A visit to the Salomon factory

About fifty years ago this week, I was invited – as a ski instructor – to visit the Salomon ski binding factory. No boots amd no skis yet in 1970! The main models they made were the S505 and the S404, but the company was already getting close to becoming the number one contender on the world market. 

My girlfriend, at the time, picked me up in Cluses, where I worked at the time, and we drove together in her Citroën Dyane to Annecy, at the original Salomon factory, rue de la prairie prolongée. I can’t remember how many ski instructors showed up for the visit, neither do I recall who met us there, it must have been some marketing guy. 

What I remember was the production area and its impressive array of noisy presses that were punching and bending the steel used in the production of their heel-pieces. We saw the assembly line but I can’t recollect if someone gave us a speech on how great Salomon bindings were. 

They were in fact quite mediocre in terms of skier’s safety, but were much more convenient than their competition, quality the presenters should have stressed at length to an audience of ski instructors. I can’t recall either Salomon offering us something to drink or eat, any cheap sticker, or better a yet, a free pair of ski bindings. 

They just wanted to make an forceful impression on us with their impressive line-up of presses (pardon the pun!) A missed opportunity for them and overall, an unimpressive visit to a company that would become my direct and formidable competitor three and a half years later...

Calling a friend and getting scolded

French people are not very good with telephones and, with a handful of exceptions, hardly ever call us. This is why, most of the time, we do the calling. I have a good friend in the Arve Valley, downstream from Chamonix, that I call quite often. 

I like him and appreciate his good nature filled with some refreshing common sense. Yesterday, I called him and his wife picked up and I must say that I don’t know her too much. 

She started badgering me, wondering why in the world, we would elect someone as old as Joe Biden. I responded “Because he was the only good option we had, against a fascist, a liar and an incompetent like Trump.” Relentless, she continued “But Biden is too old!” 

I attempted to add: “That was all we had. You French are lucky to have Macron who is both young and smart…” She cut me off said “No, he’s terrible!”. We went back and forth like this for about five minutes and I had to finally declare that I had not called to engage into a shouting match, but to say hello to her husband. 

I got on the line and I told him how upset I was to be attacked in such a way when I just wanted to say hi and inquire about his welfare in these days of pandemic. We had a shortened conversation and when I hung up the phone, I wondered if it were worth my while to call this friend again. 

After thinking about, I still think I’ll continue.

Reborn!

Just four years ago, I was awaking to the Trump nightmare and it’s been suffering and frustration ever since. I can fully appreciate the pain felt by the 70 millions who voted this time for him, even though I can’t justify why they would vote for him.

This ugly demagogue never was my president! The only positive was that we got 48 months that felt like twelve years, which is remarkable when we know how fast time goes by! 

Today, 75 million of us have finally fired this toxic creature. He will stick around like a sore loser until January 20, but then will be free to defend himself before the courts of law and hopefully try his dubious skills elsewhere. 

I suggested used-car salesman, but this is a huge planet, why not have him begin anew in Brazil, North Korea, the Philippines or even Russia? 

Today, I feel totally reborn, can’t wait to live again but I need a long rest from this political drama. I suffer from election fatigue...

Trump, Biden and a cardinal sales rule

The dual between Trump and Biden is reminding us of a key sales strategy which simply revolves about knowing when to shut up. 

It's a fact that star salespeople never forget that they have two ears and one mouth and, as a result, use them in that ratio! 

This of course, was placed front and center during the recent presidential campaign and most particularly during the two debates. Obviously, it lingers on now, as Trump has grown desperate to hang on to a White House that is now eluding him. 

Trump can’t help but blabber, lie and scream. Just like the proverbial story of the obliging frog that gives a ride to a scorpion across a river and get bitten half-way through, because harming is in the venomous animal’s “nature”, Donald Trump’s nature is to talk and what comes out of his mouth is mostly foul, false and nonsensical.

Biden, on the other hand had carried with him the reputation of often “putting his foot in his mouth” when he gets carried away while talking, so he got coached and learned how to apply the “two ears – one mouth ratio” during his entire campaign, and came out looking like a saint and like the decent leader America needs today. 

As for Trump, I wonder if he wouldn’t benefit from an internship on some used car lot. He might still be learning a few things about sales!

The Associated Press and the US election

There is no national election commission in the United States that can tell us who won on Election Day, so that’s how the Associated Press (AP) steps in and help us decipher the results. An American non-profit news agency, the AP was founded in 1846. Its members are US newspapers and broadcasters.

Interestingly, the AP has counted the vote in US elections since 1848, including national, state and local races, along with key ballot measures. Practically, the AP collects and verifies returns in every county, parish, city and town across the US, and declares the winners in over 7,000 races. 

The AP uses a 50-state network of some 4,000 local “stringers”, that are press freelancers, and that have built trusted relationships with county clerks and other local officials, over years of election night reporting. 

Those arrive at county election offices before the poles close. On voting night, more than 800 entry clerks (working remotely this year because of the pandemic), answer those calls, write down the numbers and enter them into AP’s election database. 

As that process goes on, automated checks look for discrepancies or inconsistencies with a county’s previous voting history or other data. Then, state-based analysts and editors at AP’s headquarters use that information to “call races,” or declare the winners, without making projections or speculating in any way. 

For instance, the AP didn’t call the 2000 Bush-Gore race, standing by its judgment that the margin in Florida was too close to call. 

Pretty amazing to see a news agency playing such a leading role in informing Americans about what’s going on at their elections!

How reliable and relevant are Ski magazine rankings?

A few days ago I received the SKI magazine’s annual resort guide, that ranks the best 50 resorts across North America based on its 2020 reader survey. The results are split among 30 resorts in the West and 20 in the East. 

This time, Sun Valley, Idaho, grabbed the West’s top spot, while Smugglers’ Notch, Vermont, was number one in the East. My hometown of Park City, Utah, which is one ski town that is proud to have two ski companies operating on its land, got 2nd place for Deer Valley Resort and 11th place for Park City Mountain. 

Both benefit of course of the ease of access, the excellent infrastructure and the old town charm of Park City. Remove this and Deer Valley has much less to offer, but a rather thin entertainment and shopping infrastructure, no place next door for its snowboarder visitors to ride. 

Likewise Park City Mountain, our town’s namesake, also get synergy from having Deer Valley as an added option to its visitors. This is simply to make a point that Park City is the destination and its three resorts (if we include the new Woodward center at Gorgoza) are part of its amenities. 

This is in fact how resorts that have a core town (i.e. Aspen) should be ranked. Vail and Beaver Creek are more clearly delineated by the mountain ranges separating them and Tahoe would be too spread out to qualify. 

Under these criteria, a Park City destination should be number one with more than 9,000 square acre of skiable terrain. This of course doesn’t answer two very important questions I have about these rankings. 

The first one is what methodology has been used by SKI in compiling its survey, and can it be audited or be made public? It’s also pretty obvious that resorts that advertised in that issue got a pretty good rankings which says a lot about the credibility of that survey! 

The second has to do with the circulation of the magazine, its paid vs. free circulation, and who is the typical reader of that publication? Magazines like this one are a dying breed, as exemplified by the soon-to-be extinct Powder, and their relevance has become highly questionable. 

So, with this in mind, I won’t lose much sleep over Park City 11th and Vail 14th spots!

A crushing disappointment

Like many, I was expecting a Democratic landslide and instead got plenty of uncertainty. 

I thought that Americans were tired of Trump and wanted some change, but that wasn’t counting on his electorate made of gullible, idiots and rotten individuals, with a clear predominance in that last category, populated by a combination of racists, fascists, religious zealots and hypocrites. 

America has a long way to go in growing up into the modern ages, and it’s clear that Biden wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, nor did he go out of his way to work hard during his campaign. 

The man was not qualified to start with and is far too old for this job. Just like me, Biden must have been trusting the polls, and these very polls failed us badly and can no longer be trusted. 

A great opportunity for those eager to fix that failing gauge that the opinion polls are, and a Democratic Party in dire need of new energies and capable leaders as well as candidates!