A first trip ‘round the world, part 41

I remember that during the 1971 Australian Alpine Ski Championships that took place at Mt. Buller, we were visited not only by my friend Joël Gros, but also by another Frenchman, the coach Robert Tessa, from Les Deux Alpes ski resort, near Grenoble France. 

Robert had been retained by the Australian Ski Federation to coach its Alpine Team, along with Ben Griff, through the end of the 1972 Olympic season, culminating with the Sapporo Games in Japan. A handsome man, he was a person of very few words, either aloof, but more probably shy and modest. 

It’s funny that he made a strong impression on me and that I can still see him in my mind’s eye. Marcel thought he had come to Australia to promote Dynamic skis for the summer, but he was more into the ski scene than just that. 

An excellent skieur, Robert Tessa, had made it to the French Development Team and had won the famed French “Challenge des Moniteurs” (a classic, yearly ski instructor slalom race series) in 1969, and was an active ski coach at Les Deux Alpes, near Grenoble, France, where my friend Jacques Guillaume, remembers having worked under his guidance. 

Actually, the Tessa family goes back a long way at what was called the Mount de Lans, before it was renamed Les Deux Alpes. There, Rodolphe Tessa, Robert’s dad, built a first inn to welcome hikers and skiers that ventured all the way to this pastoral mountain hamlet, and where Alpine skiing really took off between 1946 and 1955. 

Later, this modest establishment would evolve a lot and become one of the iconic hotels of that growing mountain community, and Robert Tessa also owned a ski shop at the entrance to the ski resort. Just like us, he had taught skiing at Mt. Buller and developed relationships with the Australian ski federation that led him to become a national coach. 

He followed his Australian assignment by becoming the men’s head coach of the French ski team, until its ill-fated implosion, at Val d’Isère, in December of 1973, at which time he resigned upon the firing of the top French team skiers by George Joubert and was replaced by Noël Grand.

I saw Robert Tessa once more during an international distributor meeting, organized by Look ski bindings at Les Deux Alpes at the end of June of 1977. 

He was our guide and took us from the top of Les Deux Alpes lifts down into La Grave, I believe. Today he lives in Tain l’Hermitage a quaint town on the banks of the Rhone river, not far from Valence, France.