2024-01 Jackson Hole

Jackson Hole 3,

Jan 30, 2024,

Hi Everyone,

The day started off well as who ever ‘borrowed’ my ski poles yesterday, probably realized that he/she had taken them by accident and left them for me to pick up where I had left them yesterday. So now I have 2 pairs of Leki (expensive) poles that allow me to ski better.

Yesterday’s soupy, spring like snow conditions had frozen overnight leaving extremely hard packed terrain with ice balls everywhere. The visibility was nil with fog,fog,fog all over the mountain. I stepped on the basket of my ski pole, rather hard to do, fell and re-sprained by already sprained left thumb and left shoulder. At about 10:30 I thought that I had taken a blue ‘groomer’ but ended up on a black diamond mogul trail. The bumps were impossibly hard to manoeuvre. I missed a mogul, flew through the air and landed on my head. It was the third hardest bang that I ever got on my head in my athletic career. The first was a minor concussion in a hockey game 20 years ago and the second sustained when I went over the handle bars while practicing for the world championship triathlon last year. I broke a finger which I did not have set as it would have set me back in my training. It is a little cooked but hell I don’t play the piano for a living. I counted to 10 and then side slipped down the bumps, eventually going for a capuchino to decide the future plans for the day.

After an hour, miraculously the sun came out and burned off the fog. The rest of the day I skied in the sun with 5 C temperatures, soft spring soupy snow and a bluebird sky. I am sitting in an Italian restaurant, eating lasagna and sipping Italian red wine. I ordered a bottle which they will cork for me so I can come back and finish it tomorrow.

My urology conference begins tomorrow at 6:00 am. There are 150 physicians registered for the conference, double the usual, which runs from 6 to 11 and from 4 to 7. If the conditions are good, I might cut out early. You only live once!!

Love,

Brian