Digene Corp. chief executive Evan Jones loves to ski, but not on ski slopes. They're not tall enough. Not steep enough. The thrills are trivial. The risk? Minimal. Jones prefers heli-skiing.
What's heli-skiing?
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Climbing aboard a helicopter and flying to the top of a remote mountain in Canada. "You get off and you're in the remote wilderness," he said. "No roads. No people. The snow is untracked. Trees are everywhere." It costs about $6,000 per person, per week. The risk? An avalanche. Special insurance is highly recommended.
Jones, 47, has been heli-skiing since his family took him as a teenager. Now he takes business associates. They can see a lot as they head down the mountain: a soft white sea, trees swaying from heavy snow -- and lessons for running a biotech company.
"You need to have fun," he said. "And you need to take risks."
But to take risks, he also has to be prepared.
"You can't heli-ski if you don't train well for it," he said. "So I train year-round. I mountain bike, I run, I exercise constantly. And all of this helps me achieve my goal: heli-skiing well. You have to do that running a company, too.
"To get to the top of the mountain it takes a lot of hard work and commitment," he said.
-- Michael Rosenwald
