MASSANUTTEN For his birthday, Bill Egelhoff pulled on his helmet, goggles and jacket, stepped into his skis and glided down a mountain.

Not a bad way to celebrate turning 90.

"There's really something spiritual about skiing," said Egelhoff, a retired Episcopal minister, among other jobs he's held. "It's hard to identify and hard to explain, but it's a feeling of being with nature and, in a sense, being with God.

"Getting up on top of the mountain is almost like being in heaven and looking down on Earth. It's just a wonderful feeling."

For Egelhoff, it's particularly wonderful considering he must walk with a cane because of a car wreck five years ago that broke two vertebrae. On the snow, though, he's as sure-footed as ever, though slower and more careful.

His approach to skiing is much the same as his approach to life:

"I keep on doing what I've always done," he said with a smile over cups of hot chocolate after his birthday run Wednesday in the blustery cold. "It's just I can't do it as long as I used to."

Officials at Massanutten Ski Resort near Harrisonburg said they aren't sure how many -- if any -- other 90-year-olds they have on the slopes, but they do know they have quite a few older skiers.

"We have quite a few stop by and pick up their 'Over-70' free pass," said Steven Showalter, Massanutten's general manager of ski operations. "I know some of those guys are well past 70 because they call the age-70 guys 'youngsters.'"

Egelhoff, who lives in Richmond and spends a couple of weeks each year at Massanutten, learned to ski as a kid in New England. It's been a constant in a life that has seen Egelhoff peddle Vicks VapoRub, sell life insurance and preach from a pulpit. "A different kind of life insurance," he said with a laugh.

He also served in the Navy during World War II and helped pioneer the study of aging in Virginia, teaching gerontology at Virginia Commonwealth University and working as director of the Virginia Center on Aging. He also helped establish the lifelong learning ElderHostel program in Virginia.

He has skied The Matterhorn in

the Alps and at Lake Tahoe. At this stage, he prefers the relatively modest mountains of Virginia. Skiing at more than a mile above sea level takes his breath away, and that's not a good thing when you're 90.

You won't find him on the steepest, most challenging "black diamond" slopes; these days, he's satisfied with more gentle terrain. He rarely falls anymore, so that's not much of a problem. "For me," he said, "the hardest thing is getting up."

The keys to his longevity and active lifestyle, he said, are his mother, Shirley Mehl Egelhoff, who lived to 100 -- long enough to see Willard Scott wish her a Happy Birthday on NBC's "Today" show -- and his wife, Dot.

"My mother had the right genes," he said, "and Dot takes such good care of me."

Both divorced, he and Dot, 81, have been married 33 years. Between them, they have nine children and 13 grandchildren.

Dot doesn't ski, serving instead as Bill's chauffeur to the slopes. While he plays on the mountain, she waits in the warmth of the lodge.

Bill makes a point of not skiing on weekends and during other crowded times. He's had his fun, he said, and doesn't want to get in anyone's way. But he does wish more people skied more safely.

"They ought to require everybody who gets on skis, before they learn how to do anything else, to learn how to stop," he said.

Egelhoff doesn't have that problem. He knows how to stop.

He's just not ready to yet.
Contact Bill Lohmann at (804) 649-6639 or wlohmann@timesdispatch.com.

Bill Egelhoff's tips for a long life
(If, as he says, "You can call 90 long.")
Eat smart: Egelhoff says he weighs 25 pounds less than he did as a college hockey player, though he acknowledges with a smile the 25 pounds he lost were "all muscle."
Exercise: Egelhoff climbs stairs at the retirement community where he lives, enjoys yoga and several days a week rides the 1939 Raleigh three-speed bicycle he rode across Europe almost 70 years ago. "Same bike," he said, "but it's got new tires."
Rest: "I try to get a good night's sleep," he said.
Live expectantly: Egelhoff's maternal grandfather lived to 89 and his maternal grandmother to 99. "My mother expected to live to 100," he said, "and she did." She died a week after her 100th birthday.