There is an old skier’s saying that if you want to succeed in the winter, you have to train hard and suffer in the summer. And of course you also have to pay a lot of attention to your equipment post-season – before the next season. This summer I had the opportunity to visit the headquarters of Salomon in Annecy for the first time.

I was impressed by how Gilles Lambolez, manager of ski boot development at Salomon, put the finishing touches to my ski boots, showing great patience in the way he paid such close attention to the tiniest detail. A wonderful side effect of this visit was that I was also able to brush up my French while I waited :-). Okay, Gilles, the likeable native of Alsace sometimes showed off his German skills on me as well. At any rate, we got on really well.

But if you stay focused, you can achieve almost impossible things! This is not only my ambition, also Garaventa's.

…to Longines family members and Swiss alpine skiers.

Swiss Ski and Descente have had a partnership for over 40 years. Compared with everyday clothing, sportswear has to function well in a variety of harsher conditions, demanding higher levels of durability and safety. To ensure that Descente products meet the demands of their customers in countries around the world, they have to stay constantly up-to-date with not only the quality standards that apply in Japan, where the research and development takes place, but also in all those other countries as well. In any case, Descente's own self-imposed quality criteria meet the highest global standards. I feel honored to be a global ambassador for Descente.

Listen to my interview with Kathryn Johnston, Manager, International Relations, Descente Ltd