Editor’s note: Are you a senior who leads a particularly active lifestyle? We’d love to hear about it. Email your story to Mac McLean at mmclean@bendbulletin.com or call 541-617-7816.

Halfway up Mt. Bachelor’s Sunrise Lift, Jim Beyer, 86, muttered something to his wife, Susan, 72, that might have made less-experienced skiers feel out of their league.

“I wonder what the light is like on lower Cliffhanger,” Jim said, referring to a fairly steep run of intermediate difficulty.

Cliffhanger was the first in a series of blue runs the Beyers did Tuesday morning that may make a younger novice skier have to hustle. But that’s nothing new for the Beyers, a couple who turned a lifetime of physical activity into an active retirement that includes alpine skiing, hiking, square dancing and more.

Before they married in 1986, Jim had sold his family’s fuel supply company in the Seattle area and was working as a real estate agent.

He spent his free time climbing mountains, including four trips to the summit of Mount Rainier and two trips to the summit of Mount St. Helens before it erupted.

He has been skiing since he was 25, though he dabbled with the sport a bit as a child.

Susan learned how to ski when she was 6 and never stopped. She spent more than a dozen years with the Mount Hood Ski Patrol and ran a ski school in that area with her ex-husband. She also played professional soccer and has made a couple of trips across the country on her bike.

“She makes (skiing) look easy,” Jim said of his wife, who was working as an accountant for Boeing when they met during a ski trip. “I make it look difficult.”

When the couple retired in 1997, Jim said they decided to move to Central Oregon because they enjoyed the sunshine and liked the skiing opportunities. They built a house about seven miles outside of Sisters and once walked this distance for a nice weekend stroll.

“No wonder we got to the bakery so late,” Susan said when she realized their hike to downtown Sisters wasn’t five-miles long like she had thought.

Five years ago, the couple went on a trip to Alaska’s Inside Passage where they vowed to go up to the deck only if they climbed the 17 flights of stairs separating it from their cabin. They also like to ride their bikes, hike and, twice a month can be found dosey-doeing around the Pine Forest Grange’s floor with the Bachelor Beauts Square Dance Club.

But downhill skiing is their favorite pastime — the one activity they did before they got married and the one activity they’ve done since then.

“It’s a marvelous addiction,” Jim said, which he shares with several of his friends including a fellow square dancer who works on Mt. Bachelor as a guide. “You can’t just get enough of it. ~ You come down here and the attitude is, well, why wouldn’t you be skiing?”

Proudly sporting an “80+ Ski Club” patch on his red parka at 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, Jim talked about a group of older skiers, known as the “Over the Hill Gang,” who show up at Mt. Bachelor before the lifts start operating to get some runs in before it gets crowded.

Members of this group had already made a bee-line to the chairlifts up to the summit so they could enjoy a slightly warm day of skiing under a clear, blue ski. But Jim hesitated and said Tuesday’s trip was the first time he’d been skiing in a while. He took the previous season off while undergoing treatments for back problems.

Combined with Susan’s knee replacement surgery three years ago leaving her with limited movement, caused the couple to worry about whether they would be able to take friends, who are visiting next month, skiing. Last week they went shopping for cross-country skis hoping to be able to play in the snow without enduring the physical stress of alpine skiing.

Jim’s moment of hesitation didn’t last long, though. After one quick trip down Marshmallow – a beginner slope most people ski after their second or third lesson – the couple was back in their game and doing blue run after blue run after blue run.

“It’s easy,” Susan said to a ski instructor who was impressed with how she and some other older skiers tackle some of the runs. “As long as your knees, your hips and your mind still work, you shouldn’t have any problems at all.”

The Beyers zipped past some of the 20-year-olds on the mountain, although there were a few moments when the couple’s age revealed itself. Susan didn’t want to put her goggles on even though it was sunny outside because it fogged up her bifocals. Her husband got separated from the group because he’s a little hard of hearing and missed Susan shouting which way to go.

But these moments were fleeting.

“When you have a child bride, it keeps you young,” Jim said, referring to the 14-year age difference between him and his wife.

“What’s keeping me young?” Susan replied. “Keeping up with you.”