Working a the “Petit Pin”

The first winter I worked at the Avoriaz ski school, in the northern French Alps, just 50 years ago, snow was rather scarce early in January and so were the potential students and work.

To earn a few Francs, Eric Eartz, the Parisian entrepreneur-owner, had hired me to install some insulation inside the lower level of his makeshift eatery.

The project was very much disorganized, the environment was cold and nothing was that pleasant. It was just a job, but I soldiered on.

When I left to go to Paris and teach skiing for 2 weeks on a small plastic ski slope installed on the roof top of “Le Printemps”, a large department store, the snow began to fall in earnest, so much so, that it might end up being the snowiest winter of the entire 20th century in the Morzine region...