America tipping tactics

On Thursday, we went skiing in record breaking crowds my daughter and her boyfriend. To avoid the typical congestion at our mountain restaurants, we decided to break for lunch just before noon. 

This was a self-serve restaurant at the ski resort in which we just had to fight for ourselves and by ourselves to find a rare table and aside for ordering our food at the counter and paying it at the cashier, the interaction with the personnel wasn’t much and wasn’t there. 

The food was abundant but just okay in quality, and when I paid the bill with my card, I was presented with the terminal asking me to leave a tip of various importance and also not to leave one at all.

I didn’t like this kind of options that as become generalized everywhere I go, as I felt pressured to leave something in exchange for no great service or nothing fabulous in terms of experience, so, I finally choose to leave nothing. 

To conclude, when I asked the cashier for a receipt, she said that her terminal wasn’t able to deliver one. I thought “Thank you for nothing!” and left not feeling guilty.

Skiing in the rain!

While dancing in the rain made Fred Astaire famous there’s nothing exciting in doing this for real. The same of course holds true for skiing. 

I’ve taught skiing in the rain while I was in Australia and, trust me, it wasn’t fun. Winter rain used to be extremely rare in Park City, but more recently it’s been poking its head and reminded us that global warming is no fake news and is being played in a theater closer to us. 

It’s absolutely true that the snow limit is steadily rising and the best proof of this is to witness what is happening in the French Alps this Holiday season, with half of the ski resorts being closed because of mild weather. The terrible conditions are messing up the lives of 400,000 French people who make a living through skiing. 

The video below is from today in Les Gets, a resort close to my hometown situated at 3,845 high (1170 meters) where skiers are sliding down remnant of ski slopes under a pouring rain. 

This scene makes me fear terribly for the future of skiing and reminds me that I need to ski this afternoon at Park City before it’s too late!

Ski-anonymity?

Have you noticed how hard it can be to spot a friend, a neighbor or a celebrity skiing anywhere on the slopes? 

Since today (at least in America) most mountain visitors wear a helmet, goggles and a mask, it’s virtually impossible to know who is behind the attire, unless you’ve followed, heard or know extremely well the person either by their ski style or the color combination and originality of the clothes they wear.

That’s when you come to the evidence that if one needs to exercise incognito, skiing or snowboarding might be the best activities for that! Nothing says this better than Michelle Obama, our former First Lady who hated the both her fishbowl-like and security-heavy existence at the White House. 

She wrote: “The most liberating activity of all turned out to be downhill skiing, a sport with which I had little experience but that quickly became a passion,” She paid multiple visits to Liberty Mountain, a small Pennsylvania ski area where, with her friends, she could “don helmets, scarves, and goggles and blend into any crowd.” 

So, if you too famous or too easily recognized, winter-sports might be your activity of choice!

Getting to 75

Since I was born at the end of the year, I’ve had plenty of time to get used to my new three-quarter of a century birthday. 

Five years ago in going through the 70 years threshold, I already considered that I had entered old age and since that time, I have warmed up to the thought that I soon would be old, which might be a fitting attribute given my new age. 

This is now time to take stock of what I have to carry on into advanced age and make the very best out of a unique and challenging opportunity. First, fear that has mobilized and poisoned my youth is quickly fading away and making room for an increased appreciation for appreciation, discovery, love and passion. 

All this blends wonderfully well with a reduced time span that amplifies the need for making the best of every single minute and stop squandering precious moments. 

Then, there’s the need for saving everything that still work in our bodies and maintain it in good condition and if the physical is mostly in maintenance mode, focus on the mental for continued improvement by debating more, reading more quality material and embracing modernity to keep up with the world and learn at the same time. 

In short, depending on how we set the scene, advancing in age is bringing us a precious and varied life that can only enrich us!

Healing at 75

Twelve days after my ski collision, I’ve been healing a lot, but I’m still hurting and it’s taking more time than I had anticipated. 

The very worst has been for me to find the right spot in bed and also to buckle my ski boots and get out of them when I hit the slopes, but with the help of my daughter and current ski companion, the latter has been much easier, particularly when the temperature are warmer. 

Of course, I realize that as I continue to age, many of my body functions become less efficient—including my ability to heal from injuries. This is associated with reduced muscle stem cell function and decreased quantities of muscle stem cells. This means that healing after injury is much slower, thus good for cultivating patience in general. 

So my take-away at this point in my (still) active career is to refrain from getting hurt and be more prudent, but that a lot easier said than done!

Time to learn something new…

For a while, I had been looking at smartwatches, not that I had some before, but that was before watches paired up with smartphone and those were made by Suunto or Garmin. 

I owned them both, but eventually let them die of a natural death and returned to my cheap, but super accurate atomic Casio. 

So, when my daughter bought me a smartwatch for Christmas I wasn’t totally taken aback or rather surprised. 

I knew it was part of my small “bucket list” but what had unconsciously held me back was the need for learning how to use it. 

Now, that’s it, I have no choice, but learn a new set of skills, so wish me luck!

Choosing between quantity and quality of skiing

When I explained my recent skiing accident to a friend, he brought up an element that I had never suspected. 

Just like me, lots of skiers are now obsessed by the amount of vertical drop they can accumulate on the slopes and, as a result, ski faster than they should to accumulate an increasingly larger number and, I guess brag about it. 

I realized I might be a bit like this and instead of falling into that quantitative trap I might be better advised in producing some higher-quality skiing. 

How can I do this? Well this will be the topic of an upcoming blog…

Catching hit and run-away skiers

A hit and run, whether it’s in a car, bike, boat or ski is known in law as “Failure to stop or report an accident”. It’s also a criminal offense in any case most everywhere where injury or damage has been caused. 

The big question is “How do catch a run-away offender on a ski slope?” Try to imagine yourself, skiing with someone and that person gets hit by a reckless skier. What can you really do? Tough indeed if there’s no one accompanying the two of you, it’s hard to forget about the fallen and possibly injured individual and chase the perpetrator. 

It’s then left to willing witnesses or safety personnel if they’re available on the spot, willing and able to chase the skier. In that situation, it becomes almost impossible to provide a description of that person, unless their attire is so unique that it can can be instantly spotted anywhere on the mountain. 

Without obvious solutions, I suggest that ski resorts set up video cameras in highly trafficked areas as well as major ski run intersection and also at the base of every single lift. Since it’s easy to remember the time of the collision, it would suffice then to review what happened in the general area where the collision took place, provided a camera has recorded the incident. 

Then, when the delinquent’s clothing and appearance has been identified, investigate each lift camera and review the users to match the culprit with one or several entries at a time that reasonably precedes the time of impact and once identified correlate the picture with the information tied to the ski pass of that person that has been pinged by the RFID gate or similar system. 

Not only could that strategy catch reckless users after a hit and run, but also warn potential predators to slow down and that they’re watch at all time, risking their season passes. Granted, that requires a little bit of work, but a sure way to identify a good suspect!

Useful skill to learn?

I sleep on my stomach, more rarely on the side, but can’t do it on my back. The two times I had broken ribs and this time, following my recent ski fall on my shoulder, sleeping has been a major challenge, because I find myself totally incapable of sleeping on my back. 

I’ve tried many time without success and this is a skill that I’d love to master. Sure positioning one’s self on the stomach can help the airways stay open to reduce snoring and alleviate mild apnea, but there are many good other reasons to sleep on one’s back. 

Sleep specialists say that sleeping on the side or back is considered more beneficial than sleeping on the stomach like I do. In either of these sleep positions, it's easier to keep the spine supported and balanced; this relieves pressure on the spinal tissues and enables the muscles to relax and rest. 

Sleeping on one’s back also alleviates lower back pain and it would make my sleeping on an airplane seat a lot easier during long-haul or night flights, so it makes that skill even more endearing and very worth learning? 

Who know? I might get serious about doing it!

Time to get back on skis!

This afternoon, I finally got back on my skis, as I went skiing with my daughter and my grandson. The snow was incredibly good, with very few people on the slopes, but the weather was freezing, so much so that our outing was cut short by my companions' lack of tolerance for arctic cold. 

The good news, however, was that my return to skiing after my shoulder injury caused by the December 15 collision went much better than expected. Right before I went skiing, my body was still pretty stiff, my shoulder still hurting, but once I hit the snow, everything magically worked. 

We started out with a few easy runs and soon found ourselves in deep, windblown snow, tough terrain, and had a blast! 

The only difficult part was removing my ski boots when we were done, but my two companions tackled the task of extracting me from them by the upper cuff of my boots stiffened by the freezing cold open. 

I now have good reasons to believe that my skiing career is not over yet!

Hello, Winter Solstice!

Today is the day when the sun is going to show up more and more for the lucky of us who live in the northern hemisphere. 

In fact it’s the real Christmas or other religiously-based celebrations that mark our busy holiday season. 

The end of darkness, the renewal of light and the hope for warmer and longer days ahead. 

Since I live at a 40 degree latitude, darkness doesn’t hit me as bad as if I lived in Vancouver, London or Stockholm. 

My solar panels will have to return to work once they shed the thick cover of snow that send them on vacation for a while every winter and we'll all continue to move forward towards a great maturity, more experiences, discoveries and a new tan this summer. 

Have a great Solstice Day!

The five laws of stupidity (part 2)

As promised, I’ll try to explain how Professor Cipolla view stupidiy and its five laws that make it a danger to the world. 

To help us visualize his concept, he partitioned humans in four main quadrants: Intelligent, Bandit, Helpless and of course, Stupid, These quadrants show how the above traits can be beneficial or detrimental to the individual or to society.

Now, here are Cipolla's five laws: 

Law 1: Everyone always and inevitably underestimates the number of stupid people in circulation 

No matter how many idiots you think you’re surrounded by, you are invariably underestimating the total. This problem is compounded by the biased assumption that some people are intelligent because of superficial factors like their job, education, or other traits that we think might rule out stupidity. 

Law 2: The probability that a person is stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person. 

That one seems a little bit arbitrary and Cipolla might be going on limb by postulating that stupidity is a variable that remains constant in all populations. Every category you can imagine – gender, ethnicity, education, income, nationality and nations – has a fixed percentage (?) of stupid people in quantities that Cipolla didn’t measure. 

Law 3. A stupid person will causes losses to other people without benefiting from their action. 

That's the golden law of stupidity: A stupid person causes problems for others without any clear benefit for themselves. The stupid person will harass you without any reason, without any advantage, without any plan, at the most improbable times and places. You get absolutely no rational warning signs and are at their complete his mercy. 

Law 4: Non-stupid people always underestimate the destructive power of stupid individuals. 

People who aren’t stupid tend to forget that at all times, in all places, and under all circumstances, dealing and/or associating with stupid people is always a costly mistake. We underestimate idiots, and we do so at our peril. 

Law 5: A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person. 

Its direct consequence: a stupid person is more dangerous than a bandit. Essentially stupid people are dangerous and harmful because reasonable can’t difficult to imagine and understand unreasonable behavior. They can understand the logic of a bandit, it’s bad but always rational, not true of the stupid. 

It’s pretty obvious to me that non-stupid people are neither perfect, nor consistent. Sometimes people act intelligently, sometimes they’re abused, at other times they behave selfishly, or show a little bit of everything. On the other hand, the stupid are models of consistency, acting at all times with unwavering idiocy. 

Okay, that’s it, now you know the whole deal and I hope you won’t fall in the “stupid” trap!

The five laws of stupidity

Sometimes, Italians are good at coming up with “universal laws”. 

Think for example of the Pareto principle developed Vilfredo Pareto in 1896 and enunciating the 80/20 rule. 

More recently, in 1976, Professor Cipolla published a 60-page essay describing the fundamental laws of a force he perceived as the greatest existential threat to humanity: stupidity. 

Right, you’ve read correctly: STUPIDITY. Since I find the subject interesting and worth dissecting it for our mutual benefit, we’ll explore it in our next blog!

My take on the football World Cup

Even though I’ve never played soccer and don’t care for Qatar, I enjoyed watching for games during the World Cup. 

I think team sports are slowly but surely replacing organized religion and their saints, with new Messiahs like Messi or Mbampé, his spiritual son. 

Sure FIFA, the NFL or the NBA are dens of thieves and team sports being awash with money, unlike what religion would claim, is immoral. 

Back to the World Cup, the French team was clearly inferior to the Argentinians that played cohesively and after a game rich in ups and downs, the South Americans fully deserved their victory. 

It was nice to watch, but again, I prefer being out and about exercising that watching any team sports.

Anatomy of a ski collision

Usually, I try to ski fast to get ahead of the pack and to prevent being rear-ended. 

A few days ago, I was skiing under a lift that I particularly enjoy when the weather is cold and foggy, but that intersects with a highly trafficked ski run at its bottom. 

So here I was, doing laps and on my way, skiing fairly fast, but in total control at my used speed, moving to catch the chairlift when I see a large-frame male skier on my right catching up with me and skiing in parallel towards the same direction. 

Ahead of us and in the space separating us was a female snowboarder moving seemingly across the slope in the path of the fast skier on my left. I fraction of second latter, I saw that man hit the snowboarder on its right, making her bounce violently towards my path. 

She was now in my way and there was no way I could correct to avoid contact. In less than a fraction of second I thought to myself “I’m going to kill that person”. Then I found myself on the ground at the level of the lady now stopped with both of my ski bindings release and an excruciating pain on the corner of my left shoulder. 

The runaway skier who provoked the chain reaction was long gone. I remembered he wore a pale yellow jacket but that’s about it. Thankfully the snowboarder got up and was okay. Immediately, skiers and even a ski patrol stopped to inquire if we needed help. 

For the sake of me, I couldn’t provide a precise description of the guilty skier except for the color of his parka. My pain was awful, but I was under an adrenaline rush, so I put on my skis back on and decided to take another run to exorcise the incident. I skied okay but the pain was unrelenting. 

I had a horrible time getting out my ski boots that were very cold (it was 22 degrees out) and I manage to drive home without too much difficulty. Now that the adrenaline flow was used up I was really hurting. I took a pain killer and tried to reconstruct the incident.

From what I could draw from the scene that stayed in my mind (yet, I’m not saying I’m totally right in my interpretation), the fast skier must have gone over the board, impacting the snowboarder on it right binding, made her bounce like a ball on billiard towards me at an extremely high rate of speed and energy.

Instantly, the tip of her board must have hit the side of my right boot causing my binding to release why I flew in the air and fell on my left shoulder. 

A lucky chain-reaction that prevented a direct and potentially lethal hit between me and the snowboarder. Now this open the question as to faced with hit and run skiers? 

How do you find them after the collision? I’ll soon have a few ideas to share...

The perfect ski boot

For me, a good ski boot is one that I can totally forget from the time I slip my foot into it till it’s the end of my ski day. No pain whatsoever at anytime is what it takes for a ski boot to make a passing grade with me. 

Then of course, you’ll ask me what about performance? If the boot is stiff enough for my weight and offers enough resistance when I lean forward, it will work fine for me. If I were racing on water-injected, man-made snow this might be a different consideration, but I’m just a recreational skier who skis faster and use more difficult runs than the average skiing population. 

Thus, I don’t want nor need to have my feet held in a vise. If that were the case, my feet would hurt and I would have to unbuckle after each run to regain blood circulation while riding the lift. 

This would defeat my initial goal. Finally there’s the look. To me, it’s secondary to the comfort and frankly, who are the skiers admiring ski boot styling and colors in the lift line. 

Comfort is my priority, looks stand far behind; besides all ski boots look pretty much the same. So, you’ve got it, a good ski boot to me is all about comfort, period.

Good life is effective fear management

Before we revisit what fear is all about, it might help to understand what are its opposites. Some say it’s trust, courage, calmness and equanimity. 

Other are less clear-cut in their definition of fear, and claim that any situation must be clearly identified before an opposite can found against fear, and suggesting that the opposite of fear is actually how we deal with it, suggesting that if fear isn’t analyzed, it can make the situation worse. 

My own definition would be audacity, love and passion, which shows how that concept of fear and its opposite are so fluid. While I believe that fear is totally justified if one is fighting in Ukraine or must go through a rattlesnake pit and have no access to anti-venom medication, there are lots of situations in which fear is hard to validate and is a pure hindrance to humanity’s progress in a vast variety of fields.

When I look back upon my pretty long life, I can say that in most cases, fear has been a major roadblock that has inhibited my personnel growth and my progress. 

Sure, hindsight is always 20/20 vision, but that is a truism widely shared by a large segment of the population. Perhaps, on the other hand, fear has saved me at time, but this is not even certain. 

The conclusion that I can draw at that point, is that fear plays a capital role in life, careers, sex life, religion or in sports and that parental and public education has been both woefully lacking and unable to help humanity in an area that could make a huge difference in people’s lives...

The formidable power of humility

Fame, celebrity and wealth are very dangerous situations that end up affecting most people very negatively. They simply, as the saying goes, “get to their heads”. 

The best current example is Elon Musk who just a year or so ago was still my hero and has recently turn into the most despicable individual the planet has seen. I admire his rockets and love his cars, but I simply despise what he’s become. 

There are many other examples, no just in the world of business or politics, but also in sports and show business among other places. Some people simply forget to remain loyal to their roots, remember who they used to be and where they truly come from. 

They’ve lost track of humility as their head it getting ready to explode as they realize how unique, glorious and rich they’ve become. Yes, the trap is set there for some of us to get into its way and fall into it sooner than later. 

Too bad they’ve missed the path of humility that it a not just a gift, it’s the only treasure there is for the taking. As Jesus used to say: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth!”

Dynastar or Head skis?

This year, I picked up a pair of brand new Head Monster skis at a garage sale, for just $175 including bindings. 

They look to be such a good deal that I figured out that I could use them as “rock skis” along with my old pair of Dynastar Legend that have graduated to that old-age status. 

So I’ve been using alternatively both pairs of ski in the 20 days I’ve been skiing this early season in the wonderful and abundant powder we have received, and I have come to the painful but true conclusion that the Dynastar that are much lighter and easier to maneuver work better for me. 

These Head skis are heavier and are simply too much work to turn in deep, rutted and irregular snow. This is the old debate between Austrian and French skis, in which the former were designed to make skiers suffer while the latter were created to bring smiles on their faces. 

Granted, this spring when the snow is uniform and harder, these skis will work very well, but that limits their use to a much narrower window. 

In conclusion, this confirm my initial finding that Dynastar model the very best for the majority of my time on the snow and clearly underscore the need for picking a specialized product that matches what its user need and want...

A creative political contribution

Yesterday, as we were walking on our snowy roads, we ran into many elk droppings all over the place and this reminded me of a political contribution we made several years ago.

In America, politicians constantly ask their constituents for money in order to get elected. In fact, that’s their primary job, much more so than making laws and governing. 

Prior to 2016 and until that time, it wasn’t uncommon for us to get requests from both parties since we were registered as Independents. Once too many, we got that request from the Trump campaign to pitch in some money, including a self-reply postage-paid envelope. We hated the guy from the get go. 

That’s when I got the brilliant idea of filling the envelope with several dozens of solid deer dropping that are common place in our yard and mail them to the Trump campaign. 

I took a real pleasure in imagining the dry beads literally exploding and rolling in multiple directions off the desk and into the large room where the envelope had been opened. 

A cherished vision I could take to the bank.

FIFA uncovered

As the world is mesmerized by the on-going 2022 soccer world cup, Netflix has been showing its documentary about FIFA and its wrongdoings that are using the same ingredients as what goes inside the more repulsive bribery crimes. 

If you can see that film and read between the lines, you will realize why Switzerland and its infamous banking network is a must-have headquarters location for world sporting federations, including of course, the International Olympic Committee. 

We just finished watching the four-part series and have found it as much entertaining as it was informative. Without spoiling the story we came up with two take-away. 

First. it took the US Justice Department to bring down Sepp Blatter and the house of FIFA, while none of the European governments lifted one finger to bring up the scandal into the open (instead, France’s President Sarkozy was the one igniting part of it with Qatar candidacy). 

Second, the two men in command, Blatter and Platini didn’t end up in prison as they should have, with the help of the Swiss Government that “delegated” the pains to the executives and associates below their chain of command, and Blatter even had the guts to claims “absolutely no responsibility” for the mess. 

So, if you don’t see the piece, you’ve got the gist of it. 

The unstoppable Klaus Obermeyer!

Last week on December 2nd, the Aspenite Klaus Obermeyer was ready to begin his 100th year of skiing as he had just celebrated his 103rd birthday and was waiting for Buttermilk ski area to open up for the 2022-23 season which is slated for December 17. 

If you regularly read this blog, you’ll know he’s been my new hero for many years now, not just because of his longevity but because of his steadfast positive outlook on life. When the Aspen Daily News just asked him how the last year had gone for him, he said: 

“Everything goes well. We live on a beautiful ranch. I’m still involved in the business. It’s just a very, very good life. The great thing in our lives, I think, is the freedom of perception. We have the freedom of how we wish to perceive things around us. We can perceive them negatively or we can perceive them positively. I’m trying to be positive. That’s nice, that’s working and that’s great, you know.” 

Happy belated birthday Klaus, keep up the good work!

Klaus Obermeyer instructing a group of students in the 1950s (Image: Aspen Times)

Winter Games 2030: Hurry up and Wait!

If you’ve been following the upcoming decision for the 2030 Winter Olympics, you may know that until recently, Salt Lake City, Sapporo and Vancouver were interested. 

Yet, last month the British Columbia government said it wouldn’t support a Vancouver bid, which could be a major setback to the 2010 host, even though the Canadian organizers haven’t said that the governmental decision would kill their bid.

Since all three cities are technically ready with existing infrastructures, their candidacies make some sense. 

With this in mind, the announcement by the Olympic Committee as to which city will be picked has been put on hold till the early Fall of 2023. That should leave the IOC some time to discuss climate change related issues, winter sport sustainability, and other issues. 

As for a Salt Lake City candidacy, I’m sure that the Mormon Church (and therefore its Theocratic State) would love to have them for propaganda purpose, but not me. 

We don’t need more traffic and people around Park City, unless the US Government is ready to pay for superior transit infrastructure like the Hyperloop or similar solutions, but I wouldn’t bet the farm on that one, that negotiation should have been done before receiving the Games!

Republicans' embarrassment

Now that the 51st senate seat is going to the Democrats and Trump company is being found guilty, what can the American Right do? Removing itself from Trump is like getting an overly chewed old gum off a jean. It’s almost impossible. They’re stuck with the guy.

Either way they’ll lose. First if he gets their nomination, he can no longer win, and if he doesn’t, he’ll run as an independent and the entire right will lose. 

The only hope for the Republicans is that Trump gets indicted by the Attorney General, is tried and found guilty and if he doesn’t end up in prison, that he won’t be able to run for political office again. 

Still in that event, they’ll come out badly damaged and it will take them a long time to get rid of Trump’s stain over their party.

Effort, the gift that keeps on giving!

There are many points in life when we believe we won’t need to make any efforts… forever! 

For instance, when we get out of school, when we’re released from military duties and of course, for those of us who finally decide to retire. At long last, we can enjoy the effortless life we have been secretly dreaming of. 

The end of the rainbow, that special moment when we, at long last, can “live the dream” without hindrance or people watching over our shoulders and telling us what to do, all that without the fear of lacking anything.

This in fact rarely happens, if at all. At least, it has not happened for me. Instead, the pleasure of making some effort has been sneaking all along around me, and has earned a growing place in my life. 

It has covertly developed, like my passion for lifetime exercise sprung up out of a daily running routine and has spilled over my skiing, walking, hiking or doing a myriad of things every day. 

This need for effort has in reality increased in importance because I’ve let it, and have enjoyed its existence to the point that I couldn’t live without it. Effort makes me appreciate the results it brings into my life, is highly addictive, surrounds every moment of my existence and is something I look forward to every morning. 

In reality, it now makes me dread death, because it will also mean the end of my daily dose of efforts.

Cure for the bad-day skiing blue

Last week I went skiing but I didn’t feel in top shape, I probably was a bit tired physically, especially when I found myself right in the middle of my “Ninety-Nine-90” playground, a rather steep hill peppered with narrow couloirs, tree and cliffs. 

I really felt that I was skiing poorly and in total truth I was. I had a tough time initiating my turns, finished them on the “back-seat”, hesitated too much and in one simple word, didn’t feel in top shape. I was too fearful to feel liberated enough to ski well. 

That’s when I remembered what I consider to be the pillar of modern alpine ski technique, which we call “Anticipation” in French. This particular aspect of skiing focuses on thrusting the pelvis down and into the turn, so it positively and powerfully motors the change in direction. 

This move that I prefer calling “Pelvic thrust” incorporates the idea of anticipation, but makes it more powerful and dynamic. In any tough and steep terrain it acts as a sure-footed trigger to execute secure and controlled turns. 

That said, it’s not intuitive at all. Even after one learns it, practices and masters it, it tend to “vaporize” after a short period of time. Like the “Fear of God” to religious believers, it has to be regularly re-awakened. 

So that’s what I did that day and it instantly worked magic to totally transform the rest of my day! So skiers, remember that when you feel lazy, tired, fearful or forgetful and revert to your early days ski moves, it’s time re-awaken these fundamental elements of technique that you thought you were too good to remember. 

Take if for me! 

Fearing the future?

This decade isn’t quite the “roaring twenties” of the previous century. 

With actors like Trump, Putin and Covid, our future has gathered darker clouds in its skies and it’s become much harder to stay positive about tomorrow and how it might affect our family, friends and communities. 

That little cartoon captures perfectly the collective apprehension we all have about the future, and while I sometimes feel that way too, I’m forcing myself to sprinkle some spirit of adventure into that bleak situation to make it appealing appealing enough. 

So let's be eager and energized to turn a new page when the new year arrives!

The hardest way to age well

Aging is an experience all of us will have to go through, one way or another. 

Sure there will be incidents along the way that we can’t quite totally control, but there are many areas of our lives that we can act upon, regardless of the intensity of effort we’re able to apply to them and that’s what I want to talk about today. 

I’m talking about constantly striving to do better than what’s expected of us and even search deeper into the realm of our capabilities for adding a few salutary hurdles here and there, just because what doesn’t kill us always make us stronger or so it seems to me. 

As a matter of fact, I never take any physical shortcut when I’m given a chance. Instead, I’ll go the extra mile and make the task a bit harder so I pick up a few figments of strength and experience in the process. 

By continuously working at strengthening myself, if I don’t make spectacular progress, I know and am convinced that I might regress less that way, and to my mind that’s tantamount of victory over aging and getting decrepit!

Rehearsing my Christiana ski turns for Sweden

After my season in Australia, I had been named on the French ski demo team to travel and perform all the way to northern Sweden. 

Members of that small team were Michel Fabre, Alain Morand and myself. I probably was picked because of my fluency in English, but that’s all I can remember. 

I don’t know who was briefing and coaching us before we left for Stockholm, but suffice to say that we traveled 280 miles from my home, to Isola 2000 a two-years old brand new ski resort near Nice and rehearsed our ski Christiana turns that, at that time, were the holy grail of the French ski technique. 

I will need to ask both Michel and Alain what was the program of the few days spent on the slopes overlooking the French Riviera as I would love to remember, so check that blog for a possible update. 

At any rate after a half a century time keeps on flying! 

Isola 2000 in the early 70s...

The high cost of giving up

About one week ago, conditions at my preferred ski spot weren’t perfect. The snow was a bit tricky to ski and I didn’t feel in total control and in perfect shape, this was after run #1 under Ninety-Nine 90 towers. 

The second and third runs weren’t much better either, and I was wondering if I shouldn’t call it a day and go home, before I fell or get hurt. 

Yet, I was there, the skies were blue, the snow not so bad, so I persevered a bit and persevered a little bit more and soon I had racked eleven runs on what is arguably one of the most demanding area of Park City Mountain. 

At the end, everything had fallen into place, I was elated and I valued the power of persistence over the horrible temptation of quitting. 

Giving up is always a lot easier than sticking to a task we don’t have quite a big appetite for, but as the French like to say, “l’appétit vient en mangeant” (eating does stimulate the appetite)...

Skiing an empty mountain

Yesterday, my wife and I went skiing. The weather was good and the snow excellent, absolutely the perfect powder Utah is famous for. Just missing on the slopes where… people, not lots of them, but even a few of them. 

The entire mountain was empty. No one ahead of us and better yet, no one coming from behind to buzz at super-high speed. I had noticed the same rare skiers on our long Thanksgiving Holiday weekend and have surmise that given the horrific job it did all of last season, many of Park City Mountain clients have decided not to renew their season pass with the incompetent operator.

Instead of buying the Epic pass from Vail Resorts, many probably went for its Ikon competitor that added Snowbasin in addition to Solitude, Brighton, Alta, Snowbird and Deer Valley, all of them in Utah. 

Well, this is what happens when service providers “forget” to treat their clients decently!

Self managing envy

The opposite of envy is generosity, that is, finding joy and admiration in the success of other people and sorrow in their failure. 

If envy happens in our lives, first we have to recognize that it’s there and then, when we do, if it’s not used as a way to emulate ourselves and is felt as a hindrance to our well being, do something about it, and this is what we’ll explore today, short of seeing a therapist of course.

First, envy needs to be confronted and replaced with positive feelings like gratitude and admiration. The first step is to identify what creates envy. Often, it’s a person or friend that is similar to us; if we have a low self-esteem, it becomes easier to see others as threats or just happier than we are. 

Then we need to research who we truly are, what defines us. For example, if we value kindness and believe in reciprocity, we're less likely to feel insecure about competing with anyone over any of these elements. Of course, it’s important to acknowledge what’s not in our true self and could trigger envy of comparison, but is outside of what’s the real us. 

When we feel the need to measure ourselves against others, let’s focus on our own needs and try to get inspiration from others for the qualities we need to develop, but by all means we must never sell yourself short! Remember also that what we see in others is a surface-level detail and that they will rarely expose the negative sides of their lives. 

It's also essential to seek and keep the company of positive individuals and avoid the company of deeply competitive folks. In conclusion let’s always be grateful for what we have, fully appreciate what make us unique, always thank people who lift us up, seek their company and feel happy for all folks that surround us, staying away from self-deprecating talk, and always keeping in mind that we should always be in competition against ourselves and no one else.

Envying the non-envious

I wished Envy didn’t exist so I wouldn’t have to envy those who are not harboring that mostly negative feeling. But first, let’s be clear as to what we’re talking about; envy isn’t quite the same as its first cousin jealousy. 

Envy has to do with what individuals feel they miss in a vast variety of situations. Jealousy on the other hand, is relationship driven and deals with the fear of precisely losing a relationship, so today we’ll focus solely on envy. 

Typically, envy is an emotion that occurs when someone wants something another person has, whether it’s a material possession or perceived success, stature or just appearance. Infamous for being one of our seven deadly sins, envy is a complex emotional experience that can consist of many elements: longing, feelings of inferiority, ill-will toward an envied person, resentment, and guilt. 

When a person becomes envious, it’s often caused by some degree of self-dissatisfaction. For instance, when an individual believes that having what another person has would increase their own happiness. It could also include a wish that the other person did not have the envied object or quality. Envy develops when we compare ourselves to others and just feel inferior.

While this process is a natural one, it will invariably cause pain and uneasiness, and be an indicator of lower self-esteem or lacking the object of that envy. Modern social media is exploiting the feelings of envy on such platforms as Facebook and Instagram that often trigger envy from those who might not experienced the same degree of success or happiness as those portrayed on line, leading to depression and pain. 

To add to the complexity of that feeling, many folks are reluctant to admit their envy, because this emotion is often seen as socially unacceptable. But like all human emotions, envy is a natural and common experience. That said, if envy doesn’t seem to be a desirable feeling, it might in some instances offer some positive aspects. 

That’s true when envy is motivating, and drives someone to achieve and reach out for more. It can help in the pursuit of a degree or a career. Researchers also believe envy may have an evolutionary purpose, as it makes people want and ultimately strive to obtain the resources they need. If that trait really messes up with our lives, therapy or self-help might be necessary. We’ll try to see what options are available in an upcoming blog. 

In the meantime, do your best to positively channel that double-edged feeling!

“Such a good skier…”

Over the weekend I watched the ski races in Killington and in Lake Louise, and on many occasions, I thought something like “She’s such a great skier!” Top athletes have honed their skills to become so impressive these days. 

But what does that expression means? To me, there are a few fundamental ingredients that make a great skier: Fearlessness, physical strength, nimbleness, feel for the snow and hard work and not necessarily in that order. 

All this to say that if the first four attributes listed add up to the creation of a “great skier”, the latter element, hard work, is often capable to raise or equal them all and sometimes reach the top, acting as a formidable fuel and becoming that great equalizer all of us strive for. 

Then there's the “spark” called passion, and depending on its intensity it can magnify and transcend the ordinary and open up the door to the remarkable. 

Natural talents are also very dangerous as they often tend to get the athletes that are endowed by them, thinking that they are invulnerable and truly the best, which then in turn can be fodder for their downfall. 

If natural talents were not dealt to you and yet you want to become an exceptionally good skier, just rely on some extraordinary hard work and you’ll become “such a good skier” too!

Accepting the finality of death

On the eve of Cyber-Monday, time to realistically get down to earth for a few moments. 

When one has concluded, as I have, that religions and life after death, reincarnation or other flimsy theories and the like are just man-made, pure imaginary and magic, then it’s time to either keep believing in that improbable stuff or realize and accept that death is it. It’s as inevitable as it is final. 

It’s the end of the line after living in a pretty good mixture of hell and paradise, hopefully more of the later, of course. It then become of matter of acceptance and I’ve made significant progress in that domain.

I now accept that death is final and have become so open to acceptance that I also accept all checks, in any domination that you are willing to send me! 

Just kidding...

Carbon-credit as catholic indulgence

By now, many of us have heard and know that a carbon-credit is a certificate or a permit that give someone the right to emit a set amount of carbon dioxide or a different type of greenhouse gas. 

Obviously, their goal is to allow the laws of market to drive industrial and commercial processes towards low emissions, less carbon or bad gases spewed into the atmosphere. You pay to pollute. 

In theory, this approach can be used to finance carbon reduction plans between trading partners around the world. We certainly could ask the question, “Where does the money go?” 

While the carbon credit system, as virtual as it is, could work in large developed countries, it’s not enough to fight climate change in developing countries that are unlikely to adopt as they prioritize economic growth and reduced poverty over their consequences on emissions. 

It reminds me of other flimsy concept used by religion, like “born-again virginity” or the idea that after having having premarital sex, a person can be restored to virginity by a spiritual renewal, vowing to remain sexually pure until marriage and asking God for forgiveness. 

Another good example of similar good-conscience restoration scheme, is the Catholic concept of “Indulgence” as a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for sins. 

It’s generally described as a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, that can under certain conditions can be granted under Christ and all of the saints. 

Simple, easy, magic and clean, just like good carbon credits!

The “tricky snow” ski lesson

No matter how you look at it, snow is never the same and so are skiing conditions! This early ski season provided me with never-seen-before conditions. 

The snow had fallen abundantly in altitude since the beginning of November with up to 1 meter accumulation, but the uppermost slopes weren’t open to skiers until three weeks later. 

That resulted in the few good turns in fluffy but already desiccated snow for a brief couple of hours after opening, but when I came to ski a little bit later, the snow became downright dangerous on steep slopes as skis wanted to dive deep into a broken crust, twist around and throw the skier.

In other words, the upper crust was barely supporting the skier’s weight and the rest of the layer was all powdery and lacking cohesion. The net result was that one had to ski extremely carefully, lightly as well as smoothly and still hope for the best! 

Two days later the upper crust had refrozen slightly and was now extremely fast and this was mostly felt on very steep sections where acceleration after clearing the fall-line was instantaneous. 

Another good reason to dial-down speed and aggressiveness, but all in all, a good lesson under these peculiar circumstances that might never serve me again!

Google before making assumptions!

After waiting five years, my wife finally received her first retirement check from the French administration. 

Sure enough, at first sight it wasn’t right and was made to my wife’s maiden name, which I thought would be impossible to cash at our bank. 

We tried to cash it to no avail with a smart-phone, so I was very unhappy about my former country’s bureaucrats and thought to myself “Here we go again!” grumbling about their lack of competence. 

As a result, an even though the issue was quite trivial in the great scheme of things, I went to bed with bad feelings which is never something desirable. 

Yet, first thing this morning, I Googled my problem and discovered a way around to it. Now, I just hope it will work and will make sure to remember that, when in doubt, I should always Google first!

More thoughts on COP27

The last climate junket in Egypt got hijacked and distracted by countries asking for reparations they may never received. Look at it as a Band-aid addressing the damage, but ignoring the cause. Instead, no strong measures have been taken to slow down CO2 emissions and global warming. 

Everything will get worse and eventually make the planet inhabitable by humans. The elephant in the room was Big Oil, Gas and Coal, the culprit, and the the countries looking for compensation went after governments instead; don’t ask my why. 

What should have been done was simple and capable to satisfying everyone: Levy a global carbon tax that would have hit the biggest fossil fuel users, namely the developed nations, including China and India, as we know them. 

Then, that carbon tax would have been redistributed based on needs and to specifically repair or prevent climate-relate projects by countries affected by global warming. 

This would have had an immediate effect to accelerate a pull away from fossil energies, probably cause a severe global recession as less demand for fossil fuels might paradoxically have raised their cost per unit as producers might lose needed revenues. 

This would get us progressively waned from fossil fuels at the expense of a harsh global recession. The end result is that we’d lessen global warming but the injured parties, the plaintiff’s nations, would get much less than what they had hoped for. 

No matter how we look at it, there will be an incredibly high price to pay to get us out of the jam Big Oil got us into when they were well aware of the damage they’d cause the planet. 

It’s always the same story: “Pay a lot now or even much more later”, and sitting on one’s hands usually, as the entire world is currently doing, means we’ll have to face the latter of the two options.

COP27, now what?

The COP27 is now over and aside from an agreement to establish a fund at the expense of taxpayers from developed countries, no sizable progress has been made to reduce global warming from what was agreed in Paris, but isn’t going to be met anyway and is likely to balloon to 3 degrees centigrade or more by 2040. 

So that meeting was about settling some dollars-and-cents accounting without addressing the elephant in the room that was global warming? A supreme waste of time, it seems. 

In my view, payments for loss and damage should be borne by Big Oil that new about the problem before the 1980s and hidden its consequences at the time, not by us, the taxpayers. Big industries, airlines, that relied on cheap fossil fuel to prosper should also be held accountable as they profited from that lie. 

That says, I can’t see any eagerness on the part of developed nation to put much into that fund, unless they levy a carbon tax and run their economies aground. The main objective they achieved was to participate in a high-profile, pleasant get-together after a comfortable flight, with fun activities for the spouses, great hotel accommodations and delicious meals.

Just like the proverbial frogs inside a boiling pot of water, we’ll feel the burn when we get there and when it will be too late, and in my view, much sooner than 2040!

Measuring carbon footprint

The 2022 United Nations COP27 conference has been flooding us with numbers. We’re now well aware of which countries are the largest polluters. 

The top-ten table shows it in case you wouldn’t remember, and on that list, it highlights countries that manufacture a lot of stuff (China, the US, South Korea, Japan or Germany) and a couple of nasty ones who are just good at polluting and messing up with the rest of the world (Russia and Iran). 

What counts most though is a per-capita CO2 emissions, in which a bunch of nations are emitting exceedingly big. Not so much the number one Palau, a tiny archipelago of Micronesian Island that must have fossil fuel leak somewhere, but Quatar, that’s now is sinisterly on the news everyday,

 We find these two top polluters at the helm again when it comes to ranking per-capita carbon footprint, so one could wonder what these two countries are up to along with their filthy-rich Arab brethren? 

What’s a bit more shocking is to see both Australia and Canada be such large CO2 among other advanced nations and ahead of the United States, that anyone would have suspected to be number one villain. 

Luxembourg flaunt its wealth behind the US, while Switzerland another super-rich European country finds ranks 77th behind Sweden and France, two notoriously frugal countries! 

This per-capita ranking mixes industries with household consumption, so we’ll need to find a way to show a ranking in that category, so ourselves can measure the room that we’ve left for improvement (obviously, I’m talking for the Australians and us, the North Americans). 

We’re still a very long way from number 203 and super frugal Burundi!

Who really invented the one-piece race ski suit ?

I’ve always believed that the first aerodynamic one-piece racing suit had been invented by the French sport garment manufacturer Fusalp. and was premiered during the 1966 Portillo World Championships that saw the clear domination of the French ski team.

According to some, an extensive physical training regiment was to be credited for the 16 out of 24 medals possible, but it’s certain that the never-seen-before sleek ski suits had an impact in terms in gaining a few critical fraction of seconds on the race course and, from the get go, somehow demoralized the other competitors. 

Today, with the passing of Hans Hess at 90, history is once more being revised. Allegedly, this Swiss gentleman came up with the idea of using his neighbor and diving pioneer Hannes Keller’s expertise, to develop an aerodynamic alpine racing suit while visiting the Lauberhorn races. 

The flapping trousers when jumping over the dog's head made "a noise as if an express train were passing by," recalls Hess. In 1969 both men founded Skin AG, with the goal of producing ski suits that fit like a second skin. 

Eventually, Hess was able to refine his product, and from 1971 Skin AG became supplier to the Swiss ski team. In the same year, Descente, the Japanese textile manufacturer, became aware of Hess' high-tech suits. Interest in working together developed following the Swiss victories at the 1972 Sapporo Olympics. 

From that point forward and to this day, Descente has been used by the Swiss. After hearing that nice story, I'm not convinced at all that Hess and Keller “invented” the sleek one-piece suit skiers use today. 

In fact, prior to Portillo, Léo Lacroix a finicky and technically-oriented racer was always looking for ways to improve athletes' performance, so he asked Fusalp's management to conduct  some wind-tunnel testing in order to study the behavior of existing ski clothing. 

He remembers: “That made us think, how can we get rid of all these flapping, jackets, pants or bibs, at high speed; there had to be a practical solution to that problem…” 

Something had to be done to drastically redesign these garments. Three month later, one-piece suits were readied just in time for the world championships in Chile and would become the tangible marker of a historic and overwhelming French victory. 

 It’s therefore impossible to ignore Léo Lacroix and Fusalp’s roles in originating, inventing and designing this new aerodynamic form of clothing that Skin AG eventually perfected. 

Who could disagree with that?

“You can be anything you want to be…”

Is this true that we can be anything we want? Partially, perhaps, but there’s no guarantee. 

Each human endeavors calls fro specific talents, skills and affinities that are not necessarily given to everyone, so there might be some material and intellectual limitations to the type of individual one would like to become in the course of their lifetime.

The affirmation might be true in many cases, but certainly not universally. Yet, it’s one of these popular myths that populate the American folk culture. 

You wanna be a fireman, an astronaut or an explorer? That’s probably feasible. Now is the Pope, Pablo Picasso or the Dalai-Lama on one’s crystal bowl? 

Any of these choices might get trickier, and along the same lines we could cover other careers or destinies that are so narrow that their probability might get much slimmer. 

Just like the fabled American Dream, becoming whatever we dream we want to be comes with a few caveats. Enough for me to just dreaming that I’m the real me and that’s already plenty!

First day on skis…

This past Wednesday was my first day on skis this winter. In the past I have calculated my number of lifetime ski seasons and “exaggerated” the count by one. 

This year is in fact be my 70th ski season and is an important milestone in my skiing life!

This said, there were very few skiers, the temperature was cold (around 30 degrees), but there was no wind, the snow was okay and I still remembered how to turn as dementia had not caught up with me yet! 

Only two lifts were running and during the two hours I skied, I managed to rack up more than 15,500 vertical feet, had a very good time, didn’t break anything and felt back in the groove again. 

Let’s hope that will set the tone for the rest of the season!

A complicated entry into the ski season

For the past 38 winters living in Park City, when I went skiing, I drove my car to the resort, found a parking sport relatively easily and was on my way. 

Today, things have changed for the worst. Vail Resorts that manages Park City Mountain decided to institute pay parking this season which is a royal nuisance and something that we needed like another hole inside the head. 

The cost is $25 if there is less than 4 passengers per vehicle and while a limited amount of parking passes were available for $950 I decided to pass. To mitigate the hassle for locals, the City decided to enhance a little bit its transit system by adding a micro transit that is on-demand from my home, then takes me to another bus stop that finally gets me to the ski resort. 

On average, this will take me some 30 to 40 minutes each way. There’s a phone app that works like Uber or Lyft and I am going to test it pretty soon. I’m not looking forward to that inconvenience, but this typifies the kind of First World problems we have to deal with and then I think about the daily life in Ukraine today, and my inner voice is told to immediately shut-up, and that’s the least I should do. 

There will be benefits, though. I will be able to leave home with my boots on and not have to get into them, and then try to get rid of them on the cold parking lot, plus I’ll leave the driving to someone else. 

So, we’ll try to explore that new situation, and in a few blogs from today, you’ll know how bad my predicament is in reality, and I hope that whatever the outcome really turn out to be, you won’t shed any tear for me. I wouldn’t deserve them anyway!

The electric car quandary

A few days ago, the New York Times ran a piece about the growing popularity of electric cars among consumers. 

As most countries are emerging from the pandemic and the supply chain problems that have made car-buying both difficult and very expensive, it’s undeniable that – at least in the US where I live – there’s a growing interest for electric cars which has been forcefully suppressed by Big Oil propaganda and disinformation about electric vehicles in general. 

In addition, their lack of availability and long wait-time, their high purchase price, many times without any government help, plus a generalized fear from the public, especially about range anxiety, recharging issues and simply speaking, a basic and widespread fear of change have hindered their popularity. 

Most importantly, perhaps, car manufacturers that began switching to that technology haven’t been able to deliver. In the US, for instance, Consumer Reports doesn’t like Tesla and give the cars terrible scores, yet, paradoxically, its owners almost fanatically love the car which defeat the magazine own ratings! 

As the early-adopter I’ve always been, I have owned one for more than 6 months now, and also love it madly. It’s the best automobile I’ve ever owned, but it also comes with significant differences and quirks that I’m learning to live with. Yes, change is always hard to swallow, especially when the user is almost 75 years old!

Eight billion, now what?

It was announced today that we’ve now passed the bar of 8 billion humans on earth. Next year, India is expected to surpass China as the most populous country. 

According to the UN, much of the population growth expected between now and 2050 will be coming from just eight countries – and half of them are in sub-Saharan Africa while the rest are in Asia. 

Andrea Wojnar, India’s representative for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), asserts that the story behind the world's eight billion population today is a story of triumph. She seems gung-ho about this big number and says that the majority of the world's population growth is concentrated in poorer countries with significantly lower emissions rates. 

They're not the ones creating the situation. That we knew, but they sure will eventually create their own emissions, drink the water and eat the food the planet won’t have. 

To make matters worse, since the West isn’t ready to pay willy-nilly for improving the education of these baby-mega-producing countries, guess where are 4 billion Africans will be forced to migrate to?