* Larry Olmsted, Author of “Fans: How Watching Sports Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Understanding” and “Real Food / Fake Food”

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
By the way, some of the others on that trip,
and god, was it fifteen years ago now or something
like that. We had Greg McNeely and John Truscott and
Bob Lebrant and Richard McClellan's brother was there too, and
Tom Shields and anyway, and I hope they don't mind.
It was a perfectly legitimate and legal venture to educate
ourselves through the Cornerstone Foundation. Okay, Larry Olmstead, this is

(00:27):
a tough topic. Larry is the author of Fans How
Watching Sports Makes Us happier, healthier, and more understanding. You
can also get his book that was on the best
seller list for the New York Times Real Food, Fake Food.
But a British Man is among six skiers killed in
avalanches over the weekend in the French Alps. And from

(00:49):
what I understand, where this incident happened is someplace that
you've actually skied, Larry.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yes, it is, Michael, And you know, I'm a big
fan of skiing in the Alps. But you know, wherever
you ski in the mountains, not so much at the
case in Michigan, in the Midwest, where you are, which
is you know, much safer in terms of avalanches and
snow stability. But like right now on out in Colorado skiing,

(01:16):
and when we go out of bounds beyond the lifts,
we wear avalanche transceivers and carry packs with stobbles and
have guides with us. And that's something that you're, you know,
typically supposed to do whenever you leave the ski resort boundaries.
And apparently, at least I don't know that all six
of these incidents, but the one you're referring to with
the British gedtlemen, we're skiing out of bounds without any

(01:40):
of the safety equipment, without guides, and you know, when
you do that, you put yourself at risk of avalanches,
especially in a big snow year, which is what they're
having in the Alps right now.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
This particular man was thrown against a tree and killed.
He wasn't buried alive in the snow, but you know
what that's like to be buried because you were you
volunteered to have that happen at vale and I was
there to help throw the snow on top of you.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yeah, when they know, they train that the teams for
the ski patrol and the dogs, they have a simulated
burial accident. So they dug a hole and I crawled
down into it and they covered me with snow, and
then they bring in the dogs and let them go
and see if they can find you, and you know,
it's a claustrophobic sort of scary experience. You know, suddenly
you're under snow and it's dark and like being in

(02:30):
a grave, and they're like, I hope this dog does
find me.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
I thought it was funny and all fun and games
until I saw you actually climb down into that grave,
and then it got scary for sure. You don't have
to worry about that at Point Mountain or the Highlands
in northern Michigan. No way avalanches there, and Larry Olmsted
has skied there too,