Still going bananas!

Since the mid nineties, we’ve made bananas part of our daily breakfast. I personally crush them every morning and that way, we find them most delicious! It’s fair to say that we have eaten more than 12,000 bananas to date, which is only one-tenth of a 40 ft container full of the tropical fruit. 

If anything, eating so many bananas hasn’t killed us yet, as its packed with many nutrients (vitamin B6, fiber, vitamin C and manganese as well as potassium). It’s also said to be a great mood lifter with the tryptophan it contains, a protein that’s converted into serotonin, a neurotransmitter that improves mood and well-being! 

Bananas are popular as 135 million metric tons are harvested each year and my wife and I don’t even begin to make a dent in that huge mass. 

Sure, it’s high in calories, but we make sure we burn those everyday so we can still get into our clothes...

Skiing my age in the bag!

At long last, I skied my age on Thursday, March 28! Last year, I reached 75 days on March 3, but that was the greatest ski year I ever had since living in Park City. Yesterday was a terrible day, except for some good powder up high on the mountain. Getting there and coming down were horrible, no visibility, wet snow and rain at the bottom!

For a while, I harbored doubts that I could ski my age this year, since my ski season got a bit curtailed following a December accident. 

That said, I learned two things this winter: I must make a concerted effort to avoid missing any ski day and push myself accordingly, and as time unfolds, this little stupid personal challenge will become increasingly difficult to fulfill. 

But you know me, I thrive on any challenge!

Let's go skiing virtually

Since about 2010, when I got a Gopro camera, I have produced many ski videos, first placing the camera on top of my helmet, then moving it to a more stable location over my chest and have showing family and friends where I skied around Deer Valley, Park City and occasionally, Snowbird. 

With the exception of my ski tips, my hands and my poles, there was no way someone could see me skiing, but this wasn’t the point. The video was simply shot to show where I was going and share with the viewer how it felt to see what I was seeing. 

Sure, depending on the radius of the turns, the occasional bump, there was a lot of rocking and rolling and it was easy to get motion sickness after seeing one of my flicks, but I felt that was a small price to pay for witnessing my crazy rides. 

So here we go again, this time with a video of my favorite ski run, under the 9990 chairlift towers, on the Canyons side of Park City. Just think for a minute that you are me, have stepped into my skis and are making a run with me. You might wish to take a slightly different route, you won't risk hitting a tree or get hurt whatsoever, feel the cold and your feet that hurt. 

You’ll see that it’s snowing, the visibility isn’t so good, but there’s no one on the mountain, so relax and enjoy the ride! 

Another bad day at Park City Mountain…

Vail Resorts does it again! On Tuesday, I stayed stuck for one full hour on Tombstone, one of their six person chairlifts without knowing what was going on. After more than 30 minutes of waiting, I called ski patrol to be told there was some mechanical problem that they hoped would be fixed soon. I asked: “Why didn’t you sent someone down the line to alert skiers waiting above?” I was told, “We’re doing it now”. 

A ski patrol showed up much later, as the chairlift had resumed moving on diesel power. For my ruined afternoon, I got a free lift ticked. BFD as we say! Vail Resorts doesn’t maintain its lifts as it should, as it probably doesn’t pay its mechanics what they are worth and, over the years, has built a terrible reputation as an employer. One of these day, folks will get killed on its lifts… 

I skied two Ninety-Nine 90 before it closed and then realized that all lifts this time were closed on the account of “lightning hold”. I didn’t hear any thunder, but the gondola kept going. Interesting isn’t it? 

In fact, lighting will always take the path of least resistance to earth, so if the user aren’t touching the earth they'll be safe. The metal cables and towers of the ski lift will conduct the lighting towards earth. In all likelihood, a lift is designed to withstand a lightning strike. 

The Over and out lift line at the base of Tombstone was crowded and no one knew what to do. I ended up walking and skiing down the 1.6 miles (ruining my ski bases too!) on the side of White Pine road to the cabriolet parking lot where I had left my car. What a day and a terrible handling of a situation like only Vail Resorts knows how to concoct!

Strange looking skis…

A few days ago, following a substantially new snowfall, I was sitting on the chairlift, next to a young man equipped with a strange pair of skis. Long, wide and with what could be called a “negative sidecut”, meaning that instead of having a narrow waist, that ski had a wide one, as shown on the photo.

This ski had been produced by Salt Lake City’s DPS, now a popular specialty ski brand, founded in 2005 by Stephan Drake. DPS is an acronym for Drake PowderworkS. 

In the early 2000s Drake wanted to create a ski that could float on top of powder while at about the same time, the late extreme skier Shane McConkey was shaking up his own ski design—the Volant Spatula—with Peter Turner, who eventually ended up joining forces with Drake to turn their outlandish dreams into reality, pioneering one of the first rockered skis ever made, the Wailer. 

The skis I saw were some discontinued 2016 Lotus model, about 140 mm wide underfoot and really not made for skiing on powder sitting on hard-pack like the 10 inches (25 cm) we had that day, but that needed true “bottomless” powder to be used. 

I didn’t envy my chairlift companion for trying to torture what amounted to “2x4” into a rounded turn under the circumstances, but again, innovation in skiing has always belonged to those brave spirits willing to try!

When ski fashion trumps safety

My wife and I often see interesting things during our morning walks. Yesterday, I was first to spot a skier waiting for the shuttle and ready to ski the new powder that had fallen overnight. 

Even in the distance, he was very easy to spot as he wore a pair day-glow orange pants and, eventually, as we got much, much closer, I could discern his ski partner clad in a “camouflage” ski outfit, mostly gray and earth-tones, that was much harder to see because he was near a clump of trees. 

For those of you who have been on the ski slopes this winter, you probably have also witnessed the popularity of these ski jackets and pants in “camo” as it’s popular to say. Yet, what do skiers, and particularly older ones, fear the most? Collisions with other skiers or snowboarders. 

Beside paying attention to the potential victims or perpetrators, the only best thing to do is being extremely visible on the mountain. It could be wearing an orange helmet, a bright green jacket or a red pair of pants, but a piece of clothing that can stand out might go a long way in signaling one’s presence on the hill. 

This is particularly true when skiers or snowboarders are stopped on the edge of a wooden or bushy run and are ready to resume their descent. They become very hard to spot if their outfit is dark, in earth-tones, or worst of all, in camouflage. 

"See and be seen."

I wonder what went in the head of the stylists who designed these pieces of clothing, and worst, in the mind of ski retailers who stocked the item? Safety sacrificed to fashion? Not a good idea!

Winter returns…

Following a short-lived spring skiing season intermission, Mr. Winter is back at it again and has returned to Park City for at least the next two weeks according to the weather forecast. 

This is not unusual and thanks to Park City ski areas extending their season until April 22, we still have a few ski turns left into our short-term future, not to mention nearby Snowbird that traditionally stays open into May, weather permitting, of course. 

This is also a reminder that March and April are traditionally very snowy month that can also feel very cold when our bodies are longing for some spring warmth. 

After all, this snow season that began so poorly is turning into another fun, powder-filled and much longer lasting experience than previously anticipated!

Are we learning more from joy or pain?

Today, as we were walking, a van passed with the markings “Stunt Puppy” and I said to my wife, this must be a company that sell remote training collars to give dog owners with the ability to send signals to their dog without a leash, but through the use of a range of electronic haptic signals communicated to the dog through radio waves. 

In fact, I was wrong, it was just the brand of a popular dog collar, but that started a conversation among us about whether one would learn more from joy or from pain. My initial thought was to claim forcefully that we definitely learned more from adversity and suffering than from good experience, but when I started to research that basic question I found out that it wasn’t so black and white. 

Instead, research suggests that we learn and remember better from both joy and pain, but in different ways. Good feelings bring us positive reinforcement that may reinforce desirable behaviors. When a behavior leads to a positive outcome, like a reward, a praise, or a feeling of accomplishment, individuals are more likely to repeat it. 

Joyful experiences may also motivate us to learn new things while helping a greater retention of knowledge. Studies also suggest that positive emotions can enhance memory and focus and help us learn more effectively. 

Sure, as I was so certain, negative experiences associated with pain can teach us to avoid harmful or unwanted situations. They are often a strong deterrent for repeating behaviors that led to them. Pain can also heighten our awareness of potential dangers or threats, and help us learn to avoid similar situations in the future. 

There’s also something to be said about painful experiences that are often more memorable than positive ones and make us more likely to learn from our mistakes and remember to avoid them. Finally, that quick review made me become a bit more nuanced in admitting that both joy and pain have value in learning, and that the ideal scenario might be a combination of both. 

Positive reinforcement can motivate us to learn, while negative experiences can show us what to avoid.

Is Rapture, a cheap alternative to heli-skiing?

For those who believe in nothing or aren’t following what’s going on in Christian America, the Rapture is an eschatological position, meaning a view of the last things, like immortality of the soul, rebirth, resurrection, migration of the soul, and the end of time. 

It's a belief held by some Christians, particularly the most radical ones, like the American evangelists, that consists of an end-time event when all dead Christian believers will be resurrected and, joined with Christians who are still alive like you and me, and together will rise "in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air." 

This long explanation brings me to suggest that if you as a skier are still alive, you might take advantage of the event to ski the most famous Himalayan summits, where helicopters cannot reach because the air if far too thin. 

Not only that, but if you live in Utah you can hitch a free ride to the top of the high Uintas mountains, where landing a commercial aircraft isn’t allowed, or if you live in Europe, get to the top of Mt. Blanc or Mt. Elbrouz, in a few seconds, totally free of charge. 

The only thing you have to do is convert to Evangelism if you’re not one already, get a rough idea when the Rapture is scheduled, be ready with your gear, have your skis on, and hope for a great ride. This would be a politically correct way to get a super fast lift to the summit of your choice and ski your heart content. You might be able to get more rides if additional Raptures happen to be scheduled. 

This way, you won’t have to heli-ski and ruin you carbon-footprint as well as your reputation!

Will 2024 be warmer than 2023?

Last year (2023) was a record hot year for our planet, and so far, with some very warm weather all around the northern hemisphere it could very well be that 2024 continues this worrying trend and be another record hot year. 

Based on what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has to say there's a 22% chance 2024 will be the warmest year ever observed. January 2024 was already the warmest January on record globally.

This say, there’s no guarantee that it will be indeed warmer, as there are a few factors to consider starting with warmer ocean temperatures that act as a heat reservoir, influencing global air temperatures. Then there’s the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle that can also significantly impact global temperatures. As of now, there are mixed signals about El Niño. 

While some data suggests a possible transition to neutral conditions by mid-year, others leave a possibility of El Niño returning and typically warming things up. Then there is what’s called “Natural Variability”. This means that climate always has some natural year-to-year variability. Even with a warming trend, some years might be slightly cooler or warmer than others. 

Let’s just hope there’s a lot of variability in store towards a much cooler balance of the year!

Hiking for a change…

Yesterday was a special day. On Tuesday, Dave, a neighbor, had suggested I join him to climb and ski “Pinecone”, an out-of-bound ridge in the Jupiter area of Park City. I hesitated because of age and declining VO2max. 

The last time I climbed it was with my daughter on December 31, 2006, so quite a long time ago, when I was only 59, and I remember having suffered a bit as I carried her skis to the top! The climb is a 420 foot vertical, 40 degree slope situated between 9,400 and 9,900 feet elevation and I’ve always found it exhausting (I have done it a half-dozen times when I was much younger).

After a short hesitation, I decided to join the group and pretty soon we were at the bottom of the hill. Dave who is still 60 (lucky him!) had been joined by Geoff, his 72 year old buddy. I climbed it in just 20 minutes, a few yards behind my neighbor but well ahead of the other septuagenarian which made me feel very good. 

My skiing partners decided for an encore and I passed. Instead, I hiked Jupiter Peak, a significantly shorter trek leading a much steeper and intimidating couloir. When I was done with my hikes for the year, I quietly returned home…

Why is it so hard to manage emotions?

It’s true that for people of my generation we were just taught about subjects like math, science, history, and language, but not much about emotional management that wasn’t even in the radar of our parents and educators as it was a skill that everyone hoped, would be learned through experience. 

Teachers, and parents were never told, yet alone taught about it and had no clue what emotional intelligence was. Unfortunately, hoping that experience will make up for that lack of education is more often than not more of a bridge than a reality as there are no fail-safe recipe to catch up and try to manage emotions, as the best approach depends on each individual and their situation. 

What follows are a few things I’m in the process of learning. 

Several strategies are required to get there, like knowing oneself, or self -awareness, that makes an individual more in touch with their emotions. It also demands to pay good attention to one’s physical sensations, thoughts, and behaviors when they’re popping to the surface. The next step is to identify what causes them. 

Things like, certain situations, people, or thoughts that typically lead to these emotions? Knowing what triggers them is key to anticipating and preparing for them. When we become aware of that, it’s time to develop healthy ways to cope with emotions. This can include exercise, relaxation techniques, going for a hike in nature, talking to a friend or for me during winter, going skiing. 

That’s also the moment to control negative thoughts. Are they true? Are there other ways to look at the situation? Finally and often, the best way to manage certain emotions is simply to accept them. Trying to fight or suppress them can, at times, make them worse. Allow yourself to feel your emotions without letting them control you. 

Remember also to build resilience. It helps you bounce back from setbacks and cope with difficult emotions more effectively. Remain optimist, use a healthy support system, and take good care of yourself, physically and mentally.

Time for Spring skiing!

Since this past weekend, Park City skiing has switched to Spring mode, including warmer sun and bluebird days. To top it all, today is the first day of Spring!

I’ve been skiing with my wife, who has been cruising better than ever on her skis, and seems to be getting a second wind, or rather a second lease on her alpine ski life! 

This was her 23rd day on the hill and just the 69th for me, so she’s clearly closing the gap. As you can appreciate, I’m only 7 days away from my goal of skiing my age… We’ll see if I get there!

Ten years in our (new?) home!

Yesterday marked the 10th anniversary of moving into our new home, the 4th in Park City and perhaps the last one, but who really can tell? 

Do we still like the house we’re in now? On the whole, absolutely! 

Even though it’s the third home I have participated in the construction, and the 12th dwelling we’ve lived in as a couple, what would we still change are quite a few things in fact, as the human species never stops learning, its tastes evolve and needs change.

 But still, let’s say that we’re 90 to 95% there, so we won’t complain and feel truly satisfied with what we’ve got and stating the contrary would be all, but being grateful, so we’ll appreciate our current dwelling and hopefully live in it at least a couple more years to make it the place in which we’ve lived the longest amount of time!

Getting out of tough situations with questions

Whether it's because we are in a bind, taken by surprise or angry or otherwise emotional, asking a question might often be the best way to get unstuck and literally, turn a bad situation around. I must state that I’m not at all expert on that subject, but had a strong intuition that the tactic might be very useful and wanted to explore it further with you, my readers. 

First of all, as we all know, asking a question buys time and enables some turn-around time which offers a nice alternative to being stuck in place without anything to say or knowing how to act. It certainly clarifies things. Besides, a good question might generates new ideas by opening new perspectives and potential solutions not considered before.

Some also say that it promotes critical thinking, encouraging a good analysis of the situation by showing underlying causes as well as options. Finally, it’s super useful in breaking mental blocks when we find ourselves in a rut and get our creative juices flowing again. 

As for the type of questions that we can ask ourselves, they can be of the clarifying type, like, “What exactly do I want to accomplish?" or "What obstacles do I have to overcome?" They could also be open-ended “What are my alternatives to approach this problem?" or "Are there other original solutions?" They can also be probing like "Am I assuming things that I should re-evaluate?" or "Am I overlooking certain risks?" 

Always remember that they’re no bad questions. Even if what we ask seems basic it can lead to breakthroughs. Never be afraid to ask. It’s always a sign of strength and a willingness to learn. 

To conclude, there are all the questions we can ask other folks from different backgrounds and experiences who can bring some insights we’d never considered. We should also ask specific questions: The more specific the question, the more targeted the answer could be. Also, always pay very close attention to the answers received and always consider them carefully...

How I became environmentalist…

When I was a young kid, I must admit that I mostly was attracted by modernism, fast cars, airplanes and tall buildings. 

It’s only when I traveled to the USA in 1971, that I discovered the terms environment and ecology, especially around San Francisco. Then, we had the first oil crisis in 1973 that made me think of earth’s limited resources, but did stop me in my tracks. 

That concept hit closer to home, when in 1979, freshly installed in New York, I had to line up to fill up my car during the second oil crisis. I kept on traveling a lot, mostly with North America and Europe, but never thought for a second about my carbon footprint, totally ignoring what that animal was.

Once I became a Park City resident, I began to think about snowless winters and their increasing occurrences both in the Rockies and in the Alps, plus their impact on the industry I worked in, and began to worry about a day when snow wouldn’t show up. 

I always wanted to build a solar-passive house, but when it happened in 1990, there was just the sunny location of our new home that answered that call. It’s precisely in the 90s that we began to hear about climate-change issues after the Rio de Janeiro summit in 1992 and that of Kyoto in 1997. 

All along, me and my household had remained very thrifty and quite sensitive to our environment, for the most part driving economical cars and living well below our means. The early 2000 made me consider the terrible impact on the environment overpopulation was having. Our messed up environment was the symptom, but a crowded earth was the cause. 

All this led us to Al Gore’s book and film “An inconvenient truth” in 2006 and we became sold on planet warming and greenhouse effects. That same year, the movie “Who killed the electric car?” was released (it was killed by both George Bush and the oil industry). 

It took me until 2019 to install solar panels on my roof and 2022 to park an electric car in my garage. Progress does come eventually, but it always takes an awful lot of time!

How much skiing is left?

With the warmest winter on record so far in the United States, and with snow shifting to much higher elevation in the Alps, ski aficionados have good reasons to worry. In fact, since 1990, the length of the skiing season in the French Alps is said to have shortened by an average of one month, a loss of around 3-5% per decade.

This season, unseasonably warm weather in Japan’s northern parts have caused iconic winter sights to melt earlier, the Japan Meteorological Agency forecasts temperatures in early March to likely be higher than usual. 

So there seem to be change all over the Northern Hemisphere this winter and while we try to blame El Niño for that, we should ready ourselves to see shorter ski seasons, climbing snow limits and less fluffy powder in years to come. How fast and how intensely this will come to pass, is hard to predict, but we shouldn’t be shocked if the process unfolds much rapidly than we might anticipate. 

Utah, that was legendary for its dry light powder snow, is finding more water content in it, and soon, “The Best Snow on Earth” might become part of ancient ski history. So my advice to you skiers and riders is to practice your beloved sport as much as you possibly can while it’s still possible, because your “turns” as wide or tight they might be, could be severely limited…

The difference between Jewish and Palestinian DNA

The war between Israel and Gaza has been the occasion for certain folks to be labeled as “antisemitic”, including myself on the account of my various blogs. 

Yet, both Jews and Arabs share some ancestral links due to their Semitic roots, including genetic markers with ancient populations from the Eastern Mediterranean or Levant region, even though there some slight genetic differences between the two populations. In fact, the term "Semitic" refers mostly to a linguistic group. 

The language family in question includes Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, and others spoken in the Middle East and North Africa. Yet, it’s also vaguely linked to ethnicity. Obviously, over many centuries both groups intermixed with surrounding populations, leading to some genetic differences. 

Jews, for example, show some genetic connection to European and Middle Eastern populations they interacted with during their diaspora and Palestinian obviously show more genetic connections to populations from the Levant. This includes Mizrahi Jews from the Middle East and North Africa, Ashkenazi Jews who migrated from the Near East to the Rhine Valley region around the first millennium after Christ, Sephardi Jews from the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the late 15th century. 

As for the Palestinian population, it likely descends from a mixture of ancient inhabitants of the region, including Canaanites, Israelites, and Arab tribes who arrived in the 7th century of our current era. Over time, these populations intermixed, forming the core of the Palestinian identity. 

So, we’re dealing with pretty much the same people but with different religions and cultures, Judaism and Zoroastrianism two very ancient (respectively 4,000 and 3,500 years old) monotheistic beliefs, and then Islam an updated monotheistic religion inspired from Judaism and Christianity. 

In conclusion, pretty much the same folks with similar origins and DNA that are behaving like tribal factions, stealing their brother’s land and killing each other. Not a paragon of civilized behavior.

Biden, Netanyahu, and Trump

I sincerely believe that Biden is dead wrong in his support of Israel and his weak handling of Netanyahu. Still I believe all Americans that are a tiny bit intelligent or more, should hold their nose and vote for Grandpa Biden to guarantee that Trump can go to jail without the burden of a second term.

This makes us accomplice of Biden for the genocide in Gaza, but we’ll have to learn how to live with that and demand better candidates, next time for the DNC along with a few changes in its party platform. Never should we allow to have the “Orange Man” re-incarnate into a 21st century Adolf Hitler. 

And I didn’t even start mentioning the US support for Ukraine that would vanish under Trump. It’s as simple as that. Vote Biden, don’t abstain, vote against Trump, let the chips fall where they may, but don’t even think twice. Send Trump to jail, the place he truly deserves, not the Oval Office. 

Passed that, there still will be plenty of time to cut all aid to well-to-do Israel and hold them accountable to the world instead of opposing the traditional US veto to save that rebellious country’s ass.

Learning to ski on YouTube

Last Sunday, we rode the chairlift with a young man who had just skied for 3 days and told us he had just skied down a black run. I realized where he went down and even though the difficult part of that trail was quite short, I could appreciate the value of his achievement on the basis of his short experience. 

A personal trainer and physical therapist, he said he was spatially gifted, and told us that he had learned how to ski by watching YouTube videos, memorizing them and translated what he observed into what might have been a surprisingly excellent execution. 

Skiing isn’t intuitive and since I believed the individual I was genuinely impressed. This said, I don’t think this lone achievement is likely to put all ski instructors out of a job. Sure, YouTube learning isn’t for everyone and it takes time and sometimes luck to find the right tutorial whether it is for fixing a lawn mower, learning to knit or how to snowboard. 

This said, there are few people who have the stamina and discipline to self-learn, but it’s still amazing to realize what technology can do the help those ready to help themselves! 

Hot winter?

Park City finally got some decent snow in January and February in spite of a rather warm winter. While we observe a lowest temperature of -11 degrees Farenheit last winter, we only registered 0 once this year. In fact, the continental US just experienced the warmest winter in 130 years of record-keeping, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

Temperatures were more than 5 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than average! According to the Agency, our winters are warming faster than any other season in most of the country. As humans add green-house gasses to the atmosphere, the coldest places and coldest temperatures are not so frigid anymore, leaving huge implications for food and water supplies.

From December to February, the biggest temperature effects were in the Upper Midwest, Great Lakes and Northeast. In February, Alaska was 10.3 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than average. It was also the hottest February on record globally, according to the European Union climate agency Copernicus. These warm temperatures come on the heels of a record year in 2023. 

Scientists found it was the hottest year recorded, driven by both human-caused warming and a strong El Niño climate pattern, causing large amounts of heat stored in the ocean to be widely released and circulated around the planet, messing up both temperatures and weather patterns. 

If warmer winter temperatures can spell relief to some, the impacts are not for the better. Mosquitoes can appear earlier in the spring, increasing the spreading of disease, some crops, like fruit and nut trees need enough cold every winter to literally chill out in order to stay productive. 

A shrinking snow-pack in the West affects water supply for millions of people as states from Colorado to California depend on the slow melt of mountain snow during the spring and summer for irrigation. Let’s just hope that it’s not yet the beginning of a devastating trend. 

At any rate, let’s make sure to keep skiing while we still can!

New start for Lucas Braathen

Following his “retirement” last October, allegedly in a dispute over having freedom to work with his own sponsors, Braathen just announced his surprising return to alpine skiing for the 2024-25 season as a skier representing Brazil, since he’s a dual citizen of Norway and the South American country. 

Flamboyant and free-spirited, Lucas Braathen probably had a tough time living within the clean-cut, efficient organization and rules of the Norwegian ski team. He made his announcement of the switch on social media where he posted an image of himself with the Brazil flag and its signature yellow, green and blue colors.

"The time has come, Brazil. Let's Dance," Braathen wrote in Portuguese ahead of holding a news conference in Salzburg, Austria, hosted by one of his sponsors. The stage included a banner with his full name, including his middle name "Pinheiro." 

It will be interesting to see how Braathen plans and career develop next season, but even if his new found free spirit doesn’t bring the victories he hopes for, he might get some good media coverage early on… 

If history is any guide, it could be difficult to be a fun-loving, creative, outgoing, yet successful ski champion, especially if he’s got to fight on his own, on a one-man team. Marc Girardelli, Ivica or Janica Kostelić are examples of lone skiers that made it because they had committed parents-coaches behind them. 

Lucas Braathen might have much more on his plate to remain successful on skis, but that’s just my opinion.

Good job, Grandpa Biden!

On Thursday night, Joe Biden didn’t miss a beat and was able to forcibly turn his State of the Union address into a great campaign speech by hitting hard on Trump and its party’s failed policies and election denials. He also engaged hecklers from the opposition and was good at doing it.

To me, this was reassuring and he was smart enough to conclude his speech by addressing his old age, head-on: “I know I may not look like it, but I’ve been around a while…” 

The poor Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, didn’t seem to enjoy his evening in the company of Biden and Harris. He looked sick, disoriented a tiny bit constipated. I felt sorry for him! 

Now, Biden will have to continue campaigning on this tone and with that kind of stamina to defeat the yellow, crazy dude in November. I hope his new-found energy lasts at least that long...

The carving “pedal”

A good way to illustrate or explain the foot sensation that should happen when a skier initiates carving, is to imagine a small “pedal” on the inside of each ski boot that is depressed alternatively to initiate a carving position and the ensuing action. 

This should be done on a gentle slope, to begin with, by a very slight depression from the arch of the foot towards the inside of the right ski, then the left and so on. Importantly though, the ski where the “virtual pedal” is actuated should be predominantly weighted as the learning begins. 

As the ski gets banked and its edge begins initiating a carved turn, the outside ski remains weighted. Then it’s the turn of the left ski to do the work and so on... Later on as the skier masters the skill, pressure can be shared with the external part of the uphill ski as well as if an uphill virtual pedal existed there too. 

Future and current carvers, try it and share your impressions on this blog!

Is discipline a curse or a blessing?

When I was a kid, I was all but disciplined and it created a lot of unbearable anguish for myself. Then, as a teenager, I discovered discipline and I developed a liking for it as it cured my anxiety. 

Long before Nike came up with the slogan “Just do it”, I had made it my north star and followed it pretty well. Sure, there were lapses to that regimen as I became an adult, but overall the trend towards personal discipline kept on growing, sometimes making me a boring, impersonal, even uncaring person and choking some of my inborn creativity.

Yet, I still believe discipline isn’t a curse. I see it more like a powerful tool that I try to use for good. Over the years, it has allowed me to channel my energy and time towards my goals and helped me overcome procrastination and develop skills I needed, gave me some salutary habits, helped my physical well-being, stimulated my personal growth, developed my potential and gave me more control on my life. 

Sure, there were, and still are, moments when discipline becomes obsessive, messes up my flexibility and blunts my fun side. Thank god, aging has and still continues to soften the sharp edges of discipline, making it more of a pleasant journey than an unreachable destination, and has softened its bite enough to keep creativity, fun and a healthy balance into my life.

Skiing “canted” slopes

A “canted” ski slope refers to the sideways tilt of a ski slope, which can affect the skier's balance and edge control when it’s been skied on.The opposite is obviously a much easier ski run, where the fall-line always remains parallel to the edges of the trail.  

This kind of slope is another favorite of mine and I use it to hone my skiing skills as it presents a serious challenge in overcoming fear of free-fall in executing every other turn on the “wrong side of the slope”. 

Canted slopes can often be found under lift towers that hug a slope across its fall line and are often lined up with trees on either sides (uphill and downhill) making the turn into the downhill tree much more spookier and, let’s admit it, dangerous. 

I like to create long radius turns against the downhill edge, going back up towards the uphill side, and short radius ones on the more frightening side facing downhill plus, most often than not trees, that are always very limited in space. 

I found that practice to be great “cardio” when executed non-stop from top to bottom and an exercise that requires absolute concentration and sharp reflexes. Also, if you’re a “right foot skier” and are in a skier’s right canted slope, it forces you to work fast and effectively on your left foot. 

Of course, the steeper the canted slope, the harder it gets. I must admit that over the years and with lots of practice and a few mishaps, I’ve become much better at it and the enjoyment I get from it is totally worth it!

A lousy ski day…

This past Sunday was cold, very windy, super cloudy and yet, I decided to go skiing for a few hours in the afternoon. 

Since it was the weekend, I didn’t take a chance and rode the shuttle bus which was super timely on both ways, a real strike of luck I’m totally grateful for! 

But on the slopes many lifts were closed on wind-hold, visibility was poor and it felt blistering cold, even though I did my best to move as much as I possibly could. 

This also explains why I didn’t wait until the lift closed to head home. 

Almost a first and a rare occurrence in my recreational skiing career!

Memorable weekend…

It all began with a power outage this past Friday night. We were expecting a big snowstorm for the weekend and its was so windy that it might have caused us to lose power around 9 pm as we were going to bed. To make a long story short, the power returned past midnight and the next morning, on Saturday our heating system didn’t appear to be working too well. 

It kind of sputtered before quitting on us early in the afternoon. Early afternoon is when it began to snow like crazy and just before that, I removed the furnace flame sensor, cleaned it up and replaced it without being able to get the furnace firing up again. I then did some online research and learned that it’s uncommon for flame sensors to fail after a few years and it’s a recommended practice to systematically change them every five years. 

I didn’t know it and it’s true that we learn something new everyday! I also check if our local Home Depot had the part in stock and I misread that they did (I only missed that it would be there next Wednesday), so I set to drive to the store in a terrible blizzard and it took me 40 minute of spooky drive to cover the 7 miles (11 km) distance that normally take 15 minutes to find out that the part I needed wasn’t available. 

Back home, I discovered that a Salt Lake City HVAC supply store might have the flame sensor and I almost resigned myself to surviving till Monday when the store would open at 7 am today. I returned to the furnace, tried a few more maneuvers to no avail and even though the fireplace was on, my wife and I went back to sleep in a cold house that would be even colder in the morning with 17 degree (-8 C) outside… 

Around 4:45am, on Sunday morning I got out bed and remembered that I had a spare flame sensor with a rod that was too long to fit in my furnace compartment and I thought of reducing its length from 3.5” (90 mm) down to 2” (50 mm) so it would fit, without really understanding how that stainless steel rod worked inside the burner (it actually converts AC into DC). 

So I took my hacksaw, cut the rod to dimension, deburred correctly and installed it and… Voilà! It worked perfectly, and immediately my heating system was back in working order. I brewed some coffee while my wife congratulated me, and then it was time to go out and clear all the snow that had accumulated the day before in my driveway! 

A good reason to ski very well...

I try not to take skiing for granted. We’re lucky we live in a great ski resort, just five minutes from its slopes and we can ski whenever we feel like or when the weather is too nice to stay home. 

We’re grateful for that, yet sometimes, skiing feels like a chore when the conditions aren’t quite perfect, we aren’t in the perfect mood and so forth. Yet, in these moments, I always remind myself that it very well could be my last day of skiing in my life, just like any new morning could be my last on this earth.

That’s enough to give me a different, much more enthusiastic outlook and make me savor every turn, every bump and every little challenge as a precious, fun element that makes me appreciate what I should never take for granted. 

So if you ski, no longer do it or have never stepped on a pair of skis, if you just walk, ride your bike, swim or play a round of golf, make sure to fully appreciate when you’re out, as well as each one of your most minute and subtle moves. 

They are part of your good life and they are priceless!

Give more money to Israel?

Israel is a rich nation, with a gross domestic product around $50,000 per capita (more than Canada or Germany). So, why should the US further fund Israel to the tune of $3.3 billion annually (with money we must borrow)? 

This makes no sense, except that the Jewish lobby is very strong in America. Now following the October 7 horrible attack by Hamas that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, with 250 others taken hostage, Israel has launched a retaliatory war that has now killed more than 30,000 people, mostly women and children, and has destroyed more than 70% of Gaza’s housing. 

Talk about over doing it. Today, seemingly to encourage bad behavior, our government wants to double down by offering a special $14.3 billion funding for Israel. Of that huge amount of money, $10.6 billion would go for assistance through the Defense Department, including air and missile defense support, industrial base investments and replenishment of US stocks being drawn down to support Israel. 

The aid aims to bolster Israel’s air and missile defense system readiness and support its procurement of Iron Dome and David’s Sling missile defense systems and components, as well as the development of the Iron Beam ($1.2 billion).

Then there’s $3.7 billion for the State Department to strengthen Israel’s military and enhance US Embassy security. This money, along with a $65 billion Ukraine badly needs is currently blocked in the US Congress, but unlike the Ukraine funding hasn’t been criticized, when it will in fact got to fund Netanyahu’s genocide of all Palestinians and encourage the ongoing construction of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories, which, despite being illegal under international law, continue to expand. 

This makes absolutely no sense and obviously most people don’t care or have lost their sense of judgment.

US representative democracy at work...

Around mid-February, I wrote Mitt Romney, the best of our two Utah Senator, asking him to intervene and have the US tap into the more than $300 billion in frozen Russian Central Bank assets to pay for Ukraine's defense. 

As everyone knows, our MAGA-Republican representatives just don’t want to to allow a vote on the $65 billion to help Ukraine. 

The answer I received on February 28 was a boilerplate letter about the Ukraine war in general and how my Senator was supporting it, but nothing about my specific suggestion. 

Instead, I would have like to hear how he felt about the SUGGESTION, or at the very least receiving a simple answer like “Great idea!”, “I don’t agree with it” or simply “I don’t know…”, but at the very least an answer to my question, not a hollow generality. 

This is a waste of taxpayer money to answer in that manner and what an insult to my intelligence. Perhaps, my favorite Senator should train his staff to sort out the mail addressed to him and answer more intelligently. 

What an innovative concept in what should be in a representative democracy!