Skiing Kilted on St. Patrick's Day

[Just Hugh]

I have always thought it would be interesting to ski in my kilt, and with this St. Patrick's Day falling on a Saturday that was for all other purposes a great day for skiing, I did.

I wore a leather day sporran and a turtleneck Irish Fisherman's Sweater, kilt hose and flashes with my Lamont kilt and a helmet cover I have that is tweed with a brim that makes a ski helmet look like an oversized tweed hunting cap with the ear flaps pulled up and clipped over the top. Bare legged and with no jacket, I was warm, but appreciated the afternoon sun. Although it would normally be considered too Matchy-Matchy, I also wore a scarf of the same tartan as my kilt.

The ski resort had a St.Patrick's Day theme going - all the staff had on green t-shirts, so the crowd was in the spirit and I had many, many comments. "Nice kilt," was the first, from the young lady who sold me my lift tickets.

That refrain came at me all day from the lift riders above, and one woman approached me in the lodge to ask if my sweater had been hand knitted. (Aren't all Irish Fisherman's Sweaters hand knitted?)

When I was skiing a mogul run under the lift, there were literally hoots and hollers approaching the enthusiasm of olympic ski spectators. At one point I had to stop to catch my breath and a young man in the lift, not too far above me, said simply, "nicely done." I wasn't sure if he was commenting on my outfit or my skiing, but I was happy to just thank him.

One of my friend's wife decided to take a lesson to tune up her technique and as they were setting out for the lesson, the instructor told her that there was someone skiing in a kilt on the mountain. She smiled and said that she knew. Another time, one of my skiing partners yelled to me that the guy who had complimented me on my kilt had wondered about what I had under it. Hearing this, another person shouted from the lift passing overhead, "We're all wondering that!"

The truth is I had a pair of blue shorts on to control the temperature both while skiing and when sitting on the lift, but I answered the yells about what I had on under it with, "Snow!" Or, "You'll find out when I fall!" The truth is, not too much snow came up on the cruisers, but a lot did when skiing moguls. AND, I never fell.

If you've ever considered kilted skiing, I will say that my experience, on St. Patrick's day, was completely positive. At the end of the day, a woman came over to tell me there had been a ski outfit competition (I missed it) and that she thought I had the best outfit and would have been her choice. Apparently someone in an inflatable fat woman with a bikini costume had won. No comment on that.

It was a great day, and if you've ever considered it, I highly recommend it, IF it's a warm day and you're a pretty good skier. I can only imagine what a "yard sale" wipe out would have felt like. AND, make sure you sweep the back of the kilt with one hand while holding your poles in the other when the lift comes up behind you.