If you're going to ski with a client (especially one you've never skied with before and don't know his abilities), you automatically head straight for the steepest thing on the mountain, right? Obviously. Well, it's obvious anyway if your IQ drops 30 to 40 points as soon as you put on your skis and if you're just a little jealous because the guy lives in Vail and skis here all the time and if you're such a knucklehead that you actually have a track record of this sort of thing.

The run was Prima Cornice, the nastiest, steepest, most rock infested fun zone on the whole mountain. The client performed admirably. No broken limbs, lost skis, concussions or even many swear words. He even leapt over a good sized rock on the steepest part. He didn't fire me. He even liked my line about how falling in the no fall zone would at least get him out of his deposition next week.

This actually worked out much better than the time with Bill The Client when he and I were skiing at Copper Mountain. Bill was the plaintiff in a multi-million dollar contingency fee case we were handling and would be the star (and indispensable) witness at trial. I goaded him into Spaulding Bowl. As I was leading him on a traverse across the top of the bowl to get to "easier terrain" I turned around and saw him plummeting head first through the bowl headed straight for a cluster of large boulders. He lived, he testified, we won some money. Whew!

The rest of the day was fun, but the highlight was my continuing experiments with the worlds of testosterone and machismo. They rarely fail me.