“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 ones… But there’s nowhere like home,” he says. “It’s where I most want to go.” He drops this line and remains completely unfazed. 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. Without further ado: Marc Ràdua.
It all began at the age of 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 your body to its limits first and then rewards you.” He is now twenty-three.
He was born in El Vendrell, but lives in Claverol. He mentions the name and I try not to seem too ignorant, but he quickly explains: 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—and the fact that he is a high-level athlete—have led him to complete not one (two!) distance-learning degrees: Communication and Law. “I enjoy studying,” he says, brushing off the scandal. Marc, please. Tell me how you do it. “I find time under the stones.” How modest. Equal parts admiration and envy.
I find it difficult to digest so much excellence, so I explore other topics. “How about managing your mindset when 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. Fortunately, “psychological support, which is necessary, is becoming more available.” 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 all this time, 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 the weekends”). 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, it’s what we’ve been given to live with: climate change. What will we do, Marc, about the future of skiing? I’m worried, but he sees it somewhat more positively than I do. “It’s a complicated issue.” Well, yes. “Ski mountaineering is shifting toward shorter races, but for now it isn’t affecting us.” Good. Perhaps this is the biggest problem. Often, it isn’t until we can no longer live as we used to that we look for solutions to return to what 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, 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, mate (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 already notices a positive impact without doing everything perfectly. And I think that’s the best way to end this article. At least, I often feel that either I do things “properly” or I don’t even try. How sad, right? He would make progress little by little, without rushing. Like him.
