Six inches of new snow in Aspen, where we’re visiting for a week…my pal, Bill, and I are riding in the front of the six-person gondola, three astonishing women in their sixties are together in the back. I say astonishing because it is perfectly clear from their eager chatter that they are very very serious skiers. They are Powder Hounds of the first water and the list of places they have already skied at ten a.m. is scary. I am a bit of a Powder Hound and these old girls are SCARY tough and gifted.

Turns out the oldest is 68 today and celebrated with her two close pals by taking the first run of the day down a triple black diamond run called Christie’s. You have to be a very serious skier to ski Christies at all. And an even more serious skier to do it on your first run. And to do it on your first run on your68th birthday…. Well, you’re way, way hot.

The birthday girl looked it too…they all did. Looked wonderful. And they were great company too. What energy and charm…wow

I eventually intorduced myself and said what I did in life. And here’s the pay off: turns out all three had read YOUNGER NEXT YEAR or the women’s version and loved it. One of them had bought 28 copies for friends. Another was married to a deeply skeptical doctor who was into "evidence based medicine" After some grumbling, he read it too and he is a major fan.

I have taken some dreary gondola rides in my day with some boring folks. This ride made up for all of them. What great women. It was a wonderful ski-day, but that ride may have been the highlight. Nice.