Why I'm skiing so much...

With a world's population going on to 8 billion and with it, more and more pollution, greenhouse gas, plus unavoidable ecological catastrophe that we don't even imagine yet, the heat is on, the weather is upside-down and our snow is becoming an endanger specie.

Our winter seasons are getting shorter, our snow cover is becoming more and more elusive and glaciers are vanishing. At the same time, I'm not getting any younger and I have some serious doubts that I will be much nimble slaloming through an aspen grove 30 years from now...

These facts alone are enough of a motivating factor to make me ski as much as possible while I still can and while there's still some snow to practice on. Now you understand!

Aging Castro

I'm talking of Fidel. He's not the revolutionary he used to be. From the last photograph that I've seen of him, there's a noticeable decline.

While I 'm disappointed to see him not wearing his trademark Adidas warmup suit anymore as he's now going for Umbro clothing (I had seen another recent picture of him wearing Fila), I can only speculate that his former loyalties are now vacillating a lot and I would also admit that he now looks old, a bit passé, and just as tired as his political persuasion.

If Fidel were a skier, he could only go on groomed runs and gentle ones with that. No more bumps, no more crud or deep powder snow. No helicopter skiing either and no gates anymore. The season of podiums would be over for him.

Après-Ski?  Sure, why not after all; perhaps just a couple of Budweisers. Even the worse American beer, after the CIA, wouldn't still be able to kill the aging tyrant!

The Italian Mess

Italy is falling apart at the seams. The Vatican has become fraught with scandals, intrigue and becomes unmanageable, the economy is in free-fall and the political system is in shambles.

When people give Berlusconi's party or a blogger-comedian so many of their votes, it signals their despair and hopelessness and is a living proof that the system is irreparably broken.

This reminds me of this old house that has been fixed so many time, that each new repair creates a cascade of new problems and make the whole system a little bit worse and less liveable.

What does this suggest? That it might be time to tear down everything and start anew; of course, this is much easier said than done!

Breaking the Facebook habit...

Since I've become a Facebook “regular,” I've just spent too much time on that busy but rather unproductive medium.

Sure, it's supposed to keep me abreast of folks lives I know and like, but what do I get out of that almost voyeuristic endeavor? Nothing of substance, really. I'm aware of a lot of gossip, some jokes, people were-about and the like, but have not gained much from it in terms of deep knowledge or self-improvement.

Worse yet, it burns up too much of my precious time! Is Facebook, another mental “chewing-gum?” Probably. So what am I going to do about it? Take an extended break from it. Who knows, I might learn something in the process...

Snow years we remember...

Fifteenth Century French poet François Villon put it best when he said “Mais où sont les neiges d'antan?” (which was translated by Dante as “Where are the snows of yesteryear?”). This ancient Gallic counterpart of Bob Dylan probably remembered some awesome snow years that were just from the record books, put I assume, ignored in the process the less than stellar ones, the medium ones, those that were not created to be remembered.

A winter drought might have made no impression on him, as in those days, a total eclipse of winter was probably good news for everyone. In truth, and looking back, I only seem to remember one awesome snow years (69-70 in the Alps) and another really bad one (63-64 in that same mountain range, during the 1964 Innsbruck Olympics), but the in-between years, no matter how exceptional, are tough, if not totally impossible to remember.

So the morale of that story is that the exceptional in either direction makes a lasting impression and none of the events in-between are retained. Now, when I ask myself: “is this snow season really bad?” I don't seem capable to come up with a good answer. Of course, there is no well-substantiated documentation to go to, so for the moment, I'm just wondering in the dark...

My mountain roots

I spent about a quarter of a century in that little mountain village and most precisely in the chalet pictured at the center of the photo. I lived there from the time I was a six month baby to the summer of 1974 when I still was there, before I left my mountains for good and set out to explore the world.

This little mountain paradise looks beautiful and magical today, but for many, many years, it had no electricity, no indoor plumbing, no basic comfort, it was always muddy with no paved access road, wasn't accessible in winter, and worst of all, I had no one to play with.

Living there during these hardscrabble years was probably what make me want to leave that little Alpine spot and explore the world at large. I needed to see more alternative, build some references, develop some preferences and then pick and chose.

With a mixture of intense pain, tears and joy, I eventually made these discoveries, drew these comparisons, made some wrenching choices and finally settled to my own place of comfort...

Contractors, cost-plus and percentages

Have you ever shopped a General Contractor for a remodeling project or to build a new home? Well, if you haven't you might be here for a surprise as it seems that these fellows are only able to add things up that shouldn't be added up in the first place, but they sure are there to fill their pockets.

That's right, these guys have perfected the art of separating a homeowner from his hard-earned money. They will tag their “cost-plus” fees on anything that can be listed, like building permits, impact fees, even architect fees, and also on their administrative expenses when they can create a line-item for it, things like “gasoline” or some extra slush-fund that is just another way of padding the bill.

Home-building or renovating isn't a sport for the meek or for the person that hates scrutinizing or confronting a bunch of fellows with big egos and an insatiable appetite to make big bucks, even in a down-market!

A boot-fitter's window

A boot shell is a very secrete place. You can see it from the outside, but it's very hard to imagine what's going on inside of it. It becomes especially hard when something is wrong with the fit and when there is a comfort issue.

In that case, you take off the boot, take off the inner-boot and the boot-fitter attempts to guess what's going on. Upon a hunch or a scientific deduction, that's when the heavy stuff gets used and the Dremel tool begins eating up that extra polyurethane that stands in the way of a sensitive small toe or an ankle bone that has grown much bigger than it should have. 

All along though, it's merely guess work that's as good as the capacity of that foot owner's to communicate and of the boot-guru to interpret!

Yesterday, as I was riding the chair after a few turns at Deer Valley Resort, I realized that my new ski boots have a see-through top cap that allows an investigative boot-fitter to see the liner and check that the toes, most of us still have, can wiggle when allowed to.

I found it to be a huge technical break-through and though it is a wonderful window into the aching feet. Now, just a clear toe box isn't nearly enough; we should demand total foot transparency!

The Seven Principles of Dysfunctional Politicians

Like millions of people I've read and was deeply influenced by the book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” written by Stephen Covey and I even attended a one-day seminar based on it.

I thought its principles were based on good common sense, ethics we could all live with, and if I focused on applying them, I would be more successful. It's also ironical that it came out of Utah, a conservative State in which senators and congressmen have been more obstructionists than most towards the current Obama Administration.

With this in mind, I wanted to re-write these 7 habits to illustrate the flawed principles largely used in Congress and that I feel are setting our country backwards...

Principle 1: Be Reactive 

See what's utterly wrong with whatever idea is offered and systematically offer an opposite course of action just to show that your way, no matter how foolish, is better.

Principle 2: Pick convenient issues
Don't worry about their relative importance in the great scheme of things, just choose any event and turn it to your advantage or adapt it to your agenda for the day. 

Principle 3: Avoid prioritizing 
If a small issue can be a treasure for argument, blow it out of proportion, make it bigger than life, place it front and center. It's all about what can be gained from a single, minute and trivial event or fact that counts.

Principle 4: Think Win-Lose 
Make certain to paint your opponent in the worst possible light. Feel good when you see him is on his knees. Never relinquish your “top dog” position, spare no effort to make people you don't like appear at their very worst.

Principle 5: Force your agenda 
Be dogmatic. Don't ever listen, scream louder even it it intimidates or if it antagonizes. The more people shoot and are unhappy, the more you will get the feeling that you made a difference and were accomplishing a lot.

Principle 6: Kill any good ideas in the egg 
Combine the evil of the naysayers in order to get what you want, even if you don't quite believe it. Show to all what's wrong with any idea you decide to fight. Oppose collective achievement and worship selfish or petty actions.

Principle 7: Let everything break-down
Just for the principle or to satisfy some dogma, fight an issue until it's killed. Make sure that no social program lasts too long, that freedom is for the sake of it and a minimalist government encourages inequality, lawlessness and individualism. Let just the very strong survive and the weak perish...

Carefree, young ski years

Exactly forty years ago, life was simple, carefree and fun. Sure, my friends and I were forty solid years younger, had little artificial objects in our bodies like dental implant, artificial hip or knee, and all genuinely thought that we would last forever and that our manufacturers' warranty wasn't ready to run out any time soon.

We didn't look a bit like our parents that were already “old”, not longer “got it,” and would have been chocked if we had been shown pictures of us today. This would have been totally impossible to even imagine! Out of the group, there was only one baby girl, today there are 9 children and 3 grand kids.

Time appeared to be going much slower then, there were no smart phones, internet or global warming, money was not really a concern and fun was front and center. Someone should have warned us that these were the simplest, easiest years of our existence, and as a result we let them slip by without really savoring them as we should have and paying full attention.

This is probably a strong reason why today, the remaining time we've got should receive our utmost respect and undivided focus!

Twig wars

Early season skiers all around Park City that venture out of the designated runs will tell you that twigs are always a challenge as they fight the mounting snow cover by seemingly sticking their necks even higher up in an effort to see what's going on, scare off skiers and live their twig lives. Most of the bushes that populate our open slopes are elderberry, but sometimes they are young aspen or gamble oak shoots.

Up to a certain diameter, twigs are more impressive than they are harmful, but beyond one inch in diameter they can become tricky, dangerous and constitute direction-altering obstacles. Edging on them can be difficult, especially if they are too many against one single edge and skiers with skis that always tend to think on their own are more likely to be torn between their two boards by divisive, thick tree shoots, than snowboarders!

As the season progresses, the snow thickens and the smaller vegetal get progressively cut off by sharp edges, they seem to vanish and no longer pose the same threat, but it appears to me that ski resort operators are not taking the problem as seriously as they should. In the Northern Alps were I come from, it used to be that the entire ski-school staff would have a special day in the late summer or early fall, that would be devoted to cutting these pesky plants, even though the one they would clear were the invasive, larger, green alder bushes.

I've heard that some ski areas are now experiencing with special mowers to cut twigs, but I would suggest that ski instructors be put to task in the Fall to get rid of these pesky creature on a yearly basis. Only then, are we going to win the twig war that is being waged against skiers all over the Rocky Mountains!

Overheard on chairlifts

Isn't it amazing that some folks have big mouths and can't stop using them to impress others? This still happens often enough when I ride a chairlift with strangers. Most of the time, though, my fellow passengers are normal, nice people and we strike a conversation or even simply exchange a few words and that exchange is generally pleasant and sometimes downright enjoyable.

However, when some “big mouth” happens to sit on the bench and wants the world to know about how cool he is, it's a matter of time before I hear stupid words coming out of his mouth. The man (yes, it generally is an alpha male) opens his mouth and begins telling those within hearing range about all the things he knows or has accomplished, and these are generally pretty unbelievable or exaggerated.

That's the moment when I do my best to remain quiet, shut up, listen and put to the test a wonderful quote by Alfred Capus, that French, nineteen century writer: “the kind man smiles as he listens about things he knows well, that are told by someone who ignore them..” Once, settled in that mental retrenchment I hear all kinds of absurdities and smile or laugh internally during what feels like a very short and quite entertaining ride after all...

It's raining rocks!

Yesterday cosmic events - the asteroid missing our dear planet by some 17,200 miles and the meteorite breaking soviet-made windows in the small town of Chelyabinsk - added to my worries that we indeed live in a dangerous world.

Up until then, I was only worried about death, the Fiscal Sequester, global warming, glaciers melting and a dismal snow cover in Park City. Now, I will have to look up to the sky before I go out to run, ski, mountain bike or drive to pick up some milk at the store.

This said, I have already planned my evasive strategies which I'll share with you so you can feel a tad safer: If the celestial object seems to move to the right, turn left, if it goes towards the left, veer to the right.

If it seems to moving towards you, just accelerate (making a U-Turn takes too much time and might end up being a terrible move) and if the boulder flies over your head, in the same direction as you're going, hit the brakes, pull out your cell phone and shoot a video.

Ligety's quiet supremacy...

Ted Ligety's crushing victory in the GS was the most predictable of his medals but no mean an obvious one in this leg-breaking sport that alpine skiing can be. What got him on top was his preparedness and with it, his extraordinary margin of superiority.

 I have already discussed that subject, but today I would like to point out its evidence during the entire race. In observing Ted's face, there was calm, concentration and composure. That peace was nowhere to be found in any of his opponents who were all tense, grimacing, and on the mental edge.

This, if anything illustrates vividly the outstanding “margin,” Ligety operates with, and is the secret weapon that keeps him seconds ahead of his competitors. These World Championships have made him the 21st Century Killy and are placing Park City front and center in the ski racing culture.

Thanks Ted for giving us these thrills and making all Parkites so very proud!

Dick Cheney, polarizing evil

Last night interview of Cheney by Charlie Rose was quite predictable. Not only does the man looks mean, sounds mean, but he truly looks like an incarnation of evil. He is an individual charged-up with negative energy, who is against everything and is totally paranoid.

He trashed down Obama and his administration and didn't even realize that more than 50% of the Americans have re-voted the man into office. Just like Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the "professional haters" that also support a right that is sinking into dumb and dumber, he is doing everything he can to exacerbate the divide that separates Americans.

Of course, what Cheney is doing is what dumb people do. Smarter individuals would insinuate instead of attacking and destroy softly, but that requires smarts and salesmanship the old Dick will never get...
 

Ski pole magic...

Skiing entails spending a significant amount of time riding ski lifts. In fact, the better skier one becomes, the greater percentage of total skiing time one ends up just riding lifts. Chairlifts, I would say are the most common way up that I use, and I would argue that it is true for most, unless you only ski Jackson Hole, Snowbird or Argentière, France.

From time to time, chairlifts stop for a broad range of reasons, going from assisting fallen riders at the top or the bottom, loading some provisions, a ski patrol sled or allowing a frightened or injured passenger to download.

Since I've spend days on chairlifts and almost hours while they were at standstill in the middle of the air, I have developed a “mind-game” which, when it works perfectly, can be incredibly impressive. It goes like this: I simply try my best to “guess” the moment when the chair will get back in motion and a fraction of a second before it does, or passengers actually feel it, I tap the frame of the lift with my pole as if I were magically ordering the chairlift to run again.

When the timing works, it gets incredible comments and awes from anyone attentive enough to witness the “miracle.” When it fails, this goes either unnoticed or is placed on the account that I must be an old, fidgety skier. There's no major risk to failing there; of course, you only can do this once in a single ride in order not to make it a suspicious and noticeable activity.

This said, I must admit that I could count on my fingers the instances when that perfect timing has happened, out of perhaps hundreds of not-so-successful attempts. Make sure to try it, next time your chair stops!

If I became Pope...

Yesterday, I was teasing you about applying for the open Pope position. Today, I'm more serious; what would I do if I were the new Pope? I would reform a few things with one single goal in mind: Bring the Catholic Church into the modern era and make sure it can survive the kind of developed society every human aspire to entering at some point of time.

So, what's my program? Ready, here we go: I would end the priest celibacy and open it up to women as well, take a stand on overpopulation and promote effective birth control, I would actively engage Jews and Muslims, apply the teachings of Christ, cut-down into St. Peter's pageantry and bring democracy into the way the Church is ran.

I would secularize the Catholic doctrine so it becomes a practical life road-map, in synch with our times. I would turn certain dogmas (Virgin birth, etc.) into allegories, moving away from hard-truth and by so doing, would re-motivate the entire congregation. This, I know, is “preaching to the choir” as it's also what the largest majority of Catholic are desperately wanting and hoping for.

Don't hold your breath, though, I'm not Pope just yet...

Should I apply for the job?

As of today, there's a new job open at the Vatican that I feel I'm totally qualified to take it on. First my background is sales and marketing, I speak some Italian, quite a bit of German and I consider myself fluent in both French and English. Latin? I used it a lot when I was an altar boy, more than half a century ago!

I have traveled internationally extensively, I understand different cultures, I am also very creative, can think on my feet and can make up a good story when the situation demands it. I'm also ready and willing to relocate to Vatican City; besides, I love Italian food and Ferraris. I might have to put a few projects of mine on the back-burner, but the position makes it worth it. I'm going to reform anything that's reformable, I'd bring back skiing and winter sports into the Holy Sea,

I'm dedicated, hard working and won't make a fuss is they force me to use Alitalia exclusively for all of my international trips!

Sex equality on skis? Not a chance!

Yesterday a dual slalom took place in my former stomping grounds of Morzine, France. The show, followed by a concert was organized by CR2H, “Les copains d'abord”, a non-profit outdoors association.

The race offered a total purse of 2,600 euros and there was a men's race as well as a women's race that both fielded a winner in each category. What was remarkable, though, was that the male winner pocketed 1,000 euros, while the female winner had to make do with just 700 euros!

Same race, but still a 30% difference between what the male earned over his female counterpart. At any rate, this represents twice the average French Gender Pay Gap (GPG) which just like the average GPG for Europe stands at about 15%.

Could someone explain to me what still justifies this questionable measure of athletic talent?

Mrs Beyl? No, Madame Look

Yesterday, I picked up the phone to call Mrs Beyl. This 92 year old lady is the other part of the couple that made Look ski bindings possible, the one that ran the company with an iron-fist while her husband was busy inventing, skiing, water-skiing and having a great time. She built the French sales for the company, had steadfast principles and was both admired and feared.

She's the one who gave me one of my first big break in life when she hired me one summer day of 1974. Without that job, who know what I would have done of my life? Would I be living in America today? Most likely, because that was part of my “original plan” but the rest of my story might have been vastly different.

At her very respectable age, Mrs. Beyl continues to speak and think as she ever did when I knew her in the 70s and early 80s. She hasn't changed a bit, she is still turbo-charged with energy. She still drives her Mini Cooper and takes no abuse from anyone.

She told me that recently, as she was getting back into her tiny British car, she heard two young men sneering at her and saying: “Look at the old lady and her Mini...” She stood up to them and shouted “The old lady tells you to go f*** yourself!”

She didn't mince her words, but why should she. For those who haven't known her, she's is like the Rock of Gibraltar, the good version of the Iron Lady, well, she's Madame Look!

The Roman Catholic sex abuse

With the release of new documents from the Los Angeles diocese, the Catholic sex abuse issue is back in the news in the United States.

What's striking to me though, is that the large number of cases reported in America and in Ireland is enormous compared to what has been reported in other traditionally European Catholic countries, like France, Spain, Portugal and Italy.

Is there a broader cover-up in Europe or were Catholic priests there, significantly much better-behaved than their American counterparts? I believe instead that Catholic officials in Europe were more astute in keeping the lid over the whole issue. This might say an awful lot about free-speech as we know it in America...

My yellow ski jacket

I've always liked that yellow ski jacket of mine. I think I've owned it for quite some time; in fact for many, many years. It predates the fall of the Soviet Union, the advent of cell phones and of the internet. I got it, I believe in 1987.

This Killy ski jacket has many pockets, so many, in fact, that it's impossible to remember which objects you've placed inside them and where they are. I once took a spectacular spill while skiing, and my car and other important keys that were inside one of its unzipped pockets went flying into deep snow while I somersaulted on a steep hill; I never was able to find them again.

A few years ago, that jacket mysteriously disappeared from my ski closet. I asked my wife if she knew where it could be and she couldn't come up with a good answer. A few days later, she said she had recovered it, somewhere, inside the house. I was so relieved and so grateful to her for relocating my cherished ski garment!

Truth is that, when it suddenly vanished, she had brought it to one of the local consignment stores to get rid of it. She had never been fond of its blinding bright-yellow color. When she finally told me the truth, she added that the jacket had languished for over six month inside the consignment shop without finding any taker. In the store manager's own words, the item was “just unsellable.”

I still like the jacket, I think it looks great (it was still made in France, not in China) but hearing the last part of that story is beginning to erode my resolve to clinging to it. As a consoling solution, my wife suggested that I might still wear it when I'd clear the snow around the house...

New skis, new boots...

Yesterday was a special ski day for me. I was getting tired and somewhat held-up by my “rock skis” that finally decided to take my new Scott Reverse skis for a spin, but at the same time, as if I wanted to add “insult to injury” I also choose to try my brand new pair of ski boots.

The fact is that I mounted my new skis for my new boots which soles were slightly different from my current, old pair of boots. What I was about to do is probably kind of sacrilegious when it comes to on-snow testing. I hardly had never done that in recent years, except perhaps, about 30 years ago, when I worked for Lange and we would test boots in Italy or at Mt. Hood with some borrowed demo-skis.

Do I need to say that it took me all afternoon and more than 20,000 vertical feet to finally get used to the new setup? At first, I was quite tentative, my skis felt “squirrely,” my out-of-the-box boot liners didn't get along too well with my ankles, but by closing time I almost was flying. All this to confirm what I've always believed: Skiers will adapt to almost anything!

My view of Paradise

I've already stated that I strongly believe that my present life seems as close as Paradise as it could be. Then, what would be the real Paradise be like, the one that religions advertise as the ultimate and perfect, end-of-life destination?

Well, I guess a place where I could see all the people I love (family and friends) very quickly and easily. A place where there would be no pain, no toothache, no flu, no health problem whatsoever, good food, good drinks and lots of fun things to do (this would have to include skiing, of course).

Great weather obviously, no money worries, no stress, no sales goals, no lawsuits, no government police and taxes. I probably have forgotten a lot of pesky things that making our lives miserable on a daily basis, but without adding them, a life in Paradise might turn into being a pretty boring situation in the long run.

Too bad people who call themselves religious never seem ready to try this imaginary exercise!

Where does insanity begins?

The only argument of the pro-gun lobby towards reducing gun violence is to prevent crazy folks from having access to fire-arms. Please, show me where is the delineation between healthy minds and insanity?

My neighbor's dog never bites, has never bitten anyone until the day it begins. One doesn't need to be patently insane to act on a whim and use a fire-arm because he or she cannot longer stand a given situation.

It's not the level of sanity that is the problem, it's the proximity and availability of guns!

A stupid way of calculating fees

If you are building something, need an architect, are savvy enough and willing to “shop around,” you might be shocked at learning how architect fees are calculated. I've recently been through that experience and can attest that the methodology used in the field runs the whole gamut.

For instance, some architects still can look at you straight in the eyes and state “my fee will run you 8% of construction costs”. So, in that situation, it might matter a great deal and translate into a formidable fee if the inside walls of the house are just painted in white or receive a pure gold leaf plating!

At the opposite end of the spectrum, there are some smarter professionals that will charge a fee in fair correlation with what the total job involves in terms of their time and expertise. This folks are generally rare, but are also smarter as they understand their market well and won't take any chance with their prospective clients.

Then, there are a few, progressive ones, that will charge by the square foot of built space, which make more sense, but the practice still seems in its infancy so the rates are spread all over the universe. Finally, there are those that I'd call the back-trackers.

Finally, they're the one who will go “fishing” and are ready to strike it rich if the client doesn't know any better. They generally fail, though, as they cut their initial fee in half and their smart customer realizes that she's been taken for a ride.

Now you've got a representative primer on architect fees in today's world!

Ski town growth management

Just recently, a friend was lamenting about some far-fetched plans, the French ski town where I sort of grew up was trying to wrestle to manage its growth and attempt to reign-in traffic issues.

Basically, he was telling me that the mayor and city council had spend $400,000 in consulting fee to have some technocrats come up with a solution that was not to the liking of a large number of the local population and might not have been the best solution to their small city's problems.

The sad fact was that after spending a little fortune in funding the study, the local leaders had no appetite for back-tracking and looking at other alternatives that might make prove more practical for the greater good of their constituents but make them look like fools.

This situation reminds me that these kind of “hired guns” consultants that I have seen at work many times in my life, are good at making dazzling presentations, speaking smoothly, using impressive ready-made templates and talking points, but are woefully inadequately equipped when it comes to basic, common sense.

The alternative to these “intellectuals?” More public meetings, more dialogue, more brain-storming with the locals, in a non-threatening, leveled, friendly and constructive environment before plunking down thousand of dollars into questionable studies.

The process take much more time, isn't as clean, can be exasperating, but is likely to come up with more homegrown, practical and workable solutions that will get the majority's stamp of approval and bear a more personalized and practical response to the challenges a growing community faces. Sure, simple, inexpensive but a lot more work!

Amend the 2nd Amendment!

The US constitution was written some 221 years ago and what's in it applied to a degree to what was known in these early days.

Back then, and long before cell phones, internet and Facebook, it couldn't envision the inclusion of provisions such as waiting periods, convicted felons, crazy individuals or use of weapons of mass-destruction. Likewise, it didn't not include any provision about self-protection.

 

It's about time to accept the fact that the Constitution is simply “a work in progress.” Today, the time has come to review the amendment and rewrite it so it can allows self-protection without opening the door to mass-annihilation.