Dec 8, 2020
Dr. Wes Wylie is the guy you want on your heliskiing crew. He’s a heliski guide at Alaska’s Tordillo Mountain Lodge as well as Powderbirds out of Snowbird. He’s been a ski patroller at Deer Valley for more than 20 years. He travels to Chile and New Zealand in the summer to guide clients. Oh, and he’s also a private physician who travels the country practicing medicine.
1:00: Are you a ski guide who practices medicine or a doctor who skis?
2:30: Getting into medicine as a way to ski
3:45: The overlap between doctoring and skiing. A typical year on mountains, with a few months in hospitals.
5:50: “The big dinner conversation.” Honing aging bodies for skiing. Clients as patients. How to offset the 1% annual loss of muscle mass in men in their 50s, 60s and 70s.
7:15: The “easy” prescription to offset that muscle loss and even build muscle past age 50.
9:00: And even thwart the insidious weight gain of life after 50.
12:00: Advice for skiers looking to stay on skis deep into their 80s or even 90s: minimize the impacts.
12:35: People get injured for three reasons. Two of them are the fault of the guides.
14:20: Progressing “never-ever” Alaska helicopter skiers into steep, deep, sprawling terrain.
15:20: Second time's the charm.
18:30: Being “really spherical” when talking as a guide.
20:00: The photographic component of guiding. Tips for creating lifelong keepsakes.
23:40: Photos as “a great venue for people to review their skills.”
25:50: Building the ultimate guide ski for heavy-pack skiing in variable conditions in Alaska
28:00 The ultimate guide ski looks like this
32:00 The best advice he’s ever received: Movement is good. Stay in the flow. When people stay in the flow state, all the mechanics fall into place.