Active throughout life - meet one of the world's oldest ski instructors

It's no secret that fresh air and skiing are good for your health. Meet ski enthusiast and ski instructor Kjell Aurmo (82) from SkiStar Guides Trysil who has been skiing for almost 80 years!

Read about Kjell and watch the interview below. 

Lives for skiing

Kjell Aurmo lives in Trysil and thinks about skiing every day. His wife says that the day you have to stop skiing, you'll soon be underground!

The fit 82-year-old works half days as a ski instructor at SkiStar Guides because he enjoys it so much and finds joy in seeing people progress on skis. In a season, he gets around 150 days of skiing.

World Champion 2019

Kjell is a qualified teacher and worked for many years as head of the sports programme at Trysil upper secondary school. He retired several years ago, but is still very active.

In addition to his job as a ski teacher, he trains a lot and competes in the FIS Masters Cup, which is the World Cup for veterans. In 2019, he was crowned world champion in the FIS World Criterium Masters, which is the championship for everyone who competes in the FIS Masters Cup.

Strength training important preparation

All the racing gives Kjell the motivation to keep training. ‘You always want to do a little better than last time, and I still think it's fun to win. The only thing that works is therefore to train steadily. The level in the FIS Masters Cup is high and you have to be well prepared if you want to compete.’

All-round training is therefore a top priority and Kjell prefers to strength train four times a week. ‘Three is good too, because you have to have time to do other things too,’ he says, like cycling or running.

‘Even though I'm getting on in years, I've always wanted to improve on things. Decay will come after 25 anyway, but you can limit the decay, and you do that with exercise.’

A lucky man

In Trysil, Kjell Aurmo is a celebrity and everyone knows who he is. Kjell himself thinks he is particularly lucky to live with Norway's largest ski resort on his doorstep and be able to do what he likes best. So don't be surprised if Kjell is the first in the lift queue when the season starts!