BLOOMINGTON - Candles on a birthday cake for the Bloomington-Normal Ski Club could melt enough snow to start an avalanche. The group turns 40 this year.

Past club president Wally Mead recalls Elvis and Priscilla (that's Presley for the younger crowd) had just gotten married when the club organized in 1967. The radio played a hit called, "All You Need is Love." But President Johnson was taking a different tact than that in Vietnam - he raised U.S. troop commitments there from 300,000 to nearly 475,000.

Interest in downhill skiing was taking off even in Central Illinois where the nearest mountain is many miles away. Advances in ski equipment were making the sport safer and more fun, Mead said.

Mead couldn't ski when he noticed a tiny story in the Pantagraph announcing the formation of a ski club in the Twin Cities. But, as a newcomer to the faculty of Illinois State University's department of politics and government, he was looking for a way to make friends outside the academic world. This seemed to be his chance.

Mead attended the gathering where he learned a small group of ski enthusiasts were masterminding a congenial split from what was then a 1,000-member Peoria ski club. Mead met a man who seemed appropriately named for a charter member of the new club, Glenn Winterland.

Mead also met Sharon Lawlis, Parker Lawlis, Don Williams, Lou Schwartz, Jim Olson, Joe Augsburger, Jerry Strickland, Tom DeSalvo, Roland and Marie Raydon and others.

Their goal was to attract a varied group of singles and couples to go alpine skiing and create a network of friends who would enjoy time together both on the slopes and off. Four decades later, the group still takes trips to resorts in the Midwest and the Western Rockies and to far away places like the Swiss Alps. But the club's 200 or so members are just as happy hanging out in Bloomington-Normal or traveling an hour north to take part in their latest winter pastime, curling. The sport resembles bowling on ice.

Mead, 73, said the challenge drew him to skiing. The Iowa native also had another reason to like it - he knew the cold months could seem very l-o-n-g in the Midwest.

"It gives a new meaning to winter," Mead said. "You look forward to them."

Mead still cross-country skis, but a leg injury forced him to give up downhill skiing a few years ago. He likes to tell people he was hurt racing down a slope on the Matterhorn.

"The truth is I was taking garbage out, fell on ice and twisted my knee," he said, laughing. "I don't want to give people the idea skiing is dangerous. It really isn't if you use common sense."

Mead credits a decline in ski-related mishaps to advances in ski design and better boots and clasps that permit skis to break away during falls.

Current Bloomington-Ski Club president Tom Crawford, 60, of Bloomington attests to the importance of the club's social aspects. He became involved in the mid-1990s after someone invited him to play volleyball with a group of friends once a week. At first, Crawford didn't know they all belonged to the ski club. He just knew they were fun to be around. He'd only skied once years earlier while he served in the U.S. military out West.

"I joined the club out of guilt," he quipped.

The experience proved life-changing in more ways than one. Crawford met his wife, Mary, on a ski trip the club hosted.

"She wasn't fond of skiing, but a friend talked her into going along," said Crawford, who remains active although medical issues forced him to hang up his skis three years ago.

"I've always felt the club has given me so much. I want to give back," he said.

Shirley Brantingham is club vice president and the main coordinator for the 40th anniversary festivities. At 57, the retired corporate lawyer who grew up in Minnesota still loves to go outside in the cold.

"What's not to like about it?"

She also liked the fact skiing did something for her that her legal profession couldn't.

"Jobs like the law don't offer immediate gratification, but skiing does. When you go down a slope in good form, you know it," she said.

Brantingham learned to downhill ski on trips to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Her friends were far more experienced than she was. She had to learn fast to keep up. Years later, she and others in the club help mentor newcomers. Most ski resorts offer beginning lessons, she added.

"Learning is the best part of skiing. With some of the equipment today, you can ski pretty quickly. Like anything else, it takes practice," she said. "But I was amazed when I was in my 20s how quickly I picked it up."

Skiing is not only for the young, she stressed.

"It's a sport you can do long into your later years. People are out in their 70s and 80s. You can get out and enjoy the outdoors and get some really good exercise," she said.

She agreed with Mead on the relative safety of skiing. Her only injury occurred while she was cross-country skiing. She fell and dislocated her shoulder.

"Statistically, skiing is one of the safest sports," she said.

"I should have been downhill," she laughed. "I would have been fine. You have more control….I don't cross-country ski much anymore."

The club's ski trips lend safety in numbers. That's something everyone, especially single women, can appreciate, she added.

There are also lots of things to do between trips to the mountains, or what passes for them in the Midwest. Crawford noted the club's motto is, "Fun and friends for all seasons." Brantingham said the latest rage among club members is curling. They often travel to an indoor-rink near Starved Rock State Park near Utica.

"It is so much fun to do, and now that it's an Olympic sport, more people are interested," she said.

But skiing remains the main draw. It's an activity that brings out the little kid in her.

"There is a term I've heard in child psychology called visual motor ecstasy. It's basically a term to describe how they like to do fast physical activity, like biking. It's the ecstasy that comes from using your body to go fast," she said.

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Book it

B-N Ski Club trips

First of the year

Dec. 28-Jan. 1: New Year's trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Dec. 28-Jan. 1

Beginner trips

Jan. 7: Chestnut Mountain, Galena

Feb. 22: Cascade Mountain, Wisconsin Dells

Week-long trips

Jan. 12-19: Whistler-Blackcomb, British Columbia

Feb. 2-9: Big Mountain, Mont.

Contact: Steve Parke, winter trips chair, (309) 662-2740

On the web: www.bnski.org