Is being competitive bad?

Some religions and philosophies seem to look poorly at competition and at anything “competitive”, saying that it’s bad as pit people against each others. 

Yet, I’m one of these individuals who have grown into thinking that competition was good and was one of the pillars to growth and enrichment, both mentally and materially. 

Often, competition is equated to capitalism and its endless drive to grow and improve whatever is on its way in spite of all of its ill-effects, but by the same token, material and social progress are the results of various forms of competition and it makes it hard to condemn that drive altogether.

I'd think that, in the end, the healthier form of competition is the one we can hold against our own selves and I hang on to that one as a motivator for personal growth, healthy as well as good mental living! 

This is in fact what competition in sport should always be about, but too often, it gets hijacked by hubris and become yet another capital sin...

Can skiing faster be safer?

Yesterday, I learned that my 76 year old neighbor got into a ski accident three weeks ago and ended up spending four days at the hospital for broken ribs. He doesn’t clearly remember what happened, but thought that he was hit from the rear by an out-of-control snowboarder or skier. 

He fell as a result of the impact and the culprit left the scene of the accident. Today, he’s doing okay and is still recuperating. He simply told me “Keep on skiing fast, so you won’t get hit from behind by someone out of control…” 

There sure is a lot of truth in that admonition that I practice every time I ski by myself. When I’m in the company of others, I generally lead, but pace myself to a speed that feels comfortable and secure to those following me. 

Under these conditions, we all become potential targets to these speed demons that can lurk behind us and mow us down like blades of grass… 

I can’t tell either how long I’ll be able to ski fast enough to afford myself this kind of active protection, but except for certain circumstances (spring skiing being one of them), I avoid perfectly groomed run where these colliders love to roam and prefer rougher terrain and marginal snow conditions!

Skiing “Indicator” at Jupiter

Recently, when I’m skiing, I’ve become less reluctant to spend time exploring and snooping around instead of just skiing like a machine. 

A few days ago, I had skied down “Six-Bells” the first time this season; it’s a small steep couloir (45 to 50 degrees) that sits on top of Jupiter ski runs and had noticed a rather significant opening, skier’s right from that particular narrow passage.

That passage, so to speak, is called “Indicator” and quite surprisingly, I had never tried to venture into it. 

So, the other day, I purposely plunged my skis into that unknown gully and quickly found out that the first part was very, very steep, something like 50 degrees. It was also tight, and even though I’m skiing on 180 cm skis, there wasn’t much wiggle room! 

It was rocky in the upper section too which forced me to proceed with caution and wiggle my way through some trees in order to protect my skis. I finally got to the bottom of it, and promised me to try it again when there will be a more abundant snow cover...

Half-way vaccinated!

In the past days, my wife and I have received our first shot of the Covid-19 vaccine. We didn’t chose, and got the Moderna version. 

By the end of this month we’ll get the second dose and hopefully will be sheltered from that pesky virus. Park City and its County were slow to start the vaccination process, but I must say that the effort has now picked up steam and the whole procedure we went through was flawlessly organized.

It took place as a drive-in format inside the now dormant Park City movie studios and was a breeze from beginning to end. 

A little burden has been lifted off our shoulder and with now half of the family having begun the process, we can’t wait for its three remaining members to get their respective shots!

Victim of American propaganda?

At regular intervals, I’m asked why in the world did I leave my magic Alps to come to America. Most often than not, I mutter some inconsequential answer. 

The reality though, is when I was a small kid, we used to receive a pamphlet or magazine at home, touting the beauty and wonders of America and its society, and when I read that material, I must have instantly fallen under the spell. 

Our family’s material life wasn’t even close to that fairyland described herein and at the time, I was pretty much taking my marvelous surroundings for granted. That dreamland description must have made a permanent mark upon my young mind and from there, irrevocably driven my destiny.

Nothing anyone could do about that! Obviously pure propaganda, that literature was part of the “American Way of Life” indoctrination from the USIA, an anti-communist agency founded during the Cold War in 1953, by President Eisenhower, with the mission of “understanding, informing and influencing foreign audiences in order to promote interest national and deepen dialogue between Americans and US institutions with their counterparts abroad.” 

I was evidently part of that targeted audience and in my case, it did work to perfection!

My battle against that shrinking time…

The more projects or fun activities I have, the less time I have to fit everything piece into a tight 24 hours. 

This seems to be my dilemma these days and I must admit that I end up wasting far less time than say, just ten years ago! 

Sure, I probably could do better, but I value everything I do so much that I don’t intend to make cuts anywhere. 

This scarcity also explains why days, weeks and years don’t last as long as they used to, and even though time is distributed perfectly equally to all of us humans – no inequity there - I seem to chronically run out of that precious commodity! 

Now, as rare, precious and healing some idle time might appear to be, I believe that if I had it, I would no longer have the wasteful impulse to squander it!

Inspiring books about mountaineering exploits

Recently, I’ve been reading a series of high altitude climbing-mountaineering books relating exploits and mishaps taking place in Asia, between the Karakorum and the Himalayas, and must say that not only this adventure reading keeps me on the edge of your seat, but is for me, also highly addictive. 

If I were not in my early 70s, I would get involved at once in that wonderful endeavor! No wonder then, that many climbing vocations have been ignited by the revelations contained in a regular dose of this kind of reading. 

I can vividly remember that, as an 8 to 10 year old child, I spent time in the summer in my Alpine pasture with a city-kid my age, from nearby Thonon, on Geneva Lake’s south shore, who had been totally raptured by reading the work from Roger Frison-Roche, that French prolific mountain writer who gain celebrity through “Premier de cordée” (First on the rope) in1944. 

That reading triggered his life-long passion for climbing and for trying to getting me bouldering on local cliffs. At home we had no such books, let alone nothing to read but the newspaper! Fortunately or unfortunately, I had no access to such books, and I obviously missed getting sucked into hard-core mountain climbing. 

If that had been the case, I might not be alive today to tell that story...