to turn instead of turning the skis and spent the last hour skiing moguls. No way they could have done that before. All I'm saying is there's no reason you can't ski all over the mountain if you want to.

 

[Bluenose]

From my experience, starting to ski at 53 seven years ago...

Patience and determination go a long way. Patience because this is not something you just pick up, particularly when a little older. Determination to continue to plug away at it because it will pay off, you will get better at it and with that it becomes more enjoyable. It is a great sport and it seems like you have tasted it because, as you said, you do go back up for more.

One thing that made it click for me was not to just take lessons, but have lessons of 1.5 Hrs in the morning and then spend as much time in the afternoon repeating the drills. Like many people here I most always look for ways to improve (incremental changes) and that is part of the fun.

 

[jwtravel]

Since you have skates already, I'd suggest working on gliding on one skate as a balance exercise. This will be much more challenging that balancing on a single moving ski. And use wrist guards and helmet for this! At first it will be just picking up one skate briefly, or shifting weight to 90%/10% or something like that.

I have worked on this with inline skates, and balancing on a single ski is very easy for me now after working on this with my skates. Ability to shift balance at will to one or the other ski is very useful (critical) when skiing.

Working on fitness specifically for skiing (ie excessive focus on lots of weights training and leg strength) is not critical to your stage of learning. Some basic aerobic capacity is certainly good, but you should work on fitness more for overall quality of life, not specifically for skiing (IMHO). More fitness certainly has benefits in all aspects of life and resilience vs. injuries and falls (bone density, flexibility, etc). But if skiing is a good motivator for getting in shape, sure, use that as a carrot to keep exercising

Hockey skates are the type on which I chose to learn. Getting better but long way off from gliding on one skate. My sense of balance has both legs/feet “glued” to the ice, meaning my body and brain are still accepting that I’m on ice and it’s going to take time for me to figure out how to “move my balance around”. I get the same feeling when skiing, that my skis are equally glued to the piste and that my balance sense recovery is still in its early stages and I have a lot of off-season work to do to gain strength in areas of my body that have long been dormant. At least I can feel the balance shift become easier on skis as I go faster, I think because the speed in turns pushes back an opposing force (centrifugal). Ice skating lateral balance is one issue, fore/aft balance is another and it’s very touchy; fine line between that gliding feeling and that feeling of being on my ass very quickly. Very little room for error front to back. I’ll have to trust that my brain and body is learning that sweet spot.

 

[scott43]

Bend knees..shoulders, knees, balls of the feet in line...butt down..airplane arms. And remember, helmet!!

 

[Tony Storaro]

Finding the fore/aft balance on ski is infinitely easier that on skates-be it ice or inline.
If they gave me 5 euros every time I found myself on my ass while learning to inline skate I’d be lugging around my Swarowski encrusted Carradan ski collection in a Bentley Bentayga.

 

[cantunamunch]

Ice skating lateral balance is one issue, fore/aft balance is another and it’s very touchy; fine line between that gliding feeling and that feeling of being on my ass very quickly. Very little room for error front to back. I’ll have to trust that my brain and body is learning that sweet spot.

Do you have any stairs near you? Practice climbing and descending those. Try two at a time. Try stepping extra wide. Keep your elbows in front of your belly button at all times.

 

[Nobody]

Not after 50. But after 35-36 yes, quite some. Still an impressive feat, IMHO.
And brother of my S.O. at about 47, but he's gifted and a former world class inline speed skater (one of his last races was at the WC finals in 2008 IIRC, Joey Mantia was also there) and very athletic person. I put him on a very short adult's skis (real skis about 135 cm long Voelkl RTM 7.4, not blades) so he could relate as much as possible to the inline skates and build from there. This said, anyone can, it's a matter of time, exercise, fitness and...patience.

 

[crgildart]

53

@Started at 53 documented on this forum a bit of his experience as he learned to ski. Perusing that may give you some perspective.

Has 53’s Journey taken a sabbatical or ceased?

53’s Journey

In other sports forums I frequent have “Diaries” so you can log/catalog your progress. It is a cool way to keep track of my progress and get input from others who might be able to give tips or just exchange ideas So this is mine. Today was my first day on the slope, I won’t call it snow...

www.skitalk.com

 

[Kneale Brownson]

, i never met anyone who started after 20 and is a very good skier.

I used to ski with a guy who started after retirement and got hooked on racing. Ended up winning a trip to the NASTAR finals.

 

[rcc55125]

I didn't start skiing until I was 30, not old but not young either.
Got married at 35 to a girl who was a skier. We skied maybe 10 days a season.
Started the kids, one boy and one girl, when they were about 6 and 8 at a 150 foot ski hill near home. Still skied about 10 maybe 15 days a season, jobs and finances prevented any more time on snow. This included a 5 day western trip most years with the kids up until they finished high school. We didn't ski much after that. Once I retired my wife pushed me to find something to do to get me out of the house. I happened to see an ad for a local ski area looking for adults to become ski instructors. I had enjoyed skiing but certainly wasn't what you would call good but tried out anyway. To my surprise I passed the beginner ski instructor training at the age of 65. Still wasn't what you would call good but I could do OK at the wedge and was pretty much parallel. However, being an instructor gave me the opportunity to ski for free at our local hill so I decided to pursue PSIA certification. That's when I really started to learn how to ski. I passed my level 1 certification and trained as much as possible, meaning attending as many instructor clinics as possible. I am now in my ninth season as an instructor and am pretty good on groomers. I've had a bit of a set back this past summer as I had total knee replacement in both knees. I was back on snow at the beginning of the season and have been told by other instructors that my turns are now better than last season. I'm not teaching this season but am still involved with our ski school and am not on snow as much as in previous years. I feel good about my current ability and will be taking my Level 2 ski exam, I've already passed the written and teaching parts, next season at the age of 74.
Having gotten into ski instruction at an advanced age I have empathy for older adults and actually enjoy working with them and helping them learn to enjoy the wonderful sport of alpine skiing. You're definitely not too old to ski and with a some training you'll soon be off those greens and enjoying blues easily.
As we get older conditioning is important to the enjoyment of skiing. Running or biking in the summer can really help and rollerblading is really great. One YouTube channel I've found with good training info for adults is Ski PT, https://www.youtube.com/c/SkiPTCynthia/videos.
So, work on your fitness and try to get some more instruction under your belt this season and give yourself a goal to make learning to ski a life long goal because you've got a lot of life left to enjoy the mountains.

 

[Pete in Idaho]

No reason you shouldn't be able to enjoy skiing even starting late in life.
On the other hand, i never met anyone who started after 20 and is a very good skier.

Then you don't know very many "older skiers".

 

[scott43]

Generalizations are risky. I met a guy inline skating who learned in his 40's..and he was pretty good. But you can just kinda tell..he didn't learn young..there's a level of timidity..less dynamic. Nothing saying you can't get good..my experience just says you plateau earlier than if you start as a kid.