2023-01 Jackson Hole 3

Jackson Hole 3,
Feb. 1, 2023,
Hi Everyone,

This was my second day skiing and my first day at the conference. The conference has become very high powered with several well known names in urology present and giving talks. We are 87 urologists present not including the speakers and the exhibitors who more or less sponsor the conference. After one of the talks I quietly gave my opinion to the fellow next to me who agreed with me. The next thing I knew, he gets up and gives a talk. He is the chairman of urology of one of the top 5 urology training centres in America. The next time I give my opinion I will look at his name tag before speaking.

The conference runs from 6:30 to 10:00 or 11:00 with one talk after another. I cut out at 10:00 to do some skiing. There is a critique panel in the afternoon from 4:00 to 7:30which finished early today. I had drinks with 2 urologists from South Carolina with whom I shared a taxi ride the other day from the airport to the hotel. I did a quick run with them earlier in the day but they cut off to do a blue and I still had the energy to do a black mogul run (double black). 10 years ago at the conference I was offered a position at a small town in Idaho, 2 hours from Jackson Hole. Dominique told me that I could take the job but she wouldn’t go with me and I could fly back to Montreal every so often. Several weeks later I had my heart attacks and my bypass and that was the end of that. This evening I met up with 2 urologists who took the jobs 3 years afterwards. One of them is from Red Deer Alberta. His wife is from Montreal and used to work for a Quebec firm called Laborie. We had met many years ago at urology meetings.

I also met a French fellow how comes from the Alps and works for a company which is marketing disposable cystoscopes. This is an innovative idea as regular scopes need to be sterilized requiring manpower and break regularly requiring expensive repairs. He grew up in a small ski village in the Alps where you can ski from France to Italy in a day. He has been skiing since he was a child. We will meet at 12:00 at the gondola and ski together in the afternoon. He was impressed by my knowledge of what skis to rent and the difference between western wide under foot skis where skiers slide their turns as opposed to eastern skiers who ski on narrow skis under foot which are good for carving on hard packed snow in the east. I neglected to mention that I am a ski patroller at Mont Habitant and am a level 1 CSIA instructor. He probably skies like Jean Paul whose family owned a hotel at Meribel, one of the best mountains in France or Barry or Glen. I hope that I don’t disappoint him with my abilities.

I used to tell my kids that we would start skiing in the morning, warm up on double blacks and then do something more difficult. Today I started off the day on ‘something more difficult’. I took the tram up to rendezvous-bowl and then skied off to the Hobacks. It was 10:30 and I was the first one down with nobody following. The mountain faced the sun so there was soft broken heavy powder. I ‘jumped into the trees’ and made my way down. I think that they must have moved the trees as I don’t remember them being so close together. The trees must have grown in height and in width and I swear that they must have planted more of them in between just for me. I kid you not, the trees are 6 feet apart and occasionally the slope is 60 degrees. I couldn’t link my turns and sometimes resorted to side slipping to get by. Eventually I arrived at some open terrain with huge bumps. I had to stop to catch my breath every 10-12 turns. I think that it is a combination of the altitude 10,500 feet, and the fact that I am 5 years older. Later in the day I did a bump run which was marked double diamond, caution and cliff. It was a piece of cake.

I spent the evening with my new found friends and had dinner and drinks with them. We will meet up tomorrow to take some runs together.

Love,
Brian