Michel Arpin, 1935-2015

Born on December 29, 1935 in Ste Foy, near Val d'Isère, France, to a family of innkeepers, Michel Arpin was named to the French Ski Team from 1956 to 1966. His most notable achievement was a 4th place in Slalom at the 1964 Olympics, just behind Jimmy Heuga and Billy Kidd (Pepi Stiegler won the Gold). Arpin passed away in Thonon, France, on Saturday, May 30.

In 1961 and through somewhat special circumstances, Arpin became closely associated with Jean-Claude Killy as his personal equipment coach. Michel Arpin became legendary for his superlative abilities of selecting the best skis for specific snow conditions.

Working first with Dynamic as a "technical advisor", Arpin became Killy's personal ski technician at the Portillo World Championships and after Grenoble, he followed Killy's endorsements, first to Head in 1969, Rossignol in 1972 and K2, one year later.

In the mid-seventies, he settled in Thonon, on the French shore of Lake Geneva, where he ran a sport shop. I've skied with Michel while being a ski instructor in Avoriaz, France. He was a kind of a honorary ski school member. I remember him as a tough, typical “montagnard”character.

Rest in Peace Michel...

What motivates people

What motivates people lies deep inside their personality and unless you don't know someone perfectly well, there's no way to find what exactly makes that person tick.

This invites good observation, plenty of time to do it, an analytical mind and an opportunistic approach.

 

Folks won't generally be able to reveal what motivates them at a conscious level and the key will only be accessed through attentive observation. Then, once the secret is revealed, anything is possible!

Zion's Angels Landing

We concluded our trip to Zion National Park with a hike to Angels Landing, a classic hike that isn't for the faint of heart. We climbed a 1,488-foot tall rock formation that provides a spectacular view of Zion Canyon.

The trail to Angels Landing is 2.4 miles long. The upper portion of the trail also known as Walter's Wiggles is where it get serious and a bit spooky, with a series of 21 steep switchbacks equipped with support chains anchored intermittently the whole half-mile leading to the top.

We choose not to base-jump from the top at 5,790 feet, and completed the round trip in one healthy piece. Apparently, over the years, five people didn't.

Soccer, money and corruption...

Glad the Fed finally put its finger on the Swiss soccer mafia. Money, especially big money has an incredible ability to rot every organization that soaks too deep into it. Today, it's soccer; tomorrow it should be the IOC. Unlike Wall Street, FIFA had not full-time lobbyists in Washington.

I pray that they never will and I'm delighted that it took the United States of America who cares little about the big soccer leagues to muster the courage to see that this emperor had no clothes either!

Zion National Park, 25 year later

We were glad to have made it back to Zion after a quarter of a century hiatus. We didn't remember much about the Park except that we were shocked at the huge number of visitors for late May.

The place is uniquely spectacular and is one of the “must-see” on the National Park circuit. Huge cliffs, deep canyons, another “American-sized” place with hikes that are either too tame or too grueling.

Zion isn't for happy medium.

When I ran into my Mormon neighbor

The other day, I dreamed I had made it to Heaven. There the first guy I ran across was one of my few Mormon neighbors that always meant well to me, that tried to convert me once, but gave up when he saw that my case was rather hopeless...

Needless to say he appeared shocked to see me in Heaven when I somehow landed there. He said he was truly amazed and just couldn't believe that a heathen like me had managed to wiggle his way near the Almighty.

The things he said that bothered him the most were that, while he was wasting all his Sundays, I was having fun skiing, mountain biking or mowing my lawn! I begged him to regain his composure and feeling a tad guilty - as always, I even apologized for ruining his stay in Heaven by my mere presence.

I probably over-did it when I went over my way to promise that if I didn't enjoy the place to its fullest, I'd ask for a transfer to Hell, if downstairs – as I had been told – proved to be more fun.

The (thin) money in skiing

Today, Ski Racing magazine was lamenting the small amount of prize money earned by the best skiers in the world. Well, this topic isn't new and two observations that can be made about this sad state of affairs.

First, alpine skiing is a marginal sport practiced mostly by white people who live in the mountains. It requires mountains, cold weather, snow, lifts and heaps of money. Because it's inherently expensive, not many, across the globe can dream of doing it.

The second and perhaps main reason a top skier earns less than a rodeo bull-rider, is because the FIS remains hopeless at sports marketing. Someone has to sell the rights to television and to market this kind of stuff, it must be fun, entertaining and adapted to the media.

This stern reality could be a hint; in fact it's the elephant in the room: What if FIS got down its high horse and began to wonder what it would take to tweak the sport and make it salable to TV audiences? What a concept!