Where's the rest of the US Alpine ski team?

Is Mikaela Shiffrin the tree that hides the forest or some barren desert?

One would say so, as Lindsey Vonn is taking a back seat, presumably preparing for the Olympics, and Ted Ligety having some obvious problems re-entering the top level in GS he left after his injury and operations.

The problem, at it appears to me, is the inability from the alpine leaders and coaches to get their top stars to emulate the up-and-coming racers.

Contrast this with Austria, Italy, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries. Clearly, the U.S. Alpine Ski leadership is missing something or is woefully unable to build a strong team behind leaders that, at times, are world's phenoms.

Where's the accountability in all this?

Old Patriarchs leading world religions

Following Mormon Church President's Thomas Monson's death, Russell Nelson, age 93, is set to become the 17th leader of the worldwide faith. Just like old premium wines, or our own Donald Trump, very old male leaders seem to work wonder in all religions.

I know what I'm talking about as a freshly minted spetuagenarian; look at Ali Khamenei, 79, Pope Francis, 81 or Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, 82...

This seems very old to me, but who am I to judge as freshly minted septuagenarian?

Also, women head of religious faiths are few and far between, and that's not helping either with religion's credibility.

Sure, but who talks about credibility in a domain like religion, steeped into irrationality? I should have thought about this before starting to write that blog!

Park City Mountain could do much better!

After Vail's “big bang”, when it purchased our local resort, two or three years ago, it now feels as if Park City Mountain (PCM) were savoring its own mediocrity and appeared quite happy with its own status quo.

Here a few random observations from this early season: Granted, Mother Nature has been less than generous, but PCM has not jumped the gun early enough in the season to make tons of snow when it could have.

Instead, they have given us the impression of playing chicken with the weather, hoping for some significant natural snow falls to plug the holes. Is PCM's infrastructure and snow making capacity up to snuff? I doubt it very much; at least it doesn't compare advantageously with Deer Valley's.

At the same time and quite recently, PCM announced its capital investments for 2018 and besides a new high-speed quad at Canyons to replace an old fixed grip for beginners, as well as as some restaurant improvements, nothing appears on the radar to beef up snow-making and replace Park City's third-world chairs like Thaynes, Jupiter, Pioneer and Town Lift. Not impressive at all.

Finally, there are the lines and Vail's terrible corral system. Instead of having three employees chewing the fat at the base of Silverlode (or Payday, Bonanza, etc.), have one of the them make sure chairs are filled to capacity.

For a change, let's start 2018 as if there was some semblance of intelligence within PCM and Vail Resorts!

An opportunity to change Utah

The old, professional politician Orrin Hatch finally threw in the towel. He was disavowed by Utah's Salt Lake Tribune and saw the writing on the wall.

Now, the clear question is who will replace him? Jenny Wilson, a Salt Lake County Councilwoman Jenny Wilson had said that she would run as a democrat for Hatch's seat in 2018, and chance are, Mitt Romney will soon announce his intention to represent the Republicans.

Seems to me that if Jenny was serious about getting elected, she'd need to come out swinging, right now, and begin making impression by defining who she is and what she stands for before Mitt officially gets out of the woods and defines who she is.

There's a huge opportunity of debunking the misconceived "Democrat-is-for-abortion" paradigm and explain that being pro-life starts with taking care of kids in providing them with good education and good healthcare. She'd be perfect for doing that.

Her silence or conspicuous absence from the debate at the very early stage won't do her any good in the uphill battle that is likely to be hers. She needs to get out now and start fighting in full force!

Less snow for more money

With very little help from Mother Nature, our local resorts have had their work cut out for them. More expenses (snow-making) and slightly less visitors.

Yet, they haven't given away their daily lift ticket. Today, a lift ticket at either Park City or Deer Valley goes for a hefty $145! Sure, Vail visitors are a bit less lucky with the resort's $169 price tag.

I wonder what kind of thinking goes behind these exorbitant prices. Today, Park City has about 18 percent of its runs and terrain open, while Deer Valley, that is significantly smaller has just half of its runs open to the public.

All this seems very expensive to me. Yeah, I guess that's what you do when you think very, very short term with a “captive audience”, but this might carry some “unintended consequences”.

Finding fun on scarce snow

In this 33rd winter season in Park City, I'd never experienced so little snow.

Today, Park City only has 18 percent of its terrain open. I understand that the winter 76-77 was nearly as bad, but this hasn't prevented me to get out 21 times so far.

It's amazing how on snow, fun seldom equate snow depth. I wouldn't quite say that the thinner the snow, the more fun there is, but scarcity makes us look further and enjoy it more.

It also hones our skills and help us discover more into what we thought could be less. A lesson that goes much beyond the rather narrow scope of skiing...

From wishing to acting

The first of the year is that traditional day when it's time to wish the very best to our friends, family and ourselves throughout the new year.

This good intention is understandable and laudable, but it cannot and will not deliver the goods as it's only made out of hope and as such, is woefully impotent, just like praying on issues we can't control. Simply wishing won't make things happen.

This is probably why new year's resolutions were invented in the first place. Of course, these resolutions are generally so personal, so fleeting and made under the influence of a festive environment that they often don't “stick” and while they should affect our own lives, they generally will have minute effects on our society and our environment at large.

This is one reason why I want to segue on how we can all change the things that could bring some improvement around us. Call this changing the world if you will, based on our abilities, our creativity and our good will, one little action at a time!