A first trip ‘round the world, part 35

Aside from Ernesto, Gérard’s friend, visitors from France to our Ski School were few and far between, except that day when Joël Gros from Faverges, near Annecy, came to visit us at Mt. Buller. 

Just like us, he had landed a ski instructor job at nearby Mt. Buffalo, very, very small ski resort with one pomalift offering some 500 ft. (150 meter) vertical drop. 

Its owner-operator, a colorful fellow by the name of Ollie Polasek was disappointed that Joël couldn’t play the accordion and did not know how to do prepare the appfelstrudel. 

To compensate for that our colleague taught a huge number of beginner skiers along with a Swiss instructor. At the end of July, he traveled to see us at Mt. Buller for a giant slalom race and that’s how we met. I remember that he sported a fresh “crew-cut”. 

He was anxious to free himself from Polasek. Just at that time, he was contacted by a certain Siegfried "Sigi" Haberzettl, ski school director at Falls Creek who hired him away from the demanding Polasek and where he taught skiing till the end of that winter season.

There he met two other French instructors, Jean Barbier and Daniel Trésanini that were instructing among ten other Austrians. 

As he was reminiscing about these good old days, Joel added: “Among the resorts employees there were two 'Jane Smiths' so it was in early August 71 that I met my current wife…” 

What’s even more remarkable is that I would rejoin both Jean Barbier and Joël Gros when I took a job with Look ski bindings three years later and met them again in Nevers, France. We would keep on working and meeting together over the following decades. 

What a small world!