More heat, less Aiguille du Midi...

Mountain erosion is not something new, but it seems to be happening much more frequently as the planet heats up and the permafrost that used to hold together high altitude peaks in the Alps and elsewhere in the world is no longer able to hold massive rock formations together. 

On Wednesday, August 12, 2026, a major rockfall occurred on the north face of the Aiguille du Midi in the Mont Blanc massif above Chamonix, France. Over 500,000 cubic feet of rock broke away at an altitude above 11,800 feet (3,600 meters) in the Mallory area, sending a massive plume of dust and debris down the mountain. 

This summer’s extreme heat waves destabilized high-altitude permafrost and rock walls, triggered safety checks by the Compagnie du Mont-Blanc and followed the closure of the peak's famous ice tunnel due to melting. Other iconic peaks are failing structurally too. 

On the Matterhorn, intense summer heat waves have triggered frequent, erratic rock falls. Mountain guide associations in Switzerland and Italy have repeatedly been forced to suspend guided tours on major routes (like the Hörnligrat ridge) as the traditional frost holding the pathways together is simply liquefying. 

Also, right now, scientists and residents are anxiously monitoring the Spitze Stei rock formation looming over the village of Kandersteg, Switzerland. Through decaying permafrost, the mountainside has been actively losing height and parts of it have been shifting by up to 70 centimeters (2.3 feet) per day during peak summer melt. Geologists estimate that if the unstable formation collapses all at once, it could unleash 500 to 700 million cubic feet of rock, creating a landslide that could dwarf the Blatten disaster of May 2025. 

I guess that in the end, what goes up must always go down! 

The power of curiosity (Part Three)

Of course developing curiosity is good and well but there’s also such a thing as unhealthy curiosity. Seeking answers is not automatically wisdom and can become: 

• A compulsive consumption of information 
• An intrusion into other people's lives 
• A fascination with sensationalism 
• An endless trip into internet rabbit holes 
• Collecting facts without understanding them 
• Constantly looking for novelty and being unable to concentrate 

There’s therefore novelty-seeking and genuine curiosity. Novelty says: “What's new?” Curiosity says: “What's interesting here that I don't yet understand?” The second is much more profound. Finally here might be the greatest benefit to healthy curiosity, it’s one of the best antidotes to certainty.

When we are certain we already know, the investigation stops, but when we say “I wonder…”, the door opens again. That is why I think curiosity and humility are closely related. The curious person implicitly acknowledges: “My picture of reality is incomplete,” and that realization can become increasingly valuable with age. 

If I could reduce the whole idea to one sentence, I might put it this way: Knowledge tells us what we know; curiosity keeps us aware of how much remains to be discovered. This might be one of the reasons why a genuinely curious person can remain young in mind long after seemingly becoming old.

The power of curiosity (Part Two)

For those of us who don’t leverage curiosity as we should or don’t use much of it at all, the question becomes whether curiosity can be developed throughout life? 

I personally don't think curiosity is a fixed personality trait. Sure, some of us start life naturally inquisitive. Others become curious because something awakens their interest. And curiosity can also be deliberately cultivated. In fact, there is a wonderful paradox. We don't necessarily become curious by finding interesting things, but just like the professional interviewer, we become curious by learning to look for interesting questions.

I find a useful way to cultivate it by developing a habit of asking one more question. It works like this, when we run into something interesting, don't immediately move on, instead, ask one additional question. For example: We read that unusually hot summers can influence elections, we ask ourselves how come? We discover that one political party responds differently, we ask ourselves why? 

We discover that voters don't necessarily respond to temperature rationally, we wonder what psychological mechanism is involved? Suddenly, a casual observation has become a highly informative journey. From a practical standpoint, I like nurturing and using a small habit that begins with “ I wonder…” Then, whenever something catches your attention, I formulate it as: 

• I wonder why… 
• I wonder how… 
• I wonder whether… 
• I wonder what would happen if… 

We don't have to investigate every question. That's important. Curiosity should be playful, not another stiff and stilted obligation! Let’s start developing this habit by choosing, once a day, one question and spend 10–20 minutes following it. Over several months, this can have a remarkable result. We begin to notice questions everywhere. 

Next time we’ll see that there could be some slippery slope involved with curiosity and how to stay away from it...

The power of curiosity (Part One)

Can we learn well without curiosity and what is a life without this important trait? Also can curiosity be developed along a lifetime and how can we learn how to develop a healthy dose of that trait? 

All these questions have always been part of my quest for improving my way of life and I would go even further: curiosity is not just an aid to learning; it might be the most potent of all engines of learning. A person can certainly acquire knowledge without much curiosity—through discipline, schooling, obligation, repetition, or necessity—but the quality and depth of that learning are usually different. 

Curiosity changes the way we learn. There is an important difference between: “I have to learn this.” and “I wonder why this is so?” We can say that if the first produces competence, the second can bring understanding. It’s a fact that curiosity makes us ask the questions that take us beyond the obvious: 

• Why does this happen? 
• Is that really true? 
• What would happen if…? 
• How did we come to believe this? 
• What am I missing? 
• Could there be another explanation? 
• What would convince me that I am wrong? 

That last question is particularly valuable. Healthy curiosity includes wondering about our own assumptions. Without it, learning can become largely a process in which we collect facts, opinions and experiences without continually reorganizing them into a deeper understanding. This leaves us with a pretty logical question as to what life can be without curiosity? It certainly doesn’t need to be an unhappy life. 

Some people can live a perfectly comfortable, loving and meaningful life while being relatively uncurious, but in that case something big is lost. Curiosity gives life a kind of mental freshness. It allows familiar things to become interesting again. A tree isn't simply "a tree"; it becomes a question: Why does it grow this way? Why are its leaves shaped like that? How old might it be? What is happening underground? 

Same thing with people. Instead of thinking “I know what he is like,” curiosity says: “I wonder what I don't know about him.” Even most importantly, curiosity keeps the future open. It says: “There might still be something wonderful that I haven't discovered.” That’s a particularly powerful attitude as we grow older. Aging inevitably reduces some possibilities, but curiosity continually creates new ones. 

In the next blog we’ll see how we can cultivate or re-awaken our own curiosity, so please, stay with me...

Is Alterra feeling the heat yet?

After years of unbridled growth and blind optimism in spite of a warming planet, Alterra Mountain Company is now facing mounting corporate, legal, and operational headwinds that reflect longer-running structural challenges in the ski industry, culminating in recent executive departures and workforce layoffs. Denver based Alterra is another ski resort conglomerate that followed the model of Vail Resorts and that now owns and operates nearly 20 mountain destinations (such as Steamboat, Deer Valley, and Mammoth Mountain) and manages the multi-destination Ikon Pass.

It’s notable to mention that Park City is the only ski town where both companies operate. In contrast, Vail owns and operates roughly 42 mountains globally, leaning into a massive, highly standardized network. Alterra’s collection about half the size of Vail Resorts is supplemented heavily by Ikon Pass external partners.

Likewise, Vail optimizes a broad network access and regional feeder loops via its Epic Pass while applying a centralized, corporate-standardized guest and digital model across its network, while Alterra tends to preserve more independent, place-specific character and autonomy at its individual flagship resorts, but less efficiently. Jared Smith stepped down as CEO after a three-and-a-half-year run, leaving the executive committee—including former CEO Rusty Gregory and major stakeholders like KSL Capital Partners—to steer the company. 

Alterra just implemented corporate layoffs affecting year-round, full-time staff across Denver headquarters, remote roles, and various destinations, driven by an unaligned cost structure and slowed post-pandemic growth. In addition, the company alongside competitor Vail Resorts, Boyne, Powdr, and industry research firm RRC Associates, was hit with a federal class-action antitrust lawsuit in August 2026 alleging an overarching conspiracy to inflate season pass and lift ticket prices by coordinating and sharing confidential pricing metrics via dynamic-pricing platforms. 

This follows another federal antitrust complaint filed earlier in 2026 targeting anticompetitive bundling practices that forced skiers into high-cost multi-mountain bundles like the Ikon Pass by artificially hiking single-day window rates. Heavy reliance on mega-passes has frequently outstripped the physical carrying capacity of popular resort regions. These strains were worsened by historically poor western snowfall cycles during recent winter seasons, raising questions over the return on massive terrain expansions at flagship locations like Deer Valley, here in Park City. 

I’m not even mentioning the Elephant in the Room. It's simply global warming, a looming threat to Alterra and Vail Resorts business model. I suspect their management and shareholders are fast becoming spooked by this impending developing problem...

Warmer climate and American politics

Will this record-breaking warm summer influence politics in the USA? The unusually hot summer of 2026 could have a political effect in the US, although probably not in the simple sense of “hot weather will get more Democratic votes.” The interesting part is that the political consequences may come through people's electricity bills, health, insurance, water, agriculture, wildfires and everyday inconvenience, rather than through climate ideology. 

July 2026 was the hottest month ever recorded for the contiguous United States, with every one of the lower 48 states at least 1°F above its 20th-century average. And the current August heat wave is affecting roughly 97 million Americans. The biggest effect may be psychological as there’s an important difference between “Scientists say the climate is getting warmer.” and “I can't sleep because my bedroom is 85°F, my electricity bill is $300, and my children can't play outside.” The second experience is politically much more powerful.

An AP-NORC survey conducted in late July found that 90% of Americans said extreme heat had affected their lives at least somewhat. About 80% said it affected their electricity bills, while roughly 70% said it disrupted outdoor family activities. That turns climate change from an abstract environmental question into a cost-of-living question. Let's make America more resilient.” 

Republicans face a particularly interesting political problem, as Trump has moved aggressively to roll back federal climate policies. Pew's March survey found that 87% of Democrats thought the federal government was doing too little on climate change, compared with only 31% of Republicans, but extreme heat creates a problem for Republicans if their voters are personally experiencing its consequences. Imagine a Republican voter in Arizona, Texas, Utah or Florida who says: “I don't want Washington telling me how to live. But I do want affordable electricity, reliable water, protection from wildfires and somebody to do something about these 110-degree days.” 

That voter doesn't necessarily need to become a climate-change voter, but could become an adaptation-and-cost voter. If politicians respond to heat primarily with higher energy prices, restrictions on gasoline cars, restrictions on natural gas, expensive regulations, taxes and bans, then voters may react negatively—even if they accept that the climate is warming. This is why I think energy affordability may be the key political variable. The most interesting possibility, in my view, is not a Democratic electoral landslide. It is the emergence of a new bipartisan politics of climate adaptation. 

And that could be more consequential in the long run than simply increasing the number of people who say they are worried about global warming. In other words: 2026 may be the summer when climate change becomes less a question of “Do you believe in it?” and more a question of “What are you going to do about what is happening to us?” That is a much more politically dangerous question for both parties.

How long will my Tesla last? (Part Two)

While as we’ve seen yesterday that the core motor and battery pack hold up well, specific secondary components exhibit recurring wear patterns as Teslas age. Due to the heavy weight of high-voltage battery packs, Tesla suspension bushings, control arms, and ball joints experience accelerated wear compared to lighter gas cars. 

On Model S and X, the upper and lower control arms, as well as front half-shafts tend to develop squeaks or shuddering under hard acceleration and often require replacement every 60,000 to 100,000 miles. On Model 3 and Y: Front upper control arm ball joints (housed in composite/metal arms) are known to dry out and creak over time, often needing replacement or regreasing around 50,000–80,000 miles. 

Legacy Model S, X, 3, and Y models used conventional lead-acid 12V starter batteries to power cabin electronics, door locks, and computers. These lead-acid batteries typically failed quite soon due to constant cycling from the high-voltage pack. In recent production years, Tesla transitioned across all models to a 16V Lithium-ion auxiliary battery, effectively eliminating short-life 12V battery failures.

For air conditioning and heating, modern Model 3 and Model Y vehicles use a complex heat pump and fluid manifold system that manages cabin climate and battery cooling simultaneously. While highly efficient in cold weather, thermal heat pump valves, coolant pumps, and sensors represent a common failure point as vehicles exceed 100,000 miles. 

Because regenerative braking handles up to 90% of daily deceleration, standard brake pads and rotors wear at an exceptionally slow rate (often lasting 100,000+ miles). However, in regions with heavy winter road salt, rust and slide-pin seizure can occur due to lack of use if the brakes are not periodically cleaned and lubricated. As you can see, if battery, motor and transmission work surprisingly well, the rest of the car is merely average—or occasionally worse than average. 

Many uses have found problems involving things such as, body hardware, windows and doors, electronics, suspension and steering, charging systems, trim and problem with fit or finish and noises or leaks. Now you know everything, but we should give it another 10 years to grab the full picture!