Fifty years ago, on skis

This past weekend I was skiing on whatever run Park City Mountain was able to create from scratch given our terrible lack of natural snow and the path was narrow, bumpy and crowded. 

Yet, that day, I did 8 runs non-stop on Payday and was thinking: “Didn’t I ski as well and as comfortably as I had done 50 years ago, when I returned from Australia and began another ski season in Avoriaz?” 

The answer was a resounding “Yes!” and it got me thinking that I was incredibly lucky to feel as if nothing had happened to me in that half-century that elapsed so fast before my eyes. I felt just at ease on snow as I had back in December of 1971. 

Still my VO2max was a shadow of itself, my natural flexibility was gone and my my muscle mass dwindling. 

Why wasn’t I feeling my age? I certainly was much more efficient on my skis, still quick and nimble, I perfectly remembered what to do, my equipment was much, much better, and the chairlift had done the “heavy lifting” by bringing me on top of that slope. 

There’s one thing I forgot: My thinking was crystal clear and much improved over what was going on inside my head in those days. Is this what make the big difference? This could very well be the case...