From the Hip-Bill Briggs in Five…PART ONE
Posted on Monday, May 26th, 2008
For the next week, The Mountain Culture, will profile skier and mountaineer, Bill Briggs, a legend by any standard for his contribution to the evolution of American steep skiing. Writer Jeff Burke takes a closer look at the first man to ski the Grand Teton, and the life he has spent on and off the mountains.
ONE: The Protagonist
“Ski mountaineering,” Bill Briggs says. “Putting a route up the mountain, and putting a route down the mountain for others to do, is a super experience.”
Now in his seventies Briggs’ eyes still light up as he speaks about the working relationship between skiing and mountaineering that he helped to develop in North America over the past half century, with many first ski descents in the Wyoming’s Tetons, most notably the Grand Teton in 1971. Known as a central protagonist in the evolution of American steep skiing, many pivotal moments have led Briggs to an unconventional life in the mountains.
He was born in Augusta, Maine, on December 21, 1931. He was like any other baby—minus a right hip joint. Just before his second birthday, doctors hammered out a new hip socket in his pelvis—a departure point for myriad stories and experiences of Briggs’ life, most of which detail an open eschewing of conformity and expected behavior.
“In 1940, I was advised the hip would not last,” he says. “At age 40, I should expect to be in a wheelchair. Doctors said, ‘If you want to do anything athletic, do it now, because you’re going to be a deskbound person.’”
This is fairly funny stuff, coming from a 77-year-old who spent years working as a mountain guide, and still to this day heads up the Great American Ski School at Snow King Resort in Jackson, Wyoming. He also leads his band every week at the Stagecoach bar in Wilson, Wyoming, a position that has spanned decades.
Over the next four days we’ll feature snapshots of a man who has crafted a life of his own on snow, rock and stage.
Jeff Burke lives in Jackson, Wyoming, where he works as a freelance writer, Editor-at-Large for Backcountry magazine, and moonlights as a Jackson Hole Ski Patroller.
