Somewhere along the Maine Turnpike heading to Sunday River Ski Resort, Mark Jones made his way to the back of the bus to pass out coloring books and crayons, and announce a contest to the five kids on the trip. The trio of tween boys barely lifted their heads from their electronic games, but my 8-year-old daughter and another little girl, who was 6, zealously got to work.
Jones' gesture was not lost on the adults on the bus, who could see that in the world of the Baltimore Ski Club, this was huge.
"There were more kids on that trip than I've ever seen," said Jones, general treasurer of the club and a member since 1982. As trip leader, he was determined to make sure the mothers and children felt at home. "The aging of the ski club has been a problem," Jones says, echoing a sentiment expressed by ski clubs all over the country.
Although there are some 2,200 ski clubs, representing 750,000 slope fans nationwide, their membership is not getting any younger.
"Most ski clubs are still predominantly baby boomers - now in their 50s and 60s," says Bob Wilbanks, publisher of the National Ski Club Newsletter. "They need to attract younger people to survive."
Wilbanks acknowledges that many ski clubs have a well-deserved reputation as singles groups intent on partying. (For ski club regulars, the big event on the four-hour bus ride from the airport in Manchester, N.H., to the resort in Newry, Maine, was a stop at the New Hampshire State Liquor Store to stock up.) But that image is receding as fast as their members' hairlines, he says. "The clubs who resist change are the ones that won't be around in 15 years."
Ski clubs began to blossom after World War II, as the European sport of alpine skiing began to immigrate to the United States. Many clubs began when a group of friends or skiers pitched in to buy land near a mountain and build a lodge to share during the season. Ski areas back then were primitive: Sunday River opened in 1958 with one rope tow. Now it is immense: eight peaks, 131 trails and 16 state-of-the-art lifts, including a new "Chondola" - a hybrid chair lift and gondola - that began operating this season.
Other clubs evolved from outdoors organizations. The Baltimore Ski Club, which started in 1946, was an outgrowth of the Maryland Mountaineering Club. Today, the Baltimore group has about 275 members and operates 10 trips a year that can range from a weekend trip to Pennsylvania to weeklong excursions in Europe.
