I am an avid skier and am delighted to once again have access to Mount Baldy for this winter’s season.

I consider Mount Baldy a tremendous seasonal resource for border towns.

I was up there this past Friday, December 2, and the early seasonal skiing was excellent. The snow whiteness on this sunny day was brilliant. While skiing and riding the two chairs, I surmised that a Club 19 could be formed for seniors 65 years and older, all exigencies based on the number 19.

As you might know, seniors pay only $19 for a seasonal pass, good to the end of March 2017. Nineteen bucks! Nineteen days skiing or snowboarding, and that’s a buck a day, indeed a dollar store bargain, encouraging outdoor activity in mountain air, bracing temperatures, and surrounding whiteness. And senior membership is apparently approaching 1,000 in number, with many of us former skiers, perhaps from decades of yore, dusting off their equipment and once again getting back into the gravity flow.

Membership must or can be as follows:

1) Born in 1951 (emphasis on the 19) or earlier, definitely a senior, minimum age 65

2) Paid up seasonal membership of 19 dollars (plus tax), a buck a day if skiing/snowboarding given a minimum of 19 days.

3) Must think like a 19-year-old teenager in terms of youthfulness, curiosity, exhilaration.

4) Senior days will be highlighted on the 19th of each month … December 19 (Monday), January 19 (Thursday), February 19 (Sunday), March 19 (Sunday).

5) On these dates, the Upper Room of the Baldy Clubhouse could provide a gathering place for seniors, and can be called … Club 19. Drinks are optional, but Guinness-from-a-can, for restorative reasons, is a suggestion.

6) Senior members can  strive for an Olympic-type medal during this season

7) Strive for a total of 19 days of Baldy engagement over the entire season, perhaps keeping a gravity flow journal with dates and highlights, numbers and impressions. Snowshoeing is a participatory option.

8) And finally, at season’s end-of-March celebrations, partake of 18 holes of Frisbee golf in some sort of senior’s competition in association with the spring golfing season.    

    Gordie Rennie, Oliver