Alps, veni vidi vici

Well, The Alps came and went.  We arrived with a gamble that the end of season - literally, the end - would provide sufficient snow cover for a worthwhile ski getaway for me, my 27 yr old nephew and his 30 yr old brother.   From our 4th floor, 3 bedroom ‘penthouse’ a few kilometers up hill from Meribel Center, we could survey the mostly snowless trails in the Meribel Valley.

The Three Valleys (Tre Valles) is the largest ski area in the world, combining 3 resorts/mountains, into one, navigable by crossing the peaks from one to another - Courchevel, Meribel, and Val Thorens.  With parts of Val Thorens sitting at over 3000 kilometers, even late in the season the mountain provides plenty of skiable surface.  From what I read, this April was at 62% of normal snow cover, so while it was still skiable, it was certainly the end of the season with many trails and lifts closed (still plenty open) and a lot of stores and restaurants shut for the season.

The temperatures were into the 40 and 50’s.  I learned a trick about converting Celsius - take the celsius number, double it, and add 30 and that’s approximately the Fahrenheit temp.  Problem is that doesn’t work for negative numbers right - like -2 Celsius is what?  How do you double -2?  I’d have to ask my son, though turns out he’s not in competition for any math awards so it’s hard to see how asking him would help.

The 3 Valleys, just about exactly 2 hours outside of Geneva on the French side, was clear the season was ending.  Without significant snow fall for a month, the wind down, close out efforts of the stores that remained open were phoning it in at best.  The working transients that serve in the Alps in the winter and migrate to the Riveria in the Summer was on the minds of many.  

Then came, pretty much without warning, the largest storm of the year, dropping 3’-6’ of snow throughout the Alps, transforming spring back to winter, and even the large groundhog like marmots seemed like wtf after they burrowed their way up and out of the snow cover.  There was this group of three that hung out in the sun under a lift for the longest while, trying to get their game plan in place.

This is the type of storm that closed down ski resorts, with an end of season lack of staff, lack of supplies, lack of energy.  I guess it was a world-wide story first for the snow and then for the 5 of 5 avalanche risk that closed the resorts the first day post storm, and had the high peaks and valley to valley crossing closed the 2nd day.  In other parts of the Alps, like Zermet, they are still digging out and I’m not sure any skiing was had since there was widespread electrical outages, road closures and even bridge collapses.  But in our isolated valley we were skiing the day after in bright blue skies, warm temps and soft snow.  It just snowed and snowed and snowed.   And then there was a quick window of perfect skiing before the long sunny days turned the new snow into rapidly thinning sticky mush.

I ended up getting a high altitude high alcohol good beer buzz for the first time since April 2023 at an apres ski slope side party that I skied into after an exhilarating day on the slopes.  The sun was too warm, the vibe too good, the beer too strong.    End of season moment.  Tip - it’s hard to ski when intoxicated.  Luckily I didn’t have far to go, and luckily when intoxicated, you don’t care too much about how long it takes or the trouble getting there.

This season the skiing took me to Killington VT, Steamboat Springs CO and the 3 Valleys in the France.   That’s about double what I typically do in a year, and with the runs being so long in France, the total skied must easily exceed my yearly average, and I think the results were starting to show in my abilities.  One nice thing about skiing is that you build from year to year, like riding a bike or something similar, not like golf where any pause results in immediate regression.  I guess otherwise skiing really wouldn’t be a thing for most people since they don’t go a whole lot - a few times a year.

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Well, that wraps up a lot of travel over the last 6 months, starting with Costa Rica in November, St Petes over New Years, Killington, Steamboat and now France.  And France last June, and Costa Rica last April.  And the Vanderbilt Mansion in Asheville NC last Christmas.  Dozen trips to NYC, one to Martha’s Vineyard, and that’s without really even thinking about it too hard.

Back on the home front, the new team crushed it and we are calibrated exactly right in talent and workload to have a terrific year from a few different vantages.  I’m hoping the availability of land starts to straighten out because while it was a good thing to force me to personally slow it down, I do need access to land to keep the ship moving, even at slower speeds.   I feel like I’m on the tip of the bow, looking out over the ocean, trying to spot the wave to ride or avoid.

I spent some time on the free of business operational details and it got me thinking about what a crazy trip the last 5 years has been, and that I sailed through quite the storm, and anyone along for the ride - employee, client, family - benefited from my efforts, sometimes in the most extreme and personal fashion.  That’s the joy of small business - you can make an impact on lives, and with building shelter in particular, you really can make a long and lasting impact.  My homes will be here a lot longer than I will be.

I watched the Bob Dylan movie on the way to France and Hangover 1 on the way home.

My nephew and I binged White Lotus, Season 3 on our off days, and that was fun. I definitely had a crush on Mook until I realized how famous and hot she is and totally out of my league (for now).