Skiing After 40: Legs, Legs, and the Long Game

The sport that rewards patience — and bills for neglect

Skiing is kind to age in ways most sports aren't: technique keeps compounding, efficiency replaces brute effort, and the chairlift does the cardio nobody misses. Bay Area skiing adds its own pattern — the Friday-night drive to Tahoe, three hard days, and a season that might hold six of those weekends with nothing in between.

That pattern is the whole story of the over-40 ski injury. The knee that tears in February usually lost its case in October, when the leg strength that absorbs moguls and catches a backseat moment didn't get built. The weekend-warrior load spike is the sport's classic injury setup, and the 40-something returning skier is its classic patient.

The maintenance contract

• Legs, year-round. Two or three strength sessions a week — squats, lunges, step-downs, single-leg balance work. The injury-prevention literature's clearest finding is that strength training cuts injury risk; skiing is where you feel it by 2 p.m.
• Build the season before the season. Six weeks of ski prep turns the first weekend from a gamble into a warm-up.
• Trips are training blocks. Hardest skiing early in the trip and early in the day; a rest or half day in the middle of a long trip; hydration and sleep counted as recovery, because at altitude they are.
• Conditions are a choice. Soft morning groomers and spring corn are friendly loads; refrozen afternoon ice is not. Over 40, you get to pick your battles — that's the privilege of not racing anybody.
• The 3 p.m. decision. Fatigue is when knees get hurt. "One more run" on cooked legs is the most expensive sentence in skiing; the skiers still skiing at 70 are the ones who learned to end on a good run instead of a last one.
• Gear honesty. Bindings checked and boots that actually fit are knee and shin protection you can buy.