Skiing Anxiety After 40: What’s Really Going On
- Sarah Gilbertson
- Nov 7
- 6 min read
For midlife women navigating the space between who they were on the slopes and who they’re becoming
Updated November 2025 to include new insights on midlife skiing confidence and The Telegraph’s recent feature on skiing after 40.
The Telegraph recently asked if 40 is too old to become a better skier.
Can you improve after 40? Yes. I did my first BASI exams with people in their 60s and 70s. One of them is off to ski powder in Japan this winter - aged 83.
But the women I work with aren't only asking "Can I get better"?
They're also asking: "Why do I feel so scared suddenly"? and "Why don't I enjoy this anymore"?
Then comes the inner critic: I should be able to do this. I should just get on with it. I should be braver.
If that sounds familiar, you're not alone.
You used to bomb down blues without a second thought. Now you pause at the top of runs you’ve skied dozens of times before, your body sending signals you can’t quite name.
Your ski-mad friends say you’re “overthinking it”. Your partner suggests you're “just out of practice”. The instructor at your refresher lesson tells you to “trust your technique”.
But what if it’s not about thinking, practice, or technique at all?
What if your body is responding to being 40-something in ways that have nothing to do with your skiing ability - and everything to do with how your nervous system has evolved?
Skiing Anxiety After 40: Why Your Body Feels Different on the Slopes
That split-second hesitation at the top of a run? That’s your nervous system at 45 processing decades of accumulated wisdom about what can go wrong.
This isn’t paranoia. It’s pattern recognition.
The Nervous System at 25 vs 45
At 25, your nervous system was like a smoke detector with fresh batteries – quick to reset, slow to trigger. At 45, it’s more like a sophisticated security system that’s been taking notes for decades.
Your brain is now cataloguing information your younger self never considered:
Recovery takes longer (and your body knows it)
Balance shifts during perimenopause affect inner ear function (see Dr Louise Newson on dizziness and menopause).
Depth perception changes with hormonal fluctuations
Risk calculation evolves with experience
This isn’t a bug in your system. It’s a feature.
What Happens When Hormones Meet Mountains
Here’s what no one talks about: around 75 million women worldwide are currently navigating perimenopause or menopause, yet skiing content rarely addresses how these changes affect mountain confidence (WHO).
The physical realities are undeniable:
Temperature regulation chaos at altitude
Energy that crashes without warning
Sleep disruption affecting everything from reaction time to emotional regulation
Joint and muscle changes making recovery slower
And here’s what’s less obvious: declining oestrogen doesn’t just affect your body – it affects your sense of certainty about physical challenges you used to tackle without hesitation.
Your nervous system, already more cautious with age, now navigates this shifting hormonal landscape. No wonder skiing feels different.
The Injury That Still Controls Your Skiing (Even When You’re “Fine”)
I worked with a woman – let’s call her Emma – who couldn’t understand why she kept avoiding ski trip conversations with her husband. She’d had ACL surgery two years earlier, fully recovered, cleared by physio, back to running.
“But that has nothing to do with skiing”, she said. “I’m fine now”.
Except when her husband mentioned booking their annual trip, she’d laugh it off. “Maybe but I don't know where I want to go or whether the snow will be any good....".
She wasn’t lacking ability. Her nervous system was protecting something her mind had filed away but her body still remembered.
Why Old Injuries Live in Your Body
Your nervous system doesn’t distinguish between different types of “loss of control” scenarios. That ACL injury from netball or the last big fall on ice you had register in the same threat-detection system.
This isn’t about being dramatic. It’s about understanding that your body holds experiences your mind has consciously “moved on” from.
Your nervous system has been taking notes this whole time. Those notes affect how safe you feel on the mountain
When Emma did book a trip again, she made different choices: a resort that matched what she wanted, slopes that felt right that day, and professional instruction that removed relationship pressure.
The real shift wasn’t technical - it was relational. For the first time, she named out loud what she actually wanted from the trip, instead of defaulting to her husband’s preferences. That simple boundary changed everything.
She didn’t ski less. She skied her way. And she enjoyed it.
Her story is typical of women navigating skiing anxiety after 40 - it’s rarely about skill, and almost always about nervous system capacity and choice.
The Choice Problem (Not the Confidence Problem)
The ski industry calls this a confidence problem. I call it a choice problem.
You’ve been skiing according to everyone else’s preferences, everyone else’s pace, everyone else’s idea of what a ski trip should look like. Then you wonder why your nervous system feels on edge instead of excited.
What Really Changes After 40
At 25: Your nervous system reset quickly between challenges At 45: It’s catalogued decades of data about vulnerability and consequence
At 25: You skied to prove something At 45: You ski to feel something
At 25: Recovery was assumed At 45: Recovery is earned
This shift isn’t weakness - it’s sophistication. Your nervous system has been learning, adapting, protecting you for decades.
The goal isn’t to override this wisdom. It’s to work with it.
How to Ski With the Nervous System You Have Now
The women I work with often think they’ve “lost their nerve” for skiing. But when we dig deeper, we usually find they’ve gained something more valuable: self-awareness.
Enjoying Skiing After 40: On Your Own Terms
Confidence doesn’t mean proving anything. It means being able to drop into a run and actually enjoy it. To feel exhilarated, not pressured.
Maybe enjoying skiing after 40 looks like:
Picking terrain that excites you, not intimidates you
Finding flow in your turns rather than fighting yourself
Taking breaks because you want to, not because you “can’t keep up”
Remembering that joy on the mountain isn’t measured in vertical metres
This isn’t about scaling back. It’s about expanding your choices so you can ski the mountain the way you want to ski it — playful one day, steady the next, adventurous when it feels right.
The Three Pillars of Nervous System-Informed Skiing
Whole Body Listening: Reading the signals your body sends — tension, breath, energy — as useful data, not weakness.
Self-Regulation: Knowing how to spark energy when you’re flat and steady yourself when you’re buzzing.
Emotional Ease: Skiing in a state where excitement feels like fuel, not fear.
Your New Relationship with the Mountains
This isn’t about going back to who you were. It’s about skiing with the body and the wisdom you have now.
Start where you are. That might be wide blues or even greens. They can still feel exhilarating when you’re present in them.
Honour your rhythms. Some days you’ll chase adventure, others you’ll cruise. Both count.
Expand your definition of confidence. It’s not about speed or steepness. It’s about freedom, joy, and flow.
Trust your inner compass. Your nervous system has kept you safe this long. It’s not holding you back - it’s pointing you towards what feels alive.
The women I work with often discover this: when they stop battling their nervous system, skiing becomes fun again. Not smaller, not safer - just more theirs.
Your Next Steps
Ready to Work With Your Nervous System, Not Against It?
I've created a free guide: 3 Insights to Ski With More Ease - practical shifts you can take onto snow to help you listen to your body, respond to what it needs, and choose what you actually want.
You'll also be the first to hear when new workshops and resources become available.
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About Sarah
Sarah Gilbertson is a Therapeutic Coach for women, a BASI qualified ski instructor (alpine, adaptive), Snowsports England Qualified Coach (race and moguls) and a certified Pilates teacher. With 8+ years' experience in the European ski industry - from running a chalet for Crystal Ski, managing hotels and operations for Mark Warner, to working in Chamonix - Sarah knows mountain life from every angle, on and off the slopes.
After recovering from back surgery and navigating the 'joys' of perimenopause, she learned first-hand that real confidence isn't just mindset - it's nervous system literacy. Now, she helps professionals and ski schools move beyond outdated frameworks and bring real, science-backed support to women in the mountains.
Website: flourishwell.coach
Speaking: Northern Snow Show, October 2025 - back again 2026
Copyright 2025 FlourishWell Coaching. All rights reserved.
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