Thanks to a few key repairs, it has been a great ski season

As my duct tape-assisted ski mittens attest, a bit of help has been required to make this my most enjoyable downhill ski season in a dozen years.

I can, of course, show you the amateur tape jobs on my mittens quite readily. They are superficial in a very literal sense and relatively inconsequential… although they did keep the insulation from flying out, and the sub-zero air from flying in.

Other repairs have been deeper, much more professional, and clearly very consequential. I can only show you two fourinch scars. Yet what lies beneath them have had a major positive impact on my skiing, as was the hoped for outcome.

Long story short, in March and May of last year, I had both of my 60-something year-old hip joints completely replaced. They had become increasingly painful, and lacking the mobility that a number of my favorite sports required. Thanks at least in part to a badly broken lower leg in a football game years ago (the "Joe Theismann break" to be exact) leaving my left leg a bit shorter than the other, decades of active wear and tear took its toll.

As a physical therapist, and one who directed the physical therapy division at Maine Medical Center in Portland for a good number of years in the '70s, '80s, and early '90s, I knew what I needed to do, and who I needed to talk to, in researching a reversal strategy for these worn out joints. The net result: a relatively new and impressive total hip replacement procedure, by a very skilled orthopedist, George Babikian, M.D. I walked out of Maine Med (with a borrowed cane) the next morning post-surgery each time after being equipped with the new hardware.

A couple of other fortuitous circumstances came into play as well. The great abundance of natural snow, and good snowmaking conditions, that we all have enjoyed this year is one. The other, is the fact that my first couple of ski days in early December were on the fine early season conditions at the 'Loaf with my Saddleback ski instructor wife, Judy, helping to get me past my first tentative days of testing the new hips on the hill.

What followed has been my most enjoyable ski season in years, progressing to some black diamond trails thanks to the great, groomed conditions at Saddleback all season, (and judiciously avoiding the trails with monstrous moguls out of respect for those new and valued sets of internal hardware).

And, I have gained an even greater respect for what a ski school can do, having experienced first-hand just a couple days of insightful critiques, and positive encouragement from my ski-instructor wife, and watching from afar from my chairlift observation point, and hearing the conversations of the other dedicated and experienced certified ski instructors at Saddleback. I know full well, it is no different at the Sugarloaf ski school. Whether it is a young skier's first days trying out their new sport for the first time, or an older skier trying out his new hips… the guidance of the teaching professionals is invaluable. And I really think they are key cornerstones of the terrific and forward-thinking downhill ski industry in these parts.

Per usual, your thoughts and comments are welcome. I have especially appreciated the great emails in response to my recent column about local ski legend, Roger Page. Please write them down, and stuff them inside a new pair of men's Large insulated ski mittens and leave them inside the door of our cabin's mudroom here on the west shore of Gull Pond… or simply fire off an email to allenwicken@yahoo.com

Compass Point

You may recall my initial column in the Irregular in early February whereby I recounted my memorable conversation on Feb. 2 with a living legend in this country's fight for civil rights, Dr. John Hope Franklin at his kitchen table in Durham, N.C. I was deeply saddened to hear on the national news that Dr. Franklin passed away on March 25 at the age of 94. If I piqued your interest in the life of this American icon with that column, I suggest you go to www.duke.edu/johnhopefranklin to read about the accomplishments this historian and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and statements from not only U.S. presidents Clinton and Obama, but other dignitaries from across the country. You can also go to www.theirregular.com, click on "archives" and read my column from the Feb. 11 issue, where I detail that treasured conversation.