A Park City surprise

These past days must have broken records around Park City with large numbers of skiers and snowboarders on the mountain. Good for the local economy and another perfect time filled with wonderful snow and great experience for our visitors.

Sure, there were big lines at the most popular lifts (not necessarily the best ones) and to our great surprise, nice things happened that day as we were skiing. First, we arrived at the Quicksilver Gondola on our return trek to Park City from Canyons, where a sizable crowd was waiting. An employee was making the rounds distributing water to everyone who wanting some. Impressive!

Even Deer Valley never does that. I had already spotted a few Park City executives working as lifties and was a bit taken aback when the person handing me my skis when I got off the gondola at Silverlode was no other than Bill Rock, the COO of Park City Mountain. Wow!

What a great example and a refreshing impression from a resort that most Parkites have love to bash ever since it was acquired by Vail Resorts. This said, this season has been marked with a remarkable outgoing attitude by all employees making a concerted effort to engage their visiting guests in a friendly manner.

Way to go, Park City Mountain!

Jupiter vs. Ninety-Nine-90

If you ever skied Park City and are a very good skier, you will have heard of Jupiter as the best place to go. The terrain is wonderful but the old, rickety, two-person chair, very slow.

Around the turn of century, appeared Ninety-Nine-90 in the Canyons area of the enlarged resort. The overall place looked very similar to Jupiter in many ways and was well-served by a modern high-speed quad.

For many years, I had abandoned Jupiter for that new spot and it's only yesterday – as I was skiing with my daughter – that I rediscover why Jupiter has so much appeal.

Sure, in this early season, the snow cover is exceptionally good and it makes a big difference, but the “texture” of “Jup” terrain, as most call the place, it is more finite, detailed and varied, which in turn magnifies its diversity and augment its skiing options.

The place still leads in that way...

Most difficult job in the world?

Yesterday morning we had a discussion at breakfast about whether being the US President was the most difficult job of all.

I didn't agree, while my wife and daughter thought Commander-in Chief was indeed the toughest occupation there is.

I objected saying that the president was rather well insulated from unpleasant issues through his huge administrative staff and was also protected from the direct emotional trauma of being too close from what hurts.

I asserted that some small business owners are in a much tougher spot when confronted with dire situations. Sure it was hard to me with come up with the specific, detailed examples that I was asked to produce. I then diverted the debate by stating that some presidents (Abraham Lincoln, Lyndon Johnson) had it much tougher than others (Bill Clinton, Barack Obama).

Then I found this ranking on CareerOverview.com that validated my argument and listed twenty-five of the most dirty, difficult, and hazardous jobs that some people did every day. I will only list the top ten: 

• Coal Mining 
• US President 
• Alaskan Crab Fishing 
• Mercenaries 
• Freelancing 
• Calcutta Sewer Cleaner 
• UN Negotiator Logging 
• Prison Warden 
• Mountain Rescue 

So, finding this great information made me feed vindicated and proud of my good judgment, even though I would say that being sewer cleaner in Calcutta seems much worst than being seated in the Oval Office.

Now, will you agree with me, or simply side with my wife and daughter?

My knee, day two

Today I as woke up and got out of bed, my left knee felt much, much better, for some mysterious and inexplicable reasons. I was rather pessimistic the day before. Still, I decided to stay home, not ski and let the situation further improve.

That's when I remembered of the tradition of healers and so-called “bonesetters” that was so prevalent in my Alpine hometown. Along with the “fire-cutters”, “shingle-cutters”, among many other specialties, they were a convenient way for the common and impoverished folks to affordably get better.

More than once, I had a sprained my knee and a local “bonesetter” came and fixed me up. I also remember than on numerous occasions my mom burned herself in the kitchen and had someone “cut the fire” on her.

This said, my recovery was nothing short of miraculous and while I was wondering if skiing on a weird pair of skis that kicked me around two days before, when I tested them, might have re-awaken an old injury, I couldn't put my finger on any other cause...

My left knee isn't happy

Back on December 18, 1994, I stretch my medial collateral ligament (MCL) on the left knee while skiing. I was back on skis on January 12 of the following year.

For the past few days, I felt that same ligament and today, while skiing fairly hard with my daughter my knee bothered me more than ever before. I don't know if I'll be able to keep skiing or if I should take some rest.

Perhaps wear a brace? I really don't know what to do and fear how it's going to feel tomorrow. Any recommendations?

The art of staying motivated

It's impossible to remain always filled with optimism, energy and appetite for life.

These cyclical elements always vary in intensity and when they do go down, it's quite useful to realize it and take them for what they are, temporary low moments.

If anything, it will help us understand what's going on, where it comes from and do whatever it take to bring the power up again inside the entire machine.

Just a useful reminder in a season filled with anticipation, plans, fun, elation, excess and their opposite effect that never fail to materialize shortly thereafter...

What's your Tweet?

Christmas is about love, peace and many other positive thoughts, but certainly not a time for nasty “Tweets” like our president-elect seem to be so good at.

Today, as I was clearing the snow around my house I was thinking that for each Trump Tweet featured by the media, there should be at least one counter-Tweet coming from all of us who don't appreciate the man and what he has to say.

This would allow for a creative stream of entertainment and would be a wonderful push back against our intimidator-in-chief!