Skiing
-
Getting Back to Strength Training — or Making What You’re Doing Actually Work
STRENGTH TRAINING — AGES 40 TO 80 What the research supports, what changes after 40, and how to build a program that fits where you are right now. Steven Markusen CPT Featured Photo: Buck Mountain and Avalanche Canyon from the Ullr Ridge, GTNP, February 2026 FOREWORD The sun makes a fleeting appearance between waves of…
-
Get Ready: Pre-Season Training for Nordic Skiing
Photo: Ready to put the training to use on freshly groomed corduroy. Baker Park. Minnesota January 2021 It is early November in Minnesota. Winter is coming. In a few weeks, the county parks will begin making snow on the cross-country ski trails. Maybe we will get lucky and have some natural snow this year. I…
-
Lucky to be Alive: 52 Years of Backcountry Skiing
Photo: The author telemark skiing on Berthoud Pass, Co 1978. Steve Markusen Collection. Arriving at Grand Teton National Park headquarters, a park ranger is waiting for me at the door. It is 8:30 am on Wednesday January 8th, 2025. My friend Nick, a climbing ranger supervisor invited me to give a 30 minute talk to…
-
Last Tracks
Featured Photo: My “last tracks” to the right of center, Edelweiss Bowl, Teton Pass, Wyoming 2014 The only sound is the hiss of my skis moving in the deep ski track. Week sunlight filters through giant Ponderosa pines. Light gusts of wind pitch snow crystals into the air sparkling against the blue sky. I am…
-
Old Dog, New Tricks: Living Longer and Happier
Featured Photo: Skate skis on perfect corduroy, Baker Park, Minnesota, February 2022 Olga Kotelko (1919-2014) was a Canadian track and field athlete. In his marvelous, well-written book What Makes Olga Run? Author Bruce Grierson documents her life and extraordinary achievements. Olga took up track at age 77… for fun. By her early 90s, she held…
-
The Art of Letting Go: Living in the Moment
Photo: Looking up at Wimpys, my exit tracks on the left, Grand Teton National Park, January 2022 “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery none but ourselves can free our minds” Bob Marley: Redemption Song My skis slip… again. I say to myself, “Why can’t you do this? Are you too old? Too weak” I am struggling…
-
Listening to Your Inner Voice: A Backcountry Solo
The ski track ended at tree line, the top of a three thousand vertical foot backcountry ski run called Mavericks at ten thousand feet elevation on the east flank of Buck Mountain, in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. I started breaking my own trail, but quickly gave up. Strong winds were transporting thirty inches of…
-
Get Lean and Stay Lean: 7 Strategies for Losing Weight
Photo: Steve skiing untracked powder on Mavericks, a 3000 foot vertical backcountry ski run in Grand Teton National Park, January 30, 2021. Credit: Jack Henley Why is it so hard to lose weight? This is the subject of my previous What I learned newsletter article, https://crooked-thumb.com/2021/01/19/body-set-weight-why-its-so-hard-to-lose-weight/. As I wrote in that article, the brain sets…
-
Into the Cold: Training for Backcountry Skiing
Photo: Steve Markusen on Triple Direct, Teton Pass, WY, 2019. Photo Credit: Max Markusen I peel the climbing skins off my skis, reset the bindings to downhill mode, don hat, gloves and goggles. I am alone at the top of Edelweiss Bowl, just south of Teton Pass, Wyoming. My son Charlie left two days earlier…
-
Best Friends
January 1978, Bob McCord was breaking trail and I reluctantly followed. We aimed for a low angle ramp between steeper slopes topped with five foot cornices: wind-blown snow at the tops of ridges curled like Dairy Queen Cones. The slope steepened. We made a switchback turn. Behind me, I heard a soft crack and a…