Roland Collombin, 1951-2026

Roland Collombin was a legendary Swiss World Cup alpine ski racer, two-time World Cup downhill champion, and Olympic silver medalist. He passed away on July 10, 2026, at the age of 75 following a two-year battle with cancer. 

A ski daredevil, Collombin dominated downhill racing in the 1973/1974 ski season before sustaining some devastating spinal injuries that cut his career short at 24. He captured back-to-back Downhill Crystal Globes in 1973 and 1974. 

Taming the notorious Streif, he won the dangerous Hahnenkamm downhill race in Kitzbühel twice, in 1973 and 1974, setting a course record during his second victory. Collombin’s high-risk, high-reward racing style led to a tragic relationship with the Oreiller-Killy piste in Val d'Isère. In December 1974, he suffered a severe spine injury during a training crash that sidelined him for the entire season. 

In December 1975, as he attempted a comeback, he crashed violently at the exact same spot, fracturing two vertebrae and was temporarily paralyzed. That jump became known as "La Bosse à Collombin" (the Collombin Bump). In these days, I was ski instructing at Avoriaz and working as a volunteer on January 12, 1974 on the Jean Vuarnet downhill course there, and Collombin’s passing brought back some key memories. 

The night before the race, I got together at “Chez Caroline”, a Morzine bar-nightclub, with my friend Jean-Pierre Chatellard, then coach of the French team and Scott Henderson, coach of the Canadian downhillers that would soon become the “Crazy Canucks”. 

These days, even though I loved ski instructing, I was desperately looking for a year-round job, instead of this seasonal job, I also had no real desire to set up a souvenir shop or run a restaurant in Les Lindarets for the rest of my life. 

Just the three of us downed a bottle of whiskey among other beverages. While reminiscing and conversing, Chatellard whom I had not seen since 1972 in Australia, gave me a few serious leads for jobs in the ski industry that I followed to the letter and finally got me into me inside that area of the ski biz. 

The next day as we were side-slipping a frozen race-run, I was experiencing the worst hangover of my entire life, but I survived and Roland Collombin won that race! 

Dave Jacobs’ Spyder saga (Part Two)

At the beginning, Jacobs started designing race sweaters for his sons as he became convinced that the equipment available to young skiers was falling short — not fast enough, not protective enough, not built with real racers in mind. Rather than wait for the industry to catch up, he decided to build something better himself. 

He started small as a mail-order operation run out of his Boulder home, offering a race sweater designed with a competitor's eye for performance. It didn't stay small for long. The turning point came when Jacobs designed a pair of navy blue racing pants with yellow ribbed padding for protection. 

Fellow racers thought the pads looked like spider legs — and Jacobs, ever attuned to a good idea, ran with it. In 1978, he formally named the brand "Spyder," from the Ferrari Spyder, one of his favorite cars. What began as a homemade fix for junior racers grew into a global performance-apparel company. 

Jacobs pushed Spyder to focus relentlessly on aerodynamics and materials science, chasing the same margins that mattered to him as a racer — fractions of a second, degrees of warmth, ounces of weight. 

That focus paid off: Spyder went on to become an official apparel supplier to both the US and Canadian Ski Teams, outfitting athletes at the highest levels of the sport, including the Winter Olympics. 

Colleagues and competitors alike have long placed Jacobs among a small group of ski-industry pioneers who built their businesses the same way they raced — by identifying a problem on the hill and refusing to accept it. His path, from a kitchen-table mail-order business to Olympic podiums, became something of a legend within the ski community. 

Unfortunately after bouncing from private equity groups to incompetent investors, the brand is now defunct, and that’s really too bad. Jacobs is survived by his family, including the sons whose junior-racing days first inspired him to pick up a needle and thread. His broader legacy, though, extends to the countless skiers around the world who have raced — and stayed warmer, safer and faster — in gear built on the principles he first sketched out decades ago. 

David Jacobs was a true ski industry visionary who will be missed dearly. RIP. 

Dave Jacobs, 1933-2026 (Part one)

The former alpine racer and coach who built Spyder, one of skiing's top brands, died early this month. He was 92. Jacobs's life was centered on nearly every level of ski racing, from the start gate to the factory floor. He began as a competitor, by becoming in 1957 the first Canadian to win a national downhill championship, a breakthrough that established him as one of the country's top skiers of his era. 

Jacobs was born in Montreal, Canada, and began skiing at age 13. At 21, he won the Quebec Kandahar, and from 1957 through 1961 was a member of the Canadian National Ski Team. In 1957 he captured the title of Canadian Downhill Ski Champion, and was the top-ranked member of the Canadian FIS Team the following season. 

He later moved from racing into coaching, taking on the role of the Canadian National Ski Team's first full-time head coach from 1964 to 1966. In that position, Jacobs worked closely with a rising generation of Canadian athletes, applying the technical instincts he'd developed as a racer to help shape their training. In 1965, Jacobs was contacted by Bob Lange and asked if the Canadian team was prepared to test the boots. 

When they did, Dave Jacob said that "they were really bad boots," so he traveled to the factory in Dubuque (Iowa) and suggested a number of technical improvements to be made on the product. In June 1966, three pairs of re-designed boots incorporating the required changes were made available to the Canadian team when they trained at Mt. Hood; Gerry Rinaldi, Rod Hebron and Nancy Greene tried them on, went skiing, and they thought they were great. 

At Portillo, Jacobs repaired and rebuilt racers’ Lange boots then and there, and wrote copious reports home to the factory. As a result, the boot evolved, growing higher and stiffer. This is when the boot started to become popular with top racers. Nancy Greene started winning on the brand new World Cup circuit wearing Lange. That same year, Lange-Jacobs Inc was formed and in 1967 opened a small factory in St. Jerôme, near Montreal, to assemble the boots. 

This is where I became aware of him. After that company merged with Lange USA in 1969, David moved to Boulder, sat on the board of directors, and was the company's vice president from 1969-1972. During this time, he designed the first Lange competition ski boot, which became the hallmark of World Cup ski boots and predecessor to the Lange race boots used today. Jacobs's most lasting contribution, however, came after his coaching career ended. 

It's in 1978 that he started what would become a world-famous sportswear company right out of his Boulder kitchen. Stay with us for the rest of the story...

Pierrot Vernay, 1947-2026

Pierrot passed away on June 23 at age 78. We grew up together as we went to the same grade school, but I didn’t know much about him. I for sure never played with him. His parents were Julien and Olga and he was the elder of three kids in our village baker’s household. 

I’m not writing this because we literally grew up at the same time, but because our childhood happened in two very different silos. He didn’t seem to be a great student and one day his parents must have told him “You’ll be a baker like your Dad, and one day you’ll take over the family business…” without asking what he liked and what he wanted to be. Either fireman, carpenter, airplane pilot or dentist. 

Nope, I can comfortably assume that the question was never asked and he was given no other option. True, none of my parents either asked me that question. What would have Pierrot done if he had the option to pursue his true aspirations? No one will know, but still, he was put to hard work at 14, he spent his life making bread, baking it and feeding us and the growing number of visiting tourists. 

Over the years, I’ve seen him many times waiting on customers behind his counter when his wife Henriette or his mum weren’t available. For lack of a good reason we had not interaction other than “Hello, thank you, goodbye”. 

At retirement, he was totally exhausted, he closed down his bakery and continued living in the same building and complemented his retirement and savings by selling firewood he had prepared for our visitors. 

Did he die happy, fulfilled and having accomplished everything he ever dreamed of? I don’t know and will never have the answer to that question. Adieu, Pierrot!

Gérard Brémond, 1937-2026

Born in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt on 22 September 1937,Brémond met the 1960 Olympic champion Jean Vuarnet † in the early60s and with him developed the Avoriaz ski resort near Montriond, my home town.

This new ski spot wasn’t easy to conceive and develop given its extremely rugged setting and terrain. In fact, Avoriaz came to be asa perfect confluence that happened from a resort concept without automobiles, just like Zermatt (Vuarnet’s idea) and the integration of the architecture that would seamlessly hug the cliffs and the natural surroundings (Bremond’s vision). 

He didn't follow the easy path of developing resorts along the line of  Les Arcs, La Plagne, Flaine or Le Corbier that were totally unimaginative and, let’s admit it, woefully cheap looking and ugly. 

Instead, Brémond seeked a creative architectural team headed by Jacques Labro, Jean-Jacques Orzoni, and Jean-Marc Roques that made the site unique in its field, and probably ended up costing much more than planned, given its complexity when it opened up in 1967. 

Eventually, it evolved into simpler, easier to build buildings as it expanded. In 1973, Brémond introduced the "Pierre & Vacances" vacation lodging concept that went on to achieve remarkable success, barely slowed by the 2020 COVID pandemic. 

Although I never had any personal contact with Gérard Brémond, his pivotal role in the creation of Avoriaz had a positive influence on my young years and played a significant role in launching my professional career. He also leaves behind a legacy of construction projects that innovated the leisure and tourism industry, while remaining closely integrated with their natural surroundings.

Jacques Martin, 1944-2026

Jacques Martin passed away on June 15 at age 81. He was one of three partners in Sidas, a company founded in 1975 by three French ski instructors, including him, Loïc David and Gaby Pellicot and based near Grenoble, France. 

 David, the company’s visionary, got the idea from seeing a human footprint on some Hawaiian beach and thought that similarly looking molded insoles would make ski boots far more comfortable. Lacking specialized tools, he famously molded his very first prototype inside a kitchen oven dish. 

This initial ingenuity grew into SIDAS, and the subsequent launch of their Conformable brand, which became synonymous with custom footbeds. It later expanded into the medical fields as well as into sport-shoes. 

In 2003 as the founders retired, the company was sold to a new management group that is still running it to this date. Before that transfer, Jacques Martin was the administrative and financial guy, while Loïc David was the front marketing man and Gaby Pellicot handled the technical and production side of the enterprise. 

When I was distributing Koflach in the US in the mid 90s, I seriously considered becoming the distributor for Sidas in America, and was in close contact with Jacques and Loïc for a while, but in the end, I decided against it as I determined that the business potential was too limited for the work involved.

Michel Rudigoz, 1944-2026

The legendary ski coach and restaurateur Michel Rudigoz passed away Friday, May 29, from Alzheimer disease, at his home north of Ketchum, Idaho. He was 81. Born on July 29, 1944 in France, became one of the most successful US Olympic Alpine ski coaches in history, leading both the men’s and women’s national teams in the late 1970s and 1980s. 

In 1982, he led the American women’s team to the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Nations Cup, a season-long competition in which points are tallied by individual nations. At the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, he guided racers Debbie Armstrong and Christin Cooper to gold and silver medals, respectively, in giant slalom and slalom. 

He began his ski coaching career in Tignes. He also preceded me at Mt. Buller where he taught skiing in 1967 and 1968. In 1972, Sun Valley ski coach Lane Monroe met Rudigoz in the Alps and asked him to come to the US to coach. Rudigoz landed in Sun Valley, and eventually took on the role of coach of the US men’s Alpine team in 1978, leading accomplished racers such Phil Mahre, Steve Mahre and Andy Mill. 

He then assumed leadership of the women’s team, becoming known as a master motivator who praised his skiers’ talents but pushed them to always ski faster. In the mid-1980s, Rudigoz bought “La Provence” from our longtime friends, the Dussers in Ketchum, before opening “Chez Michel” down the road, and got involved as a coach for the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation. 

In 2011, Rudigoz was inducted into the Sun Valley Winter Sports Hall of Fame, one of a variety of awards and accolades he would receive.

Pierrot Vernay, 1947-2026

Pierrot passed away on June 23 at age 78. We grew up together as we went to the same grade school, but I didn’t know much about him. I for sure never played with him. His parents were Julien and Olga and he was the elder of three kids in our village baker’s household. 

I’m not writing this because we literally grew up at the same time, but because our childhood happened in two very different silos. He didn’t seem to be a great student and one day his parents must have told him “You’ll be a baker like your Dad, and one day you’ll take over the family business…” without asking what he liked and what he wanted to be. 

Either fireman, carpenter, airplane pilot or dentist? Nope, I can comfortably assume that the question was never asked and he was given no other option. True, none of my parents either asked me that question. What would have Pierrot done if he had the option to pursue his true aspirations? No one will know, but still, he spent his life making bread, baking it and feeding us and the growing number of visiting tourists. 

Over the years, I’ve seen him many times waiting on customers behind his counter when his wife Henriette or his mum weren’t available. For lack of a good reason we had not interaction other than “Hello, thank you, goodbye”. At retirement, he closed down his bakery and continued living in the same building and complemented his retirement and savings by selling firewood he had prepared for our visitors. 

Did he die happy, fulfilled and having accomplished everything he ever dreamed of? I don’t know and will never have the answer to that question. Adieu, Pierrot!

Rob Mucci, 1943-2025

Rob and I met when I joined Lange USA in June of 1982. He was the Lange rep for New England since the mid 70s, during the Garcia days, and was based in Boston. He was living in Marblehead and moved later on to Swampcot. 

In addition to Lange ski boots he was repping Barrecrafters products (ski car racks). When Lange merged with Dynastar, he also represented that ski line and sold both products until his retirement in 2004. 

In 2016 he and his wife Siggy moved to Naples, Florida where he played a lot of golf, organized tournaments, worked in the local tourism trade while Siggy did volunteer work. Both had been married for more than 4 decades. 

Over the years, I stayed regularly in contact with Rob. He loved life, he adored reminiscing about the good old times and we laughed a lot each time we got together on the phone. He knew how to make any trite story hugely entertaining! 

Early, this summer, I had attempted to call and email him to no avail. Mid-November, I tried again, but in vain. Fearing something was wrong with Rob, I just learned that he had passed in June. I will miss him an awful lot and I'm sure any one who ever came in contact with him will too.

Godspeed Robert Redford!

Last night, my wife and I watched the Netflix romance “Our Souls at Night” one of the last pair of Robert Redford’s movies (2017) featuring Jane Fonda, not knowing that one of our favorite actors had just died early that morning at his Sundance ranch, 45 minutes away from Park City. 

In recent years, Redford became my new hero, kicking out Killy after he became a vocal and fiery Putin supporter in 2014. First, just like us, Robert Redford fell in love with Utah, was a skier and was involved in the ski industry, but was an environmental activist in addition to being a successful actor and film director. 

Did I mention that he was behind the Sundance Film Festival and Institute that made its home in Park City for so many years? My wife had the privilege of meeting him several times. I didn’t. He probably doesn’t need my “godspeed” wish as I’m sure he long knew that the “here and now” is the only unit worth considering in our human life experience! 

A remarkable tombstone

After years of walking everyday through the current Park City cemetery, not only can we attest that we’ve never seen any sign of life after death, and still that we’ve seen a huge variety of tombstones and other funeral monuments. 

On that particular topic, we find quite a few benches in lieu of tombstones where visitors can sit on to rest, pray or meditate.

Magpies that are legion in that peaceful space use them as perches but prefer standing on monuments that are high enough to give them a commanding view of their surroundings as those are marked with their droppings. 

Humans may use these too as a resting spot, but I have yet to see them do it. Then comes this “cube-headstone” that I find aesthetically pleasant, different and unique. 

The other striking element about its shape, is that no bird can comfortably stand on it to poo, and the great and best news of all is that no sane human being will ever think of sitting on that sharp cube!

John Winter, 1938-2025

My neighbor John Kools Winter, Jr. passed away peacefully in the early morning hours of June 13, 2025, at his home in Park City, Utah. He was 86. He was born in Holland, Michigan and graduated from the University of Illinois School of Architecture. Although trained as an architect, his career ultimately led him to the financial world, where he worked as a floor broker, commodities and trader. 

John loved both the mountains and golf, but skiing was his true passion. Vail was is early stomping ground, but when he moved to Park City, 17 years ago, nearby Alta ski resort held a special place in his heart as he used to commute from Park City each day (a one-hour commute), and he often shared vivid stories from his early ski days in Vail, Colorado, during the 1970s. Remarkably, he continued skiing until the age of 83. 

I first met him in 2011 and he told me about his passion for skiing and it wasn’t until February 2017—when he was 78—that I truly understood his remarkable spirit on the slopes. That day at Park City Mountain, we carved our way down Portuguese Gap at Jupiter Peak, one of the resort’s most challenging runs. John skied it with the grace and grit of a man half his age, and together we had fun skiing 10,844 vertical feet that day! 

John left us with his wife Cathy and daughter Alice by his side and after his passing the Alta flag flew over his house. Over the years, Evelyne and I cherished our frequent talks with John, often stopping by his home to hear his endless trove of hilarious ski tales—each one delivered with his signature wit and twinkle in his eye. 

While we’ll miss him deeply, his stories, his laughter, and his love for the mountains will stay with us forever. 

Chuck Ferries, 1939-2025

Charles “Chuck” Ferries was a former American alpine ski racer, and an Olympian in 1960 and 1964. More notably, Ferries became the first American to win a European race, the Hahnenkamm slalom, at Kitzbühel in 1962. At the 1964 Innsbruck Olympics, he fell in the slalom, quit school after the Games and moved to Seattle as a sales rep for Head. 

In 1966 he coached the US women’s team through the 1968 Olympics when he joined Bill Kirschner at K2 to run its marketing. By 1976 Chuck Ferries moved to Sun Valley, where he partnered with Clay Freeman and Bud Godfrey to create Wintersports International, a company that sold US-built ski equipment abroad. 

In the early eighties, at K2’s request, he created Precision skis or PRE, to help the Seattle brand expand its sales and run that division. At about the same time, along with partners, including the founder of Smith goggles, Ferries bought Scott USA out of bankruptcy. They re-established Scott as the world’s best-selling ski pole brand, added Scott goggles and along with Smith ended up controlling about 70 percent of the North American market for ski goggles. 

In 1990, Chuck Ferries asked me to help them in developing a ski boot that would have been called “The Boot” and I went with him, Ned Post and Larry Morton to scout for potential ski boot partners in Italy. That was my sole interaction with this tireless ski entrepreneur, who then entered Scott into the bike business. 

After selling his interest in Scott in 1997, five years later he bought Chums, a Utah-based manufacturer of eyeglass retainers. He stepped away from the business in 2018 and kept skiing until illness restricted his activities. Quite a rich and creative character with an impressive life path!

Thierry Convert, 1950-2024

Thierry is from Oyonnax, 25 miles west of Geneva, a region dubbed “Plastics Vallée”. His family’s business goes back to 1830, when it began manufacturing craft items, initially combs, then snuff boxes, pipes, etc. In 1951, the company "Établissements G. Convert" produced a variety plastic materials and until 1983, dolls and related toys.

Thierry Convert joined Look in Nevers, France, in 1977 to take over a product manager’s position left vacant when I joined the company's subsidiary in New York. 

As Look moved to Vermont in 1982, I decided to remain in New York, changed jobs, and was once more replaced by Thierry, who came to America with his wife Audrey. For a second time, he sat in my former office and picked up where I left off. 

In 1986, I left Lange ski boots (an entity owned by Rossignol’s founder) to create my own distribution business. Then, Thierry Convert took a related job with Rossignol-Lange’s new ski boot division, landing this time at the firm's headquarters near Grenoble. 

Quite a notable succession of events, even under such sad circumstances as my former colleague passed away last Friday after a long and hard battle against cancer. Audrey and Thierry came to visit us in Park City in 2012 and we both were able to reminisce our linked careers. 

Our most sincere condolences to Audrey, her four children and extended family.

Michel Lascar, 1938-2024

The first time I met Michel was in October 1969 when I showed up at the Avoriaz ski school in the hope of getting a job there.

Since I wasn’t certified teaching skiing I was told to attend a week long clinic alongside him, in Chamrousse, near Grenoble, prior to the ski season. Michel wasn't certified either, as he had been hired initially to just be a ski-bike instructor. We then taught skiing together in Avoriaz through 1974 when I left. 

In fact, Michel Lascar was an important figure in French mountaineering in the 1960s. He distinguished himself with his daring and technical climbs, helping to push the boundaries of the discipline. He opened many routes in the Alps, particularly on north faces. 

He also took part in several expeditions outside of the Alps. One of his most famous climbs was the north face of the Eiger in 1966, with Patrice Bodin. 

This route, premiered a few years earlier, remained a mountaineering myth and the duo added their names to the list of mountaineers who have achieved this technical and physical feat. 

Michel Lascar was always calm, nice and easy. A mountain lover, his quiet demeanor embodied Lao-Tzu’s words: “He who knows, does not speak. He who speaks, does not know.” 

Heartfelt condolences to Michel’s entire family.

Karl Wallach, 1925-2024

A partner with Jim Woolner at Beconta, the first company I worked for when I came to the US, Karl imported and distributed Puma shoes and Nordica, Look as well as Völkl into the United States. 

While Jim played “good cop”, Karl was the “bad” one. I remember him driving a Citroen SM before downgrading to a Cadillac. He loved to ski and play golf as well as tennis. He also had a passion for boating and fishing throughout his life. 

He died peacefully in his home on August 1, 2024, at the age of 99. Karl was born in New York City on March 9, 1925, was a WWII Navy Veteran and graduated from Columbia University. Karl lived in Manhattan and Scarsdale, New York, Aspen and Carbondale, Colorado, and finally in Cape Coral, Florida. 

Quite active, Karl skied he was 89 and had to stop after he was hit by a snowboarder and quit. Just like Karl, we can only hope to live and stay well until we hit 99!

Pierrot Meugnier, 1946-2024

I met Pierrot the first season I taught skiing in Avoriaz, that was over 54 years ago. I remember that he was different, fun and had a fabulous sense of humor. I liked him a lot and he left cascading rays of sunshine in his wake. 

He was one of a kind. More than 2 years ago, I learned that Pierre was paralyzed from the waist down, the result from a cancerous vertebrae. He remembered me because I had then taken his defense when he was bullied by a ski instructor from Morzine. 

I began calling Pierrot regularly, and was always impressed by his positive attitude, his ever fun spirit, and his steely determination to progressively regain his mobility until his cancer would unfortunately return and get the best of him. I’m sad to see him go and will miss him a lot! 

My heartfelt condolences to his entire family.

8-21 Cyber-eternity?

I’m not very active on social networks anymore, but I still maintain a presence on LinkedIn, a business and employment social media platform that works through websites and mobile apps. It was launched in 2003, and since 2016, it’s become part of Microsoft. 

I was active when I still thought I could work as a paid consultant around 2010 or sometime like that, but I’ve since decided it was a pipe dream. So, a few days ago, I undertook to take a look at that site and realized I then had 467 “followers” that I had picked up over the years.

I then proceeded to go through all of them and to my surprise, I almost remembered them all! What stopped me though were the many people that died since they began “following” me. Probably a bad – I should say lethal - idea on their part! I found 14 of them out of this world and at a click of my mouse I rocketed them into eternity. 

That made me think, why in the world did the family, heirs or other relative associated with these “disappeared” never bothered to take them out of this social media site? Something to keep in mind before we pass away and leave some precise instructions to our next of kin. 

I’m sure these same dead people are still haunting Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (now X) and to me, this probably is probably the best way to access eternal life...

Saudan: Ski-celebrity marketing

During the 60s, Alpine skiing was big news in Europe, the heroes were Killy and Schranz and there was hardly any room left for other exploits on skis. 

Because he happened to like skiing steep slopes and was obviously good at it, Sylvain Saudan was able to create a brand-new “niche” activity, where he had little to no competition, and was quite smart in leveraging his successes through clever personal marketing, by becoming “The skier of the impossible.” 

Quite a dangerous endeavor in which names like Anselme Baud, Patrick Vallençant, Serge Cachat or Jean-Marc Boivin soon followed him, but the Swiss-born skier had already defined the category as his own. 

A long-time resident of Les Houches, France, right in the Chamonix valley, Saudan elegantly saluted his adoptive country by dying on Bastille Day, securely laying in his own bed, after having successfully dodged lurking dangers and bad luck his entire lifetime. He was 87 years old.

Quentin Chauplannaz 1986-2024

Quentin was the son of my friends François and Christine Chauplannaz, from Morzine, France. I spent five seasons working as a ski instructor alongside Francois, and even though I didn’t know his son Quentin that well, I had met him several times when I visited his parents during our short stays in the French Alps. 

He was a young man overflowing with vitality, kindness and enthusiasm. Quentin was married to Marlène and together they had two daughters, Ambre 6, and Garance 4. On the morning of Monday, July 8, Quentin was killed when the old, restored Jeep he was driving went off a mountain road. No one knows exactly what happened. 

Was it a mechanical problem with the 80 years old vehicle, did he lose consciousness or was he distracted by something he saw, his phone or some other thing? No one seems to know and no one may ever know the cause of this violent accident. 

What is certain is the tragedy it is bringing to his two young daughters, spouse and parents. Our deepest condolences to everyone in this heartbroken family.