Difficult snow and other excuses...

Most skiers love excuses. Their skis are out of tune, their body out of shape or the visibility out of focus. I hardly ever use any of these excuses because I've heard them too many times and I'm tired of them. So the only excuses I use are only about snow-quality.

This is what I've found this season: Even with the best skis of the world at my feet, our Utah snow has been abnormally dense and humid and as a result, quite chunky when I ski in cruddy, crisscrossed tracks, my favorite conditions.

The chunks are so stiff that they deflect the ski and all the smoothness in the world in my skiing won't do much about it; quite on the contrary! What can one do? Be patient and wait for some softer pow, guess...

Are we curious enough?

...Probably not as much as we should. I'm currently reading “A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life” by Brian Grazer and Charles Fishman.

I wish I would have known what I found inside its pages when I was in my 20s, but I guess, better later than never! This book re-frames everything not just in terms of curiosity, but most importantly in the form of questioning, that is obviously the by-product or better yet, the main vehicle for curiosity.

We spend our lives giving orders, telling people, making comments, explaining ourselves, but not asking enough questions and by doing so, we're missing on so many things.

Time to get started, I guess...

The aging skier

One of my ongoing projects is to observe, as close as I can, how the way we ski is affected by age. No one escapes the aging process, but to my knowledge, few have tried to report how it affects skiing.

My guess is that most skiers are so busy trying to keep up as their physical abilities are escaping them that they don't have the time nor the heart to put in writing.

My observations have started ever since I suspected that my fast and fearless skiing days had begun to weaken. I can now attest that, well in my late sixties, the downward trend is definitely present and begins to undermine my skiing ability.

When do I think it peaked? Around the age of 63, I think, which is an encouraging sign for most 50 year old skiers. Now, how can I measure the dwindling performance? I don't have anything scientific tools at my disposal but some sharp memories of fast runs or fast series of laps on some of my favorite steep runs.

Of course, skiing parameters constantly jump all over the place, with snow in particular, that is a key variable, but timing and lap count, vertical drop plus the usual physical handicaps that pop up along the way should help frame a fairly accurate measurement.

So, if you're interested in my results, just stay tuned over these next seasons....

Letter to Santa

Dear Santa,

In this weird year, I have one sole wish; no toys, no video games: Can you just get us rid of Mr. Trump?

No, Santa, I don't wish bad things to happen to this blond, fat and immensely rich septuagenarian. I simply wan the Electoral College to think “out of the box”, you see Santa, just like you ask your elves to do everyday in this busy pre-Holidays season at your shop, north of Moscow.

I asked my Dad and he told me that we needed 38 Grand Electors to switch to Mrs. Clinton for her to win, so that's not to much for me to ask. I know these elections were “rigged”. Mr. Trump said it first, but he forgot to explain that Mr. Putin's I.T. Employees did it on his behalf...

Please, Pretty Please, Santa, listen to my plea and don't take my first name against me!

Ducky Junior.

From Lange to Koflach...

Thirty years ago, I summoned the courage to resign from a stable, well-paid job with Lange, but that I didn't enjoy much, to start on my own as the American distributor of Koflach, a lesser-know Austrian ski and climbing boot manufacturer.

What a leap of faith this was on my part! I briefly investigated the company, and in spite of its lackluster product line and marginal position on the U.S. Market I decided to jump at the chance, starting literally from scratch, putting together my sales force, my office and warehousing facilities in Salt Lake City.

From that point on, I focused one hundred percent on building a profitable and dynamic venture and I was both lucky and successful with it.

Too bad the Austrian facility could only last on its own until the early 90s, before an already moribund Atomic ski factory took over, and Mr. Rohrmoser, its founder and owner at the time, thanked me.

This said, the ride has exhilarating while it lasted, totally rewarding and was the culmination of my ski industry career.

After Silicon Valley met Trump

A few days ago, Trump invited the main players from Silicon Valley to his 25th floor conference room at Trump Tower and when the meeting was over, our group of “techies” went for a cup of coffee at Starbucks, right on the 2nd floor mezzanine of the building.

I was a fly on the wall and listened what these folks had to say after sitting for 90 minutes with Donald and his three kids.

Tim Cook: “What a coward he [Trump?] was; he didn't dare to ask me about repatriating Apple's overseas profits!”

Satya Nadella: You guys didn't see, but I arrived early and when he saw me, Eric summoned one of his security staff members, who came towards me and asked if I was here legally. I though I was gonna be deported on the spot...”

Eric Schmidt: “The Donald whispered to my ears that my Alphabet was terrific and that after studying it, he might start reading stuff instead of just twitting or watching TV!”

Jeff Bezos: “The only relevant question came from Ivanka who asked me if I could get her and her husband a free “Prime” subscription each. I said 'get out of here, you dad is a f... billionaire, isn't he?'”

Sheryl Sandberg: “Actually, Donald sounded quite interested about Facebook and asked me if it was sort of like Twitter and if I'd want to be his friend; I politely said, 'nah, you don't want me, because you'd get a fatal heart attack if you saw some of my posts...'”

Larry Page: “After what I heard and saw today, I'm done googling the Trumps forever!”

The last and best few words came from Elon Musk: “I had an epiphany at this meeting; it inspired me to have SpaceX build a single-seater capsule, custom tailored to fit our president-elect, and send him on a one-way trip to Europa [one of Jupiter frozen moons]!"

A five to ten year bonus

We don't develop at the same speed.

Some of us are much more precocious than others and I often wonder if this gap, that can be measured in a five to ten year span, among us humans, can ever be shrunk, caught up or eliminated?

As time goes on and as I mature, I realize more and more that I was one of these late bloomers. Not on all counts, but on some of characteristics like physical development and in certain mental dispositions to name just a couple.

Quite understandably, this was hard for me to accept as a young person and I've always seen this decoupling of maturity as a major handicap.

Today, as I find myself in my golden years, it appears to me that what used to be an impediment seems to work in reverse and still gives me a much younger outlook on life, makes me far more energetic and significantly less blasé and cynical than most of my contemporaries.

I now see this trait as a “blessing in disguise”, an extension of my lease on life and a fire that keeps on burning. Once more, there are two sides to every coin!