Old Dogs Can Learn

Allow me to introduce Mahmet

Mahmet is from Turkey and is 2-1/2 years old. The day we met, I thought he was 3, per the information supplied to me from the booking. That first day, I thought I had totally lost my touch with kids, or that maybe Mahmet was just really small and a little underdeveloped in a couple ways, but we still had a pretty good time. I found out he was 2-1/2 after the lesson from his mother's instructor. I have always appreciated the things I learned about teaching kids from Rachel Milner, Amy Zahm and Jodi Taggart in the PSIA-NW Children's Specialist events, but the stuff really helped Mahmet and I out this week! 6 months doesn't seem like a big difference in age, but the real differences between these two ages are quite important to be aware of and make adjustments for. I ended up realizing that Mahmet was in no way underdeveloped or "behind" in anything... quite the opposite actually. I also found out that though I have not been teaching enough children during the more recent years of my career, the time I have spent on continuing education has been very valuable. Also, I have not lost my touch with kids, I just need more practice.

2-1/2 year old kids need food
and drink more often than most 3 yr. olds

Look at that face! Happy that someone understood.
Banana, water and a cookie that did not pass inspection.

Mahmet is learning English in a school in Turkey already (he speaks Russian too), but I really had to work hard to figure out what he needed/wanted sometimes. I ended up emptying my backpack AND my pockets several times, but as long as I was looking for his answer, Mahmet did not cry. He really only cried if he tried to communicate and I didn't at least try to understand. It made all the difference to determine if it was a need or a want. A couple things I learned about Mahmet:

- He is far more interested in waxing our skis than he is in stuffed animals. He carried around my chunk of emergency wax from my pack for two days and NEVER even tried to put it in his mouth!
- When I give him a cookie, he breaks it open, inspects it and if it does not meet his standards he prefers fresh fruit. Later, when he has thought about the cookie long enough the broken one is mine. Mahmet gets a fresh one (which takes 5 runs and 30 minutes to eat while skiing). I really wish I had taken a picture when Mahmet decided our break was over, then put his skis on while carrying the entire package of cookies, fully intending to take them skiing. I was surprised when he asked me to get just one out for him.

Check this out! Mahmet tests all the adjustments on my field glasses.
Who could have guessed a fully stocked BC pack would be so useful?
Too bad I didn't get pics of our shovel rides.

Mahmet scopes out a military aircraft dogfight training scenario, true story.

When I started teaching at Mission Ridge, my first year as a full-timer I taught a lot of kids. At the time, I thought I was just paying dues. Later, Loretta Schroeder pointed out that Calvin did this to his noob full-timers because an instructor who is successful teaching kids is really learning how to teach. With adults, a teacher might think they are teaching well with lots of explanations or telling people "what to do", but with kids, especially young ones, it just doesn't work like that. Demonstrations, realistic goals, activities or games that create success... etc. are all necessary. Calvin gave us kids to help us! Mahmet is doing this for me again, in a way. I have to admit, though I was happy for the work, I was a little scared to take on a 3- year old (much less 2-1/2 year old) for a week. Why? Because over the last several years it has been apparent to me the that I had moved away from teaching kids so much that much younger, or "less experienced" instructors were doing a much better job with groups of kids than I could on any given day. Here I am in a new place, having pedaled around a very well put together resume (thanks Jojo!) and it was time to prove it on the beginner hill with the rest of the instructors there to see it all!

Then he scoped lines through the cliffs and chutes above La Marlenaz

Object Permanence! That says it all!

Maybe it is a Turkish thing, maybe not, but as much as Mahmet is the same as other kids I have taught, he is different. I have new respect for functioning in the realm of Object Permanence after teaching a 2-1/2 yr old for the better part of a week. I drew the line at the camera and the phone. No touching these. Mahmet though, would NOT give up on the phone. He knows the word telephone, and he knows exactly where I keep it. What I ended up doing was reaching into my phone pocket and slipping it up the backside of my sleeve, then letting him inspect all of my pockets during our last break. He inspected the phone pocket 4 times! I resorted to this after well over an hour of "telephone" requests. When this kid makes a decision, he sticks to it! The first day was all Mahmet. He made almost all the decisions.

Not fair, people call the cops if adults lay down
for a rest when the feeling strikes!

Life can be so good! Checking out the scene after
ripping it up for an hour. We chased the balloon around
on our skis, He even rode it like a hippity-hop, on skis!

So far Mahmet has always gotten back up and gotten his skis back on after our breaks, though some of them have been a bit long. He has good decision making skills. I noticed this after I quit trying to rush or push his decisions. Eating, bringing one cookie skiing instead of the package, when to rest, when to ski. He has a process, but he needs the time to go through it too. I had to tough it out through some "I WANT" tears. I had stationed a series of rubber cones around the teaching area and hidden certain known and unknown items under the cones. We took 3 runs just touching each cone before Mahmet discovered our treasured block of wax under the cone highest on the hill. This is where Object Permanence matters. On an alpine ski hill, the best way back to the desired cone is not always the straight line. Furthermore, if your instructor is out of practice, or the hill too big, you might have to get used to leaving the cone behind FOREVER because you can't even SEE it anymore. It took 3 heartbreaking rides up the carpet back to the treasure cones before Mahmet got even a little used to the idea.

Epilogue:
WEEKDAY AT BERNIE'S

This is Bernie. He is Austrian.
Bernie loves to get home to his
terrace for beers in the sunshine.

This is Matthias. He is German and loves
baseball. He coached it for many years.
When we met he called me Stan the Man
and knew who I meant when I said
"That is who I am named after."

This is me. I am happy to be out of my boots.
I have been skiing in boots that are too small for
too long. I want no more of it. Comfort please!

The course

On Sunday evening, Jan 23rd we were required to meet here at 8:00 pm for orientation.

We were informed of the following.

- Daily starts 8:00 sharp, finished at 7:30 pm. Various locations TBD

- Evaluations based on scores in the following categories:
-- Experience: Overall participation, work and application during the week

-- Practical Exams: DVA (beacon) Search & Shoveling
Cartography and Orienteering
General Application of Knowledge (interview)

-- Theory Exam (written): 13 pages - a mixture of essay, multiple choice and various
theoretical exercises: Nivology(Snow Science), Weather, Avalanches - general knowledge,
Avalanches - Risk assessment and tactical decision making, First Aid and Rescue,
Cartography and Orienteering.

The first two days began with lectures, approximately 1 hr each, after which we would go out on snow to apply the general principles from the lectures as a group, mostly led by our guide. Each day ended with a lecture, again about 1 -1.5 hrs.

We went home with an assignment: Plan either a day of randonnee, or hors-piste (yes they are different) taking into account the following: Avalanche and weather bulletins, overall group makeup, timetable, route and terrain selection, tactical considerations, plan for continued evaluation and preplanned variations ready and calculated in case a plan B or C were needed.

At 8:00 each morning we had to present our map and notes to the guide & group for discussion. The rest of each day was spent with one of us leading the group at a time for a portion of our chosen route. Throughout each day we would also have beacon, shoveling, probing, cartography, navigation, nivology, slope angle/exposition estimation and risk assessment exercises thrown in at the guide's behest.

The pic at the top of the page was the location for all of our indoor sessions; a makeshift discotheque creatively fashioned out of curtains and lighting in the bowels of the Hotel Mont Fort's remodeling zone. The curtains and lighting were a 360 degree effect. I am once again in touch with Abba and the Bee Gees. You can see me in the back (black jacket) of the room trying to write my entire exam in French, which took me too long so I had to revert to English to finish it.

Doing one of our estimation exercises.


Looking over the next stage of our route
during lunch at Col de Momin. Rosablanche
in the background.


Another day another tour. Me as "guide," last pitch up Le Ferret,
with Bec des Étagnes (link is not my video)
looming over 700m vert of pow and variable snows.

During my Le Ferret ascent, Xavier intervened with several situational considerations, changing a 1/2 hour angled traverse into a 45 minute fall-line bootpack variation for human factor/snow condition considerations ( 1 snowboarder w/snowshoes, and 1 alpine skier sans vibram soles). In reality it turned out to be more of a "possibly needed" variation, but lessons were learned and eyes opened further to what "continuous assessment" of every factor can mean. We were rewarded for our work, which included a short skin out at the bottom, followed by multiple burial scenario training and more timed shoveling. The shoveling wasn't TOO hard, but it is revealing to find out exactly how quickly one tires when shoveling AFAP and just how well, or not well one's shovel works. After all, the digging out of victim(s) is likely to be the most time consuming part of getting in under that 15 minute mark.

Xavier, changing our itinerary once again!

Though this isn't my FAVORITE picture of Xavier, it really sums up how simple and direct the man is. He didn't make points often, but he made them in the company of very final looking hand gestures, visibly relevant physical evidence and with a moment of silence to soak it all in: the point, the hands and the evidence.

In this picture and the first pic in the "Xavier Fournier" post, we weren't exactly suffering from "L'Ivresse Blanche" (literally translates as The White Drunkenness), but after weeks without snow, touring and hiking to areas with available freshies proved to be distracting. Xavier always chose a beautifully untracked slope just after areas of transition from less-fun to more-fun snow to do "manteau de neige" (snowpack) inspections or tests. His moment of silence allowed us to weigh our desire for turns in the good stuff against the point, the hands and the evidence. In each case, his compression columns failed upon isolation to a depth of at least 22 cm, 30 in one, of combined weak layers and crust layers. Admittedly the results were not super dangerous. Each of these areas was highly localized mostly due to aspect, but they were still during level 1 avalanche conditions, which would seem to say not to worry..unless one has read and understands the daily avalanche bulletins entirely.

And again... because this is my favorite pic

This is not my pic, but we did see some of these
'bouquetin' (locally), or ibex as we might know them.

I don't have enough action pics of the course, to tell you the truth. I wish I had pics of 13 people simultaneously digging individaul 2m x 2m square pits as deep as they can go in 7 minutes, or video of multiple close proximity victim beacon training, or the scene when Xavier gave us coordinates for our next meeting point and disappeared over the knoll while we got out our maps. I can see how people get interested in becoming documentarians.

Stan

Xavier Fournier

Xavier Fournier

Ever since I met Jojo she has been talking about her latest "work crush." I now know what she means. After the six day Cours des hors-piste et randonee, I am humbled to the greatest possible degree. Not by bravado or any inter-manly display of alpha-ness, but a display of patience, tolerance and persistence borne of the desire to make sure as many people survive the mountains as possible. A display of natural professionalism, a display of hospitality from a man who welcomed us into his home; the mountains. I now understand I have been but a visitor in these places, as much as I have loved them all my life. Yes, I have a work crush, though it is unlikely I will ever be in Xavier's line of work.

The mountains are big. Xavier is small.

This is a simple reality. All week as we gorged ourselves on the required information, like 13 Mr. Creosotes, Xavier did his best to teach us that learning and surviving means being simple. Thinking simple. Just to the left of this slope and up 75 meters or so, in 2008, the 18 yr. old cousin of our other guide (Jean Vincent) was swept into a terrain trap and buried 6 meters deep. There is a cross on the col for him.

Glacier de Grand Desert. Xavier on a snowboard.

On day 3 Xavier showed up with snowboard gear. We had scheduled a 6 hour tour, including 3 hours hours of ascending. Xavier snowboards about two times per season. However, one of the snowboard guys (Mr. Blunt) was looking to be in a little trouble, nearly unable to hack a 1 hour ascent on day 2. Xavier said if he were going to judge another man he would not do so without being in the same shoes. His plan was to show that being more organized was a suitable way to mitigate the physically demanding nature of snowshoeing in the mountains. Xavier proved to be as smooth and silky on a board as he is on skis and an absolute animal at ascending on any gear.

Mr Blunt

After our second lift ride on day 1. Mr. Blunt borrowed a screwdriver from a more prepared member of the group to remove his bindings and adjust his stance. I call him Mr Blunt because he lit up a gigantic blunt on the chairlift, trying to share it with us between practical sessions, then smoked the entire thing when he got no takers. The dude was the Kiwi incarnation of Jeff Spicoli. He spoke French like Spicoli, but Spicoli was a lot funnier and possibly smarter. On the morning of the 3rd day (the 6 hour tour), Mr. Blunt quit and left the group just before we started our 3 hour ascent. It was too bad, because he could have made it through the course, and he would have experienced some of the following...

On the Col de La Chaux, l-r summits = Petit Mt. Fort, Tête de Momin & Rosabanche. Our route is between Tête de Momin & Rosablanche --- Col de Momin.Grand Combin

Above Col de Momin

Another group having lunch, Mont Blanc and all the biggies behind

Also from our lunch spot, Glacier de Grand Desert, Petit Mt Calme, Rosablanche and some tiny people.


Grand Desert & Grand Mont Calme

Good night, I think I have about 3 blogs worth out of this course. More to come. I will get back to Xavier.

Dinner with a Champion

These skis won the Hahnenkamm. "Equipe Suisse" it says on the tails

And so did this boot!

The name of this post is funny, because the night at Caveau Collombin was funny. I put Jojo up to the task of actually speaking to Monsieur Collombin about maybe opening his private caveau for the Family Greene (and I) while Jojo's parents were in town. I am speaking French better, but didn't think I was doing good enough to convince a local boy of anything except that there is another foreigner in town who can't really speak the language. He didn't answer the phone, but he called back and said no. I wasn't too disappointed, because I am used to employing the "expect the worst and you'll never be disappointed" perspective. This, however, has been changing for me so I did feel a little pang. Evidently Collombin was off on a ski tour of the Grand 'Eteygeon or something. Besides, we only had 4 people, which just wasn't enough we guessed. Within a couple hours, my Swiss phone, which nobody knows the number for, except the people I was drinking wine and eating capon and chestnuts with, rang. It was Collombin. Another party had called and he was opening the caveau after all. We were in!

A couple nights later found us peering out the frosted windows of a tiny (by U.S. estimations) car trying to locate the caveau which had no sign or indicator that we knew of. It was a short drive, but none of us wanted to walk in the -10 temps, especially later on. Thankfully the narrow streets of Versegeres are few, and we figured we had found it when we saw a strangely large red lantern of some kind glowing on the wall up a narrower sidestreet. Sure enough, Roland Collombin greeted us when we decided to open the old wooden door I had to stoop through.

A trio of French skiers on the road through Europe because their snow at home had melted sat drinking wine at the little bar. Collombin's wife, Sara, immediately plied us with their Fendant (a white wine) and a plate of deeply colored and tender dried meat sliced so thin you could see through it (I didn't check if this were actually true, much to Jojo's relief I am sure). Soon the proprietors of a 5 star Verbier Chalet trooped in with an entourage in fur, leather, stilettos and carrying tiny scarf wearing dogs. Apparently, these folks are of actual royal lineage even! The place was officially hopping.

After some more talking and wine, Roland was "Racletting" and Sara was serving us all plates of Raclette and potato. Very good Raclette I might add. After dinner and dessert, we discovered the "ski tour" thing was a misunderstanding of communication. Roland had actually been on a booze run to Ticino, or Tessinois or some such place in Switzerland where more Italian is spoken. Late night beer runs to the corner store don't really seem so "core" to me anymore. Nobody ever brought back un-labeled bottles of Grappa and Walnut Wine (it was like a Port or Brandy, spicy and quite obviously fortified) from the corer store before. While Collombin was out smoking cigarettes, I took a few pictures.

One of his Hahnenkamm cups

Olympic Silver medal

Weltcup Schladming


It could have been the Walnut Wine, but I think I just wasn't ready for the photo. It's a good one of Monsieur Collombin though.

Ski Heroes

I have just moved to Verbier, Switzerland for the season to work here as a ski instructor. What a crazy development in life this is for me. After 26 years as a ski instructor in the Pacific Northwestern USA, which has been a good life, it feels like a new start here. I am reminded of my first few seasons at Mission Ridge, Washington. I always felt like I was skiing everywhere in the world all at once at Mission. The terrain and environment there is amazing for such a "small" place; an adventurous collection of rocky ridgelines full of chutes, thick woods and what seems like above treeline terrain - but isn't. Cold temperatures, dry snow, lots of sunshine and somewhat frequent windy conditions all combine to make Mission Ridge ski like a much bigger place somewhere else in the world - a lot like Verbier! Verbier covers a much larger area, but Mission Ridge and Verbier share so much when it comes to the environment, and, yes, vibe. But all this actually belongs in another post. Back to this topic another time.

Two nights ago I was drinking beer in a dark little place called the TBar - It is good to be back in my favorite bar. Stevens Pass locals will understand this, though the black melamine, UK bartenders and occasional European electronica track here don't truly take me back to our TBar. The name is enough. - Matthias, a German associate of mine, tells me about a great little "caveau" in the valley below which is an excellent evening experience, if you have the pull to get the proprietor to open it up. Matthias goes on to share the proprietor's name, Roland Collombin, and that he is also the owner of a Hahnenkamm trophy. I almost dropped my beer. Here is a link showing why the Hahnenkamm, in Kitzbühel, Austria is the most feared and prestigious downhill in the world.

The next day, I did some research about Roland Collombin. He not only won the Hahnenkamm ('74), but the Lauberhorn ('74) and the Olympic Downhill Silver medal ( Sapporo, 1972 ) when Switzerland 1- 2ed the Olympic DH podium - Bernhard Russi (1) and Roland Collombin (2).

In the 1973-74 season, Collombin had 6 consecutive World Cup DH podiums. In a career of 14 World Cup races he podiumed in 11, 8 wins & 3 - 2nds! 1 World Championship win for 1 start and 1 Olympic Silver for 1 start; Collombin lorded over the competition during his short career. Franz Klammer was often his second. Klammer won his second World Cup podium at Val d'Isere in December of 1974, after Collombin suffered a horrible crash during a training run - breaking his back and ending his 1974-75 season. The following season, on December 7, 1975 Roland suffered a second horrible crash at the same jump in Val d'Isere. This crash crushed several vertebrae and ended his active ski racing career.

Roland was born, raised and still lives here in the town of Versegères, a few minutes from the télécabine to Verbier. He is a national hero in Switzerland. I am going to try to have raclette in his caveau for sure.

...Continuing the Verbier/Mission Ridge comparison... Mission also has a rich history of local heroes. Though he is not a local boy, Bill Johnson trained at the Mission Ridge Ski Training Academy. Bill Johnson was the 1st male from the United States to win an Alpine Skiing Olympic Gold Medal. There was a day when everyone, a fan of skiing or not, had an immediate reaction to that name. Bill was... is... a controversial figure.

Bill Johnson also had a short but illustrious career. He won the Lauberhorn '84 in Wengen, the WC DH at Aspen '84 and in Whistler, BC '84. He had 4 world class downhill wins in 4 months. In 16 World Cup Starts Bill won 3 Podiums, all 1sts, 1 World Championship start, 1 Olympic Gold medal for 1 start; Sarajevo, 1984. After the 1984 season nagging back and knee injuries kept him off the podium, though he finished in the top 10 in a number of World Cup events. Years later, at the age of 40 Bill Johnson came out of retirement and staged a comeback, trying to qualify for the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. Like Collombin, Johnson suffered a horrible crash, his at Big Mountain in Whitefish Montana. It ended his comeback attempt. He spent 3 weeks in a coma and to this day suffers from the effects of the crash.

To some it may seem like a stretch to compare these two champions. Many people refuse to consider Bill Johnson a champion or a hero. He has, over the years, had an incredible amount of bad press. Take a moment though, to consider that what he did for alpine skiing in the United States is easily comparable to what Collombin did for Switzerland's nation of proud skiers. Also take note of the human interest story/interview with Johnson in the Sarajevo '84 link above when Bill acknowledged he was not an athlete, just a guy who skied fast. He may have seemed disrespectful in some ways, but I think he knew the score. He respected the true athletes he competed against, their hard work, and dedication. He has always respected the sport of skiing in the most real way possible. His story was then and is now a story of triumph, success and achievement. Whether the success lies in a judge believing in another way to treat a young man on the wrong track, that young man changing his life, or more recently as he has struggled back from the death of his young son in 1992 and the terrible trauma he suffered trying to stage his comeback.

Back in 1984 Franz Klammer called Bill Johnson “a nosepicker” on international TV. Plenty of ski coaches and racers leveled insults at Johnson as a person, skier and competitor; especially during his short time at the top of the ski racing world. In looking for information on Johnson I am happy and surprised to find that there is quite a bit of positive copy to be found and fairly recent recognition. Part of the reason I began writing this blog was to illustrate that it is more difficult to really live as a skier in the United States. The skiing nation in the United States has made strides at home and not only abroad as a team of hard-working competitors, athletes and champions. I am not trying to credit Bill with all of it, but he certainly gets some.

I have a lot of ski heroes. Bill Johnson is one of them. Roland Collombin is too. I didn't expect to come here and discover new heroes, but I have a feeling I'll meet a few more while I am here. Like everything in life, heroes are what you make of them. Bill Johnson is my hero because of the things he did well, the things he did right, the way he believed enough in himself to stand up against all the challenges he faced, different though they were than Collombin's demons. Collombin is my hero because he was a natural who had a family that helped build him the opportunity to take it as far as he could go. He didn't seem to have any demons. He believed in himself enough to take it far beyond the edge, enough that once beyond the edge, he still believed. I can't help but wonder how different the history of ski racing might be had things been different, but they aren't, so we have Collombin's amazing, but short career to celebrate.

Collombin and Johnson disprove the assertion of one of my other controversial heroes... Hunter S. Thompson. He said:

"The Edge... There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. The others- the living- are those who pushed their luck as far as they felt they could handle it, and then pulled back..."

Collombin did not pull back. He kept going. He blew past the edge at high speed, dusted himself off and promptly did it again AND survived again. He knows things most of us don't. So does Bill Johnson. Hunter was right about there being no honest way to explain the edge. If Johnson or Collombin tried to explain it to us we simply could not understand. We would have to go over ourselves... and survive. Hunter was wrong when he said the only ones who have gone over the edge were no longer among the living. This perspective could have been useful to the man.

Collombin remains one of Switzerland's golden boys and is well-respected as a champion throughout the skiing world. He didn't give the muckrakers a lot of copy like Johnson and Bode Miller seem to have done. Europe's skiing heroes are not completely insulated from bad press, though. Last year's Swiss Golden Boy, Didier Defago, who was injured early this World Cup season and is out for the remainder, is suffering some bad press here. Instead of posting any of that I will post this cool video of Didier which delivers a message of mutual respect between different factions of the competetive ski industry. Besides the mountains and the great skiing, the coolest thing about being here is the mutual respect mountain riders have for each other here. It's all just "skiing." There is a lot of competition for work in Verbier. There are many ski schools in the village. The competition does not seem to create adversity between us all as individuals or skiers... except for, troublingly, the ONE OTHER U.S. citizen I have met here in town! Go figure.

Thanks for reading, and bear with me if you will. I am new at this.

Stan