Volunteer on skis

For the past three years I have volunteered for the Park City Race Department. The first year, I gave about 25 days. Last year and this year, I will have done much less, but I still work at the first ski races of the year, the Eric Hays Memorial, a series of junior alpine races consisting of two giant slalom and two slalom over a four-day period and fielding some 240 youngsters. Yesterday started with a giant slalom for both girls and boys; the girls starting first. It was very cold; 0 degree early in the morning and never above 20 during a day that was overcast and snowy. My job was that of a “slider” the most menial there is. Armed with a snow shovel I went up and down on the course, all day long, making sure the course stayed smooth through the two-run event. This meant that I moved a lot and apart for some very cold feet, I manage to stay “alive” during that very long day. In the past, I have been a starter, which requires a lot of concentration, is very cold, because there’s no movement involved, but the continued task makes the time go faster. Do I enjoy that work? Not really when it’s that cold, but I do my best to do it right and that probably why it’s called a volunteer job!

Ignoring or Embracing?

When unpleasant events happen or when we encounter unpleasant attitudes in others, we generally have one of two choices; ignoring or embracing. While I don’t have any steadfast rule for taking one direction over the other, my general attitude has been to ignore the negative situation instead of engaging it head-on. When we take the time to reflect on that issue, there might be benefits in taking a more active attitude in tackling on own terms what at the outset appears to be charged with negative elements. By just ignoring, we may get instant peace but won’t change bad situations, learn anything or acquire any new skills. If instead, we engage, we’ll learn more and we stand a chance to make a change; hopefully, a positive one. I believe that every bit of (good) change can help, so from now on I’ll try to embrace more and ignore less…

It’s all in the head

A few days ago, I complained that early season skiing felt pretty hard, and I really believed it. Monday saw my second “serious day” on the slopes, for just about three hours in the afternoon. I skied Thaynes, ma favorite spot in Park City. I love to run “laps” there. The chair only serves a 875 feet vertical slope, but in a special way it’s more than just very steep. It starts gently then plunges viciously before it compresses a bit then goes convex one last time with a lateral profile that's a tad concave, allowing for “rebounding” GS type turns. I know it’s a bit hard to fully grasp what I want to say, as my description may sound ethereal. As I was there, I tried to ski as I normally do, namely non-stop, and found myself out of breath after the first run; I thought it would again be very hard work. On a few occasions my skis kind of crossed each other while at times initiating new turns gave me trouble too. Then, there was a second lap, followed by a third and all started to come together. There was harmony, fluidity, speed and no more panting breath. I had reconnected with that run and with a smooth skiing style. In fact, my mind had “decided” that it was okay to let go of fear and that it was time to let the skis do the work. I had emptied out my bag of inhibitions, my head was clear and I was finally back! After 13 laps, I went home feeling whole and realizing – once more - that 90% of one’s skiing is just all in the head!

Stein Eriksen turns 80!

A legend on skis, “Stein” as folks call him around his Park City hometown, won the gold medal in the Giant Slalom event at the Oslo 1952 Winter Olympics and three gold medals at the 1954 World Championships in Åre, Sweden. He was successfully able to parley his skiing achievements into a lifelong career of ski ambassador for a variety of American ski resorts, and to this date, continues to be director of skiing at nearby Deer Valley. I occasionally see him on the slopes, and more often when I go to the post office to pick up my mail. In fact, he is so much attached to that resort’s image (he has a bronze statue there, a luxury hotel is named after him, and he regularly takes admirers on mountain tours) that there is no way Deer Valley can afford to have him quit. They would in fact allow snowboarding, long before they'd think of replacing Stein Eriksen. So, today he is celebrating his 80th birthday with no hint of retirement in sight. In fact, it is rumored that the owners of Deer Valley are feverishly working with a large team of Nobel Prize winners in an attempt to clone him. Their objective is that by 2025 (just before Stein turns 100,) they’ll have a handsome blond teenager, identical to Stein in every possible twist of DNA, appearance and athletic skills, ready to step into his skis and his Bogner suit. Only at that point, will Stein be able to retire and live happily for many more years in his Montana summer home, which by that time will enjoy a climate as warm as that of Arizona today. Happy birthday, Stein!

Reclaiming our “ski legs”

Yesterday was my third ski outing, but first "real one" of the season into deep, natural snow as Park City Mountain Resort opened more terrain; I had a chance to enjoy three steep runs non-stop, top-to-bottom, into cut-out deep powder tracks and I could sense that my legs had to work really hard. Alpine skiing is a unique sport in that it's quite passive as it essentially requires strong retention, mostly produced by the thigh (quadriceps) muscles. When the effort is significant and the body is not yet trained to that kind of exercise, the “morning-after” pain can be quite evident. The thighs, knees, calf and – to a lesser extent - abdominal muscles can feel a bit sore. Regardless of the previous dry-land exercises performed before hitting the slopes (i.e. running or biking) we'll need to rebuild our strength gradually as we get back into the sport. That’s good news, because I was starting to think that my age was finally getting the best of me!

Less is generally best…

…but is also more of a challenge to produce… The simpler, more concise, most elementary things are, the better and the more reliably they'll work. Complexity opens the door to breakdowns, errors, unforeseen reactions between multiple components and need for extra maintenance. The path to simplification requires more time, more research and more innovative solutions, but it generally yields positive results. In many ways it resembles and works in ways quite similar to nature’s principle of evolution. So whether it’s building a home, writing a letter, or designing a better mouse trap, smaller, shorter and more compact always breeds good progress. Minimalism rocks!

Snow removal

We seem to be desperately looking for snow, and when it falls we’re equally desperate to clear it. Lots of options are available to us in Park City. Obviously, you can ignore the snow, drive over it all winter long with your vehicle but soon you’ll get gigantic ruts and ice that will rock you through the end of March. Another solution is to pay someone who comes with a truck outfitted with a snowplow blade and cleans up after each snowfall. You can pay the service on flat rate basis, for the season (good if there are tons of snow), or per occurrence. That solution is not only expensive, but it will also break a few things around your house; I guess this comes with the territory. Then of course, you can always do it yourself, with a snow shovel or if you’re mechanically inclined, with a snowblower. We own both set of tools but since we pride ourselves on being “green”, we only use the blower when it’s really necessary.

Today was one of these days; as we got up this morning, we found at least 14” of fresh snow waiting for us. We fired up our Honda snowblower which started on the first pull, in perfect Japanese fashion, after nine month of hibernation. While I was operating it, Evelyne was doing the finishing work with her shovel. Between the driveway, pathway and backyard patio, the whole job took us close to one hour. Then we drove to Old Town and repeated the same operation on a building that we have there, but this time, it was all handwork and we had to move 18” of new snow off a pretty large area. When we returned home, we saw one of our neighbors, whose husband was out of town, and who was trying to clear her driveway with just a shovel. We took pity on her, restarted the snowblower, and proceeded to finish it off. But before I completed the job, the blower caught her daily newspaper that had been thrown into the deep snow and the machine came to a screeching, frightening halt. Bad news! I had that happened before with a thick Sunday paper and I had to have the machine brought back to the dealer. I ran home to fetch a large screwdriver in order to free the auger, but by the time I returned, Evelyne had done it by hand. This made for an even more memorable first giant snowfall day!