Each winter for more than three decades, Blair Williams, president of WiRED Properties, has taken a break from carving out developments in southeastern Wisconsin to carve snow on mountains across North America.
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Blair Williams hikes up Crested Butte in Colo.[/caption]
Williams is a skier with a taste for rugged terrain. He’s been helicopter skiing in British Columbia and has hiked with his skis up ungroomed Colorado peaks.
“For me, skiing is kind of zen,” Williams said. “And it’s a communal activity, because I’m typically skiing with someone else. There’s this terrific atmosphere. There’s nothing better than getting into a high, alpine location where it’s just trees and rocks. There’s a clarity that comes from sitting in a place where people are guests. You don’t feel like you own it. You’ve been invited to a remarkable place. It is pretty spectacular. It’s just beautiful wilderness out there.”
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Trudging ahead of Blair Williams toward the summit of Crested Butte in Colorado is his friend and ski buddy Patrick Gallagher, a real estate broker for Siegel-Gallagher in Milwaukee.[/caption]
He has a handful of favorite mountains – Jackson Hole in Wyoming, Crested Butte in Colorado – but “there’s no place in the world with better snow than Utah,” he said.
“(Skiing) is the art of falling gracefully,” Williams said. “Gravity wins. I like that the objective of it is: get down to the lift again, and do it in whatever way makes you feel best. And all of them are equally valid expressions.”
