“I wouldn’t be skiing much without this group”

offer steep discounts. For retirees on fixed incomes, that can be a lifeline to the sport that still defines them.

When Matt Kindred, 82, worked as a landscaper and a river guide in the Grand Canyon, he’d regularly do 45-mile backcountry trips on skis. In recent years, he has slowed down, thanks to a long list of ailments: a major stroke, prostate and colorectal cancer, two hip replacements. “The worst was the colorectal cancer, because I had to ski with a colostomy bag,” he said. “I had to try hard not to crash, because if I did, it would be such a mess.”

But the challenge is part of the point. “I have to work at it. It makes me live longer,” he said. “Besides, I have to keep up with my wife.”

Several other resorts host clubs for older skiers, including the Over the Hill Gang, at Copper Mountain in Colorado, and the Silver Griffins, at Bromley in Vermont.

“I wouldn’t be skiing much without this group,” Fran Ando, 92, said of 70+ Ski Club, a national group that goes on trips across the United States and beyond. Last summer, she skied with the club in New Zealand; last month, she joined them in Salt Lake City.

At home in Torrance, California, her agility makes her an outlier. “The people I started skiing with have all either died or quit skiing,” she said, relaxing at a group happy hour after a day skiing at Brighton, another resort outside Salt Lake City. “Many of my friends are through this group now.”

Aging often means isolation. And that can take a toll on our overall well-being, said Dr. Ashwin Kotwal, an assistant professor of geriatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. “Our social connections are tied to all sorts of physical health conditions,” he said, from memory to heart disease.

So, it’s significant that older skiers describe a version of aging in community that starts on the slopes and extends to the rest of their lives. Members of the Wild old Bunch regularly get together for birthday parties and summer cookouts; and every Wednesday evening, a rotating cast comes together for dinner at a nearby Olive Garden, where they’re joined by former skiers and nonskiing spouses.

The groups also offers members a way to stay true to their former selves: Once a skier, always a skier.

“Inside of every old, beat-up body on the ski slope is a 16-year-old kid,” said Phillips, who skis with hearing aids and a knee brace. “And while you keep slowly falling apart, the 16-year-old is still in there.” exhaustive list of every location in the path of totality or each airline or mode of transportation available to get to one of these destinations. Ironically, the entire event — which includes the moon slowly starting to cross the path of the sun and then briefly covering the sun before it slides over and then fully reveals the sun again — lasts less than most flights to see it. The entire eclipse event is about 2 1/2 hours long, and the full eclipse can be seen for up to 4 minutes and 27 seconds, depending on location.