Retired surgeon finds new life on the slopes

Orthopedist became ski instructor at age 66, says he is in better shape at 71 than he was 20 years ago.

Issue: January 2004

George "Kim" Hewson, MD [photo]
COURTESY OF SKYE THOMPSON

For George “Kim” Hewson, MD, sports and fitness have always come naturally. He was a multisport athlete in high school and college, where he played football, basketball and ran cross-country.

But a busy career heading up a sports medicine department and serving as a team physician at the University of Arizona in Tucson left little time for physical activity. While his attachment to sports remained intact, his involvement became more vicarious. “Forty years of orthopedic surgery took its toll on my time, and my fitness waned,” Hewson said. He became overweight and developed diabetes and hypertension.

Then, in 1993, he retired and moved to his second home and “favorite place on earth,” Telluride, Colo. Soon after, Hewson started skiing regularly. He changed his diet, began training earnestly and lost 40 lbs.

As the only orthopedist in town, some family doctors quickly convinced him to join the Telluride Medical Center as an orthopedic consultant, tending to their ski trauma patients. Subsequently, he became the “team doc” for the Telluride Ski School, where he worked as a ski doctor for four years.

During that time, Hewson trained with the best skiers in the area while working at the clinic. Each year he also attended a hiring college for the Telluride Ski School “just to get an extra week on snow in early November.” Every year he would receive an offer to become an alpine ski instructor. A busy schedule and his commitment to the Medical Center, however, prevented him from accepting their offer.

But as his love of skiing grew, it became harder for him to watch the snow fall while waiting for his next patient. One day he decided that he wanted to be “up there in the powder” full time. In 1999, at age 66, he accepted the offer and was hired as a ski instructor for the Telluride Ski School. “I went up and got hired, put on a uniform, and I’ve been training and sort of eating, sleeping and breathing skiing ever since.”

The ski school usually trains two to three days a week. On those training days, the instructors start at 7:30 a.m. and train for 75 minutes. The training consists of a particular drill or technique that is designed to keep their skills honed. “If it’s a powder day, we ski powder. If it’s a groom day, we’ll do PSIA (Professional Ski Instructors of America) technical training and demonstrations,” he said.

After his own training is complete, Hewson spends the rest of the morning teaching clients on the slopes. His afternoons are dedicated to either teaching or free skiing. In the evening, Hewson studies videotapes of ski techniques to improve his movement analysis and prepares a lesson plan for his morning teaching, much like reviewing a chart or MRI before surgery the next day.

In the off season, Hewson stays in shape by walking on a treadmill 45 minutes a day and doing some light weight training, Pilates and yoga. Hiking in the mountains also helps to keep him aerobically fit. His diabetes has virtually disappeared, and his blood pressure is 110 mm Hg/65 mm Hg, with a resting pulse of 48 bpm.

Since being hired as a ski instructor, Hewson has participated in most of the available PSIA advancement courses. He skies approximately 130 days a year, six days a week during the ski season and sometimes 14 to 16 straight days over the Christmas holiday. Recently, on two consecutive years in August, Hewson traveled to Chile with his wife, one of his sons and other ski school instructors to ski at Valle Nevado in the Andes.

“All I can say is that skiing has changed my life. The mental and physical freedom is exhilarating,” Hewson said. “People tell me that I look and act 10 years younger than I am. That is because, just like most of my career when I was team physician at the University of Arizona, I related to the athletes. Here, I relate to my colleagues, friends and students.”

Three years ago, Hewson had a laminectomy at L2-3, 3-4 for spinal stenosis, but within two weeks he was in a pool and on a treadmill and recovered rapidly.

“Exercise is a great prescription,” Hewson said. “And when it affects your mind and your body, and your mind is in tune with your body … well, that sensation is ageless.”

Although Hewson no longer practices orthopedics, he still serves as a sort of unofficial consultant to his ski school colleagues when they get hurt. He also teaches the biomechanics of skiing to his fellow instructors. “You would be amazed at the orthopedic implications in skiing, especially in genu varum and genu valgum,” he said. “Many of my students seek me out because they have orthopedic problems, and I try to help them with compensatory movements and alignment corrections.”

Now at 71, Hewson is a Level II PSIA certified instructor looking to advance to Level III this season. If he succeeds, he would most likely be the oldest in the PSIA history to reach that level.

“It’s amazing how young it keeps you,” he said. “I don’t think about my age. I’m 71, and I’m in better shape today than I was 20 years ago.”