When change accelerates

The other day, I was talking to another French expat and we were lamenting the fact that it becomes increasingly difficult to relate to our former buddies in the old country. 

Too much change over four to five decades is taking its toll, even though Covid-19 might be acting as a reunifying element as we now all share this condition all over the world, and have to live with it.

Yet, in our lives, change is the only constant, according to Heraclitus, and there’s nothing like being an expat to be impacted by it and appreciate how it’s creeping fast upon us. 

In the 44 years since I’ve live out of France, I’ve seen my former home country, its language, its culture gradually change while the United States and Park City have changed as well and I keep on changing everyday. 

So, it’s no wonder that in that flood of change surrounding us, many lose their bearings and long for a return to the “good old days” when things appeared certain, familiar and comfortable, but in fact were not really so. Sure, with 7.8 millions humans, there are more daily new ideas, inventions and achievements than ever before. 

Research is also better organized and accumulates knowledge and performance at an unprecedented pace, and all these factors place change on an exponential path headed up and we better fasten our seat belts in an attempt to keep up with the whirlwind of changes scheduled for tomorrow!

A great ski season concludes

On Sunday, I made what might very well be my last ski turns of the 2020-21 season in the simmering slush at the base of Park City Canyon Village. 

This was my 117th day on ski for the winter (a personal best)!

During these challenging Covid-19 circumstances, I still had one of my very best skiing year, in spite of limited lift capacity and some unusual lines. 

As a result, I didn’t break records in terms of vertical skied, but I felt good about my overall season, with no injury or accident whatsoever, many new runs I still discovered and the great powder days I experienced after the end of January. 

I’m now ready for next year (my 69th winter season on boards) and for breaking the 50 million vertical feet (15 millions de metres) ceiling, God willing!

My first voyage ‘round the world, part 1

This is the beginning of a series marking the 50th anniversary of my trip to Australia to teach skiing and subsequently circumvent the world for the first time. 

Towards the end of my five-week instructor training in Chamonix, I must have heard somewhere that, Alexis Saudan, a member of the ENSA faculty was looking for ski instructors to accompany him in June or July to Mt. Buller, an Australian ski resort, located in the State of Victoria. I can’t remember how I learned about that opportunity or if I was contacted for it, but I became instantly interested. 

Gérard, one of my future teammate on that trip, himself a recent member of the ENSA faculty was asked by Saudan to join his team. Said Gérard: “Since I didn't speak a word of English, I was a bit surprised that he’d ask me to join him, but Alexis had reassured me that, if I learned the basics, I’d pick up enough once there to be just fine, keeping in mind that one of the objectives for me was to coach the Victoria Ski Association team.” 

Marcel, another ski instructor who also happened to attend the same training as me, told me that during this session, Alexis was actively looking for instructors to teach in Australia: “I volunteered for the job! A few talks with Alexis, and soon after he confirmed I was in…” 

As for me, I still wonder how I heard about that opportunity and how I applies. I simply remember that Edmond Denis, Avoriaz ski school director told me: “You’re not ready yet to teach abroad!” but I simply dismissed what I took to be a mean and out-of-place remark…

Focusing on what really counts

Too many times, I get distracted and waste time on tasks or projects that really are unimportant to me and my life’s objectives. 

Still, I stubbornly continues in these fruitless pursuits because it seems to stem from unfilled frustrations or old obsessions that are no longer needed or called for. 

Yet, it’s very hard for me to wipe them out clean and move on to what really counts for my future and my well-being. 

I suppose I’m not the only one burdened with this retrograde habit, not that would bring any measure of legitimacy to it, and I need to bring some more quality and usefulness into my thinking and my actions in order to flush that trivial stuff out of my life!

Why I’m so crazy about skiing?

To understand ma passion about skiing, one has to understand the many moments in my life when my skiing was so frustrated and so repressed that it built-up a pent-up desire that turned into an obsessive intensity inside my mind. 

Just look at the events that peppered my life: 

As a kid, I was longing for good equipment as I only had to make to with the skis my Dad hand-carved for me and that made me very self conscious and put me at a disadvantage with other kids. 

Shortly thereafter, I got my “real skis” made by Duret which were a step in the right direction, but image-wise couldn’t quite compete against the most fortunate kids’ Rossignol 41, Soupless our Dynamic skis. 

Just after that, as I was working as a liftie during school vacations, I was intensely envious of the kids from the racing team training, wearing racing stretch pants, tight jackets and buckle boots. 

Then in boarding school, I wasn’t unable to go and ski with the few skiers lucky enough to spend their Thursday afternoon skiing while I had to stay. 

The military was also a catastrophe for my skiing, I found myself near Marseilles, far from my mountain, missing two winter of skiing, and to make things worse, missed a chance of teaching skiing to pilots at Méribel, by missing a more propitious entry time by just two months. 

After this, things got much better until my desperate search for a year-round career got me out of the mountains starting in 1974 while I was still skiing a bit, to places where skiing frequently wasn’t an option (Nevers and New York) and that exile lasted through 1985. 

During all that time, I always promised myself that “one day”, I’d ski more, I’d even ski a lot, “when, I’d finally get a chance”. That day, I’m grateful to say arrived and it’s now!

Is there value in Spring skiing?

For years, I firmly believed that spring skiing was a wonderful opportunity to extend the season, bring new skiers into the sport easily, also at less cost, and that its potential was widely underestimated.

That was not to account for a gradually shrinking spring season thanks to global warming and also highly variable conditions, inherent with the late season, that see hard, icy snow early in the morning, almost perfect and pleasant snow between 10 and 11 am and then a meltdown that is hard on the glide, on the skiers and their safe return to the base of the hill. 

Okay, but following the sun, one can stretch up to 2 or even 3 hours of decent skiing, depending on the day. In fact spring skiing as we know it and picture it is very elusive, only works well on certain days (nights cold enough, nice weather and temperatures moderately warm). 

Sure, there are exceptions, when a snow storm brings some new snow and that a combination of overcast skies and cold temperature keep the powder magic alive for a day or two, but again, these conditions are always short-lived are difficult to seize. 

With age and plenty of varied experience, I’ve come to the conclusion that spring skiing’s value is good for getting a tan, but slim to seriously ski. 

This explain the narrow and shrinking appeal spring skiing seems to have these days; biking, boating, golf and gardening are hard to resist... 

At least, that’s my two cents on this 9th day of April!

In three days our Park City ski season will come to a screeching halt. 

The little amount of snow we had seems to have worked out just fine, right in the nick of time. 

 In spite of the pandemic and all of its related problems, it has been good and I’m now looking forward to focus my attention on something else. 

 God, I love the change of seasons!