Puzzled by the new skis?

As a skier who would like to think he's still relevant, I need to understand the ins and outs of the new equipment that each year hits the market. I used to be “front and center” in that crazy business when I was active into it, but not anymore.

I'm now relegated to the role of a very ordinary user and it's paramount for me to understand what kind of skis I need to cruise without having to expand too much energy and be able, with one single pair, to move from “groomers” to deep, fluffy snow, and still look reasonably balanced, dignified on my boards and won't exhaust myself within a couple of hours.

Since I shoot videos for Deer Valley Resort, I have decided to launch some investigative reporting that may shed some light as to what the ideal board is for me. Rossignol will be providing the advice and I'll produce the video, so please, stay tuned for the results!

When I was “demoing...”

Exactly forty yars ago today, I made the trip from my home town in the Alps to Storlien, a small ski resort tucked somewhere in the northern parts of Sweden.

I was part of the French ski instructor demo-team in these days and we were supposed to show the Swede how to tackle turns the Gallic way while Ingemar Stenmark was getting ready to dominate the world of skiing.

Were our hosts impressed? I can't quite remember. Was the skiing good? Not really as good as Chamonix! What about the food and the drinks? Not great, but okay; I was much younger then and not as picky as I am today...

Now, tell me, the girls? They were so smart, they had remained in Ibiza, Spain to work on their tan.  The entire experience must have been a bright spot in your career?  No, because it was so dark in that early winter season, with the sun coming at 9:30 am and leaving before 3 pm; this was far too somber for me!

Fact-checking

Recently, I have been using the internet for fact checking and find it incredibly worth my time. There is hardly a day that goes by without hearing rumors, outlandish claims or simply false statements.

Generally a few keystrokes, a critical mind and a good search technique can shed light on questions that we have and remove falsehood from what could be taken as bona fide information.

Always worth my time, and as too many people forget or simply ignore, thanks to the US government for building that incredible resource back in the late 1960s!

Third time's the charm?

For the third time this season, Park City has received a new coat of white snow. It looks wonderful and fits her so well.

I hope Park City likes it and that she keeps it on through next spring. The two first snowfalls were in fact for almost nothing as everything ended up melting away. With more snow in the forecast this week, I am a bit more optimistic.

Perhaps this is just wishful thinking as I truly fear that this business of global warming is much more serious than the American business community seems to believe, and having enough snow every winter is beginning to really concern me.

For the moment, though, let's embrace the popular superstition that claims that following two failures, a third attempt is more likely to succeed. That's right, "Third time's the charm!"

Margin of superiority

When Park City's Ted Ligety won another GS yesterday in Beaver Creek, he illustrated the importance of maintaining a huge “reserve” of strength until the finish line and, as a result, being capable of dominating a contest, not just by sheer luck, good fortune or other set of circumstances, but by overwhelming the field of competitors.

For those who know the lay of the land, the lower section of Birds of Prey is steep and unrelenting. It sucks energy and if you've watched the race, it was clear that by the end of the run, the vast majority of racers had nothing left in them to complete the race, hence the dramatic drop in the difference of timing, between Ligety – the benchmark – and them.

This illustrates that in order to win, whether it be in sports, business, or any other endeavor, power capacity and good storage are paramount. If you don't have enough “reserve” from the get go, winning is dicey and mostly in the hands of “Lady Luck.” Before anything, the assurance of winning can be found through some margin of superiority and this measure remains the best bet for making it to the tallest step of the podium.

Being just “close” or almost there, is clearly never enough, and for those of us who have tried it too many times, it almost inevitably ends in a lesson in humility. No matter what you do and what your stage in life is, always think about building that “extra margin...”

Grover Norquist's Fiscal Cliff

The Republican Party has created the concept of “Fiscal Cliff” because they can't cut tax rates. And I can understand their concern; 95% of them have signed Grover Norquist's "Taxpayer Protection Pledge", that opposes increases in marginal income tax rates for individuals and businesses, as well as net reductions or eliminations of deductions and credits without a matching reduced tax rate.

They're stuck by that pledge. Obama knows that and nothing much is likely to happen. As Michael Moore proposes, we might be better off letting all of the Bush tax cuts expire on December 31, and then, on January 1, Obama could push a bill that would restore these same tax cuts for 98 percent of the public.

Would that be a face-saving strategy for the Republicans? Perhaps; at least, they could claim that they didn't violate their pledge but that it was forced upon them. In less than a month we'll see...

Raymond, the soda man...

Soda and bier wholesaler, you name it, Raymond Marullaz and his brother were lemonade-makers, soft-drink and beer merchants in my home valley of Morzine, France. Raymond was essentially the salesman, the front-of-the-house guy and as someone who could turn lemons into lemonade, he was a very likeable individual.

My family had a small mountain restaurant and was of course was buying almost all of its beverages, except wine and spirits, from the Marullaz brothers, so every so often, Raymond would come by with his little notebook and would ask how many bottle of bier, coca-cola and orangina were needed for the upcoming delivery.

I only bring that story up because in latter years, something like 1966, our soda man was driving the sport car of my dream; not a Triumph or a Ferrari, but a sleek-looking Panhard 24CT. Even though its tiny 848 cc, 50 hp engine was anemic, it had unlimited power to make me dream very, very big...