For longtime local Bill Smaine, the mountains have always felt like home. A former competitive skier from New Hampshire, Bill moved to Lake Tahoe in 1985 after landing a ski coaching job at Heavenly Mountain Resort. He quickly built a life centered around shredding snow-covered peaks and winding singletrack trails. But after decades of skiing, cycling, and mountain biking, his body began to feel the toll — first in his knees, then in his hips.
In 2018, Bill underwent reconstructive knee surgery. “It was six weeks of non-weight bearing,” he recalls. “That’s when I started to feel the hip issues really creep in.”
Eventually, an X-ray confirmed what he had suspected about the cause of his pain: the cartilage in both hips had worn away…