He Earned His Turns: Karol Wojtyla - Pope & Skier

[billski]

Here is a very good article on the Pope's skiing background, skiing until age 73. He did his share of skinning and certainly earned his turns.

http://www.dcski.com/ubbthreads22/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=15224&an=0&page=0#15224
or
http://tinyurl.com/4prsb

Don't neglect the Outside Magazine article "Pope on a Rope Tow", http://tinyurl.com/4nzku

(The word is in. His last skis were 195cm HEAD PROs.) :beer:

 

[BeanoNYC]

Interesting stuff .... thanks. I had the day off for his funeral and chose to ski. I had that on my mind the whole day.

 

[billski]

A better skier than I.....

I believe the Outside Mag. article has some quips that should live in skier infamy:

""I pray to God to lead me from this temptation," he said in 1979 to an Italian mountain sports club that had presented him with a pair of custom white boards. "I might yet slide into a ravine, and then what?" (Though he did think to add, "God bless skiers and their legs." Amen.)" Eight years later he proved he was a regular guy by caving in to that temptation. He donned dark glasses, jumped in an Alfa, and sneaked up to a resort in the Rhaetian Alps.

"And he didn't think taking a cable car up a hill and then going down was sport. The only way he'd go skiing was to carry skis up the mountain and ski down."

...the skiing bishop was a fashion disaster—his goggles were outdated, his clothes mismatched...wool hat pulled down over his ears. He's wearing a nylon jacket with a broken zipper...

ST2 tells me that one night long ago, the (then) bishop arrived at the convent at midnight, couldn't resist the allure of fresh powder, and took off for a run.

 

[billski]

a-ok

Interesting stuff .... thanks. I had the day off for his funeral and chose to ski. I had that on my mind the whole day.

I don't think JP2 would have objected...

 

[dcarbs]

I had the day off for his funeral and chose to ski.

I did too, but I wasn't able to get a ride up north to go skiing, wished I was skiing then though.