Wes Wylie: Skiing and Healing, How to Ski Forever

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.