88-Year-Old Hunter Mountain Ski Instructor Will Inspire You

Ski season is just about wrapping up here in New York and the Hudson Valley. If you spent your winter skiing or snowboarding at one nearby mountain, you may have been sharing the slopes with a man with an incredible story.

ABC7 NY shared the story of a man named Ralph Perlberger. He's 88 years old and he is a ski instructor at Hunter Mountain.

Mr. Perlberger is also a Holocaust survivor.

Perlberger grew up in Holland during the Holocaust and told ABC7 that when he was 9 years old, he, his brothers and mother were "imprisoned by the Germans." Thankfully, they all made it out alive.

He fell in love with skiing and became an instructor after college and after seeing an ad in the paper for a training course at Hunter Mountain. Perlberger says he told his wife that becoming an instructor was "a great way to get four days of early skiing for $20 a day, that's all I had in mind."

When he's not shredding down the slopes at Hunter, Ralph Perlberger is a lawer in Manhattan.

He tells ABC7 "I have a feeling of gratitude 24/7, I'm truly luckier than anyone is entitled to be."

Read more:

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• Popular Hudson Valley Restaurant Closes Its Doors for Good
• Hudson Valley Waitress Brought to Tears Over Surprise Tip
• USA Network Show Takes Place in the Hudson Valley
• New York Lake Named Most Beautiful in America
• Amazing Hudson Valley Truck Crash

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