Are You a Retro-Skier?

Here’s an old timer for you I scored over 50 points.
ex: had wooden ski with steel edges, also had Spalding Siderals 210cm, (circa 1970), leather boots no inner boot and Plastic Nordica’s, Bear traps bindings on my woody’s and Look Nevada on the Siderals, No lifts to all types of ski lifts, black in-boot pants with white stripes, no jacket to one piece red racing suit with dark blue stripes, every kind of head gear you can think of (even a coon-skin cap) and finally always carried wax variuos colors for different conditions. It sure was fun taking the quiz and going over the comments. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

52 or 53. Unfortunately, for me anyway, Summit is still a ski area or I’d have 5 more points. I never burned a hole in the carpet, and don’t recall ever using long thongs (just tight Arlberg straps with the Marker turntables) although one season in the 1950’s my dad used only long thongs (though holes drilled crosswise through his 7′ 2″ long wood skis–same pair he won the 1942 Silver Skis race on–and a home made custom tow piece that didn’t require toe straps–to hold his skis on). I had to look up Moriarty hats and just what exactly gabardine was, but they both fell my way (my mother sewed those ski pants). My previous regular one piece ski suit was a very bright shiny blue, but I don’t know if you could classify it as fluorescent or not. I’m still using a one piece ski suit and I’m still wearing the bright paisley nylon wind shirt I bought to brighten up the cover picture for the second edition of my 1972 book “Freestyle Skiing”. See the Downhill Skiing page at www.marinerkayaks.com for a picture of the cover with the shirt. This season will be my 69th straight ski season.

Let’s see, I still wear a Moriarty Hat and my Dad’s 1952 corduroy vest lined with sheepskin. I wore his old wool knickers Yurt skiing in the Uintahs last month. His old 215 Kneissls with cables and laquer bases are on my wall. I have my 225 Atomic Red Sleds still! I somehow lost Dad’s Poplin pullover but I still have my Mother Karens! I still remember skiing on golf courses after a snow, 48 for me. We got 88 inches last week and Nordica Enforcers rule these days but I’ll never forget skiing in the backyard with my Dad…..

Wow. Thanks for this. I scored a 48. It brings back lots of great memories. I started skiing at a Swiss boarding school in 1962 (Aiglon College). We would climb using seal skins and enjoy the long downhill runs in the areas around Diablerets and Zermat. I later formed the Alfred University Ski team (1965-1969) We used the tongue depressors and duct tape with our Lange ski boots you described in perfecting our Avalement technique. I later went on to coach and instruct full-time at Glen Ellen (I was a Certified Instructor in the Canadian Ski School) 1970-71. I got my Masters degree at UVM (1977) and worked with engineers at IBM in Essex Junction.

My dad started skiing with me when I was three years old…….we belonged to the Polecats Ski Club in Intervale,
New Hampshire ( near North Conway, NH) for forty years, I was able to check every box so I would say I am a Retro Skier. Due to R/A I stopped skiing 6 years ago, now 73. Good luck and God Bless you all.

was just reading my copy of “How to Ski” by Alf Engen and came across this cool web site. Yep, got a 47 on the test. Started in 1953 at Marysville in Helena Montana. Went onto Townsend, then Spokane, and back to Great Falls. Local ski patrol, then National Ski Patrol with avalanche training. Had to drop out of college in Missoula- took a ski class on Thursday, taught the class on Friday, skied on the patrol on Saturday and used my free ski day on Sunday – too tired to study. My first skis were wooden with bear traps – and later my dad messed them up trying to cut grooves for metal edges – I skied on them anyway. had a close encounter with a bull elk once coming up out of a “tree well” – he walked within 10 feet of me. Also did a couple of off the snow twists on a rope tow and just before going into the bull wheel, i was able to trip the shutoff rope with the tip of my ski dangling 8 feet up in the air. thank God for long skis. Still skiing at 74 and loving every day of it in Montana, Washington, Utah, Idaho, Canada, Colorado, Arizona, My grandfather made his own skis and leather bindings in 1910 and hiked up and skied down Bill Williams in the moon light, Williams Arizona – must be in the blood. Thanks for the great test – and bringing back great memories. Sorry all you guys had to grow up skiing corrugated sheet metal back east tho.

Ok, I guess I’m an old guy, I scored 46. First skis were wood-that my Dad painted blue, no steel edges bear trap bindings, bamboo poles w/ leather baskets. Although my brothers and sister had the double leather boots I had a pair of rubber buckle boots (I was only 5.) I upgraded to a pair of 165 Kazama’s w/ Cubco bindings and leather buckle boots (I think Heierling’s.) Longest I ever skied were 207’s (Hart King’s)for a couple runs (I was barely 5′ tall at the time.) Finally upgrade those Cubco’s to a pair of used and abused Solomon 505s for my 195 Hart Knight’s. Just donated my 205 K2 810 GS skis to a “ski garden” at my fav ski shop. Still have my 203 Dynastar Omiglass IIs and skied them once last year and the year before too and prior to that these were my only skis, does this get me extra bonus points? (current skis 185 Nordica Enforcer 100s.) Stripped ski pants-several different pairs (even wore an Italian ski racing jacket for my HS senior picture. Bright orange pants w/ wide yellow stripes-in boot, back w/ white, blue w/ green, teal w/ red… Windshirts, psychedelic Day-Glo anorak, wool pants, first helmet was a motorcycle helmet, high speed rope tow and rope tow grips, hiking from the top of the Red Chair up Whistler Mountain for back country powder runs (circa 75-79.) Mashed moguls, dabbled in ballet, wimpy aerials (front flip, helicopters, spread eagle) hence my moniker. My best bud couldn’t turn for crap-just sort of wiggled his toosh; but looked cool in his hot threads and top quality equipment and could do aerials, so he was “Freestyle Suzuki” and I (who could turn very well) became Snowplow Skip. Still skiing 10-20+ days/season

I calculate 43. The first lift served area I skied, Chrtitmas 1969 or 1970, west of Des Moines, Iowa.
The “chalet” / rental area was an old house trailer on cinder blocks. The lifts were 2 rope loops that crossed each other half way up (you had to switch ropes), driven by 2 farm tractor’s on blocks, the rope wrapped on the tractor’s rear hubs (safety? what’s that?) and on car hubs nailed to trees at the bottom. The “ski hills” were the sides of a river valley with barely discernible paths through the trees. At one point I fell, slid into a lower hub and derailed the rope and that sent about 20 skiers over the edge and down into a gully as the rope swung back and forth like a snake. Someone had to climb to the tractor and take it out of gear while they pried the rope back onto the lower hub. Later that day they closed early citing “Too much snow”, and they were right, what should have been a 30 minute trip back to West Des Moines took till midnight – we had to abandon the car and walk (clamber) a good part of the way.
I’m pretty confident that place is no longer around.