Missing Trump speech

Last night, we purposely missed the State of the Union speech, because we can't stand the man and also because we knew there was nothing new we could learn. I'm not a fan of hypocritical talks either.

Viewership of President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address is down slightly in the Nielsen ratings compared to President Barack Obama’s first such address (45.6 vs. 48 million).

We watched some (good) comedy instead and got the commentaries in the morning news. First time we did it, and we'll repeat the routine (hopefully) two more times, before we listen to a new and improved POTUS.

Big Cottonwood Canyon (renewed) attractiveness

Last November, I was suggesting that Park City Mountain (Vail Resorts) should purchase Brighton from Boyne Mountain and Solitude from the Stern-Penske families, to insure its snow viability in view of climate change.

Today, that strategy become even more pressing as Alterra, its new competitor is getting a foothold at nearby Little Cottonwood Canyon by forming a marketing alliance with Alta and Snowbird.

The Park City-Brighton-Solitude would add an exciting interconnected experience to that snow-insurance aspect, and would do much more than counterbalance the future Alterra threat.

Questions are, if a sale of Solitude might be in the cards, would Boyne be willing to part with its little ski area and would Vail Resorts have the financial appetite to even consider the deal?

A coming Iconic and Epic clash

The new Alterra group of ski resorts seems quite serious about offering a common season pass to the public next winter, not just limited to its 12 properties, but now extended to another 11 partner mountains, for a total of 23 resorts.

According to a company's spokesperson, we shouldn't assume which resorts — partners or Alterra destinations — will offer limited or unlimited skiing. The details of that new pass, offered for sale this spring, should be explained to the public in the coming weeks.

In summary, Alterra's resorts are Colorado's Steamboat, Winter Park, California’s Squaw Valley-Alpine Meadows, Mammoth Mountain, June Mountain and Big Bear Mountain Resort, Vermont’s Stratton, West Virginia’s Snowshoe, Canada’s Tremblant and Blue Mountain, Utah’s Deer Valley Resort and CMH Heli-Skiing & Summer.

As for the Ikon Pass partners, those are Colorado's Aspen Snowmass, Copper Mountain, Eldora, Jackson Hole, Montana’s Big Sky, Vermont’s Killington, Maine’s Sunday River and Sugarloaf, New Hampshire’s Loon Mountain and Utah’s famed Alta and Snowbird. 

What's interesting is that Utah's Solitude that once was part of Deer Valley didn't make the cut among the list of partners.

What is this program going to means to Park City? Probably more traffic into town with the addition of the Salt Lake Valley's Alta and Snowbird pass-holders, certainly more destination visitors from the East out with passes from Blue Mountain, Killington, Loon Mountain, Tremblant, Snowshoe, Statton, Sugarloaf and Sunday River, as well as Californian skiers like we've already seen with the Epic pass.

All this depends, of course, what's inside that new Icon pass. Once more, the devil will be in the detail and it's hard not to imagine how fiercely Vail Resorts will have to react to this unforeseen behemoth!  

The old man and skiing

Let's be brutally honest,
Seventy is old age's gateway.
Yet, the spirit remain young
Filled with deep experience,
Rich and vivid memories,
And no good reason to stop.
Skiing lays deep under the skin
And remains as fun as ever.
Only the frame feels the age.
The suspensions get stiffer,
The terrain feels amplified,
The muscle power wanes,
Forcing the wise old skier
To look for the perfect path
The one most comfortable
And to remain good friend with speed
And let her do the work.
Age doesn't put and end to skiing,
It simply refines the game...

Driving with Fido

If I tell you that dogs in Park City are like sacred cows in India, I'm probably repeating myself.

It's quite common to see drivers (mostly female) motoring along with their pooch on their laps. I think this practice is irresponsible, dangerous and idiotic and it prompted me to check if it was legal in Utah, my home state.

Well, there's nothing in the books against it, it seems. Just like we can drive barefoot or pile up passengers on the open bed of a pick-up truck. Back to dogs behind the wheel, I think the practice is at least as bad as texting or talking into a cell phone glued to the ear, and probably more dangerous if the animal suddenly goes berserk, or the vehicle comes to screeching halt.

Only one state, Hawaii, makes it illegal to drive while holding an animal in the driver's lap or in the driver’s immediate area.

New Jersey is paying a bit more attention to the problem and can fine drivers up to $1,000 if they hold a pet in ways that can impair their driving.

Connecticut may also charge drivers for having pets in their laps but the rest of the country doesn't seem to care.

I probably missed it, but stupidity must be etched into our constitution.

A very thoughtful present

A week or so ago, my wife found a rather puzzling grocery tote bag someone had dropped by our front-door after ringing the doorbell.

I discovered it when I returned from skiing, looked at it and in the absence of an address, phone number or web address, I noticed a name “Foodland” that sounded a bit like “Foodtown” a name known in the area, and assumed someone had dropped it to advertise for a small grocery store using the same moniker and located 15 miles from Park City.

Strange promotion indeed when we already have 6 large grocery store in an 8 mile radius around our home. Apparently unrelated to this mysterious bag, we also helped some neighbors while they were in Hawaii during the Christmas and New Year holidays. Specifically, we agreed to feed their cat and pick up their mail.

I also cleared their entire driveway following 16 inches of accumulated snowfall. I love to do that kind of job, was glad to do a good deed and thought that the lady of the house would appreciate it when she'd returned home on January 1st.

She and her husband eventually got back, but we never heard a word from either of them. No phone call, no text message (as they usually do), nothing at all. Since, I did the work, I even wondered if I had done something wrong and their silence was a way of expressing their dissatisfaction.

At any rate, this past Wednesday, we came across the husband who stopped his car to ask us if we had gotten “the bag”; no word of thanks for the service I had performed but he said something about “musubi” which sounded like some good food (spam musubi is in fact a popular snack and lunch food in Hawaii composed of a slice of grilled Spam on top of a block of rice, wrapped together with nori seaweed).

At first we were a bit puzzled, and finally it downed on us that he was the mysterious individual who had dropped the infamous tote bag.

I blurted out: “I guess we did, but there was nothing in it!” inferring that I didn't find any “musubi” inside, and that the cheap plasticized grocery bag, which typically costs less than one dollar, wasn't much of a present for recognizing the good job I had done.

He answered “No, there was just a piece of cardboard in it to form a stable bottom!” I just nodded and we resumed walking...

My border-wall prototype

Around San Diego, a number of Trump-border-wall prototypes are being tested. None of the models I've seen is likely to do a good job and look cheap enough to be affordable. This is why I've decided to contribute my own prototype for border protection.

My approach is both simple and effective: Make crossing the border dissuasive enough without spending a fortune.

The prototype, illustrated here, is made of nylon canvas held by bamboo poles and the printed message although varied must be repulsive. Of course, the fabric can be recycled into grocery bags and the bamboo sticks into hardwood floors.

The total cost to cover the 1,989 miles (3 201 km) distance with this beauty made in China, including installation, is just under $15 million which is certainly going to be picked up by the Mexican government, as promised by Trump!

What do you think?

Inside ski skiing...

Whether the name is Mikaela Shiffrin or just yours, skiing on your inside ski always spells bad news. The seemingly invincible American skier bit the powder yesterday by pushing the envelope too much and forgetting her outer ski.

On occasions, it happens to me, it happens to you and to all of us. Along with the world's ski elite, we're all in good company. Call it, “equality on ski”, if you will.

The art is to have it happen to you as rarely as possible, and when it occurs, make it last as briefly as you can so the body doesn't fall helplessly into the center of the turn like the statues of Lenin or Sadam Hussein fell into the center of the town square when they got separated from their pedestal.

A sobering reminder that skiing is all but an intuitive sport and that, when planted on a pair of boards, we always need to remember to execute certain essential movements, especially when the going gets really fast!

Losing my shock absorbers?

When I was a younger skier I could absorb almost anything when it came to bumps, obstacles and the rest, but as I'm aging, my ride on snow isn't as smooth as it used to be. I tend to put this on the account of my fading flexibility and I'm probably right.

Along with a collection of outrages, aging brings a marked decrease in flexibility that is mostly caused by changes in the body's connective tissues, combined with arthritis.

This means that my knees, hips, and other joints must bear greater stress during skiing, rather than dissipating all these impacts to the surrounding tissues, such as muscles, tendons, ligament and cartilage, as it happened so well when I was younger.

Short of getting a new pair of less, I guess I'll either need to stay on even terrain or ski a bit less.. I guess I'll pick the latter!

Fill er up!

Fifty years ago today, I was pumping jet fuel into old French fighter planes under a blistering north wind called “Mistral” in a base, located just a few miles north of Marseille, France.

Unbeknownst to many, these subsonic aircraft called "Mystère IV", made by Dassault, were ordered in 1952 as a gift to the French Air Force from the U.S. Government!

In all 411 plane were manufactured and the remaining planes were used to train the faculty officers at the Salon de Provence air base (the French equivalent of Colorado Springs).

Besides filling up the tanks, I also work as an aircraft mechanic, a task I didn't really enjoyed, but there were even more menial jobs to be had in the French Air Force.

I used my spare time working on my English and learning to fly glider planes, the only fringe benefits I ever could extract from a forced-occupation I despised.

When snow comes late

As it finally arrived “en masse” yesterday, January 20, snow has taught us – once more – to be extremely patient and that it doesn't automatically blanket our slopes on November 1.

This reminded me of my first ski season as an instructor at Avoriaz, France during the infamous 1969-1970 winter season.

The season started with very little snow (there was no snow-making at all in these days in the Alps) and as a junior instructor, there was no business for me, so I got a job insulating a mid-mountain restaurant called “Le Petit Pin”, to earn a few Francs.

The snow only came in quantity on January 16 that year, and when it began falling, it never stopped until it accumulated to some 20 feet early May, after wreaking havoc, including a terrible avalanche in Val d'Isère.

Will this be the same season? Who knows? Hope is eternal.

The curse of being a huge resort...

Large ski resorts offer more terrain, more ski runs but also require much more man-made snow on a drought year like this one.

Without counting Deer Valley, its next door neighbor, this is the case of Park City Mountain and its 7,300 acres of terrain that count 348 trails. Today 2,465 acres and 148 trail are open, thanks mostly to the hard work of Park City snow-making crews and snow guns.

This season, we had to wait until the end of January to see most of the runs covered with man-made snow.

What lessons should we learn from this one-in-forty-year snow season? 

• First, that beefing up their infrastructure is key; adding underground pipes, water pumping and air compressing stations, gathering more water sources and perfectly maintaining the entire network. 
• Next, that improving terrain maintenance by removing rocks, bushes, fallen trees and stumps to get a maximum of terrain ready to ski with a minimum snow cover. 
• Finally, that resorts should begin making as much snow as they can as soon as the temperature gets low enough to produce snow, unless there's an abundance of natural snow, and never take a chance on mother nature. 

 I guess that's it. Gee! My prayers have been heard; it's now snowing hard outside!

Dealing with dead Facebook friends...

As time goes on and as we age, we are bound to lose Facebook friends as they pass on.

Besides the sadness and grief that any loss entails, it seems to me that there's a right way or a wrong way to handle that departure as far as Facebook or any other social media is concerned.

I've already lost four Facebook friends and three of them have lingered a reasonable amount of time online, before someone in their family shut the account down. Better yet, Facebook offers the option to memorialize the account (see picture below), but few families do it, it seems.

Short of exercising that option, I think there's something morbidly voyeuristic about having an online presence, long after someone is deceased.

Today, after more than a year following the death of my fourth “friend”, I decided that it was time to “unfriend him”. What else would you have done?

Ski racing and me

Even though I enjoy watching ski races on occasion (that is, Alpine skiing only), I've always had an ambivalent relationship to that activity. I don't think it really represents skiing; it just is an offshoot of the sport and one that is quite artificial at that.

To me, skiing is an activity that begin with a blank canvass and that gets filled in as wanders around, according to the mood of the day, the weather, the sights, the quality and quantity of snow, the paths that are accessible, the infinite variations in terrain and all kinds of surprises.

It's totally unpredictable, changes as it unfolds and no skiing experience is ever quite the same. To me this totally unpredictable adventure is what skiing ought to be.

In contrast, ski racing is an ersatz too far rigid and so removed from that rich experience that skiing ought to be...

Let's wage war on whippers!

On a snow less seasons like this one, every bit of terrain preparation counts and a smooth slope can be opened with a minimum amount of snow. I think it's passed time for our local ski resorts to wage an all-out war on whippers.

You know what I'm talking about, these awful twigs and growing bushes or aspen shoots that are often more intimidating than harmful to skiers and stand on their way, until the time more snow comes or they get chewed up by the edges of our boards.

Okay, I'm not even mentioning the larger elderberry bushes that are to be avoided at all costs...

I feel the resorts should draft a brigade armed with machetes and loppers. In return, they'd reward these trailblazers with free ski pass... Another idea to chew on!

The margin of success

Some people experience occasional success whether it's in sports, business, politics or simply in the pursuit of their daily life.

Sometimes it's sporadic (the spectators say “it's pure luck”, and they're probably right, “it was written” or “well-deserved”, something utterly fatalistic), sometimes their winning way is so consistent, that after the initial applause, their success quickly becomes an irritant.

It just seems unfair, right? This would be a sensible reaction, except that when we look at it closely, these folks all have one huge element in common. It's called a huge margin of that key ingredient that is essential in their continued success.

Don't fool yourself, this reserve has not just showed up instantly overnight; it's been cultivated relentlessly over a long period of time, and maintained at the cost of discipline, constant efforts and higher standards, to the point that it has become ingrained into these successful individuals, that it seems second-nature to observers.

That right, no one can see that hidden life of efforts and sacrifices that has led to these people's success and these same observers are unable to learn the silent lesson these exemplary lives are telling them.

Snowboarders to the rescue?

Imagine the situation: You get badly hurt while skiing on a very difficult terrain, high up in the mountain, a sled has been called to rescue you, and when it arrives, you see two patrollers on snowboards.

How would you feel?

If I were the injured party, I'd be spooked. Not that I don't trust the two rescuers, but rather their ability to control their board on a rough terrain and take me safely down the hill.

You see, this picture conjures what we know and have observed about snowboarding.

This sliding alternative isn't skiing and never will be. It has too many limitations and without getting into its technical shortcomings, nothing will ever beat skiing as long as snow and mountains will co-exist!

Skiing like a... septuagenarian!

When I was just in my 50s or even my 60s, I never really imagined that I would ski and still enjoy the sport past my 70th birthday.

Yesterday, as I was closing on my 30th day on skis this season, I was trying to summarize how it felt to ski as a septuagenarian.

I must say, that nothing much has changed; the fun is still there in its entirety, my body still welcomes the punishment, the speed has gone down a tiny bit, but still remain as a major assistance in helping me make the few turns that are absolutely necessary; finally, the desire to ski tomorrow remains as intense as it ever was.

So if you are not yet at my stage in life, just rejoice; there's still plenty of fun to be had on skis and I'm quite confident that I'll still “ski my age” this season!

Slow-mo ski instruction?

Recently, I was speaking with a good friend of mine who had been a life-long ski industry worker, from the ski school to the executive suite, consultant, product tester and personal coach.

He was telling me about his new focus of “rolling into a turn” instead of stemming or wedging into it. I know the story very well and it sure works perfectly on paper or on books, but the missing ingredient the instructor community always seem to forget is speed.

I have tried to say it countless time, speed and momentum are the cement or the “magic stuff” that “gels” any good ski instruction technique. Absent speed, nothing happens.

Wedge or sudden weight transfer have a key role to play in specific circumstances and terrain and, of course, at slow speed.

Carving or any modern racing technique works with a huge amount of speed and momentum that often are beyond the reach of most recreational skiers.

If not through intense mileage, such skiers can only be taught these feelings and techniques through slow and progressive drills that always are boring because they must be practiced on flatter, boring terrain for long periods of time.

This is why no one has the patience, the time or even the money to go through them, and only a select few end up mastering these elusive techniques.

Hot pursuit

Wednesday was the best day of an otherwise dismal ski season, so far in Park City. Snow was soft and skiing was the best yet.

I was skiing at Park City and was intent on passing what appeared to be, by the color of their outfits and body sizes, two young ladies going down ahead of me on a bumpy, whipper-covered section, right under the 9990 chair.

I passed one of them without much trouble and couldn't pass the other one that was skiing incredibly fast and well. Finally, as I was about to pass her, she stopped to wait for her mate and as turned my head, I saw that “girl” had a full beard and was in his 30 to 40 years of age!

I suddenly felt re-assured!

Real estate sales people

The American real estate profession is so bad that it breeds shady sales people and my guess is that perhaps only one percent of them are good.

Yet, these very few fine folks are probably not very successful, because they are honest and ethical in a “dog-eat-dog” environment.

Furthermore, the activity is fundamentally “sleazy” as the name of the game is to make a commission no matter what it takes, even if the transaction is bad for the client.

A recent experience with one of these fly-by-night “professionals” is another sad reminder that they must be avoided at all cost!

Geography lesson

On Sunday, I was riding the chairlift with a snowboarder from... Vladivostok!

This Russian guy was “just” visiting some friends in Florida and make a quick detour to Park City to check us out.

We talked and got 5 more minute conversation as the chair stopped for that amount of time on the way up.

He was surprised to know that I knew were Vladivostok was and I said that I know that this seaport was the entry of all used Japanese cars with left-hand-side steering wheels that would eventually find a new owner in Siberia.

He told me he had never ridden in Europe, but mostly went to Japan that is only one and a half hour flight from Vladivostok and he liked Hakuba 47, a resort I happened to know as I have skied there many years ago.

He also went helicopter riding at Kamchatka and would go to Sochi on occasions. When I asked him about his town, He went on to say that it was very windy and cold in winter, and that it was a heavy industry center with a lot of former USSR factories still shuttered...

Small world!

Visualizing the race course with 2 hands

Mikaela Shiffrin is nothing short of exceptional. I really enjoyed watching her this season and winning with her trademark, smooth and pure skiing technique.

What I noticed though the other day, while she hand-memorizes the course while waiting by the starting gate, is that she did it with both hands as if each hand was one of her ski, and with the right amount of pressure and edging applied on each board.

Most other skiers, only do it with the one hand they feel comfy with. That might go a long way in making yet another small difference to her credit...

Already missing France Gall

Before I turned twenty and became mostly interested in the British and American sound, I was into French pop music.

As a teenager I had a crush on French singer France Gall and her very simple adolescent love songs. They were straight-forward, unpretentious and truly touched my kid's heart, probably very superficially, but touched it nonetheless.

I'm told she's the singer that inspired the original version of the song that became a worldwide hit for Frank Sinatra as “My Way”; why not? France Gall was just my age when she died in Paris at age 70.

RIP...

Where's the rest of the US Alpine ski team?

Is Mikaela Shiffrin the tree that hides the forest or some barren desert?

One would say so, as Lindsey Vonn is taking a back seat, presumably preparing for the Olympics, and Ted Ligety having some obvious problems re-entering the top level in GS he left after his injury and operations.

The problem, at it appears to me, is the inability from the alpine leaders and coaches to get their top stars to emulate the up-and-coming racers.

Contrast this with Austria, Italy, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries. Clearly, the U.S. Alpine Ski leadership is missing something or is woefully unable to build a strong team behind leaders that, at times, are world's phenoms.

Where's the accountability in all this?

Old Patriarchs leading world religions

Following Mormon Church President's Thomas Monson's death, Russell Nelson, age 93, is set to become the 17th leader of the worldwide faith. Just like old premium wines, or our own Donald Trump, very old male leaders seem to work wonder in all religions.

I know what I'm talking about as a freshly minted spetuagenarian; look at Ali Khamenei, 79, Pope Francis, 81 or Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, 82...

This seems very old to me, but who am I to judge as freshly minted septuagenarian?

Also, women head of religious faiths are few and far between, and that's not helping either with religion's credibility.

Sure, but who talks about credibility in a domain like religion, steeped into irrationality? I should have thought about this before starting to write that blog!

Park City Mountain could do much better!

After Vail's “big bang”, when it purchased our local resort, two or three years ago, it now feels as if Park City Mountain (PCM) were savoring its own mediocrity and appeared quite happy with its own status quo.

Here a few random observations from this early season: Granted, Mother Nature has been less than generous, but PCM has not jumped the gun early enough in the season to make tons of snow when it could have.

Instead, they have given us the impression of playing chicken with the weather, hoping for some significant natural snow falls to plug the holes. Is PCM's infrastructure and snow making capacity up to snuff? I doubt it very much; at least it doesn't compare advantageously with Deer Valley's.

At the same time and quite recently, PCM announced its capital investments for 2018 and besides a new high-speed quad at Canyons to replace an old fixed grip for beginners, as well as as some restaurant improvements, nothing appears on the radar to beef up snow-making and replace Park City's third-world chairs like Thaynes, Jupiter, Pioneer and Town Lift. Not impressive at all.

Finally, there are the lines and Vail's terrible corral system. Instead of having three employees chewing the fat at the base of Silverlode (or Payday, Bonanza, etc.), have one of the them make sure chairs are filled to capacity.

For a change, let's start 2018 as if there was some semblance of intelligence within PCM and Vail Resorts!

An opportunity to change Utah

The old, professional politician Orrin Hatch finally threw in the towel. He was disavowed by Utah's Salt Lake Tribune and saw the writing on the wall.

Now, the clear question is who will replace him? Jenny Wilson, a Salt Lake County Councilwoman Jenny Wilson had said that she would run as a democrat for Hatch's seat in 2018, and chance are, Mitt Romney will soon announce his intention to represent the Republicans.

Seems to me that if Jenny was serious about getting elected, she'd need to come out swinging, right now, and begin making impression by defining who she is and what she stands for before Mitt officially gets out of the woods and defines who she is.

There's a huge opportunity of debunking the misconceived "Democrat-is-for-abortion" paradigm and explain that being pro-life starts with taking care of kids in providing them with good education and good healthcare. She'd be perfect for doing that.

Her silence or conspicuous absence from the debate at the very early stage won't do her any good in the uphill battle that is likely to be hers. She needs to get out now and start fighting in full force!

Less snow for more money

With very little help from Mother Nature, our local resorts have had their work cut out for them. More expenses (snow-making) and slightly less visitors.

Yet, they haven't given away their daily lift ticket. Today, a lift ticket at either Park City or Deer Valley goes for a hefty $145! Sure, Vail visitors are a bit less lucky with the resort's $169 price tag.

I wonder what kind of thinking goes behind these exorbitant prices. Today, Park City has about 18 percent of its runs and terrain open, while Deer Valley, that is significantly smaller has just half of its runs open to the public.

All this seems very expensive to me. Yeah, I guess that's what you do when you think very, very short term with a “captive audience”, but this might carry some “unintended consequences”.

Finding fun on scarce snow

In this 33rd winter season in Park City, I'd never experienced so little snow.

Today, Park City only has 18 percent of its terrain open. I understand that the winter 76-77 was nearly as bad, but this hasn't prevented me to get out 21 times so far.

It's amazing how on snow, fun seldom equate snow depth. I wouldn't quite say that the thinner the snow, the more fun there is, but scarcity makes us look further and enjoy it more.

It also hones our skills and help us discover more into what we thought could be less. A lesson that goes much beyond the rather narrow scope of skiing...

From wishing to acting

The first of the year is that traditional day when it's time to wish the very best to our friends, family and ourselves throughout the new year.

This good intention is understandable and laudable, but it cannot and will not deliver the goods as it's only made out of hope and as such, is woefully impotent, just like praying on issues we can't control. Simply wishing won't make things happen.

This is probably why new year's resolutions were invented in the first place. Of course, these resolutions are generally so personal, so fleeting and made under the influence of a festive environment that they often don't “stick” and while they should affect our own lives, they generally will have minute effects on our society and our environment at large.

This is one reason why I want to segue on how we can all change the things that could bring some improvement around us. Call this changing the world if you will, based on our abilities, our creativity and our good will, one little action at a time!