Jan. 2025 | Vol. 25 Iss. 1
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A FIGHTER, A WRITER, AN AVID SKIER AND AN OPTIMIST—NOTHING STOPS HARRIET By Rebecca Olds | rebecca.o@thecityjournals.com
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arriet Wallis is a fighter, a writer, an avid skier, an optimist and so much more. She’d tell you she’s led an “average” life as the girl who was the last to get picked to do any team sport in school. You would have never guessed her life would be what it is now given where she started in school— but she has been an active adventurer with a life full of outdoor activities and skiing the slopes. Despite having two artificial hips and knees at the age of 84, Sandy resident Wallis continues to ski and maintain an active lifestyle, including walking daily, swimming weekly, participating in local bike club activities and working in her yard. Skier Her passion for skiing is really what started it all for her in her 30s when she first learned how to ski with her then-husband and two young children. “My husband said, ‘I'm going to learn to ski,’” Wallis said. “Now, I thought that was something crazy people on the other side of the planet did. So I'm processing that thought and then he said, ‘And you can babysit the kids.’ And I said, ‘Over my dead body, we're all going to learn to ski,’ and so we did." Learning to ski was a game-changer for how she saw herself for the rest of her life. “I didn't think of myself as being athletic with volleyball and team sports,” she said. “When I learned to ski, I realized, ‘Hey, I can do this.’” She has been skiing recreationally ever since and so have her kids.
Despite having two artificial hips and knees at the age of 84, Sandy resident Harriet Wallis continues to ski and maintain an active lifestyle. (Courtesy of Peak Photo Alta)
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Eventually, Wallis worked as a ski instructor for two different ski resorts on the East Coast before moving westward. In Utah, even in her off years she still finds time to ski at least 40 days out of the season. Metal hips and all. Outdoorswoman Not too long after learning to ski, in 1974 Wallis and her family completed a challenge they’d accepted as members of the Appalachian Mountain Club to climb the 100 tallest mountains in New England. “By world standards, they are not that high,” she admitted. But “the highest is 6,000-feet Mount Washington, but it gets some of the worst weather in the whole world.” For three years, she and her family would drive every weekend, hike 25 miles on Saturday and head home on Sunday, just to do it all over again the next weekend. She added mountaineering to her growing list of hobbies, including fishing, camping and biking. She also describes herself as an avid fisherman and goes camping and biking regularly with her housemate Laurie when the weather is warm. “I am not macho,” Wallis said. “I'm an average person who enjoys doing things outdoors and being active.” This past year, the housemates volunteered to be a part of the safety team for the annual Bonneville Bike Club's 3,000 all-women fundraiser for Huntsman Cancer Institute. Writer Writing was a pastime that stemmed from her
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New fire engines