51. NEVER STOP
"The weightlessness you get with skiing is really intoxicating," says Klaus Obermeyer, the 90-year-old Bavarian founder of Obermeyer ski apparel. He became hooked on skiing in his alpine village at the age of three, using boards made out of orange crates. Since moving to Aspen in 1947, Obermeyer has missed only a handful of days on snow. "The days you miss don't come back," he says. Until recently, he liked to rip down black diamonds skiing the same speed as his age—yes, at 85, he was clocked going 85 miles per hour. But these days, Obermeyer sneaks out of his office to carve graceful turns: "They're fast and sweet and smooth and wonderful," he says, which is a lot like his view on life: "Love whatever you do, because love gives you positive energy. And embrace the wonderful gift of your body. I'm 90 and still building muscles."
Photographer: Chris Burkard
Comments
I laud Ms. Pearson for including altruistic projects like "Build a school" and "Volunteer after a disaster" in this list. When people look at the contents of my bucket, I would much rather they know that I gave my life to serve others, than just to have experienced something exotic for myself. Thanks for challenging us to something worthwhile.
Flag ThisI have dreamed for 4 years of retracing my great-great-grandfather's 1850s route through North and Latin America. I want to climb the same volcanoes , explore the same caves and canoe as he did down the Amazon. http://vodhdb.blogspot.com/2010/03/voyage.html
Flag ThisA good friend of my, Marvis Hogen, grew up on a ranch as a poor kid in the 1030's, told me 'It ain't right you should be so lucky'. It's True!! but 'My Bucket List' has many completed on it. I helped move the Omaha Ski Club, downhill that is, from about 100 families to 1400 Wild and Crazy Flatlanders, plant 6,000 small trees in the Prairie City of Omaha and help spur on Jazz in Omaha by the Missouri. Herr Obermeyer reminded me of my 40 years of downhill/X/C skiing and the joys of flying there in Colorado, Utah, Austria and Japan. My sons took me on the slopes of Denali, on the Snake River in the Sand Hills of Nebraska. My wife Ruth and I did a Trip Around the World visiting friends in Japan, France, Germany, Sweden and England. I guess visiting Friends is the best part and the great JAZZ I've heard and seen in the 86 years coming from a Poor Farm Boy in NE Nebraska in the 1930's. It ain't right I should be so Lucky!! Olde Curmudgeon Don
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