“What’s the most incredible place you’ve ever skied?” I ask him. He thinks about it for a few seconds. “Norway, the Italian Alps, the French Alps… But nowhere compares to home,” he says. “That’s where I most want to go.” He says this and remains completely at ease. The best part is that I don’t think he says it just to make a good impression, and for that alone he deserves an article on the Salssa blog. Yes, sir. Everyone, meet Marc Ràdua.
It all began when he was four, with alpine skiing. At fifteen or sixteen, he switched to ski mountaineering, a sport “that’s very rewarding to train for” because it “pushes the body to its limits first and then rewards it.” He is now twenty-three.
He was born in El Vendrell but lives in Claverol. He mentions the name and I try not to look too ignorant, but he quickly clarifies: it’s a village in Pallars Jussà. He moved there with his family about ten years ago and has lived among the mountains ever since. This circumstance - along with being a high-level athlete - has led him to complete not one (two!) distance-learning degrees: Communication and Law. “I enjoy studying,” he says, downplaying the scandal. Marc, please. Tell me how you do it. “I find time under the rocks.” How humble. Equal parts admiration and envy.
It’s hard for me to digest so much excellence, so I explore other topics. “What about the mental side of competing on the world stage?” Marc laughs. “It’s complicated sometimes. Everything is in order now, but I’ve had periods of mental chaos when things just don’t work out, without you knowing why.” He tells me he went through a period of emotional instability that lasted a couple of years. Competition is a demanding world, and if your mind isn’t working, neither is your body. Luckily, “psychological support, which is necessary, is becoming more widespread.” Egos, disputes, competitiveness… It can be difficult. That’s why, he concludes, “support from home is very important.” I agree.
And how does he stay motivated, after so long, to keep skiing with this level of commitment? One thing is doing it as an extracurricular activity, as was the case at first (“the kid has to do something on weekends”). Well, apparently, there are many reasons: discipline, ambition, competitiveness… and the feeling of being in the mountains, of course. “Skiing will always be part of my life for as long as I can. Simply being in contact with the snow is everything.” Wow. I also want to talk about Barcelona’s streetlights like that.
Snow brings me to two words that may sound alarming and apocalyptic, but hey, this is the reality we’ve been handed: climate change. What will we do, Marc, about the future of skiing? I’m worried about it, but he sees things somewhat more positively than I do. “It’s a complicated issue.” Well, yes. “Ski mountaineering is shifting toward shorter events, but for now it doesn’t affect us.” Good. Perhaps this is the great problem. Often, it isn’t until we can no longer live as we used to that we look for solutions to return to something we can no longer recover.
But there are so many things we can do to postpone that moment… Adopting new eating habits, for example - greener, less sugary, and healthier ones, too. That’s what Marc does with Salssa pouches: “I use them very regularly for training.” Why? Because “we train for many hours a day. I have teammates who consume nothing but gels, which in the end are just sugar and more sugar. And besides” - he adds - “they taste really good.” You’re flattering us, kid (and we love it).
Marc believes that “a more or less controlled diet is very important.” He says “more or less controlled” because he finds it very difficult to follow it one hundred percent, but he insists that he can already feel a positive impact without doing everything perfectly. And I think it’s the best way to end this article. At least, I tend to feel that either I do things “properly” or I don’t even try. How sad is that? I’d make progress little by little, without rushing. Like him.
