N.B. senior rigs his walker with cross-country skis to get the most out of winter
88-year-old Fernand Vautour has figured out how to ski with a walker after a hip injury
Relying on a walker because of a hip injury is no excuse for staying indoors for an 88-year-old New Brunswicker who loves to ski.
Cross-country skiing enthusiast Fernand Vautour of Aldouane, a small community near Richibucto, about 85 kilometres north of Moncton, has been skiing for about 50 years.
Last winter, he injured his hip while curling and had to stay off the ski trails to recover, he said.
But instead of giving up on his beloved hobby, Vautour began working on an innovative idea — a walker with a pair of skis attached with screws and brackets.
"When I ski now, I know I am safe, too. I am not scared of the falling," he said.
The best thing about his customized equipment is that a person does not need to be in the best shape to ski, Vautour said.
He clips a pair of skis to his boots and stands between the other pair attached to his walker, which provides him with extra support.
"It won't tip back, it won't tip front," he said. "I can walk on the ice solid."
The walker also has a chair attached, so he can sit and rest whenever he is tired, and sometimes he also uses the seat to carry items like his lunch can.
Vautour wore his father's jacket while demonstrating his skiing apparatus because his father was the one who introduced him to the sport at a young age.
He said his father could ski 30 kilometres at the age of 80, but had a heart attack at 83.
"When I was in the hospital to see him, he get up one day and [stepped] outside his bed, he said, 'I think I still can go [till] the first cabin," Vautour said, referring to the trail he used to ski.
He's had heart trouble that required several stents, his left hand needed urgery after it was crushed in a workplace accident, and he's suffered trouble in one of his shoulders, but none of this has prevented him from loading his gear into his van and heading out for 10 kilometres on the trails.
'At his age, why not?'
His son Maurice Vautour said when he first heard of his father's idea to ski with his walker, he was not a big fan.
He said being on the ice, while curling, was the reason behind his hip surgery but now when he looks at his father skiing, it makes him feel proud.
"It's good for his morale, he is excited to do it," Maurice said.
"And at his age why not? I mean it's better here than to be lying in the bed."
And being outdoors again has made his father happier.
"If we'd say he couldn't do it, he proved that he could do it, and he is always that way."
Vautour started bowling during his 70s, began curling at the age of 79 and has now returned to cross-country skiing, a sport he loves.
"I have a hard time following him now," Maurice said.
"A lot of people talk to me about it ... and we kind of just laugh about it because we know how he is and the ideas that he comes up with sometimes."
These days, Vautour spends a couple of hours skiing about three times a week. He wants to be able to keep doing it and hopes to live to the age of 100.
"I hope I last that long."
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