Apocalyptic lines…

When we took our daughter back to the airport, early in the morning, we were stunned to see the line ofn the Interstate I-80 off ramp to Park City. 

Miles of cars were patiently crawling along to go skiing to either Park City or Deer Valley. This was a sight we had never seen as we seldom drive so early to get to the Salt Lake valley. 

Without a doubt, this was there a direct effect of all the Epic passes Vail Resorts had sold this year at 20% off. Everyone, it seems, is going skiing. 

On the slope it wasn’t better. Parking lots are overflowing, beginner to intermediate runs are tightly packed and its only on double-diamond black that there’s room to breathe and no lines. 

At night, it’s as much awful if one has to take a lift to get over to the base or to the parking lot. Long lines everywhere and what seems to me terrible terrain management by the resort. 

Skiing as we know it seems definitely headed to the dogs!

Bringing Thonon water to America?

While cleaning and re-organizing our pantry, my wife just found this tiny water bottle branded Thonon. Quite meaningful as I was born in the town where that water was produced and bears the exact same name and also about the fact that it ended up in America 5,313 miles away. 

Mineral and other type of water are the kind of crazy manifestation of humanity’s out-of-control consumption. It used to be know as “Source de la Versoie” and St. Francis de Sales, a 16th century local saint, thought it tasted good. 

We can’t tell you how that tiny bottle ended up inside our home, but suffices to say that bringing a commodity like water, so far, is insane and symptomatic of some of the most foolish aspects of globalization. 

Evian water owned by the powerful Danone agribusiness, that comes out of the ground just a few miles from Thonon has enjoyed an amazing reputation, while the Thonon brand has struggled by comparison. The global bottled water market size is huge and is now valued at about $220 billion. 

Just as an indication, we drink 15 billion gallon of bottled water in the United States each year ! We’re not just talking about spring water, but all kind of water, including the suspect “purified” one. 

We are talking about big business and a kind of activity that’s capitalizing on fear, global drought, poor infrastructure and unbridled global population growth, that’s holding the world population hostage of these tiny plastic bottles...

Letting the faster skier go

This past weekend, my daughter and I were skiing on the steeper part of the 9990 lift (following the towers, i.e. the fall line) and we were passed by one very good skier, followed, as well as he could, by a visibly struggling companion. 

This was the first time I had this experience. I didn’t feel too bad and rationalized it as follows: 

• There was only one challenging lift open in all of Park City Mountain at that moment, and it was 9990, so it wasn’t surprising that the few good skiers skiing that resort this very day would congregate there. 
• Next, my daughter thought the men were in their 20 or 30, which explain their bloated stamina and heightened risk tolerance. 
• Also, I was skiing with my child, so I wasn’t pressing the pedal to the metal as I didn’t want to get her into a ski accident. 
• Finally, I’ll turn 74 in a few days and I now better than hurting myself for the sake of staying ahead of some reckless skier!

The best Christmas Gift

Very early, this past Christmas morning I was thinking how lucky I was to experience no pain and no major problem in my entire body. 

I did my very best to feel my whole aging body and as I couldn’t sense any outstanding pain. 

I then took the time to fully appreciated my luck of feeling so good for my age, as it begins to become quite respectable and scary at the same time. 

I felt so lucky as I thought of all the people my age and younger that have already passed, and the many that are currently not feeling one-hundred-percent well or are in the throes of recovery from serious illnesses or recent operations. 

Didn’t I received the very best Christmas gift?

Appreciating the ski-life we still have

On Thursday, Park City Mountain finally opened some challenging terrain at 9990. 

My daughter and I jumped on the occasion to finally have some good fun and get more exercise in the process. 

What was amazing is that I was the only old guy skiing among the few serious skiers that were there. I’d guess the average age was 25 at the very most. 

This said, I still held my own, skied fast enough for the circumstances and the conditions and wondered how long this could last. 

Since I couldn’t get a precise answer back, I assumed I didn’t need one and decided to continue skiing the way as always do as if nothing had happened and no big number of years had past…

Twenty-five years ago

December 1996 was a time when I was desperately looking for a job and after a whole year looking, I was holding on two solid options following a pair of successful interviews (as always, getting my foot in the door for an interview was always the hardest part). 

One job was about selling high-quality wood windows to architects, contractors and homeowners and the other was a marketing manager position at a local property management company. 

I took the later, because I didn’t have to commute to Salt Lake and be forced on the road the whole time selling building supplies, and I also knew the company’s owner a colorful, local guy. 

The guy who decided though wasn’t that man but his general manager, Mike Philips, a nice fellow who had spent most of his career in the hospitality business. The pay wasn’t great and I didn’t know much about the job or the industry, but decided to take a swing at it.

It ended being a good choice that helped me pay for our children’s college education, open my eyes to a business area I didn’t know, let me discover Colorado and meet some interesting people. 

A great move for rounding off and ending my working career!

The art of purchasing ski boots

My daughter recently purchased a new pair of ski boots to replace the hand-me-down pair from her mom that were first worn in… 1993! 

Anecdotally, her ski boot size is 24.5 mondo. So, she went to the ski shop and after being measured and explained her skiing style a skills (she’s a very good, smooth skier who, just like her dad, avoids groomers and skis the whole mountain), she asked to be put in a size 24.4 mondopoint. 

The young man insisted however that she tries first a 23 shell on the basis that her “performance” would be much better. He attempted to “force” her into 3 different models of that shell size to no avail. 

She just couldn’t get in, period! Even though I told the guy I know a “few things” about boot fitting (my life-long ski industry career) he couldn’t listen and was dead set on “performance”. 

The reality being that for most skiers, like my daughter or myself it’s simply “comfort” to the point that we ought to forget we have ski boots on, and yet, get all the support and leverage we need, but comfortably. 

We finally found a good pair of Tecnica, size 24.5, that were plenty tight, but fit her fine. 

Morale of the story: Don’t let people tell you fishy stories next time you’re in the market for a new pair of ski boot.