For abc 27's Valerie Pritchett, it was her first time on skis. But there were veteran instructors by her side for every glide.
Newsroom colleague Megan Healy wasn't quite as green on skis, but she was a little rusty.
These broadcast bff's were at Roundtop Mountain Resort by invitation. or, should I say, by challenge.
It seems a group of senior skiers at the York county facility heard an on-air comment from Valerie regarding a broken thumb she suffered during a snow-boarding fall.
"I said something to the effect, you need to do it now because as you get older, when you break bones, they don't heal as fast," she recalled.
Then, a few weeks later, Megan commented during an anchor toss to meteorologist Dan Tomaso about a recent sledding mishap she had.
"I have this huge bruise all over my leg" she said. " I can hardly walk. I feel like an old granny."
It was then, the gang of gray offered to show these young ladies how "older folks" handle the slopes. And they offered to share some tips along the way. Valerie and Megan accepted the offer and met up with the seniors on a sunny day last week. After just a few warm up runs with these seniors, it was obvious to Valerie and Megan, there were no" grannies" in this group.
"They're awesome, are you kidding me?" exclaimed Valerie to a round of laughter. "They have more stamina, than I do. I'm going to have to take a nap."
Megan concurred. "These are senior skiers who are amazing,"
You have to be at least 55 years old to join this skiing family, but, according to veteran Roundtop skiing instructor, Connie Middleton, you can never be too old.
"55 would be the youngest of the people that we have," she explained. "We have several skiers in their 80's, which I think is fantastic."
"These skiers are men and women who have worked all their lives," said Middleton, explaining who the members are. "They have great families and are retired. Now they want something fun in their life."
78-year-old Bill Reiner maneuvers the slopes every week on knees he wasn't born with.
."You're as old as you feel. You're as old as you want to be," he said. " You can make yourself really old, if you want to be. Or, you can stay young."
At the end of the day, it was a win-win session at Roundtop, for young and old.
