JACKSON HOLE ICON

LOCAL LIFE

JACKSON HOLE ICON

Tram The originators of ski-bum music celebrate their 30th anniversary in 2023. Jam Band // BY MARK BAKER

YOU KNOW IT’S COLD OUTSIDE when you need a hair dryer to unstick your lips from the brass. “Because the valves will freeze,” Peter “Chanman” Chandler says. The frontman for everyone’s favorite ski resort band, Tram Jam Band, a name that conjures an image of marmalade on the move, was talking about fellow band member Powell Miller and how he keeps his trumpet from icing up when it’s below zero—or colder. “Never any complaints—20 below or 40 above, they’re out there,” says Tim Mason, vice president of operations at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, of the band that’s been entertaining fellow skiers with its ski-bum music at the base of the JHMR tram for almost 30 years. Ski-bum music is “any kind of music that’s made by ski bums,” Chandler says. “And by ski bums, I mean people who are committed to the mountain. It’s music that ski bums listen to, which can range from reggae to bluegrass to the Grateful Dead.” Today, the band includes Chandler, Miller, guitarist Jeff Eidemiller, drummer Andy Peterson, bass player John Clark, and saxophonist Jason Fritz. But in the beginning, 1993, it was just Chandler, who grew up on the coast of Maine and has a master of divinity degree from Harvard, and then-musical partner Bradley Parker. They told the resort they’d play for ski passes. Sometimes, they’d play resort bars until 2 a.m. and then just hang out and start playing again at 7 a.m. The weather no longer fazes the band. Chandler remembers seeing “-12” on the temperature board one Saturday. “But it’s been colder,” he says. Sometimes the wind and snow blows sideways. Hard. “Somewhere along the line, it became easier. At some point, playing in a blizzard was no big deal,” Chandler says, although he admits, “There’s only so much good music you can play in that kind of weather.” The Tram Jam Band plays covers and Chanman originals like “Gotta Take Some Turns,” “The Coffee Song,” and “Dream of You.” Sometimes, people show up just to listen. They aren’t even there to ski. “We have people who just hang out and listen,” Chandler says. “People are usually really into it.” Catch the Tram Jam Band every Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. (And, yes, they still get paid in ski passes, based on “mutual agreement.”) JH

RYAN DORGAN

HELLO

LOCAL LIFE

HELLO

MEKKI JAIDI

PROFILE Mekki Jaidi

Building businesses and growing roots in Jackson Hole.

BY MIKE KOSHMRL

Mekki Jaidi was a New York City-based derivative trader when he first glimpsed Jackson Hole in August of 2012. He and his then-girlfriend-now-wife, Jane, were aboard a Delta Air Lines flight from Salt Lake City to the Jackson Hole Airport. The pilot made one of those standard, yet incredible, slow descents down the Snake River corridor through the heart of the valley. It was Jaidi’s first time seeing the Tetons, and, trite as it sounds, it was love at first sight. “I didn’t even think something like that existed in the United States,”

KATHRYN ZIESIG

says Jaidi, who grew up in New York. A little more than a decade after that first trip, Jaidi is one of the largest employers in the valley and, with Jane, is raising two daughters here.

It wasn’t just the awe factor of the physical landscape that appealed to Jaidi and Jane. Over their long weekend vacation, they were taken by the valley’s slower-going lifestyle, which was quite the contrast to the hustle and bustle of keeping up with New York City’s eightplus million residents. “It was just the openness and the connectedness of the community, just the feeling of knowing your neighbor, ” Jaidi says.

The Jaidis didn’t move immediately to Jackson. But in 2013 their intense attraction to the northwest corner of Wyoming led them to buy a condo in town as an investment. Jaidi convinced his mom and sister to do the same. The investment condo was only an investment for a year, though. In 2014, Jaidi and Jane moved to Jackson full-time and dug into the community. The couple—they married in 2015—now have two daughters, ages five and two, and Jaidi has become enmeshed in the valley’s business and nonprofit communities. “My daughters get to know people in the community, they see them out in public. Growing up back East, we were taught to not look strangers in the eye,” Jaidi says. “We’re definitely in a happy place and fortunate enough to be in the position we are, and that’s why I feel the desire to give back to the community.”

Jaidi’s first bite at business in Jackson Hole was in 2014, when he founded Outpost, a property-management company. He was motivated by dissatisfaction with the property manager for his own rental and thought he could do better, especially by providing clients with more straightforward pricing without all the fees. Initially, Outpost was seven properties and just Jaidi, who didn’t have experience with property management and had yet to get his real

LOCAL LIFE

HELLO MEKKI JAIDI

NONPROFIT WORK Jackson Hole is home to more than 200 nonprofits. Mekki Jaidi is on the board of directors of three of them. Here, in his own words, is why:

1

Soccer helped shape some of the characteristics that lead to my success in my adult life, including seeing the results of hard, grueling work. I want to be part of an organization like Jackson Hole Youth Soccer, which shapes our kids while also allowing them to have fun.

My family frequents R Park during both the summer and winter. We were able to experience the mission of the Jackson Hole Land Trust first-hand and create memories that would have otherwise been privatized and developed for one or a handful of individuals rather than the community as a whole.

For such a small town, Jackson Hole has a vibrant cultural scene, and the Center for the Arts is the epicenter of that environment. I want to continue to see it flourish by directly helping the 22 nonprofit organizations that are memberresidents of the Center and also help in the Center’s efforts to make its programming accessible to and enjoyable by the community as a whole.

2

3

BRADLY J. BONER

estate license. (About the latter, which he did get, he says, “I saw that as my route to live full-time in Jackson Hole.”)

It turned out that he wasn’t the only homeowner who had been dissatisfied with the existing property-management options. Outpost’s business ballooned. Today the company has a portfolio of about 230 condos and homes—more than a third of all professionally managed rental properties in the valley.

As Outpost grew, so has the Jaidi empire. Six years ago, he launched O2 Cleaning, bringing the cleaning portion of rental management in-house. There’s also Terrain, which handles landscaping and snow removal. In 2020 Jaidi partnered with local chefs Clark Myers and Chas Baki to start Provisions Jackson Hole, a catering company, donut bakery, and meal-delivery service. Most recently, in late 2021, Jaidi acquired Snake River Roasting Co. from founders Ruth Ann Petroff and Mark Barron. The various businesses sprouted and grew together organically, and they complement each other functionally while cutting down on costs by eliminating the need for outside contractors. It’s an added benefit that they make the Outpost guest experience more seamless. Together, Jaidi’s businesses employ about 200 people. His management style is hiring smart, motivated people and keeping his hands off. “I like to put people in positions of power and see how they grow the business,” he says.

The purchase of Snake River Roasting didn’t only offset Outpost’s $40,000 annual investment in complimentary coffee for guests renting properties in its portfolio; it also gave the community a new gathering space. Jaidi takes pride in Snake River’s smallbatch, hand-roasting process, which is still done in Jackson, and also the fact that the coffee shop that came with the business is one of the only joints in town that serves its own roasted coffee. After several months of remodeling and retrofitting the downtown coffee shop, it opened this past June as Snake River Roasting Co. Cafe. The acquisition has expanded Jaidi’s business reach so that he’s also serving and interacting with the local community, rather than solely making vacations easier for Outpost renters. “This community thrives on the people that are within the community,” he says. Now, they have a new place to guzzle down a cup of Jackson Hole-roasted joe.

MEKKI’S IDEAL WINTER DAY

Rendezvous Park has a nice sledding hill for my kids. Plus, it fits in nicely with my spot on the board of the Jackson Hole Land Trust, which owns and administers the park.” (jhlandtrust.org/r-park)

BRADLY J. BONER I like taking walks on the groomed Snake River levee at Emily’s Pond; when the afternoon sun hits, you get the warmth. You run into locals and have conversations along the way, and it’s just a beautiful spot to be along the river.

Fat-tire biking is nice for exercise. I like to do that on the groomed paths and on Cache Creek, not necessarily backcountry trails. It lets me free my mind and connect with nature, and honestly, some of my best ideas come during those times. (Rent a bike via tetonmtbike.com.)

MEKKI’S FAVORITE MEALS

1. We love the staff at the Snake River Grill. There’s just a cozy vibe with the fireplace. If you get there early enough and it’s snowing outside, you can see it coming down outside. snakerivergrill.com 2. The cocktails at [Snake River] Sporting Club are some of the best in the valley; they serve them in the right glass and have the right ice cubes for each individual drink. I’ve always really enjoyed whatever concoctions they make. snakeriversportingclub.com/dining 3. In terms of hospitality, Kampai (shown below) is doing a great job.

They’ve been so accommodating, squeezing in last-minute reservations for locals. kampaijh.com JH

REED MATTISON

LOCAL LIFE

HELLO

LAURIE ANDREWS

Andrews Laurie

This community leader runs trails and nonprofits.

//BY MAGGIE THEODORA

SARAH AVERILL

Laurie Andrews first visited Jackson Hole in the summer of 2001. A rock climber, she and three friends came here to climb the Grand Teton. She says she loved the climb, but that it wasn’t the highlight of the trip. Before returning home, the group checked out Jackson. “It was a Saturday morning, and the farmer’s market was going on,” says Andrews, who, at the time, worked for The Nature Conservancy in Seattle. “I looked around and was like, ‘How does someone live here?’ The Grand was fun, but the community I saw at the farmer’s market was incredible.”

The following winter, on a ledge in the middle of a climb in New Zealand, Andrews decided she wanted to do something different with her life, like move to Jackson. Serendipitously, around that time, a job opened in The Nature Conservancy’s Jackson office. That June, less than a year after she had stood on the Grand’s 13,775-foot-tall summit, she moved to the valley. In the 20 years since, Andrews’s main sport has changed from " Jackson Hole gives me the ability to have a wonderful career and interact with a wonderful community and also has the space I need for my climbing to running, which mental health." she often does with one or more of the four dogs she and husband, Perk Perkins, have. And, through her work at two area nonprofits, she has become an important part LEFT: Laurie Andrews with her of the Jackson Hole community that she initially found so incredible. black Lab, Chico.

After landing in Jackson, Andrews worked for The Nature Conservancy for two years and then moved on to work for the Jackson Hole Land Trust. During her 15 ABOVE: When the temperature years at the Land Trust, a nonprofit that works to protect and steward the landscapes of northwest Wyoming, Andrews helped permanently preserve nearly dips below zero, Andrews brings out "Big Yellow." But she says she can tell it's much colder than 8,000 acres, including two acres in downtown Jackson, the preservation of which zero in this selfie taken up Cache received donations from more than 5,500 locals (the Save the Block campaign), and R Park, a nonprofit park on the West Bank of the Snake River (see sidebar). Creek because she also has on a hat and the jacket's hood is up. "It is a certain kind of zen to go In 2019 Andrews moved from the Land Trust to work as president of the Com- running for two to three hours in munity Foundation of Jackson Hole, a nonprofit that provides philanthropic leadership for the valley and whose annual collaborative fundraiser, Old Bill’s negative 15 degree weather," she says. "It is hard to find running partners, but the dogs love it! The Fun Run, has raised over $200 million for local nonprofits since its founding in key is to keep moving." 1997. “I came here for the place and the community and still pinch myself that after a day at work, I can go and run up Cache Creek or go for a hike,” she says. We got Laurie to share some of herself and what she loves about Jackson Hole.

COURTESY PHOTO

LOCAL LIFE

HELLO LAURIE ANDREWS

AS TOLD BY LAURIE ANDREWS

One of the themes throughout my career, and life, is the balance of patience and persistence. I’ve never given a Ted or TedX talk, but I enjoy listening to them [see sidebar about Andrews’s favorite podcasts]. If I did do one, I think the subject would be this balance. I believe that, whether you’re climbing or running or organizing a campaign to save a property, you need to be patient, but also very persistent. There’s a juxtaposition of nudging things along, but, at other times, knowing to step back. People will come along when they’re ready. [Editor’s note—Andrews and her husband knew each other for eight years before they started dating.]

If I didn’t do patience and persistence, another thing I’d love to speak about is the power of community, which my career has really allowed me to experience. There is so much power in this community. I think about the Save the Block campaign, which had so many moving parts and was right up there with the stupidest things I ever agreed to do. But it was successful because the community came together—to agree that this space was a place that mattered to us and then, even though we didn’t have a single donor at the start, to raise more than $7 million in about five months. That was in 2019. And we pulled together during Covid, too. We created a soft landing for each other. It wasn’t perfect, but we figured out how to help people stay in their homes, and we helped feed students when schools closed. What I picked up at the farmer’s market when I was visiting was real and runs so deep here.

As much as I love this community though, and something that often baffles people, is that I’m an introvert off the charts! I get overstimulated and have to recharge with alone time. Jackson Hole gives me the ability to have a wonderful career and interact with a wonderful community and also has the space I need for my mental health.

BRADLY J. BONER

R PARK

The only nonprofit park in Jackson Hole, Rendezvous Park—R Park—is 40 acres on the west bank of the Snake River near the intersection of Wyoming Highways 390 and 22. The park, part of which is a reclaimed gravel pit, is owned and operated by the Jackson Hole Land Trust. Opened to the public in 2014, the park includes meadows, ponds in which kids can fish and all ages can practice their kayak rolls, hills for winter sledding, wetlands, and Mama Mimi, a giant troll made from repurposed pallets and driftwood collected along the Snake River by Danish artist Thomas Dambo. Mama Mimi is interactive; you can walk on top of her extended leg to cross a creek. R Park is free to visit and open daily from sunrise to sunset. Dogs must be kept on leash and are only permitted on the marked loop trail along the park’s perimeter. Dogs are not permitted in the interior of the park.

LISTEN UP

z “Podcasts are a new experience for me since Covid,”

Andrews says. “They give me the feeling that I’m getting a window into the world.” Here are three of her favorites.

z The weekly NPR podcast Throughline speaks to history and how a piece of it affects the present, and you never know whether it will be about Afghanistan or something like the history of the game of Monopoly. Often I’ll look at the title and be like, “really?” I’ll give it 10 minutes, and by then, I’ll be fascinated. I didn’t think I cared about Monopoly, but it turns out I do. The game was invented by a woman, and that’s just one interesting thing about it. z A new episode of the Ted Radio Hour comes out Friday morning. Each episode usually highlights three or four different-but-related Ted Talks. I’d never know to look at the Ted Talks featured, but they end up being mind expanding and sometimes bring me moments of pure joy. z Brené Brown’s Dare to Lead features leaders speaking to strategic needs of organizations and teams, especially in these last two years where there has been no playbook. It’s a great list of the best-in-class for work and life lessons. I listen to Brown’s Unlocking Us when I am more in an exploratory mood; it can surprise me, and I get aha moments from it, and I love how it always starts with the person sharing their story—we all have a story, and it is such a good reminder to ask!

WINTER RUNNING

“Running in the winter is such a different exercise than running at other times of the year, and it just makes me so happy,” says Andrews, who makes her own winter-specific running shoes by attaching cleats meant for the soles of fishing shoes and waders to a newish pair of regular running shoes. “Fishing cleats aren’t actual spikes, but are instead hexagons,” she says. “So they grab but aren’t as deep as spikes.” (If you’re not up for making your own cleated running shoes, companies like Icebug make running shoes with deep lugs and studs for running on snow and ice.) Three of Andrews’s favorite winter runs are roads in summer, but in the winter “they are a wonderland,” she says. “Drive as far as you can on the Gros Ventre Road and eventually you’ll hit a gate that closes it to cars. Start running here and go for as long as you want. It is peaceful and quiet.” "I run the road to Granite Hot Springs before 11 a.m. because after that it’s often busy with snowmobiles. Sometimes I’ll run the entire 11 miles [each way] to the hot springs [making a 22-mile total run].” “The road up Mosquito Creek is also closed to cars by a gate in the winter. Snowmobilers and fat bikers use it past that and pack it down nicely for running.” JH

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LOCAL LIFE

HELLO PAUL BRUUN

AQ

PAUL BRUUN Meet Jackson’s own fly fishermanfoodie-journalistpolitician.

// INTERVIEW BY JIM STANFORD

BRADLY J. BONER

Paul Bruun caught his first Snake River fine-spotted cutthroat trout on upper Flat Creek in 1969. Thus began a lifelong passion for the region’s premier native fish and eventually a guiding career that spanned 37 years on the Snake. In 1973, the Miami native moved here to become editor of the Jackson Hole Guide. Today, at age 78, Bruun is nearing 50 years of writing for Jackson Hole newspapers, mostly about fishing and food, and his “Outdoors” column still appears every other week in the News&Guide. Along the way, the “Fishin’ Politician” served 12 years on the Jackson Town Council. A Patagonia fishing ambassador and the co-creator of the South Fork Skiff, a highly mobile fiberglass craft unlike any prior float-fishing boat, Bruun was inducted into the Fly Fishing Hall of Fame in Livingston Manor, New York, in 2021, and he received the 2022 Izaak Walton Award from the American Museum of Fly Fishing for his contributions to the sport. Bruun answered some questions for Jackson Hole magazine readers.

Q: You grew up in a newspaper family, with your dad, “Big Paul,” publishing the Miami Beach Reporter. What did you learn about journalism from him?

PB: What struck me about my dad was he gave the same attention to the waiter, the bartender, the carhops, that he did to the hotel owners, the big entertainment stars, and big-time businessmen. He had time for every one of them, and he cared about every one of them. There was not a division of labor, or people. I thought, “That’s the way to treat people.”