Sports · Skiing
My story
s with skiing.
A childhood dream turned into a career: skiing, learning, trying again, and then passing on what the mountains teach.
I started skiing at the age of three with my father. Very early on, the mountains became familiar territory: a place of freedom, balance, and speed, but also of patience. Much later, at the age of twenty-six, I decided to start competing to pursue a goal I’d had for a long time: to become a ski instructor.
3 years
My first time skiing with my dad, and a love for the mountains that began very early on.
26 years old
A late start to the competition, with a clear goal: to begin the path toward becoming an instructor.
2020
I earned my State-Certified Ski Instructor Diploma.
A dream that isn't exactly reasonable.
Skiing didn’t come into my life as just another winter pastime. It was a family tradition, a given part of our vacations, and then, little by little, it became a more persistent dream: the dream of one day wearing the red jacket, teaching, guiding, and passing on my knowledge.
It wasn’t the most direct path, though. I hadn’t followed a ski-and-study program, I hadn’t grown up competing, and I returned to this demanding world fairly late in life. I had to be willing to go back to the basics and compete against skiers who were younger, faster, and had been training for much longer.
Build the engine.
To pull off this project, it wasn’t enough just to be a good skier. I also had to push through the long days, practice, keep going, recover, and stay focused when fatigue set in. It was in this context that I began to seriously work on my endurance.
In November 2010, marathon training became a major milestone. At the time, it wasn’t yet a goal as a triathlete; it was primarily intended to build the endurance needed for skiing. Looking back, it was probably one of the first bridges between mountaineering and long-distance endurance.
Skiing has taught me that a childhood dream can come true, as long as you put in the effort.
Become an instructor.
The curriculum at the National School of Skiing and Mountaineering is demanding. It requires technical skill, of course, but also a genuine ability to learn quickly, to question one’s own assumptions, to understand the terrain, and to maintain precision when conditions change.
Earning the State Diploma and then teaching at the ESF in La Foux d’Allos gave this story a concrete form. Just like in music, it’s not just about knowing how to do something: you have to know how to observe others, find the right instruction, reassure them, help them overcome a mental block, and teach without being overbearing.
What Remains
Read the slope.
Skiing continues to inspire everything else: my connection to the terrain, my ability to adapt, my love of executing the perfect move, and that way of passing things on that also runs through my career as a musician.