Bill Briggs in Five- PART FOUR
Posted on Thursday, May 29th, 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.
FOUR: Transcendence
Briggs walks with a syncopated cadence to compensate for the fused junction of bones. His hip joint, or lack thereof, has always been intriguing bar chatter. Aspiring ski mountaineers don’t often tire of the subject. “How the hell do you ski—ski the Grand—with a fused hip?” is a common question, often through an embarrassed smile.
In the late 50s, Briggs’ hip became more troublesome and brought about old feelings of depression. He left the mountains for New York City, to pursue his music. It was there that Briggs became interested in Scientology and the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard.
“The first sessions I had were in New York. I found I could speak to a group of people, which I couldn’t do before. I had taken courses in public speaking but could never get by it. Here I could have three points and get them across. It was a fantastic game.”
In 1961, Briggs had his hip fused. As the subject of a doctors’ symposium, he learned how they decided that fusing the hip would be the right course of action for him. One doctor, with a fused hip himself, performed a standing broad jump into the seat of a chair sitting a few feet away. Briggs underwent surgery to have his femur directly attached to the right hip socket at an angle favorable to skiing.
“I thought it was fabulous,” he says. “Sitting and standing were not really comfortable but walking and skiing are pretty much where it needs to be.”
After the hip surgery his pursuit of Scientology grew to become an ally against his depression and inspired a return to the mountains.
“I got back into skiing and could do practically everything, but in 1966-68 I had done the lower grades in Scientology. They have to do with communications, problems, upsets. The top grades had to do with ability, regaining ability. The outcome is regaining a physical ability, and at that point I started looking at skiing peaks,” he recollects.
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.
