Jackson Hole magazine

CULTURE

Museums For Everyone

DINING

Brews & Bites

WILDLIFE

The Elk Refuge Turns 100

OUTDOORS

Snow Biking

magazine

Jackson Hole

WINTER 2013

Soul

Skiers

How valley filmmakers, craftsmen, entrepreneurs, and adventurers make the most of winter

DISPLAY UNTIL 4/30/2013

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Excellence in ART since 1963.

Above: Interior shot of Trailside Galleries in Jackson Hole. Images from top: Lot 89D, Carl Rungius (1869-1959), Untitled, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches. Lot 119, Charles M. Russell (1864-1926), Unbranded, ca. 1897, oil on canvas, 13 1/8 x 20 1/4 inches. Lot 94, Jim Norton (b.1953), A Golden Time, oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches.

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OLD WEST MEETS THE NEW WEST

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Jackson Hole

Page

Features 54 Mad About Elk

The National Elk Refuge celebrated its 100th anniversary last year. But its future is far from certain.

BY todd wilkinson

54

P H O T O G A L L E RY

Ski mountaineer Steve Romeo died last March, but his photographs live on.

72 Live To Ski

by Reed finlay

64 3, 2, 1 … Dropping

78 Running Man

Jackson Hole’s ski film scene is a dynamic of talent and terrain.

Local fitness guru Eric Orton gets his due.

By grant davis

BY jeff burke ON THE COVER: Jackson-based photographer Greg Von Doersten and friends, including Steve Romeo, pictured, found powder in the north fork of Garnet Canyon in Grand Teton National Park last winter. Von Doersten’s photos have appeared in National Geographic, Outside, and Men’s Journal. See page 72 for a story and photo gallery on ski mountaineering in the Tetons.

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

WAYNE SMITH

Winter 2013

Unmatched ExpEriEncE exceptional rEsults

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Clockwise from the Top R. Tom Gilleon Theodore Waddell Mary Roberson September Vhay Louisa McElwain John Nieto Jared Sanders Rocky Hawkins Bill Schenck Also Representing Duke Beardsley James Pringle Cook Glenn Dean Robert Farber Logan Maxwell Hagege Donna Howell-Sickles Andree Hudson Steve Kestrel Ted Knight Arlo Namingha Dan Namingha Marshall Noice Howard Post Amy Ringholz Hib Sabin Liz Wolf Greg Woodard Peter Wright Dennis Zimienski

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We are now accepting quality consignments for our 2013 Auction to be held in Reno, Nevada Auction highlights online at www.cdaartauction.com Work shown above: Frank Tenney Johnson (1874–1939) Cowboys Roping the Bear, oil on canvas, 26 × 36 inches Estimate: $500-700,000, Sold at Auction: $921,000 THE COEUR D’ALENE ART AUCTION 8836 North Hess St., Suite B Hayden, ID 83835 208-772-9009 info@cdaartauction.com

Jackson Hole

Winter 2013

JH Living 18 Tetonscapes

Snowkiting, Jackson’s Triple Crown, Jackson Hole Winery, and Wilson’s own Hungry Jack’s

26 piqued

.

News and our favorite gear to get you through this winter

locals

30 From Wrangler to Whiskey

Q&A with Brad Mead

By dina mishev

32 Finding Her Voice

Q&A with Joan Anzelmo

By allison arthur

Best of JH

on the job

34 Master Ski Crafter

Mike Parris’ handmade skis

By Angus M. thuermer, jr.

business

getting out

99 Taking It In

38 The Business of Winter

Mother Nature’s hold on money

BY Teresa Griswold

DESIGN

Fireplaces take many forms.

By rebecca huntington

104

88 Winters of Wonder Truly extreme winters

By JIM STANFORD

A camp that takes the scare out of you.

BY dina mishev

A new breed of winter bicycles

BY kelsey dayton

BODY & SOUL

BY allison arthur

NIGHTLIFE

BY CARA RANK

DINING

BY claire rabun

Art Scene

112 Beyond Massage

As the hole deepens 94 The Leviticus Guide to

Winter Driving

108 Roll With It

looking back

BY johanna love

104 Steep & Deep

42 Hot for Fire Page

Museums are worth a day inside.

By Tim Sandlin

Bodywork in the valley

115 Hey, Mr. DJ

Jackson’s DJs spin near and far.

118 Grog & Grub

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

22

130 Art’s Other Seasons bradly j. boner

Page

Breweries aren’t just for beer.

Culture doesn’t hibernate.

By richard anderson

150 jackson hole MAPPED 152 Calendar of Events

TRISTAN GRESZKO

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Stockholm

Palm Desert

Greetings from the Editor bradly j. boner

It was the third week of September—several weeks later than usual—that I first began getting excited for winter. I was beginning to wonder what was wrong with me. After all, we had had the longest summer I can recall during my fifteen years in the valley.

Still, my mind wasn’t yet on snow. It wasn’t until I read the first draft of Reed Finlay’s text accompanying this issue’s photo essay (p. 72) that I got into the winter spirit. Finlay, whom I first met when we were on Teton County Search and Rescue together more than a decade ago, writes about skiing—and shooting images of remote Teton lines—with Steve Romeo, who founded the blog TetonAT.com and died in an avalanche last March.

Finlay’s passion for and knowledge of the valley’s mountains are nothing if not inspiring.

Keeping with the skiing theme, Angus M. Thuermer, Jr. introduces us to Mike Parris (p. 34), who left a career in robotics to handcraft custom skis. I dare you to read Thuermer’s article and not run over to the Igneous factory in West Jackson.

Despite skiing on mass-produced skis myself, I had the good fortune to participate in—and not die or injure myself during—a Steep & Deep Camp at the Jackson Hole Mountain

Resort last winter. Read about why it ranks among the best things I’ve ever done on skis on p. 104.

This valley, like this magazine, isn’t just about skiing, though. Our National Elk Refuge celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2012, and Todd Wilkinson writes about its past, its present controversies, and the challenges it faces in the future in “Mad About Elk,” starting on p. 54.

One of my best days as editor in chief of Jackson Hole magazine was when I got Grant Davis, an editor I had the good fortune to work with while interning at Outside magazine a decade ago, to agree to write this issue’s feature story on Jackson’s own “Running Man,” Eric Orton, p. 78. Yes, I know winter isn’t the main running season here, but Orton, who was featured in the New York Times bestselling book Born to Run, has so much going on, this was the only time Davis could catch up with him.

Another standout day was when I received illustrator Nate Padavick’s wonderfully whimsical winter edition of the Go! JH map (p. 150). See if you can find the yeti. Coming up with ideas for must-do winter activities was another fabulous day.

Thinking about it, there really aren’t any boring days on this job. I hope you enjoy reading about and exploring Jackson Hole this winter as much as I’ve enjoyed putting this issue together.

— Dina Mishev

P.S. Make sure to check in with jacksonholemagazine.com for original content and interviews with valley personalities.

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

magazine

Jackson Hole Winter 2013 jacksonholemagazine.com Publisher

Michael Sellett CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

As timeless as a symphony, as beautiful as the Tetons kismet rugs: serving jackson hole since 1990

Kevin Olson Editor

Dina Mishev ART DIRECTOR

Wayne Smith Photo Editor

Bradly J. Boner COPY EDITOR

Pamela Periconi Contributing Writers

Richard Anderson Allison Arthur Jeff Burke Grant Davis Kelsey Dayton Thomas Dewell Reed Finlay Teresa Griswold

Rebecca Huntington Johanna Love Claire Rabun Cara Rank Tim Sandlin Jim Stanford Angus M. Thuermer, Jr. Todd Wilkinson

Contributing Photographers

David Agnello Price Chambers Chris Figenshau Reed Finlay Mark Gallup Taylor Glenn Tristan Greszko

Angel Rodriguez Steve Romeo Rachel Shaver Angus M. Thuermer, Jr. Greg Von Doerston Ashley Wilkerson Danny Zapalac

Advertising Sales

Deidre Norman Advertising Account Coordinator

Heather Best Ad Design & Production

Stacey Walker Oldham Lydia Wanner Circulation

Hank Smith Pat Brodnik Jeff Young Kyra Griffin Office Manager

Kathleen Keniry Printed By

American Web, Denver, Colorado © 2013 Jackson Hole magazine. All rights reserved.

No part of this production may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

No responsibility will be assumed for unsolicited editorial contributions. Manuscripts or other material to be returned must be accompanied by a selfaddressed, stamped envelope adequate to return the material. Jackson Hole magazine is published semiannually. Send subscription requests to: Jackson Hole magazine, P.O. Box 7445, Jackson, Wyoming 83002.

(307) 733-2047 E-mail: dina@jhmagazine.com. Visit www.jacksonholemagazine.com.

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Contributors Claire Rabun is a stereotypical ninety-day wonder turned happily semi-rad Jacksonite. A lover of bacon and hater of low-fat cheese, she spends her free time dreaming of eating and writing about all things food and drink (“Grog & Grub,” p. 118). Claire is an account manager at Verde PR & Consulting by day, the food editor at JH Weekly by night, a sometimes weekend caterer, and a freelance writer in between. When not Photoshopping her fake byline into the latest issue of Bon Appetit, she can be found on her yoga mat, skiing with friends, paddling the Snake, or cheering on the Georgia Bulldogs.

Denver-based writer Grant Davis was surprised when he finally met Eric Orton (“Running Man,” p. 78) for lunch last summer. “Everyone I’d spoken with about Eric raved about him, and his influence on running in America right now can’t be understated—frankly, I expected more of a rah-rah salesman than the patient and quiet man I met that day,” Davis says.

“Being around him made me realize that carving out time for ourselves in our busy lives to run or do whatever hobby brings us satisfaction is a critical step toward having the energy and empathy to help others. It seems counterintuitive, but it works.” A former editor for Outside magazine and recently the editor of Wild Blue Yonder, Frontier Airlines’ in-flight magazine, Davis is currently a contributing editor to Entrepreneur Magazine and writes for Elevation Outdoors, Runner’s World, and other outdoor lifestyle publications. This winter, he’s training for the Colorado Marathon in Fort Collins.

A freelance writer and multimedia journalist, Rebecca Huntington started reporting for Wyoming Public Radio in 2006 and worked as a newspaper reporter for more than a decade prior to that. Part of a Jackson-based film crew, Rebecca co-wrote a one-hour, high-definition documentary called The Stagecoach Bar: An American Crossroads. The film chronicles how a setting as simple as a ramshackle bar can form the axis that sustains an eclectic, tight-knit community.

The film premiered in 2012 and has been selected to show at film festivals nationwide. When not researching, writing, or recording, Rebecca can be found skiing, hiking, biking, climbing, hunting, playing hockey, and hanging out in front of fireplaces (“Hot for Fire,” p. 42).

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

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Teton

scapes adventure

Snowkiting Fly with the wind.

“I learned by trial and error,” says Wayne Phillips of how he learned to snowkite. “I had been playing with stunt kites since I was a kid, so I knew how to work a kite, but there were still some close calls after I added skis to the mix.” Phillips once found himself suddenly twenty feet up in the air, skis dangling below and being carried toward a barbed wire fence.

“Wind gusts here can really get you,” he says.

It was only a short time, though, before Phillips was flying up Glory Bowl on Teton Pass. The rest of the valley—say, 99.9 percent of us—hikes the 1,500-some feet up Mount Glory with our skis or snowboards on our backs. At a moderate pace, it takes about an hour. His skis firmly on his feet and harnessing the wind with his kite, Phillips was atop Glory in three minutes. “Exhilarating doesn’t even begin to describe it,” he says.

Meet snowkiting, a growing sport in which skiers and snowboarders use a kite between two and thirteen meters in size to travel around, across, and over all sorts of snowand ice-covered obstacles at speeds of up to sixty miles per hour. Sometimes, their skis or board carving into the snow, snowkiters fly uphill—like Phillips up Glory Bowl. Other times, kiters are airborne for minutes at a time as they fly downhill, their skis or board only touching the snow for seconds before launching off the next feature. And still other times, kiters are on flat ground, merely using the kites to cover distances. Last year, a new distance snowkiting world record was set: Two men snowkited across Antarctica in eighty-one days.

Skis and kites were first combined in the 1970s. By the early 1980s, Americans were snowkiting across frozen lakes and snow-covered fields. By the late 1990s, kiters had begun experimenting with freestyle snowkiting, trying out tricks and kiting down mountains.

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

WAYNE PHILLIPS

BY DINA MISHEV

Today, snowkiting has governing bodies—the International Kiteboarding Organization and, in the U.S., the American Snowkite Association.

Kitesurfing, the summer version of snowkiting, will be an event at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games (it replaces windsurfing). “It’s the real deal,” Phillips says. “It’s growing both as a sport and as a method of exploration.”

In this valley, Phillips was one of the earliest snowkiters, starting his kiting career in 2003. He and three other Jackson Holebased kiters are now sponsored: Will Taggart, Charles “Chaz” Symons, and Phillips are all sponsored by Ozone Snowkites; Pascal Joubert is on Gin Kiteboarding’s roster of athletes. On last year’s North American Snowkite Tour, Jackson Hole was the first stop. “I wouldn’t say the scene here is huge, but the kiters here are some of the best in the country and are happy to share the sport with others,” Phillips says.

Today’s aspiring snowkiters must still suffer through some trial and error, but veterans like Phillips are “willing to give tips and help people get started,” Phillips says. Or beginners can head for Utah’s Powder Mountain Resort, outside of Ogden, one hour north of

Kite skiing on Union Peak near Union Pass in Wyoming’s Wind River Mountains.

Salt Lake City. Powder Mountain is the first (and only) ski resort in the country to offer a snowkiting pass, have an area set aside exclusively for snowkiting, and teach two-hour group lessons.

Snowkiting requires little specialized equipment beyond a kite and harness.

Snowkiters generally wear the same boots and use the same skis as they do when downhill skiing. You can use a snowboard and snowboard boots, too, although any snowkiter will tell you a snowboard is more difficult than skis.

Popular valley snowkiting spots, especially for newbies, are lakes and open meadows—“a beginner can really have some fun on the farm fields outside of Ririe [Idaho],” Phillips says. More experienced kiters head for Togwotee Pass, Teton Pass, and Clark’s Butte in Bondurant. They also go much further afield: “We’ll go to the ends of the Earth to find kitable terrain,” Phillips says. “We’re shooting for a trip to China to fly a 7,500-meter mountain there, Mustagh Ata.” JH

Teton

BRADLY J. BONER

scapes sports

Royal Rippers Ski club series crowns King, Queen of the Hole.

BY JIM STANFORD From the harrowing turns of the Town Downhill to the face-frosting marathon of the Moose Chase, the Jackson Hole Ski Club has tested athletes on the slopes and trails for seventy-five years. Now the club has rolled its premier events into one contest to determine the best all-around athlete each winter.

The Triple Crown is the title given to the top overall performer in the club’s three biggest races: 1) the thirty-kilometer Nordic Moose Chase; 2) the “mini-Hahnenkamm” Alpine Town Downhill; and 3) the multisport Pole Pedal Paddle. Competitors must enter all three. The man and woman with the highest combined scores are crowned the winners.

“There are just so many incredible athletes in Jackson,” says Carrie Boynton, ski club director. “We thought it would be fun to compare all of those skills in one winter challenge.”

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

The reigning King and Queen of the Hole are Spencer Morton and Kathleen Crowley.

Fifteen-year-old Peter Neal, a Nordic standout, is the junior champion. Morton, a Vermont native who also skates for the Jackson Hole Moose hockey team, twice has won the Pole Pedal Paddle, while Crowley has taken the women’s Triple Crown all three years since its inception.

Morton, thirty, is a natural at every sport he tries, even reeling in top honors as a fishing guide in the 2012 Jackson Hole One Fly. He calls the Moose Chase, where frigid temperatures often leave perspiration frozen on skiers’ heads, “a very painful event.”

Crowley, forty-four, would welcome more competition. Many women are leery of the speeds in the Town Downhill, where even amateurs routinely top fifty miles per hour.

Competitors are supportive of each other, and the attitudes are “so positive,” she says. “We need to capture that energy among women.”

This winter, the Moose Chase starts the series February 16 at Trail Creek Ranch in Wilson, followed by the Town Downhill at Snow King on March 9 and 10, and the Pole Pedal Paddle on March 30. A rite of spring, the PPP is multidisciplinary: Competitors begin atop Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and finish on the Snake River. Along the

Last winter, the JH Ski Club secured a sponsorship from clothing company Outdoor Research, which awarded $1,000 in merchandise to the Triple Crown winners.

Participants also can win cash prizes from each individual event; the Town Downhill has a total purse of $5,000.

way they ski a downhill course, skate a tenkilometer Nordic loop, bike twenty miles by road, and finally, paddle ten miles to Astoria Hot Springs.

The ski club has received $15,000 in marketing funds from the Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Joint Powers Board to promote the Triple Crown, looking to attract athletes from around the region. Lodging specials and discounted lift tickets at resorts help lure visitors for the events. “The hope is that we can draw people to come up for all three,” Boynton says.

Triple Crown participants could find themselves racing against Olympic gold medalist Tommy Moe, a two-time Town Downhill winner (shown above, right) or any number of Olympians who have skied the Nordic leg in the PPP. The series promotes all aspects of Jackson Hole’s winter heritage, Boynton says.

“We have more to offer than big-mountain skiing.” JH

Teton

scapes drink

Grape Expectations California grapes help Jackson Hole Winery produce well-received wines.

From the outside, Jackson Hole Winery’s South Park building looks like a garage— cases of wine are stored in a space designed for two cars. Inside, though, an attached high-ceilinged room looks and smells like a winery. A pleasantly musty aroma emanates from the barrel-stuffed space where the Schroth family, Bob and Linda and sons Ian and Anthony, the latter of whom is the winemaker, gathers with friends to bottle and package their wines. An elk skull and antlers hang high on one wall, giving the place a decidedly Jackson Hole touch.

Although it is the first—and only—winery in Teton County, and one of only several in the state, Jackson Hole Winery does not try to cash in on its novel location and name to sell a few bottles to unsuspecting tourists.

“They’re not gimmick wines,” Anthony Schroth said in September while in the valley bottling Catch and Release, a zinfandelbased red that has not yet been distributed.

“They’re high-quality wines.”

For two years, Anthony, who grew up in Jackson and now lives in Petaluma, California, has hauled grapes chilled with dry ice the thousand miles from Sonoma County, California, to his parents’ seventeen-acre property in South Park. Schroth, who has been making a pinot noir-based wine under his Russian River Valley Premonition Cellars label since 2006, drives his fruit-laden rental truck through the arid western interior because quality grapes make quality wines.

22

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

The classes at Moran Elementary School are so small that kindergartners are mixed with first and second graders, while third, fourth, and fifth graders share another classroom.

And grapes are a large part of the reason why Jackson Hole Winery’s two debuts— Rendezvous Red and a chardonnay, which were both released last winter—have garnered positive reviews. Another part?

Jackson’s temperatures. “The cool mountain air here preserves the wines’ aromatics through a slow aging process, allowing them to develop their distinctive personality,” Anthony Schroth explains. “All we have to do is open the door. It’s not that easy for wineries in California. They need elaborate cooling systems. We had to install a heater.” Schroth laughs when he remembers an early pressing of cabernet sauvignon grapes. “There was a full blizzard raging outside,” he says. “You don’t get that in Sonoma.”

The Schroths bought their South Park property in 1992 but Linda and Bob, a personal injury, divorce, and criminal defense attorney who has practiced in Jackson since 1992 and San Diego since 1982, caught the wine bug only after Anthony became enthralled with the industry while attending Sonoma State University. Anthony didn’t plan on studying anything viticulture-related, but couldn’t get into a full accounting class and opted for a course on wine. He graduated in 2006 with a degree in marketing and wine business. In 2007, he found

Winemaker Anthony Schroth bottles wine in the garage of his father’s South Park home.

To arrange a visit to Jackson Hole Winery, or to purchase wines directly, call 307-201-1057.

Rendezvous Red retails for $28 to $32, while the chardonnay goes for $24 to $28. For more, visit www.jacksonholewinery.com.

and began rehabilitating a poorly tended Russian River Valley pinot noir vineyard. His parents traveled to Northern California to help pick grapes and make wine. They loved the work and the industry, and soon considered purchasing a winery. While doing their due diligence, however, they realized they didn’t have to: They had enough land in Jackson to support winemaking.

Last winter, Jackson Hole Winery sold 200 cases of chardonnay and 224 cases of Rendezvous Red to valley liquor stores and restaurants. This year, it plans to add Catch and Release to its offerings and increase overall production to 600 cases. Further into the future, there might even be some wines made from Wyoming-grown grapes. Last summer, Bob and Ian planted thirty-four grapevines that will yield fruit in five years.

The Marquette, Bluebell, Swenson Red, and Kay Gray varietals are supposed to be hardy enough to survive Jackson Hole winters. JH

BRADLY J. BONER

BY THOMAS DEWELL

Teton

scapes community

Stearnie, who was part of the first professional patrol on Snow King, was one of only two ski patrollers from the Northern Rockies to be chosen to work the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics.

The belt he wore working the games hangs above a pair of telemark skis.

Just inside the front door is all a mountain man might need to survive the winter: Woolrich shirts, Carhartt pants, Sorel boots, and beer. There are also Western-style, handmade silk scarves, Poblano hot sauces, and Adirondack maple syrup.

Hungry Jack’s

The red Estate Heatrola stove was made to burn coal, but Stearnie fed it wood, which seemed to work fine as it was the store’s lone source of heat for many years. Canned goods would be warmed by day and hold heat overnight.

Not even “General Store” begins to describe this Wilson landmark.

Yep, even though it’s nearly a century old, this floor scale works and is still used occasionally for bulk items too heavy for produce scales.

It came with the old store, and Stearnie used it to weigh bags of oats.

BY JIM STANFORD

Whereas most supermarkets today are laid out in a grid of perfectly lined aisles, Wilson’s Hungry Jack’s General Store is a labyrinth of concentric circles. And this 2,500-square-foot maze is filled with everything from frozen pizza to an antique ox yoke. Navigating toward the checkout, shoppers are tempted with clothing, camping gear, and movies, besides food. The variety is partly general-store flavor and partly 24

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

While locally produced Wonderful Wyoming Honey can be found in other shops, only Hungry Jack’s carries sixtypound buckets of the unprocessed sweetener. The store sells about a dozen each year, shipping some all over the world.

The antique rolltop desk mounted atop a three-foot-high platform has a vantage of the whole store. “My dad lived up on that desk,” Jana Roice says.

An 1816 Charleville musket and a pistol dug up from a Mexican battlefield hang over the register.

cross-merchandising, as a customer buying bananas might realize he or she also needs new Sorels.

A World War II pilot who spent thirteen months in a German prisoner of war camp, Clarence Stearns—or “Stearnie,” as the Wilson icon is known—bought the Wilson Market in 1954, when it was housed across the street in the building that is now Nora’s Fish Creek Inn. He changed the name and expanded the

KATHLEEN HANSON

Canoeing is one of Stearnie’s lifelong passions, and Hungry Jack’s sold canoes for decades. This wooden Old Town OTCA canoe once belonged to Elt Davis, a Teton park ranger in the 1950s.

selection from groceries to general—including canoes, Levi’s, horseshoes, and stoves, among other items. In 1967, Hungry Jack’s moved into its present space, which Stearnie had built. Stearnie, who is now ninety-two, ran the business until selling to his daughter and son-in-law, Jana and Kevin Roice, in 1989.

Hungry Jack’s isn’t just what’s for sale, though. Take the time to look up on the walls and ceiling. Yes, that’s a real canoe. JH

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he iconic Walton Ranch in Jackson Hole has come on the market for the first time. Sited along the legendary Snake River and adjacent to the Grand Teton with views over the entire valley, the 1,848-acre working ranch is surrounded by the grandeur of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and yet is five miles to downtown Jackson and fifteen minutes to world-class ski resorts and air service.

Offered for $100 million. Ron Morris 970.535.0881 and Billy Long 970.927.3850

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Looking Good

Fifteen years ago, Jackson-based Cloudveil revolutionized the outdoor clothing industry with its western/cowboy-style technical clothing that was every bit at home on the slopes as at The Brewpub.

Today, Cloudveil is old news (and not just because it’s no longer based in Jackson). Meet Stio, the just-launched line of mountain lifestyle clothing for men, women, and kids by one of Cloudveil’s founders. Stop into the sexy, woody Stio Mountain Studio, the company’s flagship retail store, and try not to fall in love with the Hardscrabble Jacket (men, $295) or the Race Day Sweater (women, $250).

The former is a modern take on a classic softshell; the latter is a retro-styled merino wool hug. 10 E. Broadway; 307-201-1890; www.stio.com

Bedazzled Beanies

Smart Eyes

Send a text message, see who’s calling, skip to the next song on your iPod or phone, check in with a trail map, and know your elevation, speed, vertical, and location (and your buddies’ locations) anytime. All without taking off a glove. Is Smith’s I/O Recon a goggle or a gift from the future? At $650, perhaps it’s a bit of both. One thing it’s not is weird-looking. “Miniaturization of the components and engineering a frame around this level of electronics without making it look like a giant scuba goggle were huge hurdles,” says Smith’s Head of Goggles, Ben Flandro. The metrics appear fighter pilot-style, in the lower right corner of the lens. You don’t need goggles this smart, but you’ll want them. Smithoptics. com or order through Skinny Skis or Teton Mountaineering

The Handle Bar

We could bemoan the loss of The Peak at the Four Seasons. Or we could celebrate its replacement: The Handle Bar, an American pub and beer hall that serves up wood-grilled burgers and sausages, soups, and salads alongside beer and whiskey from around the world. And fear not: Despite the massive remodel that was going on all fall, The Handle Bar—just a short slide from the Teewinot Lift—is still handy to skiers. A project of the Mina Group, whose CEO is Michelinstarred chef Michael Mina, The Handle Bar serves lunch and dinner daily, and also does a grab-and-go breakfast starting at 8 a.m. Inside Four Seasons Resort Jackson Hole; 307-732-5157; www.fourseasons.com/jacksonhole/

Ice Capades

After several winters over at Grand Targhee Resort, Christian Santelices, one of fewer than sixty-five mountain guides in the United States fully certified by the International Federation of Mountain Guides Associations and the founder of Teton Ice Park, has moved the park to Snow King. Santelices will transform a forty-foot-tall retaining wall behind the Love Ridge condos into a giant popsicle. Visitors can sign up for a lesson or day of guided climbing, and experienced locals can buy a punch card. A four-hour lesson starts at $85 (per person, for six people); 307-690-1385; tetonicepark.com 26

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

“If you look good, you feel good,” says Halo Hardware owner A.J. Cargill. And wearing one of Halo’s custom rhinestone wool ski hats, you certainly look good. Founded in 2004 by Cargill and fellow Jackson Hole Women’s Hockey team player Pam Coleman, Halo debuts new custom designs and colors every winter. But Halo never makes more than fifty of each color and design. This winter, Cargill is excited for Shooting Stars—a handgun blasting out stars— Wallpaper, and Antlers. “I don’t do too much delicate; I like bold designs,” Cargill says. “And that’s what a gun on the side of your head is.” Add rhinestones, and you’ve got bold bedazzlement. Starts at $68; Halohatsjh.com or available at Teton Village Sports and Teton Mountaineering

Warm, Dry, and Light

For years, the Eddie Bauer store on Cache has been the place to go for flannel shirts and pants. Did you know the company’s history isn’t in lifestyle but technical clothing? EB made the first commercial down jacket (back in 1936). The first American to summit Everest wore Eddie Bauer on his expedition. The brand got away from techy stuff for a while, but it’s back. In a serious way. This year’s BC MicroTherm Down Jacket 2.0 won Backpacker Magazine’s 2012 Editor’s Choice Snow Award, and we couldn’t agree more. It’s a perfect combination of warmth and protection. And it weighs a mere nineteen ounces. A space-age nylon exterior makes it both waterproof and breathable, while the inside is stuffed with 800-fill European down. $299; 55 S. Cache; 307-733-7336; eddiebauer.com

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JH Living

Brad Mead From Wrangler to Whiskey An attorney—he shares a practice with wife Kate—and rancher, Brad Mead is the grandson of former U.S. Senator and Wyoming Governor Clifford Hansen, and the older brother of Wyoming’s current governor, Matt Mead. He once ran for Justice of the Peace, but today, Brad’s happier to talk about Wyoming Whiskey, the distillery he founded with Kate and fellow Jackson attorney David DeFazio, than politics.

Four hours away in Kirby, Wyoming (pop. 92), Wyoming Whiskey is the first legal distillery in the state’s history—and the state’s first whiskey suitable for doing anything other than starting campfires. Not that Mead, who grew up on the same Spring Gulch Ranch he now operates, would ever give up cattle.

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

Q: Did it ever cross your mind to live anywhere but Jackson?

A: When Kate and I graduated from law school, we decided we wanted to get jobs where no one knew us. We’d visited Phoenix a couple of times and thought that’d be a good place to be for a while. It ended up being eight years. Both of our kids were born there; we came back when the oldest was getting ready to start school.

Q: How was it different for your kids growing up here than it was for you?

A: Growing up, the kids I associated with were predominantly ranch kids. And I thought that was how everyone grew up.

When my boys went to school, very few

kids in Jackson were ranch kids. They recognized an immediate difference between how their family made a living and how other families did. And they far more quickly appreciated how lucky they were than I did.

Q: You’ve been ranching, or watching your family ranch, in this valley for over fifty years. How has it changed?

A: When I was young, ranching was really kind of a common pursuit in the valley, and it’s not so common now. There are more rational things you can do with an asset of land in Teton County than raise cows on it.

Q: As much as Wyoming can have this, your family is kind of like our Kennedys. Do you feel any pressure with the Hansen/Mead name?

A: I don’t really think there’s any pressure.

I think people in Wyoming judge everybody based on that person’s own merits.

Still, when Kate and I were just getting started, we didn’t want to be hired because someone knew my family.

Q: When did it dawn on you who your grandfather was and what he actually did?

A: Not until he was elected governor. I was in the second or third grade, and pretty unhappy about he and my grandmother moving to Cheyenne. I did come to like visiting the governor’s mansion. It had a multistory laundry chute I sent Matt down. He survived, but must have been knocked on the head. Why else would he run for office?

Q: How’d you go from ranching to making bourbon?

A: We started pasturing our cattle in Kirby. Grains grow around there. And then we lucked out in two huge respects: It turns out the water is more than perfect, and we convinced Steve and Donna Nally (Steve is a Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Famer) to move here.

Q: After aging for four years, Wyoming Whiskey launched December 1. How was the wait?

A: I’ve thought it was good for quite a while. It is Steve’s baby, and the changes that he’s waited for—and now gotten— are pretty small for my palate, but they were important to him.

Interview by DINA MISHEV

WINTER 2013 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

31

locals

BRADLY J. BONER

JH Living

Joan Anzelmo Finding Her Voice Apparently, a thirty-five-year career in public service is a hard habit to break. So when former National Park Service Spokeswoman (Yellowstone, 19801985, 1988-1992; and Grand Teton, 1997-2007) and Superintendent (Colorado National Monument, 2007-2011) Joan Anzelmo “retired” in the summer of 2011, she jumped right into so much volunteer work that she is as busy as ever.

The main difference now is that the formidable park advocate no longer has to be diplomatically reserved; she can actively share her views. And Anzelmo is doing just that on the board of directors of the Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation, the Jackson Hole Farmers Market, and the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees. She’s also spokesperson and advisor to Rags Over the Arkansas River (ROAR), a not-for-profit founded to oppose Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s “Over the River” project in Colorado.

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

Q: How does it feel to finally be free to express and advocate for your personal views?

A: It gives me a sense of freedom and endless possibility. It is great to be able to take the experience I gained in my career and use it to advocate for a greater good.

While a federal employee, I didn’t have the freedom to campaign. Now I advocate for things I believe in and causes I believe are really important.

Q: OK, let’s get your views on one of the most contentious wildlife issues today: Do you think it should be legal to shoot wolves on sight? Hunt them?

A: Context is important for me to be able

to answer this question. Wildlife of all kinds fills me with awe and wonder.

Wolves certainly do. While I respect the rights of people to defend livestock from wolf predation, I do not see wolves as an overall menace. I support legal hunting, whatever the species may be. But having worked over many years to help bring wolves back from near extinction, I hope they won’t be overly hunted. I am opposed to being able to shoot a wolf on sight outside of a legal hunting context.

Q: You are currently working with ROAR, a group that is suing the Secretary of the Interior, the head of the department that employed you for thirty-five years. Awkward?

A: No. ROAR’s suit was filed to protect lands, water, and wildlife that he [Ken Salazar] swore to protect when he became Secretary of the Interior. He’s not doing that with these BLM [Bureau of Land Management] lands. Secretary Salazar has aligned himself completely with Christo.

The project should never have been approved by [BLM] and the Department of the Interior. The Environmental Impact Statement is flawed, and the approval seems to have been ordained before the EIS process ever began.

Q: What do you think is the biggest issue facing Grand Teton National Park today?

A: The incredible popularity of the park for all kinds of visitor and recreational uses. I do hope the National Park Service is allowed to carry on its mission of protecting these incredible parks and serving all visitors. Sometimes that includes saying no to certain uses or events. Increasingly, elected officials are trying to tweak the mission to suit their political agenda.

Parks and visitors are the losers when politics dictate how the National Park Service operates.

Q: What drew you back to Jackson Hole?

A: There are few places on Earth like this.

When I left for my work in Colorado, I missed Jackson and the Tetons to the core of my being. When I returned in 2011, it was the sight of the mountains coming into my view as I first crested the National Elk Refuge hill on Highway 89 that had me saying, “I’m home, I’m home, I’m home.” I cherish every day and every glimpse of my mountains.

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JH Living

on the job

Master Ski Crafter

Parris checks out a pair of skis, completed over the course of several months. Potential Igneous customers need $1,000 and the patience to appreciate the schedule of a custom craftsman and skier.

At Igneous, Mike Parris makes every pair of skis by hand, according to each customer’s desires.

STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANGUS M. THUERMER, JR.

Fifteen years ago, Mike Parris, a robotics engineer working at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania, shucked his job when NASA stopped ordering innovations in his field. He had studied architecture there and worked on a lunar rover project until the pipeline of stimulating challenges dried up.

He returned to Jackson Hole to pursue his other passion—skiing. A graduate of 34

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

Blue Knob, a 1,072-foot-high ski hill in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny Mountains between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, Parris ski-bummed in Jackson and Chamonix for a few years before earning his degree and taking his real-world robotics job.

Returning to the Hole in 1997, he hooked up with one of his Pennsylvania cohorts who had stayed in the valley.

Adam Sherman was so absorbed by

skiing, he was making his own skis.

Under the Igneous moniker, he fashioned them from wood laminated with fiberglass and epoxy, and tailored them to the Teton slopes. From his quiver, Sherman drew a pair for Parris to try.

The engineer was hooked.

“They were unlike anything I had ridden,” Parris says. He yearned for a pair of Igneous skis, and Sherman

obliged. There was one caveat, Parris recalls: “He said I had to make them myself.” With a bit of carpentry and cabinet-making experience under his tool belt, Parris took to the task.

Today, Parris, a wiry forty-twoyear-old who peers from behind spectacles that hint at a nerdy side, has evolved into a master ski builder. When he wears his glasses and white lab coat, a uniform necessary for the fine finish work he has put on his products for more than a decade, he could blend into a laboratory of rocket scientists. A closer look reveals sinewy forearms, a toughness necessary for a season he once spent in Antarctica, and a build that suggests alpine athleticism.

Hundreds of discriminating skiers have made the trek to his factory on Gregory Lane for a custom pair of boards. Parris builds up to eighty pairs of skis a year for friends and friends of friends; there is no advertising, just a street number and small Igneous logo above the factory door. Not only is each pair handmade, but also customized for a specific skier. Igneous is one of a handful of a growing number of boutique ski makers who cater to customers seeking something better than mass-produced planks stamped out by a large manufacturer by the millions.

“Tell me how, where, and why you ski,” Parris asked me when I walked into the factory last year. I justified the $1,000 price—easily twice as much as a new pair of mainstream skis—figuring if a pair lasted me a decade, the cost worked out to $10 a toe per year. Ensconced in a co-op-style plant in an industrial area in West Jackson, Parris ran me through the universe of variables that make each pair of Igneous skis unique. The stiffness of the wood core is key. We worked out length, width, thickness, and sidecut. I sorted through a collection of matching top sheets, choosing a zebra-striped pair whose growth rings would become my personal graphics.

Then started a ritual that began with thirteen slats of wood, each almost as long as a ski but only about a quarter-

inch wide and high. In a process that takes between six weeks and six months, Parris glued, clamped, sawed, planed, laminated, epoxied, pressed, heated, and varnished. Every few weeks I returned to watch a step or two, witnessing the creation of a wide-waisted pair of boards designed for fall-line giant slalom turns in untracked powder down my favorite thirty-degree backcountry run.

Sherman left IN 2007 to become a firefighter and emergency medical worker in Maryland, and Igneous has since morphed. Parris inherited the operation, with the understanding his partner could return whenever. The two had tried a couple of years of somewhat-mass production, turning out as many as 400 pairs annually. But such work that lacked innovation was one reason Parris fled Pennsylvania. They decided Igneous would be a custom-ski manufacturer.

“What if,” Parris wondered, “we could address each [skier] individually?”

While infinite variations are possible, there are hallmarks of an Igneous ski. Its width, for one, was revolutionary at the time. On deep-powder days in the 1990s, Jackson Hole skiers looking for floatation brought out their factory-made downhill

“What if we could address each skier individually?” Parris asked himself. racing skis. These were wider than conventional skis but engineered for high speeds and hardpack, which meant they lacked the flexibility common in today’s powder boards. Still, because of their width, they provided unparalleled floatation for the era.

Seizing on width, Parris and others probed the corners of design in the quest for a new standard of floatation. Igneous went as far as the 118 mm-wide Triple F, a girth “almost unheard of,” Parris says.

For Igneous, it was beyond the natural limit. Some skis, Igneous discovered, could be too fat—clown shoes on the side of a steep mountain. A width that proved just about right for most skiers Parris uses a pair of calipers to check the thickness of a ski’s wooden core as he planes it to a custom depth. “It’s almost like they align the grains of wood to harmonize with your being,” valley native and Igneous ski owner Scott Morley says.

WINTER 2013 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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In one of the final assembly stages, Parris spreads epoxy across fiberglass layers as he prepares to stack them together with the wood core, graphite base, metal edges, and top sheets. All will be placed in a custom press, heated for four hours, then left to sit for the rest of the day.

was the 100 mm waist, an intuitive dimension about the width of the ball of a foot. “That step in the design made it a whole lot easier to ride off piste and out of bounds,” Parris says.

At an assembly table, Parris sorts a series of thirteen strips of hard maple and white ash. He’s assembling my core block.

The maple has a long, fine-grain structure that Parris selected because it provides a responsive, quick rebound. It transfers vibrations accurately, transmits true tone.

It’s used in violins, cellos, pianos; Parris employs it here to create the amount of stiffness I seek. He places two maple strips among the eleven ash slats. The harder of the two woods in the block, the maple is spaced to accept the screw pattern of a Dynafit binding—the type I use.

In contrast to maple, ash absorbs vibration, Parris says. It’s used in baseball bats and boat oars. He looks down the length of each strip, shuffling the lot until he’s satisfied he has arranged their microscopic quirks to the best advantage.

Parris glues the strips into a block resembling a thick, fat ski with no tips. He places the assembly in a set of clamps to dry. Once bonded, he uses a bandsaw to split the block down the middle, producing a pair of mirror-image, ski-size cores.

He routs out the sidecuts—the arc along the length of the boards that will dictate their turning radius—according to my giant-slalom order.

Next come four select, hard-maple sidewall slats, which Parris chooses for the tightness of their rings. In this hemisphere, they’re cut from the north side of trees. Their grain is oriented the 36

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

opposite from those in the core so that the hardest, most waterproof face looks out to the side.

Under the green glow of fluorescent factory lights, Parris next glues the flexible sidewalls into place on the ski. He binds them temporarily with Saran Wrap and sets the assembly aside to bond. Next— this might be weeks later, depending on how good the skiing is—Parris tapers the cores’ thickness. Under a homemade contraption resembling a motorized guillotine sized for a rat, a moving plane rides over custom templates to profile the blocks. Making the ski thinner at the ends gives it its flex and helps determine stiffness of the tip and tail.

After all this care over weeks, or even months, Parris reaches for a two-foot cudgel. “The tenderizer” is custom-surfaced with a porcupine’s back of metal quills. “You smack the shit out of it,” he says, describing the least glorious of his construction techniques while whacking

Parris puts the finishing touches on a pair of skis.

Matching wood top plates, wide shovel and waist, and lack of brand are hallmarks of Igneous skis.

on my boards. Tenderizing the skis enhances the bond between the wood and the epoxy layers soon to come.

The wood prepped with perforations, Parris then begins assembling a ski sandwich, starting with a graphite base. A Kevlar shield just above the base protects the wood center from dreaded “core shots,” rock-inflicted damage that could ruin a ten-year investment. Layers of fiberglass soaked with epoxy bond all together, including my chosen top sheets.

In the sandwich, Parris sets beefy metal edges and a thin strip of rubber, curved shovel tips, and tails.

Each esoteric nuance has an advantage. The graphite base conducts static electricity. Does static electricity slow down a ski? Maybe, maybe not. But “why worry?” Parris says. The rubber strips “isolate the high-frequency edge vibration from transferring to the body of the ski,” he says. The fiberglass isn’t woven, so as to better keep its strength when flexed repeatedly.

With everything assembled, Parris slips the skis into a homemade press of fire hose, heaters, and hydraulic muscle that puts down one hundred pounds per square inch. It permanently bends the skis, giving them camber. The press cooks the sandwich at 140 degrees for four hours.

Parris leaves the skis in for a day. After that, there are just a few finishing touches.

Igneous is seeking to always innovate, Parris says, a philosophy evident in the odd-shaped prototypes stacked along the factory walls. The craftsman, who could talk for two hours on how to cut up a tree, might someday visit with the sawyers at one of his supplying mills. Or maybe go even further. “I’d love to grow our own trees,” he says. JH

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be spending the night outside, high in northwest Wyoming’s mountains, where the snow is a good ten feet deep and temperatures will dip to well below freezing, possibly even below zero. You cross your fingers, hoping the morning weather report calling for a 30 percent chance of snow tonight doesn’t happen.

Becka Walters, owner of Jackson Hole Adventure Rentals, which provides snowmobiles for hire, says they’ve had a

business

DID

YOU KNOW?

r te in W f o s s e in s u B e h T oney—when Making memories—and m ions manager. at Mother Nature is your oper D

BY TERESA GRISWOL

Imagine speeding down a secluded trail on a rented snowmobile for the first time. Pine trees painted in fresh snow line both sides of the groomed track. It’s a bluebird day—there isn’t a cloud in the sky. The late-afternoon temperature—say, thirty-two degrees or so—feels warm, especially when you’re in the sun. A meadow opens up, and you can’t help but take the snowmobile offtrail for some adventure. You zip back and forth, adding your machine’s tracks 38

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

to earlier ones as snow flies up into your face and over your head. It’s an epic day you’ll be talking about for some time to come … and it’s about to become even more epic. While you’ve been scoring face shots, daylight has been fading. It’s time to head in. But on your way back to the trail, you hit a pillow of deep powder, and it swallows your machine. No amount of revving or digging releases it from the snow’s grip.

As the moon rises, you realize you’ll

The average Jackson Hole winter visitor stays one week on their trip and spends an average of $219 per day.

couple of customers who have spent the night out. “They were either too stuck or too lost,” she says. While none of these unplanned bivouacs have left Walters’ clients with lasting injuries, freezing temperatures—among other seasonspecific variables—remain an imminent risk for winter recreationalists. And also for the guides, outfitters, and companies that make their livelihoods during this short season. A weak snow year (or even a weak snow month) can crush the 135day ski/snowboard season at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. An unexpected mid-winter thaw can sink JH Winter Wonderland, an outdoor ice rink. A stretch of bitter, bitter cold—certainly not unknown in these parts—can make a horse-drawn sleigh ride or sled dog tour less appealing. For businesses that rely on winter, and there are dozens of them in this valley, it’s not just the economy that poses a challenge.

Summer is decidedly the busiest season in Jackson Hole, according to the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce’s lodging report. Still, the 2011-12 winter season was the strongest since 2008. Yes, valley hotels might only be half as booked in January (42 percent in 2012) as in August (86 percent in 2012), but a decade ago, January only had a third of August’s occupancy rates. February is the busiest winter month; last year, hotels were at 60 percent of occupancy, a 13 percent increase from February 2011.

Most winter tourists come to Jackson to ski. Not all can handle seven straight days on the slopes. Nor should they want to when there’s wildlife watching to be done, not to mention some of the

country’s best snowmobiling, an outdoor ice skating rink, a new ice climbing park, dog sledding with an Iditarod veteran, and tubing. As winter visitors to the valley have increased, so have the number and variety of outfitters offering things to do.

Five years ago, there was one place in town to rent fat bikes, which allow riders to cycle on groomed cross-country ski tracks. Today, nearly half a dozen shops rent the bikes, and you can hire a guide to take you snow biking (read more about this in “Roll With It” on p. 108).

This is good for visitors, but leaves more of the valley’s economy reliant on Mother Nature, a fickle operations manager if ever there was one. Last winter, the region’s snowfall was 35 percent below average. Nationwide, ski participation was down 11 percent and snowboard participation nearly 8 percent, according to SnowSports Industries America’s report on the 2011-12 ski season. Across the country, resort visits were down 16 percent. SIA looked into the cause of decreased participation and found that it wasn’t household income, wealth, or consumer confidence. “Snowfall was the key factor in decreased participation,” its annual report concluded.

While snowfall across the region was down, Jackson Hole was doing much better than most other Rocky Mountain resorts, relatively speaking. Still, the national

THE OLYMPIC CONNECTION Prior to the 2002 Winter Olympics, eight countries had alpine skiing athletes training on Snow King. Nine of them went on to win medals in the Games. media was putting out a blanket message: There’s no snow anywhere. The Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Joint Powers Board, which has the mission of using its annual budget ($2.4 million in 2012) to promote the valley as a tourist destination, acted swiftly to combat this. When a weather forecast called for what Lodging Tax Board Chairman Stephen Price called “a crapload of snow,” the board hired Teton Gravity Research (after a request for proposals was sent to several local firms) to make a video of the storm, and the resulting skiing and riding. “Within a week, the video was out all over the Internet WINTER 2013 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

39

showing we had snow,” Price says. Jackson Hole Air, the group that negotiates with airlines flying into and out of Jackson Hole Airport, worked with Jackson Hole Central Reservations and the Lodging Tax Board to buy down airfare into Jackson Hole Airport for visitors staying a certain number of nights, committing to buying a recreation component, and coming from key markets.

not be able to see the lead dog through the snow. In thirty years, we have never canceled a trip. If it’s snowing and blowing, we’re going.” Teasley doesn’t have too many clients who back out, either. “If they cancel, with how packed their schedules are, it’s almost impossible to reschedule them. It seems people would rather have more of an adventure than they were planning on than no adventure at all.”

average height of a five-year-old, but there is no age limit on either end. “The oldest person we had was a ninety-two-year-old, and she had a ball with her great-grandchildren,” says Adam Shankland, Snow King Mountain’s operations manager.

King Tubes’ safety rules are condition-dependent, and the final call is up to the supervisor on duty and attendants. “If it’s icy, tubers need to be sin-

DOG DAYS OF

BRADLY J. BONER

WINTER

The end result was that JHMR had the second-highest level of skier/rider visits in the resort’s history. The 2011-12 season’s 479,000 visits even surpassed those of the previous year, which was one of the snowiest on record. “It’s kind of amazing, thinking that when the whole world is screaming, ‘There’s no snow,’ we’re this little knot in Wyoming that was able to

CLAIM TO FAME

And then there are winter warm spells. JH Winter Wonderland, a skating rink on the Town Square provided by Grand Teton Skating Academy, melted out just as its season was ending last year, says Akop Monoukian, the academy’s president. Coming at the end of the season, the melt didn’t affect the rink’s profits, but a mid-season thaw is

Akop Monoukian, who runs JH Winter Wonderland, is a champion skater who performs professionally, co-coached Olympic gold medalist Sarah Hughes, and was the stunt double for Will Ferrell in Blades of Glory.

get our own message out there digitally, and JHMR went on to have its secondbest season ever,” Price says.

Too much snow can also be a problem. For Frank Teasley, an Iditarod veteran and owner of Jackson Hole Iditarod Sled Dog Tours, blizzard conditions can be a deterrent for wannabe mushers. But Teasley is long-practiced in selling weather as part of the adventure. “We’re not a dog and pony show out here,” he says.

“This is the real deal. Some days, we might need sunscreen, and other days, we might 40

Meraldi Ramos, left, and Jennifer Marlar cruise down the King Tubes track at Snow King Mountain. The past several years, between 3,000 and 4,000 people have visited the tubing park each winter.

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

always a possibility. “That would not be good,” Monoukian says.

With so much they cannot control, winter recreation providers take care with what they can, working to minimize harm by providing good equipment, training staff, and informing participants about the risks. Each autumn, King Tubes, a tubing hill at the base of Snow King, gears up by inspecting barrier nets and reviewing the quality of its seventy tubes. It also services its surface tow. Tubers have to be forty-two inches or taller, which is the

Jackson Hole Iditarod Sled Dog Tours goes through 80,000 pounds of dog food a year to feed its 188 Alaskan huskies.

gle, but if there is snow on the ground, which slows the speed, they can double up and make a train of up to eight people,” Shankland says.

These rules are for an activity as seemingly innocuous as tubing. Christian Santelices, one of fewer than sixty-five mountain guides in the United States fully certified by the International Federation of Mountain Guides Associations, founded Teton Ice Park. Ice climbing is not nearly as dangerous as one would think—overall, all types of climbing sports (rock, ice, indoor, bouldering) have a lower injury incidence and severity than many popular sports, including basketball, sailing, or soccer.

But ice climbing does require that people wear toothy crampons on each foot—each one has twelve spikes. And arm themselves with an ice tool—a sharp, serrated pick—in each hand. And then there is the ice itself. Hit a giant, frozen popsicle with one of these ice tools and an ice chunk, anywhere from baseball- to pizza-size, can pop off and fall down into a climber’s face.

“Lead climbing natural ice features in the backcountry, there are lots of objective hazards and opportunities for user error—it’s an inherently dangerous sport,” Santelices says. “But in a more controlled situation like we present— where we control how the ice is made, monitor how it forms, knock off weaknesses that might otherwise fall off, provide good coaching, and you’re on a top rope—it’s more managed risk. And that’s the best we can do.” JH

“Call Waiting” Watercolor and Acrylic on Canvas 40"x30"

“Surfin’ USA” Acrylic & Collage on Canvas 48"x36"

CHUCK MIDDLEKAUFF

130 W. Broadway • Jackson, WY 83001 • 307.201.1172 • www.grandtetongallery.com • info@grandtetongallery.com

design

PRICE CHAMBERS

JH Living

Hot for Fire Fireplaces take many forms in the valley.

BY REBECCA HUNTINGTON

Outside, rain clings to the autumn-gold leaves of towering cottonwoods. Inside, a blaze of orange shoots across neatly split logs as Dr. Bill Newcomb begins a favorite ritual: using a blowtorch to light his fire. “That’s a good fire starter,” he says, smiling at the understatement as he admires a propane torch the size of a football. A second-homeowner in the valley, Newcomb, a retired orthopedic surgeon, takes the “just-get-’er-done” approach to lighting a fire. And sure enough, the torch’s roar soon gives way to the pleasant crackle of burning logs and the light aroma of wood smoke.

Partitioning the living room from the dining room, Newcomb’s massive masonry fireplace features tan sandstone from a quarry in Oklahoma. Though uniform in color, the blocks have irregular textures thanks to fossilized plants, a variation in pattern that appeals to Dr. Newcomb’s penchant for intriguing designs that occur naturally in rock. A 3,000-pound, nine-foot slab of sandstone serves as the mantel. In winter, 42

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

Bill and Nancy Newcomb and friends enjoy an evening by their double-sided fireplace.

Newcomb and guests gather—in chairs and on sofas where they can put their feet up and enjoy a glass of wine— around the fire for after-dinner relaxing and to trade après-ski tales.

Teton County Building Inspector Mark Antrobus doesn’t have official numbers for how many fireplaces and wood-burning stoves are in the county, but most of the homes architect Danny Williams designs have between two and five. Wyoming homeowners “really do believe there is nothing better than a crackling fire,” says Peggy Gilday of Gilday Architects. “We live in a really cold place. Sometimes, you look out the window, and you feel cold.” Staring at fire, she says, “mentally warms you.”

Gilday rarely designs a home without a fireplace.

Granite Ridge Ski-in Ski-out

Most homes one valley architect designs have between two and five fireplaces.

Williams, the architect on the Newcomb home, has designed residences with as many as seven fireplaces and also a home with a fireplace big enough for the homeowner to stand in.

At the Newcombs’, guests often bask in the warm glow of the fire as they dine on burgers and sip red wine. On the dining room side, where there’s no need for a hearth, the fire is behind sealed ceramic glass set in custom wrought-iron doors. Having glass on one side, Williams explains, improves heating efficiency by reradiating the heat. Other innovations, such as pre-engineered flues, also improve the efficiency of modern fireplaces, Williams says.

But an open fireplace isn’t the most efficient type of fire. “Decorative appliances, both wood and gas, contribute very little when it comes to heating a home and are a source of heat loss, when not in use,” Antrobus says. This was recognized as a problem even back in Colonial days. So Benjamin Franklin designed something more efficient: the woodstove. “The longer you’ve lived here, the more you want a woodstove than a fireplace,” says thirty-year Wilson resident Ann Smith.

Woodstoves no longer need be a castiron beast hulking in a corner of your

At the base of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, just off the ski slope sits this stunning new mountain estate. A rugged material palette of carved fieldstone and timber siding was used to construct the home while massive Douglas fir logs frame the entry and traverse the vaulted ceilings.

Every fixture, cabinet, and interior finish was customdesigned by Rocky Mountain artisans for this impressive home. An entry at the lower level permits direct access to a private ski trail making this home truly a ski-in ski-out property at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.

Offered with extraordinary custom furnishings. $8,950,000 Melissa Harrison & Steve Robertson, Associates Brokers (307) 690-0086 • MelissaHarrison@jhrea.com

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PRICE CHAMBERS

Ann Smith, of Wilson, loves her gas woodstove; she can turn it on with the flick of a switch.

living room. A real estate agent, Smith has seen a wide range of woodstoves in homes, from brightly colored, glassfronted units to high-end, contemporary Scandinavian soapstone designs. The latter hold their heat, even hours after the fires have gone out. They also fit a more modernistic aesthetic.

A particularly hot brand among Jackson consumers is Tulikivi, from Finland, according to Gilday. Gilday herself prefers the look of the Danish company RAIS, though. RAIS offers space-saving vertical designs, including its Opus woodstove, which homeowners can customize by adding additional soapstone blocks for longer-lasting heat.

If woodstoves are more efficient, why even bother with a fireplace? “Ambiance,” says Gilday. Gilday Architects, along with Humphries Poli Architects, designed the new Teton County Library addition and renovation (to be completed in January) and included a fireplace in a new reading 44

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

“There is something very primal, and you really connect to [fire],” says architect John Carney. room for adults. “[The fireplace] makes this a more intimate space, almost a room within a room,” Gilday says.

Readers can sit in front of it and get “mentally warm” while looking outside to the Wyoming landscape.

The Teton County Library isn’t alone in using fire to create coziness.

“There’s something very primal, and you really connect to [fire],” says architect John Carney of Jackson’s Carney Logan Burke Architects, who designed the Laurance S. Rockefeller (LSR) Preserve Visitor Center as well as the

Jackson Hole Airport expansion and remodel. Both these public buildings have fireplaces that not only function as an integral part of the design, but also invite the public to curl up and relax. At the airport, which won Carney Logan Burke an Award of Excellence from the American Institute of Architects’ Wyoming Chapter, you can enjoy a fire while waiting for your flight. At the Preserve visitor center, which also won an AIA Wyoming Excellence Award, you can read a book or meditate in front of the fireplace.

The ambiance and relaxing atmosphere that come with a woodstove or a fireplace don’t come without cost, though: They release smoke into the environment.

Historically, the Town of Jackson and Teton County regulated woodstoves to meet minimum EPA emission standards, which are still in effect today, according to Antrobus. In addition, Teton County generally limits wood-burning fireplaces to

Photographer : Matthew Millman

clbarchitects.com

jackson,wy

Inspired by Place

DAVID AGNELLO

one per residence and one per guesthouse, except for larger lots. “The intent is to minimize smoke in densely populated areas and to increase energy efficiency,” Antrobus says.

Williams, who moved to Jackson in 1978, recalls the days before regulation.

“In the winter, you couldn’t breathe,” he says. “When you got an inversion, you couldn’t even drive down the street, you needed fog lights.” If you want to clean up your burning, the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Burn Wise” website, epa.gov/burnwise, has tips on how to

Hot History What ignited our love for the flame?

When did our romance with fire begin? We’ve been playing with embers for more than 400,000 years, according to the latest science. At least that’s the best guess to the burning question of when humans first started making fires on purpose. But excavating this kind of archaeological answer can be dicey—it depends on charcoal that can decay and fall prey to other destructive natural forces.

“Earthworms actually wreak havoc on archaeological features in soil,” says Robert Kelly, anthropology professor and director 46

of the University of Wyoming’s Frison Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology. But that doesn’t stop scientists like Kelly from trying to discover not only when people started fires, but what they did around fires.

Humankind had a powerful motive for corralling that first spark, and it didn’t involve champagne flutes and a bearskin rug. “When food is cooked, we can actually increase its nutritional value by making more of the calories in that food available for absorption in the human gut,” Kelly says.

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

Cooking wasn’t the only motive. In fact, for the past ten years, Kelly has been excavating cave sites in the Bighorn Basin in eastern Wyoming that had hearths but no evidence of food being cooked in them. This suggests they were more likely used as places to warm up. Besides cooking and warmth, Kelly says, there’s another aspect of fire that you can’t excavate from the carbon remains. “It’s a center of socialization,” he says.

— Rebecca Huntington

Peggy Gilday designed a contemporary, custom see-through fireplace in this home at the base of Teton Pass. In the winter, when the landscape visible through the fireplace’s “window” is blanketed in snow, there’s a fun juxtaposition— frigidity outside and warmth inside.

choose gas stoves, fireplaces, and cleanerburning wood, and how to retrofit existing appliances.

Regardless of the pollution, Jackson Hole’s love affair with fire burns as bright as ever. And it’s no longer limited to interior spaces. Architect Williams says outdoor fire areas are an increasingly common request from clients. Since building his home, Dr. Newcomb has added an outdoor fire pit. Using stones to match his deck, he has created a rectangular pit. Inside are lava rocks, which stand in for coals, absorbing the heat from the gas-fired flames. Other outdoor options include chimeneas and traditional masonry fireplaces built into the outside wall of a home. Chimeneas, originally from Mexico, are portable, stand-alone clay heaters designed to maximize the heat of a small fire.

Carney has a modest fire pit at his own home on Fish Creek, and his firm has also designed them for clients. At the home of one client and friend, Carney says dinner parties inevitably migrate outside to socialize around the fire pit.

“It’s so damn cold in Wyoming,” Carney says, “even in the summer, you better be sitting around a heat source or you’re all going to be chased back into the house by the cold.” JH

115 E. Broadway • 307-733-7868 • www.willowcreekhf.com “Like” us on Facebook.

The Jackson Bootlegger 36 East Broadway Jackson, WY 83001 On the Square www.thebootlegger.com (307) 733-6207 WINTER 2013 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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Special Interest Feature

Peak Properties T

he factor that makes the Jackson Hole real estate market so unusual is the relative scarcity of private land. Ninetyseven percent of Teton County, Wyoming, is publicly owned—either national park, national forest, or wildlife refuge.

This computes to just 75,000 privately held acres in a county spanning 2.5 million acres. The guaranteed open spaces and unobstructed views these surrounding public lands afford make the remaining private land a real treasure. Add the abundance of recreational opportunities found in and around the valley, and the quality of life one can enjoy in Jackson Hole is simply unbeatable.

Moreover, many of the properties featured here are secluded, scenic retreats located in the midst of prime wildlife habitat. Most existing and prospective property owners in Jackson Hole cherish this notion, and serve—or will serve—as stewards of nature.

One cannot put a dollar value on waking to the Teton skyline, skiing home for lunch, or listening to a trout stream gurgling through the backyard. In Jackson Hole, “living with nature” is not a fleeting, vicarious experience a person has while watching TV. Here it’s a fact of life, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Arts & Crafts Masterpiece in John Dodge

MAGNIFICENT LODGE ON THE SNAKE RIVER

Stunning Arts and Craft home on three tree filled acres in John Dodge. This reinterpretation of Greene and Greene design blends simplicity and sophistication in a charming log home.

Meticulous craftsmanship with burnished woodwork, exquisite details and joinery, period art glass lighting fixtures and exterior rockwork. Detached guesthouse is of the same quality and finish. Property is located within 3 miles of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and Teton Pines. Private access to Snake River for miles of hiking, fishing and skiing. $4.75M.

This exquisitely crafted six bedroom log residence sits on thirteen peaceful acres, enjoys commanding views of the Tetons, and has private frontage on the Snake River. Enjoy Jackson Hole living at its finest with custom furnishings created especially for the home, and features that include six interior fireplaces, stone terraces, a meandering stream and a 20 X 60 heated outdoor swimming pool. Text Carol22 to 71441 for more information. $11.55M

Mercedes Huff, Associate Broker Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty, 307.739.8135 www.mercedeshuff.com, Mercedes.Huff@jhsir.com 48

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

Carol Linton and Betsy Bingle, Associate Brokers Jackson Hole Real Estate Associates, 307.732.7518 carollinton@Jhrea.com www.carollinton.com

Contemporary Estate, Teton Views

Ski-in Ski-out Estate at Granite Ridge

A very unique property centrally located in Jackson Hole with more than 7400 square feet of improvements. Very private in its 3.6 acre setting amidst Aspen groves, the four bedroom contemporary residence has walls of windows to take in the unobstructed views and enhance the living spaces with abundant natural light. An enclosed bridge joins the two bedroom guest quarters to the primary home, and a separate office building provides the privacy needed in a workspace.

Text Carol23 to 71441 for more information. $4,850,000.

This new custom home is stunning in all respects. Frame-built with chinked timber & stone siding; accented with Douglas fir logs. Exceptional construction quality. Extraordinary custom furnishings included. 7,302 SF, 4 bedrooms & 1-bedroom full guest apartment. True ski-in ski-out property. $8,950,000.

Carol Linton and Betsy Bingle, Associate Brokers Jackson Hole Real Estate Associates, 307.732.7518 carollinton@Jhrea.com www.carollinton.com

Melissa Harrison & Steve Robertson, Associate Brokers Jackson Hole Real Estate Associates 307.690.0086 melissaharrison@jhrea.com

Exceptional Equestrian Estate

Jackson Hole Mountain Resort

This home is located on almost 8 acres with 2 irrigated fenced pastures, an aerated pond, mature landscaping and views of the Grand Teton and surrounding mountains. The main house has approximately 4,000 sq ft and features an open kitchen/ dining/living area with reclaimed chestnut floors, river-rock fireplace and vaulted log-truss ceiling, 4 bedrooms, 4.5 baths, and a 3 car garage. Attached to the garage is a 1,000 sq ft guest quarters complete with full kitchen, living/dining area, 1 bedroom with bath and laundry.

A spectacular 6 bed, 6 bath home located slopeside at the base of the Hobacks at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.

Finished with various fine hardwoods throughout and high end appliances. Zoned hydronic in floor heat and masonry fireplace provide for efficiency. Guest apt included. Contact Sean Clark at 307-690-8716. MLS #11-1137. List Price: $2,595,000

Tom Evans, Associate Broker Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty, 307.739.8149 Tom.Evans@jhsir.com, www.TomEvansRealEstate.com

Sean Clark, Sales Associate Jackson Hole Real Estate Associates 307.690.8716 seanclark@jhrea.com

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NEAR TETON SPRINGS GOLF CLUB

Indian Springs Ranch

Exquisite 5454 SF log home on 5.5 acres in Victor, ID. Hydronic infloor heat, main level master, log purlin vaulted ceilings, maple cabinets, granite, tile & hickory flooring, rain-forest marble baths, quality fixtures & appliances. 2nd level catwalk accesses two private suites. Lower area boasts theater room, office, 2 bunk rooms & 2 bedrooms. Fully landscaped, autoirrigation, fenced pasture, feed/tack barn, creek, asphalt drive.

Exterior has awning covered decks, propane fireplace, raised flower beds, & hot tub. Furnishings negotiable. $1,790,000.

Tucked into a private valley sited on 7.58 acres with 2 trout ponds and a cascading stream, this exquisite timber and stone new custom home offers 4 bedrooms, 3 full baths, an office, powder room, and wine cellar embodying top-end craftsmanship and design. Materials were sourced both afar and as nearby as the Snake River Canyon where its massive timbers were harvested. The rolling terrain and extensive vegetation help focus the views across dedicated open space to southern mountain vistas. $5,965,000. #4332213

Teton Valley Realty Mark Rockefeller, 208.351.1411 mark@tetonvalleyrealty.com

The Spackmans – Jarad, Dave & Brandon JH Sotheby’s International Realty, 307.739.8132 www.SpackmansInJH.com

Shooting Star

Buffalo Fork Fishing Cabin

This 1.3 acre homesite enjoys a uniquely beautiful setting along a waterfront of the new Tom Fazio-designed golf course at Shooting Star, overlooking the ninth hole. It is the last remaining lakeside parcel and offers stunning views to the south over the golf course, to the east of the Sleeping Indian, and to the west towards the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and the Tram. World class clubhouse amenities include a tension edge pool, two Jacuzzis, fine dining, exquisite spa and fitness facilities, and ski shuttle to the slopes.

Just off the Buffalo Fork river resides this custom built Fishing Cabin on 6.75 acres in a natural setting with views of the Grand Teton, Mt Moran & the forest boarding BTNF. 2 bed / 2 bath. high end finishes. This home is being constructed and will be ready for occupancy late 2012. Priced below recent appraisal $1,195,000. MLS #12-1451.

John Resor, Associate Broker Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty 307.739.8062, john.resor@jhsir.com 50

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

David A. NeVille, Associate Broker Jackson Hole Real Estate Associates davidneville@jhrea.com, 307.690.3209

The Walton Ranch

HENDERSON CANYON VICTOR ID

Set along the legendary Snake River in the shadow of the magnificent Grand Teton, this legacy property is minutes from downtown Jackson, world-class skiing and air service. The 1,848-acre ranch is an operating cattle ranch with its own resident elk herd and fishing access along three miles of the Snake River. Surrounded by natural beauty and close to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, the Walton Ranch offers a rare opportunity to own a sizable ranch in one of the most sought-after locations in the world. $100,000,000.

Exclusive once in a lifetime opportunity! Rocky Creek Ranch, west side of Teton Valley, joins National Forest. 66 acres, 4 deeded wooded Teton view homesites. Quality improvements include 4329 SF barn with guest quarters above, garages, stocked pond, heated paddle tennis court – warming cabin, regulation tennis court, trap shooting deck, hilltop 1918 SF guest house, roads, meandering trails, fencing. Structures are fully furnished, tractor & all recreational equipment incl. $2,700,000.

Ranch Marketing Associates Ron Morris 970.535.0881 and Billy Long 970.927.3850 ron@rmabrokers.com, billy@rmabrokers.com

Teton Valley Realty Tayson Rockefeller, 208.709.1333 Mark Rockefeller, 208.351.1411 tayson@tetonvalleyrealty.com mark@tetonvalleyrealty.com

The Village at YELLOWSTONE CLUB

The Bar BC Ranch – Limited Inventory

Construction has started on the first phase of the Yellowstone Club's "Village" in Big Sky, Montana. The development of the Village is adjacent to and will compliment the existing Warren Miller Lodge and will transform the base area into a bustling ski village complete with ski accessible residential units, skating rink, retail spaces, members' locker rooms, general store, spa and new dining options to an already thriving ski community. Currently the Village Lakeside and Village Hillside Residences are available for reservations.

In recent months 3 more Bar BC Ranch parcels have sold. Only 3 parcels remain. At 36 to 38 acres each, Ranch 12, 9 and 5 each feature a unique topography with mature aspen, fir and wildlife habitat; and stunning elevated Teton Mountain views.

As a legacy property, the Bar BC Ranch will remain unchanged in perpetuity.

YELLOWSTONE CLUB / Big Sky, Montana 406.995.4900, YCSales@yellowstoneclub.com www.yellowstoneclub.com

Tom Evans and Dave Spackman, Associate Brokers Jackson Hole Sotheby's International Realty 888.733.9009, BarBCRanch.com.

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Premier Snake River Acreage

Westbank near Wilson

Pristine 25 acres located on the Snake River. Premier West Bank location on the Teton Village Road with development potential bordering both the Snake River and BLM. Lovely old growth forest previously divided into 4 wooded lots in private setting among tall pines with ponds, streams and incredible wildlife.

Choose to build on the Snake River and develop the remaining lots or dedicate to conservation easement. This property includes a large nicely upgraded rental home and small remodeled rental cottage.

On the West Bank south of Wilson and located in Indian Paintbrush Subdivision. This four (4) bedroom home is surrounded by a wonderful variety of mature trees and perfectly sited on a large three acre lot looking onto the valley. Built in 1990 this home will be a perfect fit as a vacation home for either winter or summer. Priced well at $1,495,000.00 and exclusively offered by Timothy C. Mayo.

Pamela Renner, Broker Associate Jackson Hole Sotheby's International Realty 307.690.5530, pamela.renner@jhsir.com Tucker Ranch

AMERICAN SPIRIT at YELLOWSTONE CLUB

Between Tucker Lake and the Snake River with dramatic Teton views, this exquisite home is a masterpiece of reclaimed beams, barnwood, and stone with top-of-the-line finishes. The patio, by the private pond and it’s waterfalls, offer an outdoor fireplace and built-in grill. A spacious master suite graces the first floor; upstairs boasts four guest suites. SF594BJH $12,900,000

Amidst towering pines and tucked discretely into a pictureperfect high alpine setting is the newest single-family fully ski accessible community at Yellowstone Club, American Spirit.

American Spirit offers two residential choices, the Lodges and the Cabins - with both a ‘mountain contemporary’ and ‘Montana historic’ style of architecture and numerous floor plan options. These homes can be customized to one’s individual needs and desires to allow for ease in designing and developing the perfect Rocky Mountain ski home.

Doug Herrick, Associate Broker/Owner Brokers of Jackson Hole LLC 307.413.8899, dherrick@jhrealestate.com

52

Timothy C. Mayo, Associate Broker-Owner Brokers of Jackson Hole LLC 307.690.4339, tcmayo@aol.com

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

YELLOWSTONE CLUB / Big Sky, Montana 406.995.4900, YCSales@yellowstoneclub.com www.yellowstoneclub.com

Exceptional service,

extraordinary properties.

3 CREEK RANCH Uncompromising architecture,outstanding craftsmanship and stunning natural surroundings come together to create serenity in this brand new Estate home in the gated community of 3 Creek Ranch. $7.5M. MLS# 12-2375.

Meet the new team—Carol Linton and Betsy Bingle.

Two genuine real estate professionals working together to provide you with

exceptional service.

Find extraordinary properties at www.CarolLinton.com Carol Linton: 307-699-1139 — CarolLinton@jhrea.com Betsy Bingle: 307-413-8090 — BetsyBingle@jhrea.com follow us on

mad about elk

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

The National Elk Refuge celebrated its 100th anniversary last year. But its future is far from certain.

WAYNE SMITH

BY TODD WILKINSON

WINTER 2013 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

55

What is wild?

What is natural?

What is a healthy ecosystem supposed to look like?

Steve Kallin entertains these questions as he enters a treeless gulf of open space. Leaving the frenetic trappings of Jackson behind, he crosses a hard-edged line that demarks the town’s northern boundary and yields to the National Elk Refuge.

I am riding along in the front seat of a government pickup truck. Kallin has spent thirty-four years with the Fish and Wildlife Service and is now the federal refuge’s top manager. Deeper, we venture into a breezy maw of undeveloped terrain that arguably is as important to Jackson’s geographical identity as the town’s proximity to the Tetons. Soon, we reach a destination that seldom is referenced anymore by its frontier-era moniker. “There’s a reason why the early settlers of Jackson Hole called this spot ‘Poverty Flats,’ ” Kallin, a soft-spoken man, says. “The rocky soil’s not very good for growing crops.”

Indeed, it’s just past noon, and the ankle-high grass is brittle and parched from the hot August sun. Not another living creature is in sight, but a few months will bring a swarm of hoof traffic. The land might not be good for growing crops, but over the last one hundred years, this sweep of terra firma and the 25,000 surrounding acres have proven to be exceedingly productive for saving—and growing—something remarkable: the most famous wild elk herd in the world. Upwards of 7,500 elk congregate here each winter (about 800 bison wander down, too).

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

As placid as it looks under the snowy mantle it wears between November and April, the National Elk Refuge was born out of a clash between humans and nature. As late as 130 years ago, wapiti—a Shawnee word for elk that means “white rump”—funneled in the tens of thousands through the bottoms of Jackson Hole in autumn and back again in late spring, like waterfowl passing through skies. They’d feast upon high-country grass all summer long and then move to lower elevations—the valley floor and further south to the flanks of the Wind River Mountains—to survive winters.

This migration, up to hundreds of miles long in each direction, happened for millennia … until non-Indian settlers arrived.

Poachers and market hunters slaughtered elk for their hides, meat, and “ivory” tusks. More than poachers and hunters, though, it was homesteaders erecting buildings and fences across the valley that interrupted the elk’s migratory path. It is estimated that elk in North America once numbered 10 million, inhabiting most areas of the country. By the early 1900s, numbers had dropped to 50,000, plummeting just as bison numbers did. The Jackson Hole herd was one of the largest remnant strongholds, but it, too, became threatened.

Historically, the southern end of our valley, starting at the northern boundary of today’s Elk Refuge all the way down to South Park and Hoback, was prime winter range for upwards of 25,000 elk. The town of Jackson blocked—and still blocks—75 percent of the original “elk highway.” Jackson was built smack-dab in the middle of the historic wapiti winter habitat passageway, essentially creating a plug in the animals’ migration corridor. Elk that did manage to make it past town often found usurping cattle grazing on the few snow-free slopes. Ranchers had

little tolerance for elk eating the grass bound for the bellies of beef cows.

Suddenly, with only 25 percent of their former natural forage areas available, elk began to starve—and, in harsh winters, die in mass numbers.

Locals were alarmed. In 1909, knowing they needed to act quickly, Jackson Hole citizens led a homegrown movement to intervene. It won support in Cheyenne and Washington, D.C. “Local folks saw the fate of elk going rapidly the same way as bison,” says Earle Layser, author of a new book, The Jackson Hole Settlement Chronicles. It wasn’t until 1912 that the National Elk Refuge was established, though. Not the country’s first wildlife refuge—that honor goes to Pelican Island off the coast of Florida, which President Teddy Roosevelt established by executive order in 1903—it was the first wildlife sanctuary specifically for a terrestrial mammal referred to as a “refuge.” The government purchased private ranchland from willing sellers. And it kept purchasing, albeit slowly at first. Prior to 1916, the present-day National Elk Refuge was dotted with forty-four homesteads, and the preserve was only a modest 2,760 acres in size, just one-tenth as large as today.

Over generations, what happens here has been nothing short of a phenomenon. Every November, thousands of wapiti appear en masse. A true spectacle of nature, the return of elk to Jackson Hole is as eagerly anticipated as the arrival of swallows at San Juan Capistrano, the movement of wildebeest over the Serengeti Plains, and catching glimpses of calving whales in the Sea of Cortez. “It’s one of the things that sets this valley apart from every other in the West,” Kallin says.

Thousands of elk congregate on the area that would become the National Elk Refuge in this image, circa 1910.

STEPHEN LEEK / COURTESY AMERICAN HERITAGE CENTER

“Without the refuge, the character of the [valley] would be radically different. As it is now, wilderness begins at Jackson’s doorstep,” says refuge manager Steve Kallin.

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BRADLY J. BONER

National Elk Refuge and Wyoming Game and Fish personnel participate in the annual elk count during feeding operations on the refuge in February 2012. Today, the National Wildlife Refuge System includes 545 refuges, with at least one in every state.

“There’s a chatter around town when elk start to show up.”

The elk rescue that occurred here exactly a century ago is, in its own way, unparalleled in American conservation history. Tom Toman, former wildlife manager with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, used to be stationed in Jackson. He now works for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, an organization unmatched in its mission of re-

In addition to elk, the refuge is also home to 150 species of birds and amphibians, and forty-five other mammal species. storing elk to its former range in North America. Toman credits the National Elk Refuge with serving as an important reservoir of wapiti that has allowed that to flourish.

But appearances can be somewhat deceiving. Dr. Bruce Smith, a hunter, Vietnam veteran, and retired federal biologist who spent twenty-two years 58

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studying elk on the refuge, says the sea of animals visible from U.S. Highway 189 in winter is magnificent, but it’s also “an illusion” and “a disaster waiting to happen.” How could that be?

The genesis for Smith’s worry started like this: On August 10, 1912, the federal government bought $45,000 of hay for elk that, in several months, would be descending onto Jackson Hole’s new refuge. Well-intentioned, those running the refuge decided they weren’t just going to provide wapiti with habitat, but also ensure the animals wouldn’t become emaciated over the long winter. Supplemental nourishment dramatically reduced the number of elk that died … but it also kept the size of the herd at an artificially high level. Yes, up to 25,000 elk may have once roamed the valley floor historically.

But given the smaller space now set aside for them, the herd’s numbers were beyond what the land would otherwise support, putting them on a collision course with another threat.

As biologist Smith notes, feeding

animals in close quarters fosters conditions ripe for disease transmission.

Science backs this up; studies have shown that conditions at “feedlots” increase disease rates up to ten times those found in the wild because diseases are passed rapidly among animals in close contact. The bovine disease brucellosis, which causes pregnant cows to abort their young, is one such blight (see sidebar).

Brucellosis isn’t the only zoonotic malady elk living in close proximity are vulnerable to catching. There’s also scabies and hoof rot—both already found on the refuge—and, most worrisome, chronic wasting disease (CWD), a cousin to the notorious mad cow disease that causes dementia-like symptoms in victims.

Discovered in a Colorado research facility in the 1960s, CWD has a fatality rate of 100 percent, and there are fears—so far unproven—that people could possibly become ill by eating infected game meat. Biologists have killed hundreds of infected wild deer across the country—and thousands of others that are not infected—to keep the disease from spreading.

Chronic wasting disease hasn’t yet been detected on the National Elk Refuge, but it has been found in herds only seventy miles outside the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. In a 2008 New York Times article about the disease, experts warned that if prions, the agents that cause it, were to reach the refuge, they could live in the soil for decades, likely forcing refuge managers to contemplate radical options for keeping wildlife and humans away from the contamination.

The easiest antidote to reduce the threat is to halt the feeding, Smith asserts in his acclaimed 2011 book, Where Elk Roam: Conservation and Biopolitics of Our National Elk Herd, which was written after his retirement from Fish and Wildlife. Elsewhere in North America, including in neighboring Idaho and Montana, state and federal game agencies have outlawed game farms and artificial feeding because of their known link to causing disease outbreaks.

Wyoming, which has twenty-two staterun feedgrounds in addition to the National Elk Refuge, has refused to follow suit for two primary reasons: First, those feedgrounds help keep the elk

population artificially high, which benefits purveyors of commercial elk hunts; and secondly, those feeding stations draw elk away from private pastures where cattle graze, thus not exposing beef cows to brucellosis. The irony is that the refuge and the twenty-two state feedgrounds have caused brucellosis infection rates in elk to remain high.

Throughout most of its history, the refuge did not have clear marching orders other than to keep elk at the trough. Clarification only arrived when Congress passed the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997. This act established “promotion of naturally functioning ecosystems and protection of imperiled species among the paramount priorities for all refuges across the country.”

With the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act, conservationists that had long been pressing for the National Elk Refuge to stop feeding finally had a legal hook. In 2008, a quartet of environmental organizations—including the Greater Yellowstone Coalition and Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance— challenged the legality of the refuge’s feeding program in federal district court.

They prevailed, with a judge ruling that by feeding elk, the refuge was operating in violation of its own governing statute.

But the court then refused to impose a timeline for compelling the refuge to eliminate feeding. Plaintiffs filed an appeal, which was rejected. However, the appellate court noted: “The whole point of a National Elk Refuge is to provide a sanctuary in which populations of healthy, reproducing elk can be sustained,” the judges wrote in their decision. “The refuge can hardly provide such a sanctuary if, every winter, elk and bison are drawn by the siren song of human-provided food to what becomes, through the act of gathering, a miasmic zone of life-threatening diseases.”

Rather than eliminating feeding or reducing the size of the herd, Wyoming tried to reduce the incidence of brucellosis by inoculating elk and bison with a brucellosis vaccine through “biobullets.”

The technique has proven ineffective in cutting the number of animals infected with the disease. Wyoming has also experimented on a state-operated elk feedground, similar to the Elk Refuge, with a test-and-slaughter program to remove

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management plan calls for wintertime refuge populations of 5,000 elk and 500 bison.

Elk flock to a feed line during supplemental feeding operations on the National Elk Refuge. Biologists have learned that feeding animals in close quarters creates conditions that spread diseases, and the refuge is looking at a long-term phaseout of artificial feeding.

“We say we are committed to promoting ecosystem health, but the way we’re managing elk stands as a giant contradiction,” says Dr. Bruce Smith.

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brucellosis-infected elk altogether. But, as Smith points out, that strategy translated to an expense of about $13,000 for each elk tested and removed. It was deemed neither cost-effective nor practical to repeat on the Elk Refuge.

Kallin says the feeding program at the refuge has actually changed elk behavior, teaching generations of wapiti they can expect to find forage. Ending the dependency, engrained over a century now, won’t be fixed in a short time. “There is no one magic bullet for getting us out of this dilemma,” he says. The refuge is implementing a plan to gradually unhook elk from a diet of pellets to reduce elk numbers. The strategy includes irrigating the refuge’s grasslands in the summer to make more natural sustenance available and to more broadly disperse pellets to discourage elk from bunching up. A new

Not everyone shares the perspective that feeding elk is a bad idea, though. To outfitters, who guide hunters in search of trophy bull elk, the elk cluster represents a cornerstone to a way of life and money in the bank.

Commercial elk hunting is big business in Wyoming. In the years after this new millennium began, the U.S. Geological Survey completed a study showing that more than 8,000 elk hunters come to Jackson Hole annually and spend millions of dollars. It’s not just hunters, either. Last winter, 20,400 people paid eighteen dollars to take a scenic sleigh ride out into the herd.

In filmmaker Danny Schmidt’s recent documentary, Feeding the Problem, Jackson Hole native and hunting guide Harold Turner of the Triangle X Ranch, who’s been guiding for sixty years, observes: “The state of Wyoming did a survey a couple of years ago asking people what they knew about Jackson Hole.

No. 1 was Yellowstone. No. 2 was our elk herds.” Turner adds, “We are famous worldwide because we have a lot of elk.

And we have a lot of elk because of the feeding grounds. If the elk feeding grounds were shut down, we will not only lose our economic base, but we will lose our heritage.”

There’s debate over the seriousness of the threat of CWD, too. Wyoming wildlife veterinarian Terry Kreeger claims the disease’s arrival on the refuge is not a certainty, and he believes both the state and federal government have established a gauntlet of testing to isolate animals suspected to be sick. He asserts that dire predictions about the impact of CWD are overblown.

In response, Smith says the state is focusing on detection of CWD rather than prevention, and if they wait until they have a confirmed case in hand, it means that countless other animals would likely already be exposed. The big looming question: then what?

If some members of the public find the cessation of artificial feeding to be unacceptable for economic reasons, he asks, how will they react to the prospect of depopulating—essentially annihilating the herd—to prevent CWD from spreading to the 250,000 elk and deer in

WAYNE SMITH

the rest of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem? “How will that affect tourism?” Smith asks incredulously. “How might it affect the outfitting business?”

How could two perspectives of the same scene—both based upon a professed love for wildlife—lead to such differing conclusions?

The refuge is using different techniques and trying to slowly wean elk off reliance on artificial feed, but critics note it needs to happen in sync with state-run feedgrounds. Smith claims Wyoming is in denial. Kallin, for his part, is trying to chart a middle course through the controversy.

After spending more than three decades rising through U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s management ranks, he understands he is stewarding the lifeblood of a crown jewel in the national wildlife refuge system. “I’d say that after a century, the wisdom of those who acted to create the refuge has been reaffirmed many times over,” Kallin says. “And now it’s our turn. For the next one hundred years, the question that needs to be asked is: ‘As a society, how do we want to manage wildlife?’

It’s gonna require a willingness to make tough decisions.” Right now, he notes, “it’s unclear how those marking the refuge’s bicentennial in 2112 will judge our ability to choose.” JH

the brucellosis bane Scientists believe the elk herds in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem contain the last remaining reservoirs of brucellosis. Today, the refuge feeds elk not only to keep fewer from dying, but also to lure them away from private ranchland where a brucellosisinfected wapiti might come into contact with cattle. The disease can be transmitted from elk (and bison, which also carry the disease) to cattle. Brucellosis-infected cattle are a big deal. It causes cows to abort their 62

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young. Herds with cattle that test positive for brucellosis are quarantined. Livestock-producing states have a brucellosis status given them (and continually recertified) by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In recent years, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana have all lost and then regained their brucellosis-free designations. In 2004, cattle in a herd south of Pinedale developed brucellosis. A story in the Casper Star-Tribune stated that an investigation strongly suggested the

cattle had contracted the disease from elk on the nearby Muddy Creek feedground. (In addition to the National Elk Refuge, Wyoming Game & Fish operates twenty-two feedgrounds.)

Also in 2004, testing found brucellosis-positive cattle herds in Jackson Hole. This led the USDA to revoke Wyoming’s brucellosis-free state classification. When a state is not certified brucellosis-free, many of the cattle leaving it have to be tested and certified as brucellosis-free, so as not

to spread the disease to other states.

In 2006, after multiple tests over a time came back negative for brucellosis in cattle throughout the state, Wyoming regained its brucellosis-free status. Only two years later, though, a Sublette County herd had cattle test positive for brucellosis. Because the herd was destroyed and the disease wasn’t found anywhere else in the state at that time, this didn’t affect the state’s brucellosis-free status.

— Dina Mishev

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Jackson Hole’s ski film scene is a dynamic of talent and terrain.

THIS PAGE: Todd Jones uses a Phantom camera outside Baldface, British Columbia, while filming Teton Gravity Research’s 2010 production, One for the Road.

OPPOSITE PAGE: Brain Farm co-founder Travis Rice in the Kootenay Mountains.

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COURTESY TETON GRAVITY RESEARCH

BY JEFF BURKE

Dropp

MARK GALLUP / RED BULL CONTENT POOL

in g

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In the Teton backcountry just outside Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, a skier slashes turns alongside a steep, narrow precipice, a thick stand of snowy pines to his left, the brink of oblivion to his right. With each turn, powder spills into the abyss, washing over a grater of rocks. His line narrows, turns become tighter, faster, his rhythm building. The cameraman pulls back, revealing the full extent of the exposure. What little margin for error the skier had is now gone.

The large cliff is less than twenty feet from his ski tips. He’s still going—back and forth, back and forth—but to where?

The real estate is ending. With a calculated final turn, he smears to the left, then directs his skis to the lip. He’s all in.

The first ski films ever made were those of German geologist Arnold Fanck.

(His love of geology inspired him to shoot in remote mountain locations, where there’s not much to do besides ski and climb.) Not that Fanck’s movies had any similarities to the ski films of today.

His first film, in 1913, was of a ski ascent of Monte Rosa, the highest mountain in Switzerland. In 1920, he made Wonders of Skiing, and in 1921, he filmed Fox Chase in the Engadine. It was titillating stuff. Not really. Still, audiences lapped them up.

The first ski films that bear any creative resemblance to today’s are those made by Leni Riefenstahl in 1930s Nazi Germany. Riefenstahl started out as a skier in Fanck’s films, and when Fanck discovered she had her own creative ideas, supported her as she started making her own movies. It is Riefenstahl who “we really just started to think that we have all the best [people] around us, and no one is filming them regularly.

So we bought cameras and started tgr.”

—todd jones 66

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introduced innovations such as putting athletes to music, the use of dissolves, and slow motion.

In the ensuing decades, there were slews of other ski filmmakers. Throughout the ’70s and ’80s, Warren Miller was synonymous with ski films. His paternal patois was as quietly inspiring as it was reassuring and made the idea of ski bumming seem almost legitimate, if not respectable. In 1988, Greg Stump upped the ante in ski film shenanigans with Blizzard of Aahhh’s, which was voted the No. 1 ski film of all time by The Ski Channel and Skiing Magazine. Aahhh’s proved simultaneously that hard-core skiing wasn’t limited to racing, and that delinquency and world-class talent weren’t mutually exclusive. Stump, who now lives in Teton Valley, just this winter released Legend of Aahhh’s, an artistic, ethereal, moody, and creative look at the evolution of ski movies.

Looking at the progression of modern ski and snowboard movies, Jackson Hole is a player. Our terrain is regarded as among the most challenging on the continent, so of course people come here to film. And with hard-core terrain comes hard-core local skiers. When you’ve got challenging lines and skiers pushing the boundaries of what’s possible right in your backyard, of course there will also be people who want to film it, whether they know what they’re doing or not. “I didn’t go to film school,” Jason Moriarty, who moved to Jackson when he was twelve years old and whose company, Slednecks, has released fifteen films, told Current TV’s Stunts and Chaos. “I honed my skills making extreme sports films. I just went out and did it—got a video camera, put my heart and soul into it, and made it happen.”

Two of the earliest valley filmmakers were Barry Corbet and Roger Brown.

Their classic 1967 ski film, Ski the Outer Limits, included a full-spread front flip into Jackson’s legendary Corbet’s Couloir, the most infamous test piece for aspiring extreme skiers this side of Chamonix. As a skier plummets into the maw, the affected score and voiceover add to the intensity, its melodramatic timbre heightening the scene’s surreal tension. “As man explores the edge of the impossible … he crosses a threshold into … the outer limits.”

From Brown and Corbet, we go to Captain Video, who founded Teton

Video in the early 1980s. Literally a caped cameraman, Captain Video marauded about the mountain making shorts for Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. But only for a few years. Original Jackson Hole Air Force member Howard Henderson (the Air Force consisted of roustabouts who epitomized hard skiing and boozing, their scofflaw coda being “Swift, Silent, Deep”) inherited Teton Video from Captain Video, and when not shooting for the JHMR ski school, filmed his friends.

Todd Jones watched Henderson’s Teton Video movies as inspiration before skiing almost every morning. “Teton Video was the first film company I had heard of when I moved here,” Jones says.

ANGEL RODRIGUEZ

ANGEL RODRIGUEZ

And they had more than a small effect on him. In the mid ’90s, with his brothers, Steve and Jeremy, Todd partnered with Corey Gavitt and Dirk Collins to start the film company Teton Gravity Research.

Many of the Teton Video skiers were the inspiration and talent for TGR’s early efforts. “When Doug Coombs, the Zells (brothers Jeff and Jimmy, as well as sister Julie), and the Hunt brothers started going to Alaska and doing well in the World Extreme comps, we really just started to think that we have all the best [people] around us, and no one is filming them regularly. So we bought cameras and started TGR.” TGR began on a whim, has enjoyed the fruits of cult status, and has matured into a major player in action

ABOVE: Skier Rob LaPier catches air in downtown Cooke City, Montana, during filming for the KGB Productions movie Wyoming Triumph.

BELOW: KGB Productions co-founder Sam Pope films skiers on Teton Pass.

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67

DANNY ZAPALAC / RED BULL CONTENT POOL

sports filmmaking with more than twenty-five films (even including a surfing film) to its credit.

TGR’s debut effort was 1996’s The Continuum. Brash, rough-cut, and gritty, it gave viewers a real window into hardcore Jackson skiing and riding. Filmwise, TGR separated themselves by discovering subtly different camera angles and by shooting a skier’s full line. The Continuum was not, as most other films of the time

was voted Best Movie of the Year by France’s Skieur Magazine. The company has made at least one movie a year since.

At the Macworld 2008 Keynote, Steve Jobs showed a clip from TGR’s 2007 release, Lost and Found (shown to illustrate the podcast feature of Apple TV). TGR’s online community includes more than 90,000 members that have written 2.7 million posts. There’s little doubt TGR has made it.

“i just went out and did it—got a video camera, put my heart and soul into it and made it happen.” —jason moriarty were, a mosaic of heroic scenes that ended moments after a subject landed, snow exploding into the lens. TGR captured the full experience of the ride, making athletes human and their feats all the more tangible, inspiring, and real. Threadbare ski jackets, woolly hats, and unshaven twentysomethings chasing glory off fiftyfoot cliffs—you could almost smell that stale, weatherworn Gore-Tex by the end of the film. The movie won two awards at the International Ski Film Festival and 68

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While the TGR boys worked on Alaskan fishing boats in the summer to make the money they needed for their movies, filmmakers coming up in the last decade haven’t had the same financial struggles, which has made it easier to make ski movies. Today, there’s even a small crew of Jackson Hole High School students who, under the name FunBlock Films, make movie shorts and montages as part of their class curriculum. “When we started in the early ’90s, it was all film,

Curt Morgan and Stephen Scherba of Brain Farm film Mark Landvik in Wyoming’s Snake River Range for The Art of Flight.

and the entry level was very expensive,” Todd Jones says. “It was more like $100,000 to get into the game [professionally] than, say $10,000 today.” Here’s another perspective: For TGR to shoot 16mm film, every three seconds of footage cost them $100 in film. It’s easy math.

High-end cinematography pervades the adventure sports market. High Definition, HD, is the new norm, with visual acuity that’s available to just about anyone who wants to pay a little extra.

Brain Farm Digital Cinema, also based in the valley, has taken HD the furthest, capitalizing on the technology like no other (and, with the energy drink company Red Bull as a sponsor, not needing to concern itself about cost).

The baby of Curt Morgan and Jackson native Travis Rice, who is arguably the best all-around snowboarder in the world, Brain Farm exists to showcase what world-class snowboarding can look like on a grand scale. Brain Farm’s first film came out in 2008. That’s It, That’s

All shattered the idea of what was cinematically possible in a snowboard or ski film—or any kind of action film, for that matter. Of course, there are Rice’s otherworldly acrobatics and aesthetics, but Brain Farm’s real MVP is the Cineflex, an expensive high-definition digital camera that provides state-of-the-art visual display with rock-steady images from most any moving vehicle.

The opening sequence of That’s It, That’s All takes you on an aerial tour of New Zealand. It’s like The Lord of the Rings, only better. Hyperclear—no matter the scope or scale—the Cineflex creates a visual environment that is so much more than a mere cinematic experience. Glimpses of wildlife, fauna, wind currents, mountains, and glaciers rival anything National Geographic has every produced. And this is a snowboard movie?

Peppered through the montage are bowel-clenching shots of riders launching off Herculean kickers, spinning off cliffs, and slashing turns in you-fall-youdie terrain while their Skittles-colored outfits and nonchalance belie any threat of danger. Shots are slowed and sped, which helped usher in a new experience for viewers—the thrills of myriad perspectives of time and space. Even today, Brain Farm does this speed manipulation on a level that hasn’t been realized by anyone else.

Snowboarding was just the beginning.

“Curt and Brain Farm have recently helped develop a new Cineflex camera called the Elite,” says BF executive producer Chad Jackson. “It’ll give a more filmic look and more dynamic range; it’s better on snow and in low-light situations.”

Brain Farm’s work has gotten the attention of mainstream filmmakers and companies. Their post-production prowess has blazed inroads into high-end commercial—clients include MercedesBenz, the BBC, NBC, ESPN, and, yes, even National Geographic. (Brain Farm earned an Emmy for its cinematic contributions on National Geographic Channel’s Great Migrations.) Brain Farm has evolved beyond backcountry kickers into a tour de force in aerial cinematography.

Brain Farm and TGR are one end of the valley’s ski/snowboard filmmaking spectrum. Quiet Ten Sleep, Wyoming— cattle country, chaps, and dirt, lots of it— is the other. Professional snowboarder Mark Carter spends his summers work-

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ing on his family ranch there. You don’t need a Cineflex to capture what hard work looks like, and the fifth movie from Jackson-based Bluebird, Dobre Hombres, released in 2010, proves this (not that Bluebird could afford a Cineflex).

Dragging a crew of his teammates to his dad’s ranch, the crew helps out with branding while the camera rolls. The juxtaposition of the self-indulgent bliss of powder skiing with the grueling responsibilities of farm labor in Dobre Hombres is humbling. Mark Carter sweats equally doing both, though.

Bluebird Films grew out of Bluebird Wax, a company Willie McMillon “started in 1996 on my mom’s kitchen stove,” he says. Since then, Bluebird has been making “the fastest, longest-lasting snowboard wax on the planet.” And also more recently, it’s been making snowboard movies.

McMillon, a Jackson native and himself a pro snowboarder since he was in high school, is an enigma—an amalgamation of post-adolescent delinquency, wit, and savvy entrepreneurialism whose eclectic physical and mental athleticism has somehow landed him big connections in

the industry (as well as women who are out of his league).

Because he grew up in Jackson, McMillon was exposed not only to the local scene, but also to some forebearers of valley filmmaking. “I was fortunate enough to work as a rider on Jason Moriarty’s early films,” says McMillon.

While Moriarty is now best known as the founder of the clothing and movie company Slednecks, which pretty much created snowmobile freeriding, his first films were snowboarding movies. “We started filming at the resort,” Moriarty

Enter Darrell Miller The Man Behind Storm Show Studios

CHRIS FIGENSHAU

BY JEFF BURKE

Darrell Miller’s 2012 film was Most Wanted.

FOR THE PREMIERE of his movie, Action Jackson, filmmaker Darrell Miller sported a giant red, white, and blue mohawk, fifteen inches high, in honor of the film’s American-inspired motif. Although the ballroom at Snow King Resort was at capacity, Miller could be spotted across the room at a moment’s glance. Halfway through the evening, as he was conducting the compulsory raffle that accompanies ski film premieres, the gel had lost its grip, and the mohawk was slumped over like a killer whale’s lazy dorsal fin. Not that Miller cared. He was in his element, clad in a swarthy leather blazer, snap shirt, and jeans, totally in command of a collective ski-stoke frenzy on a chilly November evening.

There is an enormity of ski and snowboard talent in Jackson, and it’s hard to capture all the latest and 70

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greatest feats, firsts, and flops that happen. But Miller and his Storm Show Studios film company have not-so-quietly been trying. They’ve become the de facto chroniclers of the Jackson Hole scene. If you want to know what went down in each of the last twelve years of Jackson Hole skiing, snowboarding, and ski mountaineering, Miller’s movies are your first source. With a rotating cast of aspiring pro athletes and ragamuffin ne’er-do-wells, his movies best elucidate the attitude of any given year in the valley.

Miller’s films are a video yearbook, celebrating his beloved hometown scene, its characters, and the unique personality of each winter.

He’s the AC/DC of valley filmmakers, each year making a movie that, although similar to years past, people

love not because it gets better, but because it is distinctly Miller’s own.

His virtue is being genuine.

Bad snow years don’t shut down Storm Show, either. In 2009, while other film crews were chasing snow all over the globe to “get the shot,” Miller and his posse made 300”, their movie named after the scant amount of snow we got that season. It showed that even when it sucks, it’s awesome. “He’s no­t going to Bella Coola [Canada],” says original Storm Show athlete Eric Janssen, “he’s going to Cody Bowl.”

Miller’s movies charge forth with a staccato beat, without narcissistic flair or dwelling on esoteric themes. Instead, we get raw, visceral shots of locals pushing their limits, irreverent insider humor, and a flavor that is all Miller—some of which transcends common sense, time, and space. “Every time I see his crew in the backcountry, they’re all superstoked,” says veteran ski guide Jim Kandolin. “They’re having the time of their lives.”

Storm Show movies often include a segment that

has nothing to with skiing, like sending a crossdresser with terrible fashion sense through downtown Jackson, crashing a jalopy, or jumping a dilapidated Subaru in a dried-out lakebed.

Film snobs might see this irrelevance as a little unprofessional, but to the audience who most likely knows Miller, it’s genuine glee for the cheap thrills of horseplay, which humanizes the feat and makes it real. “What Darrell doesn’t have in budget, he has in creativity,” says Janssen. “And he just wants to get everybody stoked, himself included.”

WADE McCOY / FOCUS PRODUCTIONS

says in Stunts and Chaos. “When it got crowded there, we started riding snowmobiles to access more powder terrain.

We thought we had found heaven.”

Eventually, Moriarty—deciding that snowmobiling was “like snowboarding with a motor”—launched his popular Slednecks series. McMillon worked with Moriarty before Slednecks blew up into the juggernaut it is today. “He allowed us to be really involved in the moviemaking process, and through that process, I fell in love with making movies,” McMillon

TGR’s Todd Jones, right, shoots with a 16mm Arriflex camera from Cody Peak while holding onto Jon Klaczkiewicz in the ’90s. Rick Armstrong, center, documents the filming.

says. “If you haven’t seen his movies, they are a good history lesson on Jackson Hole, pre-Travis days.”

And Bluebird’s movies are a good lesson in ski porn. Many movies get labeled “ski porn” because of their mindless sequences of extremes, huge stunts, and vagaries of story line. And that’s just

what McMillon aims for. For him, the rougher the better. McMillon makes movies because he can and believes the beauty exists in the effort of creating something that helps give his company personality. Bluebird movies aren’t as cinematically orgasmic as, say Brain Farm or TGR flicks, but what they lack in stunning visuals they make up for with sarcasm, cow paddies, charm, and David Hasselhoff cameos. That’s right.

The Bluebird crew was in Europe, and, since the riding conditions were about the worst ever, seized the chance to attend and film a David Hasselhoff concert in Switzerland. AlpenHOFF is currently available for your viewing pleasure.

“TGR, and most big-budget film companies, are [much more of a] superserious, no-joke mentality on the mountain and in the editing suite,” says Darrell Miller of Storm Show Studios (see sidebar). “Compare [the more financially driven films] to Bluebird, which are serious slapstick comedy with sick riding by top riders who are in it to have fun, plain and simple. Is one movie better than the other? Only the viewer can decide.” JH

H

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photo gallery

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Live to Ski Backcountry exploration will always be remembered in Steve Romeo’s photographs.

BY REED FINLAY

OPPOSITE PAGE: Because of its obscure location, Okie’s Thumb Couloir (a.k.a. OTC) is “seldom if ever descended,” Finlays says. Last season, Romeo and Finlay reached it via a third-class scramble on icy slabs from the Dike Col between Disappointment Peak and the East Ridge of the Grand Teton.

PHOTOS: REED FINLAY

TOP: Nearing the 11,490-foot summit of Mount Wister via the East Ridge, which is the only possible ski route from the summit, Wanda Pinnacle and the north fork of Avalanche Canyon dominate the background.

BELOW: To bag a complete ski descent from Wister’s summit, ski mountaineers link the East Ridge to the Northeast Snowfield down into the north fork of Avalanche Canyon. Here, Romeo ascends the northeast snowfield with the South Teton in the background.

In 1993, Steve Romeo, an adventure-seeking, outdoor-loving Connecticut native and recent college grad, landed in Jackson Hole. Like many of us here, Steve wanted to explore the beauty and wildness of the mountains. On March 7, 2012, he and friend Chris Onufer passed away in an avalanche in Waterfalls Canyon near Ranger Peak in Grand Teton National Park. During his nineteen years in the valley, Steve skied and explored many lines in the Tetons, some of them first descents. His passion and enthusiasm for the range he loved was clearly evident through his ski blog, TetonAT.com.

But Romeo—a.k.a. “Randosteve,” “Randomeo,” “X-Steve”—wasn’t just a skier, even though his motto was “Live to Ski.” He was also an ambassador of the valley’s backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering culture who helped nurture the growth of both. TetonAT.com grew organically from Steve’s personal project into a wildly successful encyclopedia of backcountry skiing in the Tetons, as well as an authority on mountain gear and technical tips. Steve’s blog posts and replies were as quick as his turns, and it wasn’t long before companies like Dynafit and Black Diamond sponsored him and TetonAT. WINTER 2013 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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STEVE ROMEO

photo gallery

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JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

STEVE ROMEO

REED FINLAY

TOP LEFT: “Romeo loved going across Jackson Lake,” Finlay says. “Skinning across the lake freaked us out at first, but the terrain is incredible.” This spur is just east of Ranger Peak’s 11,355-foot summit. Waterfalls Canyon is in the background.

At the time of Steve’s death, hundreds of people visited TetonAT daily. Some followers had never skied in the Tetons, but just BOTTOM LEFT: To ski the liked Steve’s stoke … and the site’s photos.

Northeast Ridge of 12,605-foot As TetonAT matured, Steve morphed from a Mount Moran, Finlay and Romeo first canoed across Jackson Lake reluctant subject in my photos—“Come on from Spalding Bay. The vast dude, put that thing away! Let’s just ski” Teton Wilderness stretches into might as well have been his mantra early the distance. on—to a professional photo documentarian in his own right.

BELOW: The Southeast Couloir of 11,938-foot Buck Mountain Steve and I met his first winter in the valhas a mandatory rappel in its ley. I worked as an upper mountain lift oplower half (although at least erator, and Steve bumped chairs on the one skier is known to have bottom of the mountain—a “Bottom Feeder.” downclimbed it).

At the end of a workday, I was skiing down South Pass Traverse when I saw a skier making Scott Schmidt airplane turns, his red Jack Wolfskin backpack bobbing up and down.

“Hey dude—you work at the upper mountain, right? I’m Steve, and I work on Crystal Springs—it’s cool to meet you, man.” We got to be friends and started skiing together as often as we could. Because backcountry skiing at the time was mostly done by telemark skiers—something that was definitely not in Steve’s DNA—we skied at the resort. But Steve really wanted (as did I) to explore off piste, especially Grand Teton National Park. We were drawn to the freedom that human-powered exploration offered as well as the physical exertion. The Tetons embodied the “wildness” that had, subconsciously, pulled both of us West.

Eventually, alpine touring gear became available. With telemarking no longer required for backcountry exploration, we were able to go into the park and tour to our hearts’ content. Getting out at least twice a week, the Tetons were a playground of infinite possibilities where we both felt simultaneously exhilarated and at home. Entranced, Steve, in his understated way, would simply say, “Pretty cool place, man.”

Exploring all of this new terrain, of course I wanted to take pictures, mainly just to capture the moment. But Steve thought that it interrupted our flow and also thought a camera was unnecessary weight. Romeo was a zealot about shaving ounces and one of the first to really preach a “light-isright” approach in the backcountry.

As TetonAT went from personal project to stellar success, Steve changed his tune, though: Photography became a way to document and share his life as a ski mountaineer in one of America’s most beautiful settings. He’d post shots of a skier hiking, a ridgeline traverse, weather shots, lake shots, and, of course, skiing shots. The photos were then organized into enjoyable and informative trip reports. Steve became a much more patient traveler and observer.

TetonAT.com and its collection of trip reports and photographs— Steve eventually took more than 10,000—goes back online this winter in a revised format. JH WINTER 2013 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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BRADLY J. BONER

It must be the shoes: Eric Orton with his revolutionary B2R running kicks.

RUNNING M A N Local fitness guru Eric Orton gets his due.

BY GRANT DAVIS

Even though life for Jackson Hole’s Eric Orton goes through a lull each winter, it’s not time for hibernation. Before the snow falls in late October, the fortysix-year-old endurance sports coach will run to the top of Snow King once or twice a week. “Being in Jackson has improved my running,” he says. “What used to be hard runs for me in Colorado [his former home] aren’t anymore.”

After the snow falls and sticks, Orton will run in town.

“I’ll jump on the town trails—I love the feeling of running on crunchy snow under Rocky Mountain blue skies,” he says, and as long as it’s sunny outside, he runs. Ten below zero is his current record for coldest run ever. “I had to alternate running backwards and forwards to keep each side in the sun so it’d warm up,” he says, laughing.

A typical weekend involves hopping on his Surly fat bike (see our story on snow biking on page 108) and riding for five hours along the packed trails in the Gros Ventres northeast of town. Skiing? Of course. He’ll use his pass to Snow King and grab two hours of running before settling in to work with his thirty-odd clients scattered around the world who he’s guiding to their ultramarathon and triathlon dreams. And several nights a month are reserved for the Enclosure Climbing Center, an

indoor climbing gym where Orton and his seven-yearold daughter are learning the ropes together. “We both started off as complete novices,” he says, “and she’s already better than I am.”

If Orton’s idyllic winter life reads like a dream scenario, he’s the first to admit that it sounds damn good.

But it comes as a just reward for the most intense summer of his life, one that in 2013, may catapult him to the forefront of recreational running’s national stage.

Back in July, on a scorching day in Denver, Orton sat down for lunch at an Italian cafe and ordered the steak sandwich, medium, and a glass of water. He’d just come down from the 10,000-foot elevation of Leadville, Colorado, where he’d been training with two clients. They’d spent three days scouting the route of the Leadville Trail 100, a punishing hundred-miler marked by a 12,600-foothigh pass that runners summit twice. It was the culmination of a busy week for Orton. In addition to his private camp in Leadville and keeping tabs on his other clients, he was a day away from taking orders for the first shoe from his nascent running shoe company, B2R, and in the middle of writing his first book, Cool Impossible, which codifies his methods and approach to training runners to stay healthy and enable them to run most anything.

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FRANK F. RANUM

Orton on the Summit Trail running up Rendezvous Mountain above Teton Village last fall.

COURTESY LORI ENLOW

Yet Orton’s calm demeanor never gave the impression of a man in the middle of one of the more stressful periods in his life. Tan from hours of running outside on the trails throughout the Rocky Mountains and dressed in shorts, a T-shirt, and flip-flops, the five-foot-nine Orton exuded the grace and relaxed composure of the hyperfit, someone who’s comfortable in his own skin and with his place in the world. And why not? In many running circles, he’s credited, ultimately, with the current boom in minimalist running shoes and reversing decades of thought about form sparked by his training of Christopher McDougall, author of the 2009 New York Times bestseller, Born to Run. The book chronicles McDougall’s search for an answer to why his foot hurt from running, and culminates in his and Orton’s 2006 experience racing with some of the most graceful striders on Earth, the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s Copper Canyon.

The book’s success—over one million copies sold worldwide—turned Orton into a talisman for the oft-injured running tribe that numbers in the millions. In essence, his message boils down to this: “Aches and pains from running have been ingrained in our minds as ‘normal,’ ” he says. “They’re not. The problem is that there’s never been a wide-ranging focus on learning how to run.

Running with good form reduces injuries, but that’s something we have to learn and practice, much like swimming or golf. It’s a cumulative process.”

Orton’s client, Lori Enlow, in the Leadville 100.

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Lori Enlow, a family nurse practitioner at the Cherokee Nation Health Services Clinic in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and one of Orton’s clients who finished the Leadville race last August, ran off and on for twenty-five years between bouts of tendonitis and the crippling—and common— running injury, plantar fasciitis, where damaged tendons stretching between the heel and the ball of the foot turn walking into an excruciating exercise. “A year and a half ago, I wasn’t really sure how long a marathon was,” she said in August. “But with Eric’s focus on form and his insistence that I listen to my body, I feel that I can become a lifelong runner.”

Indeed, since working with Orton over the last fifteen months, Enlow’s knocked off a local fifty-mile race, won Oklahoma’s Pumpkin Holler Hunnerd (hundred-mile) race, and completed Leadville. It’s an impressive trifecta for a mother with a full-time job who was struggling with diabetes less than two years ago. Enlow credits Orton for making her believe. “A few days before my first hundred-mile race, Eric asked me what I wanted out of it,” she says. “ ‘To finish,’ was all I was thinking, but he turned around and told me to ‘demand the impossible’ from myself. It wasn’t until I got to mile seventy that I understood what my ‘impossible’ was. It was that I was going to win the race. I went after it, and I got it.”

“Without Eric, there would be no Born to Run,” says McDougall matter-of-factly when reached at his home in rural Pennsylvania. “I hated running before I met Eric.”

As McDougall explains in the book, he equated running with injury and pain, and believed his large frame was an

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automatic strike against his running ambitions before he even laced up his shoes.

The two met seven years ago in Denver when McDougall was on assignment for Men’s Journal to profile Orton and his unorthodox training ideas, such as taking whitewater kayaking techniques and applying them to rock climbing to build strength. During the visit, McDougall started talking about a race in Mexico’s Copper Canyon run by a reclusive tribe of Indians in sandals, who could be the best endurance runners on Earth. Orton was instantly intrigued and asked to join McDougall on his next trip south. And then he blew McDougall’s mind.

“He convinced me that I could do the [fifty-mile] race in Mexico,” says McDougall. “So we made a deal: I would take Eric down there to run the race, and he would get me in shape to run it myself.”

Under Orton’s direction, McDougall has remade himself from plodder to ultramarathoner by resetting his form and perspective on the sport. “There wasn’t any big ‘aha!’ moment with his approach,” says McDougall. “It was little things, like running slow, for example. Every marathon training plan has days of long, slow runs. Eric’s point was that you need to learn how to run fast with good form and that running slow with good form just teaches you how to run slow really well. Like a dancer, you need to practice to get better.”

According to Brian Metzler, founding editor of Trail Runner magazine, the technical aspects of Orton’s coaching are nothing new. “For decades, college and elite track and running programs train—they don’t just run, OK— using many of the same principles that Orton uses. But the masses aren’t following them, and that’s what Orton’s trying to fix,” says Metzler, who calls Orton not a running genius, but “a guru of sound overall fitness.”

Metzler’s comment comes from a major tenet of the Orton way, which is strength training. His students will start with exercises for the foot and ankle, and then work their way on up through the torso. It’s the opposite message espoused by many fitness experts who believe in building a solid core first and then focusing on the extremities. But Orton explains that his way builds good biomechanics and balance into a runner’s legs at the start, and hardwires the connection between feet and core. This, in turn, brings more muscles to the task of moving the body forward, and with the workload spread among as many muscles as possible, a runner’s form stays true, and he or she can run faster, longer.

It’s something Orton saw the Tarahumara Indians do effortlessly down in Mexico, and it’s a message that America’s runners appear desperate 82

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

BRADLY J. BONER

“Without Eric, there would be no Born to Run,” says Christopher McDougall, author of the New York Times bestseller.

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to hear, along with his infectious belief in the impossible—an attribute that McDougall quickly grew to trust. “A week after starting to run again for the first time in years, Eric told me to go for a two-hour run,” he says. “I did it, and what I learned about Eric after that day was that he tells you the cold, hard facts of what you can do.”

Orton grew up in Springville, New York, outside the city of Buffalo as a prototypical American high school jock: playing football and running track. He was recruited to play fullback on a small college team, but never got to play in his freshman year. He quit the school and ended up at

Orton teaches proper form to Born to Run fans in Gulf Shores, Alabama.

“What I learned about Eric after that day was that he tells you the cold, hard facts of what you can do,” says McDougall.

Buffalo State, earning a bachelor’s in marketing. After graduating in 1990, his life followed a well-worn script used by many immigrants to the Rocky Mountains: head to Colorado to hang out in the high country, end up in Denver, fall in with the endurance and mountain sports crowd, chuck the corporate job, and reinvent one’s self as an endurance athlete—or at least find a new career that allows for time to train and play.

After earning a second bachelor’s degree in environmental land management from Metropolitan State College in Denver, he gave the corporate life a few years and hated it. During this time, he became passionate 84

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about triathlons, even going so far as to become one of the country’s first accredited triathlon coaches. Finding himself drawn to the fitness and performance world, he chucked his corporate gig and took a part-time job at the University of Colorado’s Health Science Center.

“The job paid seven bucks an hour, but I could take all the classes I wanted,” says Orton. “Anatomy, physiology, you name it.” His boss took notice of his passion for the subject and appointed him fitness director for the center when the job opened up. With all the latest equipment and resources available to him through his day job, Orton was able to research the latest training and performance theories. Soon, friends and acquaintances started asking for his advice on training programs. “This was in the late nineties, and the Internet and e-mail were proving to be a legitimate way to coach people no matter where they lived,” Orton recalls.

Gradually, more and more people asked him to coach them through marathons, triathlons, and ultramarathons, among other sports. “It just flowed from that. I never went out and sought any clients—it just happened—and pretty soon, I realized I could make a living at it,” he says.

Around this time, he met Michelle Rooks, a Jackson Hole native who was working as a teacher in Denver. “We were at this party and both connected because neither one of us wanted to be there. It was his ex-girlfriend’s party,” laughs Rooks. The two married in 1998, but didn’t move back to the valley until 2002, when Rooks’ mother passed away from cancer, and they returned to help her father, who was also struggling with—and ultimately lost—his own battle with the disease.

Rooks’ family roots in Jackson stretch back to the early 1900s: Her great-grandfather opened the Jackson Hole Mercantile on the Town Square, and her grandmother headed the first all-women town council. Her father was a longtime figure at the local high school, famous for coaching the school’s championship football teams in 1981 and 1986. After burying both her parents, and in the midst of shutting down their Willow Street home, Rooks took a hike to the top of Snow King’s ski hill overlooking town and the view of the Tetons, and had an epiphany.

“I realized that this is what Eric wants,” she says, “to get out in nature and just run. He couldn’t do this in Denver, but he could do it here every day of the year.” The couple relocated later that year, settling south of town with Rooks taking a job with the local middle school and Orton coaching athletes from his home.

The move has been good for Orton and good for business. “It’s not hard to convince people to come here to train with me for a couple days,” he says.

“And the people challenge him here,” adds Rooks.

“They’re more active than most of the population, and they ask him questions about why he’s asking them to do certain workouts. I know he’s connecting with them when I start to hear them quoting his advice back to me in casual conversations.”

In a town bursting with alpha males and females touting speed climbing records and multiple ultramarathons or Ironman triathlons completed, Orton’s performance

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CV is comparatively lacking for such a high-profile coach. He has run some ultramarathons, but no hundred-milers.

He has finished three Ironman triathlons, yet Orton entered them not to compete, but to better coach clients. “I wanted to know what they had to go through to complete these races,” he says.

And overall, he’s not in it for the checklist of finishes and accomplishments.

Instead, he values “the ability to just go and do it, whatever I want, whenever I want, and knowing that I can.”

At the end of the summer, with crisp mornings heralding the arrival of fall, Orton’s pace has slowed down to a low boil. Many of his clients have wrapped up their race goals for the year, the manuscript for his book has been mailed off to his publisher, and his morning coffees at Cafe Bean in Rafter J and plates of organic fare at Lotus Cafe are less rushed.

The running shoe business has been growing at a “manageable rate,” which is fine by him. Orton’s been more excited to see that interest in the shoe’s website, born2run.com, which is the only place to buy them, has brought in customers from India, French Polynesia, and Europe, as well as North America. And he’s been pleased to see that people are buying into his leg-strengthening equipment and powdered drink mix that packs the nutritional equivalent of twenty-five servings of fruits and vegetables per twelve-ounce serving.

This spring brings the release of Cool Impossible and wider exposure for his shoes in magazines such as Competitor and Runner’s World, which should prime sales for the spring running shoe-buying season. Zozi, a luxury travel service offering experiential getaways with outdoor sports superstars such as Olympic skier Jonny Moseley and big-wave surfer Maya Gabeira, is offering a “Find Your Stride” weekend with Orton.

But that’s later. Right now, Orton will enjoy his family and run. Throughout the winter and spring, he’ll be waiting for his favorite loop in the valley—a 21.4-mile jaunt in Grand Teton National Park up Paintbrush Canyon, over the 10,700-foot Paintbrush Divide, and back down Cascade Canyon—to melt out.

Says Orton, “The scenery and the terrain on that trail, it confirms to me that everything I’ve done to get to this point, right here and now, has put me exactly where I’m supposed to be.” JH

JH Living

looking back

Winters of Wonder Winters here are always special, but some are truly extreme.

NANCY VESSLER

by JIM STANFORD

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Jackson resident Steve Ashley had just acquired Valley Bookstore as winter arrived in 1978.

He and his then-wife were living in a cabin up Porcupine Creek, about a mile and a half from the nearest plowed road. Upon returning from work late that December, as temperatures plummeted to 20, 30 and even 40 degrees below zero, the two had to don skis to reach the cabin. Then it was time to make a fire in the stove and chop ice from the creek so their horse had water to drink.

“It was probably one of the greatest and yet hardest winters we ever had,” he recalls. “I loved it.

But we divorced a year later, and that might have had something to do with it.”

In the record books and lore, the holiday week of 1978-79 was one of the coldest stretches in the history of Jackson Hole. Mercury thermometers froze at 50 below on the night of New Year’s Eve, although some readings were reported as low as 63 below. Residents lit charcoal fires beneath the oil pans or used blowtorches in mostly futile attempts to start their car engines.

“Everybody should have an experience like that and make it through it,” says Ashley, who is now sixty. “Extremes show you what you can do.

Some days you just feel like you’re so alive.”

To a newcomer, it seems every winter in Jackson Hole yields some sort of extreme, whether of wind or snow or cold. And in a valley where snowfall is critical for the economy—and communal well-being—weather is a source of endless fascination, and hype. Today’s technology allows us to monitor temperature and winds in real time and watch on a webcam as the snow piles up on Teton Pass.

To help keep weather in perspective—don’t go posting on Facebook about the latest storm being the biggest ever, bro!—here are a few recollections from winters past. Imagine what the Twitter feeds would look like if any of these phenomena occurred today.

The deep freeze of 1978-79

By December 9, 1978, the low temperature at night already had hit 24 below zero. Controversy was flaring over a proposed oil well up Cache Creek, and the Jackson Hole Ski Area had just opened its new Crystal Springs double chair. On December 16, Neil Rafferty cut the ribbon for the new lift bearing his name at Snow King; about one hundred people braved subzero cold to attend the opening.

Then the deep freeze set in. “Frigid temperatures paralyze valley,” read the front page of the Jackson Hole News on January 4. The weather box, normally found inside, had been moved to the cover, displaying lows of -26, -45, -49, -50, and -44, in succession. The high temperature for New Year’s Day was -27.

Adding to the misery, the power went out for six hours, as brittle lines snapped. Plants died inside houses, water froze in the toilet. Gear shifts and windows broke in cars as owners tried desperately to start engines. After a brief thaw, low temperatures again hovered around 30 below for much of the following week.

Still, life went on, and in many cases, merrily.

On New Year’s Eve, a crowd stood in line at Jackson Hole Cinema in 40 below to watch a screening of Animal House. The News reported, “They got inside only to have the power go out and be told that they would have to be given a refund.”

Jack Huyler recalls attending a holiday party at the home of the late Fred and Liz McCabe in Moose. A Saint Bernard and cat were outside, seemingly unaffected by the cold. When the cat came in, “Somebody rubbed its head, and the tips of the kitten’s ears fell off,” Huyler says. “It was the skin part that’s not protected by any hair.”

Meteorologist Jim Woodmencey says the official reading of 50 below zero on January 1 was the lowest recorded in modern Jackson Hole history. It’s possible the thermometer at the

OPPOSITE PAGE: Headwall slide at Teton Village, February 26, 1986.

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Old-Timer Tales

The drought of 1976-77 Throughout autumn of 1976, dry weather persisted. “Sunshine has skiers tense,” read the headline of the November 24 edition of the News, above a photo of ski columnist “Fast Eddie” Wiand posing on roller skis by the bare slopes of Snow King.

By December 15, only twelve inches of snow had fallen at mid-mountain at the Jackson Hole Ski Area. Owner Paul McCollister had turned to cloud seeding, at a cost of $4,000 per week. “They sure can’t do much with blue sky,” he told the News. The Mangy Moose was hosting snow dances.

The Ski Corp. laid off sixty-seven employees before Christmas, retaining a skeleton crew of nine to run the post office, sewer and water system, and property management office. For one week in mid-December, Arne Frumin, a General

Motors employee from Michigan, had the entire sixty-room Teton Village hostel to himself. “This has been the quietest and most peaceful vacation I have ever spent in a ski area,” he told the News.

On January 12, columnist Wiand wrote, “The Jackson Hole area is currently experiencing one of the strangest winters that can be remembered by damn near anyone.” Many residents began making plans to head south for the winter. Those who remained had concerts by Doc Watson and Pure Prairie League at the Teton Village Festival Hall to help soothe their pain.

The aerial tram opened in early February, but Apres Vous, Casper, and Teewinot closed because of a lack of skiers. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said the winter was the driest on record, according to precipitation records dating to 1918. Although barely enough snow fell in late February and early March for resorts to limp to the finish, the News reported, “If we live long enough, the winter of ’77 will certainly be one we’ll be telling our grandchildren about. That was the year it didn’t snow—or rain—or hail—or sleet.”

BRADLY J. BONER

While these winters brought some of the most extreme weather ever recorded, longtime residents tell similar stories from earlier Jackson Hole history.

Jack Huyler recalls the cold of 1948 being so severe that barbed wire snapped along a fence on his family’s ranch, killing his father’s favorite horse.

During a deep freeze in 1977, Homer Richards said he could remember only one night colder: February 8, 1933, when the temperature hit 63 below. He traveled by horse-drawn sleigh to a dance at Andy Bircher’s in Wilson. “We kept warm by dancing until nine o’clock the next morning and drinking homemade dandelion wine,” he told the Jackson Hole News.

Edith Vincent, who was ninety-three during the winter of ’77, told the paper about the blizzard of 1949, when Jackson was completely snowed in for three weeks. Helen Gill spoke of 1928, her first winter in Jackson, when all the water pipes in town froze. “Holes were dug all over the streets to get a fire down to the pipes,” she said.

Forest Service headquarters froze and the temperature was actually much lower, he says, citing other reports as cold as 63 below.

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The fury of 1986 Teton ski pioneer Bill Briggs recalls that during the deep freeze of 1979, it was too cold to run the lifts at Snow King. Briggs, who was head of the ski school, and assistant Jim Sullivan taught skiers in the hotel lobby, and then they all hiked the mountain and skied into Leeks Canyon. “That was just terrific,” Briggs says.

According to a climate study meteorologist Jim Woodmencey prepared for the Town of Jackson in 2008, average temperatures have increased since 1950, with more precipitation and less snow. Warmer temperatures in March and April likely have changed some snow to rain.

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As Valentine’s Day approached in February 1986, a ferocious storm began pummeling the Hole, ideal for lovers to shutter themselves inside. Winds hit one hundred miles per hour. The storm began February 13 and would last for twelve days, dumping eight and a half feet of snow containing an estimated twelve and a half inches of water. Snow King closed February 18, “when rain turned city streets into rivers,” the News reported.

On February 13, a slide in Glory Bowl buried two cars on Highway 22, forcing the drivers to dig themselves out. On February 17, patroller Tom Raymer was killed by an avalanche during hazardreduction work on Moran Face at Jackson Hole.

He was the second patroller to die at the resort that season; Paul Driscoll was killed by a slide in Rendezvous Bowl in early December.

On the morning of February 24, ski patrol gunner Kirby Williams fired a 105mm recoilless rifle with four pounds of explosives into the

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

Headwall, triggering a fracture a quarter-mile long with a crown between six and seven feet.

After running down onto Gros Ventre, the slide appeared to lose steam but initiated a “slowermoving river of wet snow,” the News reported.

The wet slide plowed everything in its path, destroying the coin-operated Marlboro Ski Challenge race course and Halfway House near the bottom of Thunder chair. “We saw the trees lay over like matchsticks,” Gary Poulson, Bridger-Teton National Forest avalanche forecaster who was watching from the tram dock at the resort base, told the News.

The avalanche ran one and a half miles, coming to within 200 feet of a home in Teton Village. Ski patroller Renny Jackson, arriving at work, began backing his car out of the resort parking lot upon observing the slide’s approach. Teton Pass was closed by avalanches for more than two weeks. In the Snake River Canyon, Highway 89 was blocked by a debris pile fifty feet deep. The Bureau of Reclamation said precipitation for February was 329 percent of normal, and runoff on the Snake River that spring was the highest recorded—until …

The bounty of 1996-97 While the winters of 2008 and 2011 each saw more than 500 inches of snow blanketing Rendezvous Mountain, the winter of 1996-97 remains the biggest ever for mountain snowfall.

The season began with 225 inches of snow in December 1996—the most ever recorded in one month and more than the entire total for several winters.

Meteorologist Woodmencey wrote in his News weather column, “Two hundred inches of snow in one month at the Jackson Hole Ski Area is a record that will probably stand until the next ice age.” Five hundred and seventy-seven inches fell by the time the lifts closed to the public April 6. Runoff in the Snake River Canyon that June would top 38,000 cubic feet per second, the highest ever recorded. JH

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as the hole deepens

The Leviticus Guide to Winter Driving

BY TIM SANDLIN ILLUSTRATIONS BY BIRGITTA SIF

The first decent blizzard of winter, Clyde WalsowskiSmith and I drove my new Honda Accord over Teton Pass on our way to Idaho Falls for Clyde’s laughter therapy. His wife, Heather Heidi, read where laughing relieves stress, so she signed Clyde up for this class where a famous therapist teaches Idahoans how to giggle. According the therapist, Idahoans don’t laugh properly. Instead of sounding like a mountain stream bubbling over moss-covered rocks, Idahoans laugh like a potato would, if a potato laughed.

More of a guttural mumble—Huh, huh.

Anyway, driving Teton Pass in a blizzard on your way to a stress-reduction session is one of those examples of irony. Whiteouts came and went, and we had to guess which side of the snow poles was paved. Naturally, as happens when plowing through a snowstorm, conversation turned to virgin winter drivers. Clyde’s new 94

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

neighbors from Odessa, Texas, put chains on their BMW SUV snow tires in midSeptember and never took them off come wet roads or dry till a chain broke, wrapped around the drive shaft, and sent them sailing through a Give a Moose a Brake sign.

“Their house is up for sale,” Clyde said.

“My wife read on the Internet that you should drive in first gear whenever snow is falling. She said it’s the only way to avoid out-of-control hysteria.”

“There should be a law against wives trolling the Internet,” Clyde said. “Heather Heidi Googled a story that said coffee causes heart attacks. I countered with ten that said it prevents them, but she claims her one trumps my ten, and I’m stuck on oolong.”

I said, “The Internet is like the Bible. You look around awhile, you can always find what you want to hear. And then you can ignore all the other stuff.”

At this point, a woman driving a brand new Lincoln Town Car with South Carolina plates blew past us going about sixty. Backwards. I got a quick glance at her—thirtysomething, copper-colored hair, squash blossom necklace

over a subzero down parka—with her arm across the passenger seat and her head twisted to see the road behind.

She did a competent job, considering she was flying up the hill in reverse.

Clyde and I watched the headlights come back into our lane as she receded up the highway in the blowing snow. As men will when they share an experience that makes no sense, neither one of us acknowledged what had just happened.

Clyde said, “Speaking of hearing what you want in the Bible, did you read about that cracker who insists his employees abide by a biblical definition of marriage?”

“God, I hope you aren’t turning political. Politics have become a cyst on a boil on the buttocks of America.”

“I’m talking biblical definitions of marriage. I checked it out … ” “On the Internet.”

“And the prototypical biblical marriage is an old guy with four wives and a bunch of slave concubines. I can’t find a straight one man-one woman marriage in the Old Testament.”

“The guy who said biblical family meant he doesn’t want gay partners on his group insurance. He was falling back on that verse in Leviticus about a man sleeping with a man is an abomination, but a woman with a woman isn’t.”

Clyde was so worked up he slapped the glove compartment. “Have you read Leviticus? Shaving or cutting your hair is an abomination. Eating clams and lobsters is an abomination. A woman can’t leave her house for seven days after her period. A child who curses his parents must be immediately killed.”

“My daughter should use that verse for a screensaver.”

“It even says you’ll go to hell for playing football.”

“English or American?”

“Any person who touches the skin of a pig must immediately kill a pigeon over clean water in a clay pot or be forever damned.”

“I don’t think they make footballs out of pigskin anymore.”

“OK, only old football players are forever damned.”

I considered the implications in light of an after-school snack my mom used to push on me in grade school. “So, what you are saying is the religious right quotes Leviticus when it says what they want to hear, and they ignore it when they eat clam chowder.”

“Don’t even get me started on Deuteronomy.”

We came around that big sweeping curve before Glory Bowl, and there was the Lincoln Town Car axledeep in the ditch. As we pulled over to help, I couldn’t help but notice the woman had the accelerator floored so the engine was winding up like a Learjet at takeoff and the tires spinning like grandmothers in their graves.

Clyde and I got out, walked over, and made roll-downyour-window signals. When she did, Clyde said, “Take

your foot off the gas, ma’am.”

“I can’t. I’m melting snow.”

“You’re making enough ice for a hockey rink. Ease up.”

She eased up. “Arnold says if you spin the tires fast enough, the heat will melt you out of any snowdrift.”

“And Arnold is?”

“My husband. He knows every trick to driving in winter. He once lived in Oklahoma.”

I knelt to check out the tires. Clyde said, “Is Arnold the one who told you going in reverse is the same as front-wheel drive?”

“No, duh. A rear-wheel drive car becomes a frontwheel car when you drive it backwards. Everyone knows that.”

“Did Arnold have you cram paper clips into your tire tread grooves?” I asked.

“They provide traction.”

Clyde knelt beside me to admire the hundreds of paper clips pushed into the tread grooves. “Why didn’t I think of that?” Clyde said.

“Because it doesn’t work.”

Clyde stood and leaned against the Town Car roofline. “Your husband is out to kill you, ma’am. Give me the keys.”

“Are you stealing my car?”

I said, “Why should we steal a stuck car when we have a perfectly good Honda?”

Clyde said, “Jesus said you should never brag about a Honda.”

“I’ve got to hear this.”

“John 12:49—For I did not speak of my own Accord.”

He leaned down to look in at the woman. “We’re opening the trunk so we can jack up the car and save you from death.”

The woman handed Clyde the keys. “Arnold says most carjackings are initiated by Good Samaritans with an agenda.”

“Arnold is an idiot,” Clyde said as he popped the trunk.

And there he was: Arnold, in the flesh. I’d have picked him out in a crowd of thousands. Pastel dress shirt, skinny tie, boxy glasses hanging off a ribbon around his neck. That haircut you find on gays, missionaries, and Ralph Nader.

I said, “I’m on pins and needles to hear why you’re in the trunk. Is your reason biblical?”

“It’s Yahoo News,” Arnold said. “The safest place to store valuables is in the trunk.”

“But you’re not valuable,” I said.

“First Samuel 10:22,” Clyde said. “Behold he has hid himself among the baggage.”

I stared at Clyde in wonder. “You’re not a Thumper.

Since when did you learn all these creepy quotes?”

“Laugh therapy,” Clyde said. “The famous therapist uses Bible verses for punch lines.”

All I could think of to say was this: “Oh.” JH WINTER 2013 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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getting out

The magic wand is a thing of wonder. As I’m wandering the halls of the National Museum of Wildlife Art, all I have to do is punch in a couple of numbers, and the handheld tour guide whispers interesting factoids about the corresponding painting or sculpture. No waiting for a docent or tagging along with a large group is required.

Inside the JKM Gallery, the magic wand describes contemporary artist Nancy Glazier’s Stormy oil painting of a trio of bison looking out from the canvas as a storm rolls in behind them: “Their attention has been drawn to you, the viewer.” The sound of a bison bellowing accents the recording.

Approximately three miles north of town, the 51,000-square-foot National Museum of Wildlife Art has a 5,000-plus-piece permanent collection, a new Sculpture Trail, a fairly open definition of “wildlife art,” and a thirty-some-foot-long sculpture of six bison. The latter, Richard Loffler’s Buffalo Trail, dominates the southern end of the Sculpture Trail, which opened last summer after more than a decade of planning. Because bison evidently aren’t big

Taking It In Valley museums—one for art lovers, another for kids, and a third for history buffs—are worth a day inside.

BY JOHANNA LOVE

The National Museum of Wildlife Art holds the world’s largest public collection of work by Carl Rungius, a renowned wildlife painter.

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enough, Loffler sculpted each animal as one-and-a-half times life-size. Even if you just drive past the museum, you can’t miss it. Heading to the entrance, the sculpture continues: Local artist Ben Roth welded pipes into whimsical wildlife shapes— coyote, bear, and raven. In summer, these serve as bike racks for those who ride here on the new pathway from town.

As you reach for the five-spike elk antler door pulls at the museum’s main entrance, you’ll pass a whitetail doe sculpture

by Kenneth Bunn. In winter, it’s often joined by actual deer that come down off the neighboring butte to snack on landscaping. To descend to the museum’s main floor, you can either use an elevator or the grand staircase, which takes you directly under another Bunn sculpture, Silent Pursuit, a larger-than-life-size cougar crouching above the lobby.

Since there’s not space in the museum to show the entirety of its permanent collection, Curator of Art Adam Harris rotates pieces regularly. New exhibits are hung each season (see p. 130 for details on this winter’s exhibits). But there are some favorites that are always out. One of my favorite pieces is Pantheon, a mahogany totem pole of creatures carved by sculptor David Everett. The Austin, Texas, resident stacked a horned toad, beaver, sandhill crane, trout, bighorn sheep, and black-footed ferret on top of each other.

The totem is nearly four feet tall, and is “a reminder of the diversity and fragility of our ecosystem,” its placard proclaims.

One of the museum’s most important pieces is The Peaceable Kingdom by Quaker artist Edward Hicks. Inspired by the Bible verse Isaiah 11:6, Hicks painted a child with her arm around a lion and other creatures living in harmony. It’s one of the earliest known paintings—done between 1822 and 1825—to illustrate man’s relationship with wildlife.

Just past a fanciful Donna HowellSickles painting of a cowgirl striding alongside a grizzly is the children’s alcove. When I was last there, a family from California was using crayons and paper to create rubbings of animal and plant textures. There are animal furs and claws to touch, nature sounds that play when buttons are pushed, puppets to create, and dozens of books to read.

One of the museum’s most popular exhibits shows a behind-the-scenes look at how a wildlife artist works. The Clymer Studio exhibit re-creates John Clymer’s

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The Jackson Hole Historical Society & Museum has 5,500 objects and 40,000 artifacts in its collection. workshop, from a tower of dried oil paints on his wooden palette to taxidermied animals and skulls he used as reference materials. The items were donated by the painter’s family.

Around the corner, Carl Rungius’ 1929 American Black Bear is a favorite painting of former summer employees at Jackson Lake Lodge, where the canvas hung for decades. The autumn foliage behind the painting’s central subject is more impressionistic than his earlier works, the magic wand explains. “He was just a master of using color,” contemporary painter Tucker Smith says in a short interview for the wand.

After you’re done wandering the galleries, stop by the Rising Sage Café for a bowl of warming chili or the Sage Salad—mixed greens with balsamic vinaigrette. The intimate dining room’s windows face the National Elk Refuge, where thousands of wapiti spend the winter. Flat Creek snakes through the refuge, and coyotes, bison, birds, and wolves also seek solace there.

Back in Jackson, just two blocks north of Town Square, the Jackson Hole Historical Society & Museum opened in May 2011 to replace an aging, unheated structure that wasn’t even open in the winter. The 7,150-square-foot facility brings the museum, gift shop, administrative offices, research center, artifact storage, and a modern classroom all under one roof.

The Jackson Hole Historical Society & Museum’s collection boasts Boone and Crockett record trophy mounts, including the elk and Shiras moose shown here.

Outside the front door, a bronze cowboy sculpture greets visitors. In 2012, members of the historical society responded overwhelmingly to a contest to choose a name for the Georgia Bunn bronze: “Slim.” It’s a fitting moniker for a wrangler, and a homage to the founder of the museum, W.C. “Slim” Lawrence.

Upon moving to the valley in 1921 from eastern Wyoming, Lawrence began collecting artifacts along the north shore of Jackson Lake. His collection, by the time he donated it to the historical society, numbered more than 12,000 arrowheads, furs, Native American pots, and early settler tools, among other items.

An exhibit just inside the entrance to the museum shows photographs by Lawrence and excerpts from the journal of his wife, Verba: January 19, 1932: Wash day—a miserable job in winter time.

January 18, 1934: Caught up on some housework. Found time to go fishing. I’m pretty hard to live with if I have to stay in all day.

Around the corner is the museum’s main exhibit, Playing Hard: Labor and Leisure in Jackson Hole. Black-and-white photographs show tourists riding Snow King’s Summit Chairlift, folks looking on at a fallen rascal during the Jackson Hole Shootout, cutter horses racing down snowy streets in front of The Wort Hotel, and Virginia Huidekoper getting some air while spring skiing on Teton Pass.

In the red-walled movie room, you can sit and watch clips from things filmed in the valley—it’s a diverse reel, including a scene from Son of Lassie and Neal McCoy’s “Meant to Be Together” music video. An exhibit on playing and working in wintertime includes relics like a 1968 Ski-Doo snowmobile, a Snow King Ski Area lift chair, wooden skis,

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bamboo poles, and a U.S. mail sled.

A cozy cabin exhibit includes everything you might need to while away a winter afternoon: a cylinder-playing Edison phonograph, hand-hewed lodgepole furniture, a braided rag rug, a sewing box, magazines, a parlor-size woodstove, and an amazing life-size duck carved and crafted from elk antlers. Above the scene hang clothespins that early valley residents Josephine and Harold Fabian used as place cards for dinner guests at their ranch. The pins have been signed by dozens of people, including mountaineer Glenn Exum and rancher Emily Oliver.

Above the door of the cabin exhibit, a horseshoe hangs open side up to hold luck, an old cowboy superstition.

Although the Jackson Hole Historical Society & Museum has a section where kids can play dress-up in frontier clothing, the Jackson Hole Children’s Museum is all about kids. It opened in downtown Jackson in fall 2011 to give youngsters from birth to age twelve—and their parents—a place to learn and play.

The new Rivers exhibit should open this winter, complete with a wooden drift boat and an aquarium with Utah chub and cutthroat trout swimming in it. Kids can grab a fishing “pole” made of dowels and string, and pretend to be floating.

Structured half-hour classes, included in admission, are offered year-round in the “creativity room” art studio at 11:15 a.m.

Tuesday through Friday. A story time begins each Curious Kids class; classes then segue into an art project or science experiment. In the community room, Speedy, a Map turtle, sits in an aquarium adjacent to Gumdrop, the bullfrog. A

Brit Hoyt helps her kids, Calvin, four, and Chloe, eleven months, construct crafts while participating in the Curious Kids program at the Jackson Hole Children’s Museum.

puppet theater, book nook, and cafeteriastyle wooden tables offer a space to eat your lunch or hang out.

On a recent visit, my almost-fouryear-old beelined for the dress-up area.

She pulled on a tulle ballerina costume from a selection that includes SpiderMan, Cinderella, witch, physician, Wonder Woman, police officer, race car driver, and cowboy. She put her baby doll in a canvas bucket and used a pulley to hoist her up three feet. That protected Michaela from other curious kids while Desi “shopped” in the Jackson Jobs grocery store corner.

She raced from driving a pretend fire truck to a few laps on the indoor play structure—stairs to monkey bars to slide.

Then it was tossing items into a wind tunnel and watching them rise—coffee filters, tissue paper, streamers. It’s a struggle to coax her to leave, but the museum is open five days a week—Tuesday through Saturday—so I can always promise, “We’ll come back.” JH

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getting out

Camp coach Jess Baker hikes Cody Peak in the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort sidecountry with Steep & Deep participants.

Steep & Deep Jackson Hole Mountain Resort’s experts-only camp wants to take the scare out of you.

BY DINA MISHEV PHOTOGRAPHY BY TRISTAN GRESZKO

There’s no mandatory air, but for twenty feet, the line below me is no more than three feet wide. Maybe four. Today’s skis are certainly shorter than they were fifteen years ago, the first time I saw this improbable weakness—calling it a run is a bit more than it deserves—in a cliff band just south of The Cirque. But the boards strapped to my feet are still not short enough that turning is an option until I’m through the top squeeze.

It’s not labeled on Jackson Hole 104

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

Mountain Resort’s trail map, but this line has a name: Meet Your Maker. Standing at its lip, I’m a bit nervous. I’m not here to meet my maker.

“Don’t worry,” says Bill Truelove, one of JHMR’s Steep & Deep Camp coaches.

“I’m not going to make you ski that now.

Maybe in a couple of days, though.”

A confession: I’m not an awesome skier. Compared to the general population, I can certainly hold my own, but when it comes to most sports influenced

by gravity, Jackson’s population is far from general. Even if you take our Olympians and ski-movie stars out of it, we’ve still got guys and gals who huck themselves off fifty-foot cliffs because it’s Thursday. It’s possible the person who made your espresso this morning skis (or rides) you-fall-you-die lines as if it’s nothing more consequential than going for a spin on a merry-go-round. My skis like contact with the snow. And once a line begins to approach forty degrees in pitch, bits inside me begin to tighten, and the butterflies in my stomach morph into California condors. Not that this has kept me from skiing such lines.

The past several winters, sphincterclenching terrain—and the mental focus it requires—has been calling out to me.

I’ve dropped into Corbet’s, sideslipped through the crux of Spacewalk, and done most of the Alta and Expert chutes. I’ve made it down them safely, but not with any sort of style, so I am here at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort to become better and

more confident at skiing the steeps the resort is known for. And I’m not alone. There are about thirty of us from across the country and even around the world—there’s a recent college graduate from Mexico City and a retired banker from London—but I don’t meet anyone else (instructors not included) from Jackson that has signed up for this Steep & Deep Camp.

In its earliest years, Steep & Deep was an informal affair that pretty much involved a group of hard-chargers chasing the late Doug Coombs and friends around the resort. In 1993, Coombs, the 1991 and 1993 World Extreme Skiing Champion, made things slightly more official, founding Doug Coombs Steep Skiing Camps Worldwide. These camps moved to La Grave, France, in 1997, leaving others at JHMR to take up the mantle and find a new name. Steep & Deep was born.

Nowadays, each four-day camp has between twenty and fifty skiers. There is a slew of sponsors (Marmot, Clif Bar, Smith), video analysis, a welcome reception and closing party, and a curriculum that ensures skiers progress each day while also reinforcing previous lessons.

One thing that hasn’t changed? It’s still hard-charging.

Each morning, we’re on the 8:15 tram and ski straight through until 4 p.m. with only a single break for lunch.

The numbers geek in me loves starting the altimeter on my Suunto watch each morning. “We’ve already done 17,675 feet!” I announce to my group at lunch.

Our “easiest” day, which includes two out-of-bounds runs to the south of the resort with the late, great Theo Meiners, is still 23,600 vertical. Our biggest day is 28,071 feet. At the end of the four days, I feel like I’ve been hit by a train. Not that I would change a thing. I also feel like a completely different skier.

All Steep & Deep Camps start the same, with a sorting. Surprisingly, standing atop Cheyenne Bowl waiting for the line of coaches/instructors below to signal I should start skiing toward them, I’m only slightly trepidatious. I had expected I’d be completely terrified. If the truth be totally told, I’m actually more worried about instructors laughing at the girl who has lived in Jackson for fourteen years and still isn’t a ripper than about the three-foot bumps in the bowl.

Heading for the instructors, I don’t make the best or the worst turns of my life, and am put in a group in the middle.

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Steep & Deep Camps teach skiers and snowboarders the skills they need to tackle technical lines like Spacewalk, a test piece in JHMR’s sidecountry.

The five of us—myself, a sixty-year-old radiologist from California, a fortysomething retired firefighter from Long Island, a twenty-three-year-old recent university graduate from Mexico, and a real estate developer from Seattle—are then paired with coach Bill Truelove. This is Truelove’s second Steep & Deep Camp, but he’s been teaching at JHMR’s Mountain Sports School for six years and is currently going for his PSIA Level 3 certification.

The various groups disperse from the bottom of Cheyenne Bowl. Now that camp’s really starting, I’m worrying about a few things (in no particular order): making an ass of myself, being the weakest in my group, being the strongest in my group, and standing around listening to a coach spew rather than skiing, to name just a few.

It takes only a couple of hours to realize my worries are moot. I don’t know how the camp instructors do it, but after watching each of us for only a few turns, we are perfectly matched. While every group member has his/her own skiing style and bad habits—one of us is all over the place but aggressive, another is hesitant but has good form, I’m a backseat skier but have the quad strength to make it work (usually)—we all arrive at the bottom at pretty much the same time, and are capable of skiing and wanting to ski the same difficulty of terrain. And 106

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

there’s little standing around waiting for Truelove to get his teaching on.

Before lunch, we hit multiple lines around Toilet Bowl, go into some Expert Chutes, over to the Alta Chutes, down the Lower Faces, and back up to Tower Three. It’s impressive, considering we do stop multiple times on most runs for Truelove to dissect what each of us is doing versus what each of us should be doing. And also for him to introduce and demonstrate, and encourage us to try, extension turns—standing up to get your skis flat and initiate your turn—and smear turns, the basics of steep skiing. It’s fairly heady stuff. And when I remember to turn using these new techniques, it’s fairly ski-changing stuff. My last time down Tower Three before lunch, I feel like I look good. I don’t know that I’ve ever had that feeling on skis before.

After lunch—marinated chicken breast with mango salsa, mixed green salad, tomato soup, homemade cookies, and brownies—we hike the Headwall and traverse around into the Crags. We talk and laugh. We practice more smearing in some tightish, soft bumps in the trees beneath the gondola. We listen as Truelove gives us instructions for drills. We fall.

The next three days are more of the same—just heading for steeper and steeper lines and sometimes getting filmed, although we do take a break from the steep

to get some deep. The morning of day three we go out of bounds (after Meiners, in the comfort of Corbet’s Cabin, gives us a briefing in the basics of avalanche safety) and do two runs—one in Rock Springs and the second in Green River. After several filming sessions, we head inside to watch ourselves—and laugh at each other—as Truelove gives us feedback. We’re getting better. And we’re having fun. And then it’s graduation day, and we’re back at the top of Meet Your Maker.

I don’t drop in that day. Two of my groupmates do, though. And they rock it.

Two weeks later, after several more bellto-bell days skiing JHMR practicing extension and smear turns on my own—a luxury that comes with living here—I’m back at Meet Your Maker’s lip. Falling in, it dawns on me that I’m not nervous.

I’ve got confidence I’ve never had. And I might even be smiling. JH

NUTS & BOLTS The Mountain Sports School has four Steep & Deep Camps this winter: January 9-12, January 23-26, February 6-9, and February 27-March 2. There are snowboard-specific Steep & Deep Camps and also Adaptive Steep & Deep Camps. All are $1,195, including lift tickets, and $1,000 without. The camp fee includes daily lunch—which is quite good and always ends with fresh cookies or brownies—evening social activities, and a decent schwag bag. jacksonhole.com

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getting out

Roll With It A new breed of bicycles is built for winter.

BY KELSEY DAYTON PHOTOGRAPHY BY PRICE CHAMBERS

Snow bikers power up Slow Trail atop Snow King’s Cougar run during a snow bike demo day.

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Do not underestimate snow biking. “It’s like riding a bike on rolling hills,” I tell myself as I walk up to the base area at Grand Targhee Resort in Alta, Wyoming. “How hard can it be?” It takes me only a few minutes to get my answer: hard.

Like any sport, snow biking is what you make it—the terrain you choose, the speed you attempt. As I slowly— and I mean very slowly—pedal my way up a hill on Targhee’s groomed trail system, my heart is pounding so hard I feel it pulsing in my head. I’ve only been pedaling for five minutes. My front wheel gets a bit off the track, and the bike—with me on it—falls over.

Falling off a bike while only creeping up a hill is embarrassing enough. Make that fall into fresh, fluffy powder, and it’s an entirely different level of embarrassment. My rental bike is on top of me, its forty pounds pushing me into the soft snow. It doesn’t hurt, but neither does it look good. “Foundering” doesn’t even begin to do my attempts at extrication justice. Only minutes into my first snow bik-

ing experience I realize I have vastly underestimated the sport.

Last winter, Grand Targhee Resort opened its eight miles of Nordic trails to snow bikers for the first time, becoming the first ski area in the country to do so.

Snow King Ski Area and Jackson Hole Mountain Resort both also hosted their first snow biking races. There’s been an annual snow biking race on Togwotee Pass since 2007; it became a series in 2010, and a record number of racers— thirty—signed up last year.

“In the last two years, snow biking has really blown up in popularity,” says Brandon Campisi, store manager at Fitzgerald’s Bicycles in Victor, Idaho.

“When we first started carrying these bikes eight years ago, there was only one model. In 2011, another company introduced a mass-produced fat bike. Now it’s not unusual for both of the companies to sell out of their fat bike products.”

(While the sport is called snow biking, the bikes themselves are called “fat bikes,” as riders are increasingly finding uses for them beyond snow. “They were created for use on snow,” Campisi says, “but, as is often the case, people are finding other ways to use the gear.”)

Fat bikes have hard frames—no suspension on the front or rear forks—and tires that are close to four inches in diameter. (One model new this year, Surly’s Moonlander, has tires nearly five inches in diameter.) If they’re not familiar with them, people who see one being ridden around town or on area trails can’t help but stop and stare. To accommodate tires this big, frames have wide forks; don’t think you can take your mountain bike frame and throw tank-size wheels and tires on it. They won’t fit.

It is thanks to their oversize rims and tires that these bikes stay on top of groomed cross-country skiing and snowmobile trails. Also helping with floatation is not inflating the tires as much as you do for other bikes. Five psi is usual for a fat bike on snow; mountain bike tires are usually inflated to between 25 and 35 psi; road bike tires have pressure upwards of 100 psi. (Fat bikes don’t

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Jay Petervary stops on the course to check his bike before the Snow Bike Race and Demo Day at Snow King last February.

have so much floatation you can take off into powder with them, though; they need a groomed base.)

For my first snow biking adventure, I’ve enlisted Andy Williams, Grand Targhee’s Manager of Special Events and Summer Trails, as my instructor and guide. Williams, who grew up alpine skiing but never took to Nordic skiing and is an avid mountain biker, discovered snow biking about six years ago through cycling friends already sold on the sport.

(Summer cyclists like snow biking because it allows them to maintain their bike fitness through the winter without having to do dreadfully boring indoor trainer workouts.)

Since Williams wasn’t a cross-country skier, snow biking fit a hole in his winter recreation regimen. It is the perfect activity for days when alpine skiing conditions aren’t great or when quads need a break from downhill skiing. But snow biking isn’t a rest day. Williams says it’s like mountain biking in that it takes strength, balance, and endurance.

The movement of it is no different than that of riding on pavement, though.

The idea is that if you can ride a bike, you can snow bike.

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It was two years ago that Williams started thinking about opening Targhee’s undulating, groomed Nordic trails to snow bikers. He studied fat bike tracks in different conditions to make sure they wouldn’t inflict grooves on trails that could then trip up skiers. Williams decided that if he established a few basic rules, snow bikers and skiers could happily share Targhee’s tracks.

The rules Williams established are simple. If there’s fresh snow or the trails are supersoft, snow biking is not allowed.

On other days, snow bikers need to wait until the track sets—usually about 10 a.m.—to start. Also, snow bikers need to yield to skiers at intersections. All bikes must have tires at least 3.7 inches in diameter. With one full season of snow bikers and Nordic skiers sharing trails under its belt, Targhee hasn’t seen any conflicts between the two groups.

As soon as Williams and I pedal past the ski lifts, the noise fades. Snow squeaks beneath our tires. Even though we are only minutes away from the bustle of skiers, it feels like another world. Williams points to nearby areas where he plans to add some snow biking singletrack. I’m happy to stay on the wide, groomed path.

Each week last winter, about a dozen bikers rode Targhee’s trails. Teton Mountain Outfitters, the rental shop at the resort, rented fat bikes about forty times. People also brought their own bikes or rentals from other area shops— Peaked Sports, Habitat, and Fitzgerald’s Bicycles all rent fat bikes.

As we stop at the top of a hill for yet another break—I need it, not Williams—a skier pauses to check out our bikes. They are cartoonish. She examines the wheels, asks how they stay up on the snow, and wants to know where she can rent one.

Dave Hunger, the owner of Teton Mountain Bike Tours since 1991, began snow biking last winter. He wanted to see what the buzz was about. He’d been seeing more and more of them around. Hunger began riding his fat bike up Snow King every Monday after the lifts closed. “I found it really sweet,” he says. “It’s an awesome cardio workout. Snow biking is still a pretty niche market, but I don’t think it’s going away.” While Teton Mountain Bike Tours won’t likely offer snow biking tours—right now, they put studded tires on mountain bikes and do rides on the roads around Kelly in the

winter—it does plan on renting fat bikes this winter.

When Hunger wasn’t crawling up Snow King—fat bikes can weigh close to forty pounds, almost twice as much as a mountain bike—he rode up Cache Creek, which Teton County/Jackson Parks and Recreation grooms three times a week for about five miles. “Snow biking opened a lot of doors,” he says. “And the best part is you don’t have to hang your bike up in the winter.”

We have only gone a few miles, but I am getting comfortable, shifting smoothly and riding the breaks a bit less on the descents. I am able to appreciate the sparkle of the sun on the snow and the feel of cold air pumping in my lungs. When Williams and I reach a fork in the trail he asks if I want to head back or “go that way,” pointing to an impossibly steep-looking hill.

“It’s another loop,” he says. Is he joking? I look at him as he earnestly waits for my response. “I think it might be best if we head back,” I say. As Williams and I finish up our ride and head for the rental shop, it is a bit like being on parade. People are staring and commenting. “Snow bikes,” one kid says, pointing. “I want to try one.” JH

NUTS & BOLTS WHERE TO RIDE Grand Targhee Resort’s Nordic trails, $10 a day; Snow King (when lifts aren’t running), free. For details on riding in Cache Creek, on the snowmobile and ski trails on Togwotee Pass, in Teton Valley, and in the Gros Ventres, check with Fitzgerald’s Bicycles (Victor, Idaho) or Hoback Sports (Jackson).

WHERE TO RENT k Teton Mountain Outfitters, Grand Targhee Resort, Alta 307/353-2300 ext. 1383 k Hoback Sports, 520 W. Broadway Ave., Jackson 307/733-5335 k Fitzgerald’s Bicycles, 20 Cedron Rd., Victor 208/787-2453 k Peaked Sports, 70 E. Little Ave., Driggs 208/354-2354 k Habitat, 18 N. Main St., Driggs 208/354-7669 How to Dress As far as what it does to your body temperature, snow biking is more similar to Nordic skiing than it is to other types of biking. I broke a sweat after biking only a few minutes. Dress like you would for Nordic skiing, i.e., lightly and with layers.

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Best of

JH

body & soul

Beyond Massage A rub is good, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to bodywork available in the valley.

BY ALLISON ARTHUR Photography by ASHLEY WILKERSON

Who doesn’t like a relaxing massage?

There is almost nothing better than lying on a warmed table, cocooned in a cozy blanket while someone massages your sore and achy muscles into a deeply relaxed state. It not only feels fabulous, but some research shows that bodywork can be just as important—or even more important—than working out with weights.

And massage isn’t the only option.

While it undoubtedly can feel amazing, and it can relieve tension and lessen muscle pain, it’s just one method of many. Jackson Hole has professionals offering innovative techniques and methods like Myofascial Energetic Length Technique (M.E.L.T. Method), Active Isolated Stretching (AIS), and myofascial massage. All work differently, but the goal of each is similar: to help your body feel and function better.

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MELT Away the Pain Sore? Dehydrated? Out of alignment? An hour of MELT could help you feel better. Fitness guru Stacy Fisher, owner of Fisher Fitness and the valley’s—and state’s—only certified MELT instructor, first became interested in MELT when she saw an ad for a course at a professional development conference.

“The course description asked, ‘Are you a fitness professional in pain?’ and it caught my eye,” she says. Fisher had chronic arm pain.

Developed by fitness professional and manual therapist Sue Hitzmann, MELT is a self-treatment system that uses a soft foam roller and pair of small balls to help hydrate your body’s connective tissues and calm the nervous system. “MELT is to the neurofascial system [nervous and connective tissue system] what all other forms of exercise are to the musculoskeletal system,” Hitzmann says. Fisher adds,

Deb Thompson receives a myofascial massage from Gary Kolenich of Bear & Doe Banya Spa to release tension in the connective tissues.

“Used for self-massage, MELT can build strength and will hydrate your muscles before you stretch.

It is a really great adjunct to other forms of exercise.”

“Used for self-massage, MELT can build strength and will hydrate your muscles before you stretch. It is a really great adjunct to other forms of exercise.”

MELT has many of the same benefits of massage (without the price tag and with the convenience of being able to practice it almost anytime, anywhere after learning how to do it): It assists in properly aligning your body and

hydrates the outer layers of tissue. “If you hydrate the outer layers of the muscle tissue, it allows you to go back to your ideal alignment,” Fisher says. “A big part of MELTing is assessing your body sense.

It creates awareness for what your body feels like from the inside out. The more that you learn about yourself, the easier it is to prevent injury.”

It’s been three years now since Fisher first heard about MELT and began training in it—learning not only how to do it to herself, but also how to instruct others in MELTing. Her arm pain is gone. MELT isn’t the only thing she’s been doing, of course, but Fisher does attribute much of her pain relief to the technique.

Because she’s had such success with it, “I use it on a daily basis with my personal training clients,” she says. “Everybody can benefit from MELT.” Fisher also offers group MELT classes several times a week. “It doesn’t exclude anyone. An eighty-year-old man can be in the same class with a pregnant woman and a thirty-year-old athlete. There is no competition. It is relaxing and not judgmental.”

Client Jamie Goldstein admits to being skeptical of the concept—it is difficult to explain—when Fisher introduced it to her last year. She’s sold on it now, though, saying she feels “like I stand up better and have better posture in general” since starting to MELT. “The hand and foot massage that you learn to do on yourself is as good as any I have had given

Stacy Fisher leads a MELT class at Fisher Fitness in downtown Jackson.

to me.” Goldstein says she feels better after taking a class: “That keeps me going back.” Fisher adds, “MELT is an affordable way to take care of yourself.” Lasting results vary, but Fisher has witnessed “miraculous changes.”

Details: Fisher Fitness, 120 W. Pearl Ave., 307/690-8906, fisherfitness.com.

Drop-in classes are $17 each; packages include classes for as little as $13. Fisher recommends that you MELT at least three times a week, but says even one class/session can help.

Recommended for: people who want the benefits of regular massage but can’t afford it; athletes that don’t have the discipline to stretch on their own.

Getting Deep “ ‘Painful’ can be a good word,” says Wes Gano, a Jacksonite who has been getting myofascial massage from Gary Kolenich for more than five years.

Anyone that has ever gotten such a treatment from Kolenich, who co-owns Bear & Doe Banya Spa in downtown Jackson, knows it is anything but relaxing. The deep treatment, which has its origins in Rolfing, can be hard to take. But it can also have longer-lasting effects on your body’s mobility and performance than standard massage.

I have only had one massage from

Kolenich. Truthfully, after that excruciating hour, I was scared to go back.

Proving to me the pain I felt on the table wasn’t exaggerated, I woke up the next day with superficial bruising. The bruising evidently also proved that I, like many others in Jackson Hole, can probably really benefit from this type of deep—deep—tissue massage.

“Athletes especially are so superficially tight that you have to break through that fascial layer to get to the muscles,” explains Kolenich. “There is a webbing that surrounds everything in our bodies, and there are different techniques to get it to release.” Through deep manual pressure, Kolenich, who is the “bear” of Bear & Doe, aims to break through the webbing, or fascia, that surrounds the muscle. Once he gets through the fascia, he can massage the muscles more effectively.

Kolenich, who has been doing this type of massage for fifteen years, has always focused on athletes and sports injuries. The latter includes knee and back problems. At the end of a myofascial treatment, clients can have a better range of motion because connective tissues have been softened.

“People come in and give me a rundown of what they have been doing to their bodies,” Kolenich says. So it is the clients themselves that create the pain

“I just grin and bear it,” one myofascial massage client says. “I won’t give him [the therapist] the satisfaction of crying on the table.” they experience on Kolenich’s table. “I merely point out the pain you have created,” he says. Survive the treatment, though, and “I feel like I can stand up straighter, and I have none of the tightness I had before,” says Gano, who broke his back eleven years ago and lives in a state of chronic pain.

When Gano is regimented about getting two massages a month, he says he feels better overall. He notices a difference when he gets busy and skips sessions. But Gano feels the same way I did about the actual time on the table: “I just grin and bear it,” he says. “I won’t give him the satisfaction of crying on the table.”

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Details: Bear & Doe Banya Spa, 35 E. Simpson St., 307/732-0863, bearanddoemassage.com. An hour-long massage from Kolenich is $90.

Recommended for: serious chronic pain sufferers; athletes who have beaten themselves up particularly badly.

Stretch the Benefits

One to One Wellness owner Scott Smith helps local resident Pete Mead increase his range of motion with Active Isolated Stretching (AIS).

AIS differs from static stretching because it encourages muscles to stretch more deeply.

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“My goal is to get people’s bodies to function more optimally,” says Scott “Smitty” Smith, founder and owner of One to One Wellness and a certified personal trainer. One of his favorite tools?

Active Isolated Stretching (AIS). AIS is a stretching system that allows the body to gradually move into deeper stretches that can improve muscles’ myofascial structures. For the inflexible, which many of his clients start out as, yoga and static stretching—where you hold a pose—can cause injuries. On the other hand, AIS can improve flexibility and also promotes growth and repair, stimulates circulation, which helps eliminate metabolic waste, and reduces the risk of muscle strain and tearing. “This can radically change your body,” Smith says. “It can help you avoid surgery or get you three more runs on the mountain every time you go.”

Smith, who has had his fitness/wellness business in Jackson for more than fourteen years, integrates AIS stretching into all of his workouts with clients. He also has clients (up to six a day) who come to him just to get stretched.

Sometimes it is a two-hour session. He claims that with a little practice and work, he can get anybody to touch their toes. “I have defined myself in the valley by stretching people,” he says.

Having not touched the floor with my fingers in at least twenty years, I was skeptical of Smith’s claim that he could get me there. But, after only a quick demonstration of AIS on his table, I am excited to report my hands made it. I felt like doing a celebratory dance … until the next day, when I was back to normal. Smith’s advice to me and others: “Practice every day, and your body will respond over time.”

Details: One to One Wellness, 1705 High School Rd. #110, 307/734-2808, 121wellness.com. An hour-long AIS stretch with Smith costs $80.

Recommended for: the strong and/ or inflexible. “Stretching can make your body better at the sports you’re already good at,” Smith says. JH

Best of

nightlife

JH

Hey, Mr. DJ Jackson’s DJs spin near and far.

BY Cara Rank Photography by bradly j. boner

Brian James rolls into our interview right on time. Literally, he’s rolled right in, a cup of coffee in one hand, a skateboard in the other. His eyes still look sleepy. It’s 10 a.m. on a Monday morning in mid-September. It has taken weeks to pin him down. He’s been traveling, he says. This summer has included four large festivals: The Bounce Festival in Northern California, the Symbiosis Gathering in Nevada, the 5th Annual Pirate Party in Montana, and the Afterburn Pool Party in Reno.

But he is back in Jackson for a little while before he returns to the road.

James, who is thirty-six, is perhaps the most solidly booked of Jackson Hole’s homegrown deejays. He’s known on the circuit as Cut La Whut and is described by Homebreakin Records—a label he puts out some of his remixes on—as “a DJ’s Deejay with turntable know-how and scratching skills to match who isn’t stapled to one genre but flows thru all of them and always has something fresh coming out of the mixer.”

When he can be found in Jackson (where most

people call him by his twenty-year-old nickname, “Cutter”) he’s usually spinning tunes for larger parties thrown at Q Roadhouse, Pink Garter Theatre, and Town Square Tavern. When he’s not in Jackson, Cut La Whut travels outside the valley to make beats. The largest event he has played is Canada’s Shambhala Music Festival, which was founded in 1998 and has sold out its 10,000 tickets annually since 2010.

“Our community is full of elitists, whether that’s skiing or snowboarding, or whatever else it is,” James says. “We’re all just pushing ourselves to be as good as possible, and we’re not going to get there without working hard or sacrifice.” Whether at home in the valley or further afield, Jackson Hole’s deejays push the limits.

David Duffy, known by the DJ name Lumin, delivers electro, house, dubstep, and classic hits weekly at the Town Square Tavern with DJs Lish and Spartan of WYOBASS.

If there was a father of Jackson Hole’s deejay movement, it would be Andre Castagnoli, a New York City native who moved to the valley in 1992 when he was twenty-five. His first job was working as a doorman at The Stagecoach in Wilson. At the WINTER 2013 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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time, there wasn’t anyone doing large events—or any kind of dance events—like he was used to attending in New York clubs. So Castagnoli, who spins as DJ Spartan, talked the Coach manager into trying one night a week with a deejay. He invested in some equipment, and Thursday night Disco Night was born. It was instantly popular.

Not that the initial plan was to create a “Disco

Founded in the winter of 2011-12, WYOBASS spins the WYOBASSment Project at Town Square Tavern every Saturday night.

Night.” “We started playing disco music just as a way to get people going,” Castagnoli says. “It was never our intention to promote it as Disco Night.

But that’s what people liked and what took off.”

Disco Night became a Thursday-night institution that Castagnoli still spins at today, though it is different than it was twenty years ago. Nowadays, dancers want to hear more current music. So Castagnoli starts every Thursday evening with hip-hop and electronic music before throwing on ’70s standards.

Around the time he started Disco Night, Castagnoli connected with another New Yorker and DJ in the valley, Chris Blank, a.k.a. King Weep.

King Weep worked at Tower Records before moving to Jackson Hole from the city. Blank and Castagnoli formed Real Productions and got to work creating a more vibrant and diverse music/ dance/party scene in the valley. “We helped it get more current,” Castagnoli says. “There was a lot of bluegrass and jukeboxes. I was like ‘I can do this.

Let’s try to develop a scene.’ I don’t want to say we were the first, but we were there at the beginning.”

Rocky Vertone, a friend of King Weep’s from when they were kids growing up in New Jersey, “had no intention of deejaying,” he says. “Then Weep showed me how to match beats.” Vertone (who is known as DJ Vert-One) began tagging along and deejaying with Weep and DJ Spartan.

(Weep died in a car crash in 2005.) Vertone played his first party in 1996 at a house in East Jackson and then a rave at Snow King. In 2000, he and King Weep started Four4 Productions and took over Disco Night from DJ Spartan, who left the valley for a few years. Four4 packed the house, drawing costume-clad, mostly twentysomethings with their disco ball, strobe lights, a smoke machine, and “crates and crates of music,” says Vertone. “We created a really cool scene. We set some different standards for deejays. Me and Weep made a profession out of our love of deejaying and music. We were some of the first to throw parties. We were everywhere for a while.”

As Four4’s popularity soared, other talents developed, too. In addition to James (if you’re getting confused with all the names, take a look at the cheat sheet below), there was Michael Sagan—DJ name Mikey Thunder—who learned in Burlington, Vermont, and moved to Jackson in 1999. After opening for Michael Franti and Spearhead in Jackson, he was tapped to open the rest of Spearhead’s Stay Human Tour in 2002. After that, Sagan moved to Boulder, Colorado, and has since worked with Jurassic 5, Digable Planets, and Del The Funky Homosapien, to name a few. In fall 2009, he joined Pretty Lights, a Fort Collins, Colorado-based “electro-organic-cutting-edgeparty-rocking-beats-that-fill-venues-with-energy-

DJ Names Cheat Sheet

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Parents call them Fans call them

Style

Rocky Vertone

DJ Vert-One

Focusing on more intimate events nowadays

Chris Blank

King Weep

He lives on in DJ Vert-One and DJ Spartan.

Brian “Cutter” James

Cut La Whut

If there’s a big party, he’s spinning it.

Andre Castagnoli

DJ Spartan

Whatever it takes to get you dancing

Michael Sagan

Mikey Thunder

Traveling the world

and-emotion-and-send-dance-floorsinto-frenzies” artist who tours the world performing at music festivals. Sagan is the DJ for Pretty Lights Music. He has opened for more than thirty shows and performed cuts on Pretty Lights’ Making Up a Changing Mind EP, released in 2010.

While you can’t catch him in the valley anymore, you can see him in Hampton, Virginia, and New York City in December, and in Australia and New Zealand with Pretty Lights in January and February.

While Sagan’s presence is certainly missed here—“Mikey is so talented, he set the bar really high,” James says—the valley’s DJ scene has forged on, albeit it’s not quite as crazy as it once was. James, Castagnoli, Vertone, and other DJs—some flown in just to spin particular parties— are still around, playing a couple of regular weekly gigs and special parties. “The scene always goes through peaks and valleys,” Castagnoli says. “Now I think we’re in a little bit of a valley.” Cut La Whut is traveling. Mikey Thunder moved to Boulder. DJ Vert-One is focusing more on his family and custom-framing business, Full Circle Frameworks, and is more selective about the gigs he books. “For a while, there was shit going on everywhere,” Vertone says. “It was nuts. [Now] I like small places that feel like a house party, which is really where I got my start.”

House parties aren’t really options when Joe and Jane Public are looking to get their dance on, though. Q Roadhouse does huge deejayed events for Halloween and New Year’s Eve. Tickets are usually between ten and twenty dollars, and often sell out. One New Year’s Eve, tickets for the Roadhouse party were being scalped on Facebook for fifty dollars.

“Q’s a great space,” James says. “It has classic roadhouse style, and it’s a great size. It’s not so big where you pray and hope everybody comes out for a 500-person show. You can get 150 people there, and the place is busy.”

Castagnoli and his crew have regular gigs—Thursdays at the Coach for Disco Night (which isn’t so much disco anymore … but still very dance-y) and Saturdays at the Town Square Tavern for WYOBASSment Project, “Jackson’s hottest club scene,” as its website says.

When he’s in town, Cutter can be found Fridays at Pinky G’s. Check in at WYOBASS.com for dates and details about additional events. JH

250 W. Pearl 5 Jackson Hole, WY 307-739-9247 (WAGS) WINTER 2013 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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JH

dining

Snake River Brewery

b u r G & g o Gr The area’s breweries aren’t just lively places to drink but also worthy places to eat.

BY CLAIRE RABUN PHOTOGRAPHY BY TAYLOR GLENN

Craft brewing has literally been defined this year.

“Craft brew” was added to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary at the beginning of 2012. And why not? The number of craft breweries is at an all-time high—2,126 nationwide this year. So what is a craft brew? Merriam-Webster defines it as “a specialty beer produced in limited quantities: microbrew.” Another new addition? “Gastropub,” a portmanteau of gastronomy and pub.

Craft breweries and gastropubs don’t have to go hand in hand. But when they do … well, ahhhhhhh. And it just so happens that we have four craft-brewing gastropubs— craftopubs?—serving handcrafted, small-batch grog alongside some fairly to-die-for grub.

OPPOSITE PAGE, CLOCKWISE: Chris Erickson, brewmaster at Snake River Brewery; Jeremy Tofte and Kirk McHale, brewmasters at Thai Me Up; Adam Chenault, brewmaster at Roadhouse Brewing Company; Wildlife Brewing owner and head brewer Ric Harmon, center, with brewer Todd Kuehn, right, and assistant brewer Patrick McDonnell.

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Snake River Brewery was the first food-serving brewery on the scene, opening its doors in March 1994 with a free beer day. The line stretched down the block. In the early days, when the food menu included only pasta and pizza offerings—and not particularly exciting ones at that—it was the beer everyone came for. The brews won rave reviews from day one, from both locals and judges at events like the Great American Beer Festival. But it took a while for “The Brewpub’s” food to catch up. At the end of 2007, the pub expanded, enlarging the kitchen (originally the kitchen was so small there wasn’t even room for a fryer or flat top grill) and also the seating.

The addition required it close for a month, the longest closure in its history.

When it reopened in January 2008, it had a burger and fries on the menu for the first time ever. And its executive chef was fired up for the pub’s food to be on par with its brews. “Everything I do here is made from scratch, which is unique for a brewery,” says executive chef Ryan “Mambo” Brogan. “We don’t have to do

BREW FACTS

—#1

Wyoming is seventh when it comes to states with most craft breweries per capita.

it, but we want to. There is handcrafted beer here, so it only makes sense that we match that with handcrafted food. I think it sets us apart.”

Brogan started working at The Brewpub as a line cook in 1995. He was twenty. He stayed there for a few years before hopping around to other downtown Jackson restaurants. When Four Seasons Resort Jackson Hole opened in Teton Village in 2003, he got a job there

BRADLY J. BONER

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which is awarded each year (via blind tastings by expert judges) to the state’s top brewery.

Thai Me Up Jeremy Tofte opened Thai Me Up in 2000 with a love of Thai food and a diverse restaurant background. He started working in restaurants when he was twelve years old, doing everything from washing dishes to hosting, serving, and cooking. After he traveled extensively through Thailand and Indonesia before settling in Jackson, the plan to open the valley’s first Thai restaurant wrote itself.

After several years in business, Tofte took a break, but when the new owners weren’t keeping the place up to snuff, he stepped back in in 2003. He immediately decided to diversify, bringing in an amateur brewing system, albeit one that could only brew fifteen gallons at a time.

At first, Tofte relied on his own brew-

BREW FACTS

—#2

as “Cook One,” the chef right under the sous chef. He stayed there several years.

This experience under his apron, Brogan came back to The Brewpub in 2006 as executive chef and kicked the food up a couple of notches. “I love the peach and chorizo calzone, and the only thing better than the fish and chips is the Zonker Stout I wash them down with,” says Roger Oyster, who’s been a seasonal valley resident for more than two decades.

Because of the beer and food, this past summer, Men’s Health crowned the pub the “Manliest Brew Pub” in the country. It has won more quantitative awards, too. Since its opening, Snake River Brewery has earned twenty-eight awards from the Great American Beer Festival, which is run by the Brewers Association and is considered the largest ticketed beer festival in the U.S. No other 120

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The one-third-pound burger at the Snake River Brewery is made from hormone-free, grass-fed Angus beef from the HD Dunn & Son Angus Ranch in Tetonia, Idaho. The brewery bakes the bun in-house.

brewery of its size has won more awards at the festival. Included in its award winners are all of the beers the brewery bottles and cans for sale: Pako’s EYE-P-A, Snake River Pale Ale, Snake River Lager, OB-1 Organic Ale, and Zonker Stout.

“You literally can’t pick a Snake River beer off the shelves that hasn’t been recognized for some kind of excellence,” says Chris Erickson, head brewer for the last sixteen years.

Always looking to add to the trophy case, last August, Snake River Brewing stomped competitors at the 17th annual Wyoming Microbrew Competition. It brought home the Saratoga Steinley Cup,

The Brewers Association officially recognizes more than 150 different styles of beer.

ing experience—growing up in Seattle, his family was in the beer industry, and when he was twenty, he began homebrewing. His Thai Me Up brews went over well, but there’s only so much one man can do. Tofte eventually hired Kirk McHale as head brewer. McHale had begun homebrewing at age fourteen, started brewing professionally at nineteen, owns a partial share of the California gastropub Pizza Port (in 2009 alone, Pizza Port won nine medals at the Great American Beer Festival), and has been touted as one of the creators of the first true American-style IPA. By 2012, Thai Me Up had a one hundred-gallon brewing system churning out beers that happen to go perfectly with Thai food. “All the hops and bitterness naturally pairs well with Thai food because it cuts through the spiciness and really complements the flavors we serve,” says assistant brewer (official title: assistant cleaner) Rusty Leonard.

One of the largest draws for locals is the Curry Happy Hour, a bar-only special that offers a $5 bowl of the curry of the day. The Thai Me Up kitchen also churns out traditional Thai offerings

like pad kee “mow,” a household dish Tofte discovered during his travels in Krung Thep, and pad thai. Thai Me Up had four pad thai options when it first opened, one representing each region of Thailand. That has since been pared down to the most popular one. There are nontraditional offerings, too, like

BREW FACTS

—#3

Experience Adventure, Indoors & Out Named “Best Chef in Jackson,” Executive Chef Kevin Humphreys incorporates local and organic products to create his delectable meals at Spur Restaurant & Bar.

The Thai Me Up brewery is only 106 square feet, which they believe is the smallest in the country.

Thai chicken wings served with a hot chile sauce.

While the food certainly fills the fifty-eight seats in the dining room, it’s the homespun beers that have people lingering long after the kitchen closes. Thai Me Up now has seven brewing awards under its belt, including gold medals for its Mayhem and Melvin at the 2012 North American Brewers Festival and the 2012 Alpha King Challenge. At the latter, Thai Me Up’s 2X4 Imperial IPA bested 167 other brews. “Thai Me Up is successful because we are real,” says Tofte. “We have our own structure and maybe not everyone is compatible, and that’s OK. In 2000, I got a piece of advice: no bullshit rules. And that works for us … everyone wins, employees and customers.”

Wildlife Brewing and Pizza Wildlife Brewing and Pizza started in 2003 as a take-out operation in Ric Harmon’s house on the main drag over in Victor, Idaho. For the first several months, its business was solely churning out pizza. “There was no good pizza in Victor when I first moved here. I grew up in Philadelphia, so I know good pizza,” says Harmon.

After seeing solid sales of pies like the Polecat—pepperoni, pineapple, and feta—Harmon was ready to take Wildlife a step further.

Harmon had been homebrewing since 1988 (it was a hobby he picked up in college), so adding a brewery to his growing food operation felt like the perfect next move. After securing his first set of commercial brewing equipment, Harmon converted his garage into a brewing facility and kitchen. “My grandmother came over on the boat from Italy when she was nine, and she always made everything

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Jackson, WY 83001 • 307-734-1535 WINTER 2013 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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Grand Teton Brewing may not have the grub half of the grog-and-grub partnership, but no overview of the area’s pubs is complete without a mention of Wyoming’s first microbrewery.

Started in a cabin in Wilson by Charlie and Ernie Otto in 1988, Grand Teton Brewing— originally known as Otto Brothers’ Brewing Company—truly laid the groundwork for the craft-brewing model in the Cowboy State.

When Otto Brothers’ Brewing first began making beer, it was illegal for breweries to act as retailers, but after three years of campaigning against these restrictions, the ban was lifted. The brothers’ brewery then became the first in the state you could walk into and then walk out of with some beer.

Beers like Teton Ale—Otto Brothers’ first brew—Old Faithful Ale, and Bitch Creek Extra Special Brown Ale (ESB) have remained popular since those first years. To meet the evergrowing demand, the business expanded into their present location at the base of Teton Pass in Victor, Idaho, in 2000. That same year, they changed their name to the more regionally relevant Grand Teton Brewing. The move allowed the brewery’s production to swell to 10,000 barrels of beer annually.

In April 2009, Steve and Ellen Furbacher bought Grand Teton Brewing Company and are continuing to grow and nurture the business with updated machinery, investments in new markets, local charity work, and even a new kettle-brewed craft soda line.

— CLAIRE RABUN

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from scratch, so I guess I just grew up with that ingrained,” Harmon explains.

“Combine that background with my fraternity brother giving me a book on homebrewing, and this is just what I am meant to do.”

Harmon’s beer-and-pizza project has turned into a popular Teton Valley hangout. Wildlife has grown from the garage and has literally taken over Harmon’s home: His old mudroom is now the public bathroom, the old kitchen is now a prep and plating area, his former bedroom is now storage, and so on. Needless to say, Harmon has taken up residence elsewhere—just a couple of blocks down the road.

It wasn’t until 2008 that you were able to enjoy Harmon’s pizzas and beer— Mighty Bison Brown Ale and Point It! Pale Ale are among his most popular— on-site. After securing additional capital, Harmon added a dining room onto the original house.

That’s not all that has changed. “Since we opened the pub, I’ve really been able to get creative with my brewing,” Harmon says. “When I was homebrewing I was just making a brown and a pale, but now that we have this whole operation, my creativity has blossomed. My main strategy is to always have an array of light to

BREW FACTS

—#4

like smoked salmon, cream cheese, red onion, capers, and Alfredo sauce.

But as Harmon says, you can’t eat only pizza every day. Today’s Wildlife menu includes everything from traditional pub wings and a Thai peanut salad to a hot Italian sub and mushrooms stuffed with spinach, olives, and cheese.

Q Roadhouse “When you walk into the Q, the atmosphere, the smell of the food—it just makes you want a beer,” says co-owner Gavin Fine. “So it just made sense for us to have our own.”

The Roadhouse started its own brewing company—Roadhouse Brewing Company—in December. To head up the project, Fine hired ardent homebrewer and valley resident Adam Chenault. A passionate beer geek by nature, Chenault has been making beers at home for six years. “The reason I homebrew is because I like to make beers I want to drink,” he says.

Chenault and project partner Colby Cox, also a homebrewer and beer lover, took the idea of a West Bank brewery to Fine in spring 2012. As a successful restaurateur (Fine Dining Group includes Q Roadhouse, The Kitchen, Rendezvous

The modern-day growler is believed to have been invented in 1989 by Otto Brothers’ Brewing Company, which is now Grand Teton Brewing Company, as a means to offer beer-to-go in a larger size than the usual bottle.

dark beers—something for everyone so that the microbrew rookie can enjoy, but the aficionado won’t be bored.”

Wildlife Brewing beers have won Jackson’s Old West Brew Fest three of the nine times the competition has been held. Harmon also has a gold, silver, and two bronze medals from the North American Brewers Association’s annual competition. In 2012, his Ale Slinger IPA brought home a gold.

To complement the handcrafted beers, Harmon and head chef Brian Cynkar are still creating pizza his grandmother would be proud of. They use homemade ingredients, making pizza dough and sauces fresh daily. Pies are served hot from the wood-fired oven with a crunchy-on-the-outside/chewyon-the-inside crust that serves as the perfect vehicle for creative combinations

Bistro, Il Villaggio Osteria), Fine is always looking for the next big thing, so the idea of a microbrew operation was enticing.

At the Roadhouse, Chenault has started with six beers. All went on tap around Christmas; the plan is to grow from there. “We aren’t going to have a specific style or category of beer,” he explains. “So there are really no limits. I’m shooting to brew beers as big as the Tetons; something bold that you can’t necessarily find in a store.”

The brewery will also influence the food. While co-owner and Executive Chef Roger Freedman will continue crafting the restaurant’s popular soulfood classics like a pulled-pork sandwich, chicken fried chicken, and catfish, he’ll now look to beers to enhance flavors, perhaps even in sauces and sides like sauerkraut. JH

Best of

JH

dining out Location

(On Town Square C)

Phone

Breakfast Lunch

Dinner

The Bunnery Bakery & Restaurant

Jackson (C)

307-733-5474

$

$

Café Bohème

Jackson

307-733-5282

$

$

$$

Cafe Genevieve

Jackson (C)

307-732-1910

$

$

$$/$$$

The Dining Room at Shooting Star

Shooting Star

307-739-3260

$$

$$/$$$

The Kitchen

Jackson

307-734-1633

$$$

Il Villaggio Osteria

Teton Village

307-739-4100

$/$$$

Roadhouse Restaurant and Brewery

Teton Village Road

307-739-0700

$/$$

Rendezvous Bistro

Jackson

307-739-1100

$/$$$

Restaurant

Fine Dining Restaurant Group

Four Seasons Resort

Teton Village

Four Seasons Lobby Lounge

Teton Village

307-732-5000

$$

The Handle Bar

Teton Village

307-732-5157

$

$$

$$

Westbank Grill

Teton Village

307-732-5620

$

$$

$$$

Jackson Hole Mountain Resort

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$$

Teton Village

Cafe 6311’

Base of Bridger Gondola

307-739-2596

$

$

Casper Restaurant

Base of Casper Chairlift

307-739-2624

$

$

Corbet’s Cabin

Aerial Tram Summit

307-739-2688

$

$

Couloir

Bridger Gondola Summit

307-739-2675

Headwall Pizza & Dog House

Top of Bridger Gondola

$

Nick Wilson’s

Next to the Aerial Tram

$

$

Rendezvous

Top of Bridger Gondola

The Tin Can Cantina

Base of Bridger Gondola

$

$

McDonald’s of Jackson

Jackson

307-733-7444

$

$

Million Dollar Cowboy Steakhouse

Jackson (C)

307-733-4790

$

Nani’s Cucina Italiana

Jackson

307-733-3888

$$/$$$

Nikai

Jackson

307-734-6490

$$$

The Rose

Jackson

307-733-1500

$

The Silver Dollar Bar and Grill

Jackson (C)

307-732-3939

$

$$$

Snake River Brewing Company

Jackson

307-739-2337

$/$$

$/$$

Snake River Grill

Jackson (C)

307-733-0557

$$$

Spur Restaurant & Bar

Teton Village

307-732-6932

$$

$$

$$/$$$

Terra Café

Hotel Terra

307-739-4025

$

$

Teton Pines Restaurant

Teton Village Road

307-733-1005

$

$$$

Teton Thai

Teton Village

307-733-0022

$$

$$

Teton Thai

Driggs, ID

208-787-8424

$

$$

Warbirds Café

Driggs, ID

208-354-2550

$

$$

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307-739-2738

$

$$$

$ $

Kid’s TakeCredit Cards Cocktails Menu Out C C C C

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Description The bakery that’s a restaurant

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R Great food - reasonable prices. Free Wi-Fi

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R Serving inspired home-cooked classics

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R Modern American cuisine in the heart of Jackson

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R Wood oven-fired pizzas, house-made pasta

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R Eclectic roadhouse fare with frequent live music

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Continental American world cuisine

R Fresh sashimi and specialty rolls

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Top-of-the-world waffles

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Contemporary fine dining at 9,095 ft.

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R Pizza, gourmet hot dogs, grab & go

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R Asian bowls, sushi, grill meals, salad bar

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R Authentic regional Italian cuisine

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R Jackson’s favorite sushi bar

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R Regional cuisine, live music, happy hour

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Pub favorites & vibrant après-ski mecca Authentic tacos, burritos, chips and guacamole Elegant dining with a Western flair

Classically inspired cocktail lounge

Serving inspired mountain cuisine

s

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Mon–Fri: 6:30 am–3 pm • Sat–Sun: 7 am–2 pm Call for evening hours, catering, special events

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Inspired Home Cooking

Brunch Daily Happy Hour 3 - 5:30 Dinner Nightly

OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK Located 1/2 block East of the Town Square 135 E. Broadway • 732-1910 • www.GenevieveJH.com 126

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

Produced and cellared at 6,229 feet above sea level at the base of the Tetons.

307-201-1057 • www.jacksonholewinery.com facebook.com/jacksonholewinery.

McDonald’s® of Jackson Hole Fast, Affordable and On Your Way

Open & Serving your favorites 5:00am - Midnight Daily

Free Wi-Fi

1110 W. Broadway, Jackson, WY 1 mile west of Town Square

307-733-7444

Double R Ranch and Dry Aged Steaks, Rocky Mountain Game, Fresh Alaskan and Hawaiian Seafood. Top Shelf Libations, local brews and an extensive wine list.

25 North Cache • 307-733-4790 Dinner Only • Open at 5:30 nightly Reservations can be made online at www.cowboysteakhouse.net.

NANI’S cucina italiana dal 1990

nikai asian grill & sushi bar

Regional Italian Cuisine at its Best! handmade pasta steaks • seafood • vegan wine & cocktail bar 242 N. Glenwood • nanis.com • 733-3888

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Your Pub, Our Passion

FOOD SERVED 11:30am - 11:00pm $7 LUNCH 11:30am-3:00pm • HAPPY HOURS 4:00pm - 6:00pm 265 S. Millward • (307) 739-BEER (2337) www.snakeriverbrewing.com

Icon

D I N E at a

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Wild Game & Beef Daily Happy Hour Live Music

In Jackson’s Historic Wort Hotel |Broadway @ Glenwood 307.732.3939 | www.worthotel.com

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Best of

art scene

William Albert Allard / NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC STOCK

JH

Art’s Other Seasons Summer may be our biggest art season, but culture doesn’t hibernate in the Tetons.

BY RICHARD ANDERSON

Visual Art If you haven’t noticed, Jackson Hole has more than its fair share of visual arts.

We’ve got nearly three dozen galleries.

And then there are all the less-conventional display spaces—coffee shops, brewpubs, cafes—as well as the congressionally designated National Museum of Wildlife 130

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

Art. Hot off its 25th anniversary, the museum has a diverse lineup of exhibitions this winter and spring.

Hanging through April 21, Wildlife of the American West: Works on Paper from the Original Collection, showcases some of the signature works from the museum’s

Featuring 175 images of the West selected from among thousands in the National Geographic Archives, including this 1997 William Albert Allard photo, Greatest Photographs of the American West at the National Museum of Wildlife Art is organized around broad themes—Legends, Encounters, Boundaries, and Visions—rather than chronologically.

early days. The institution opened in 1987 on a corner of Town Square and stayed in that space until the present building was completed in 1994. Human/Nature, which also hangs through April 21, spotlights works in which humans share the canvas or paper with animals.

The big show of the winter, according to curator of art Dr. Adam Harris, is National Geographic Greatest Photographs of the American West. The brainchild of museum CEO and President James McNutt, this show “captures 125 years of majesty and spirit and adventure,” Harris says.

“People will be familiar with a lot of the photographers from Photography at the Summit,” the annual photo workshop and lecture series hosted at the museum.

Greatest Photographs of the American West opens simultaneously at ten Museums West partner museums across the counshop 307-733-3956 try. The exhibition, which hangs through cell 307-413-2289 April 28, is timed to coincide with the release of a book of the same title.

Finally at the NMWA, Bronwyn Minton—the museum’s assistant curator of art and an accomplished artist herself (she’s received two Wyoming Council for the Arts fellowships)—presents one of her community collaborations, Silverspot: A Graphic Novel. Hanging through February 16, the exhibition is of a graphic novel based on a story of the same title by Ernest Thompson Seton, a turn-of-the-century wildlife artist and writer who authored The Boy Scout Handbook, among other things. Typical of Minton’s mode of operation, she has invited dozens of guest artists to contribute panels for the project.

While the NMWA just wrapped up its 25th year, the Art Association of Jackson Hole celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2013. To become a more efficient arts nonprofit, the group recently underwent a reorganization. The most notable result of that is monthly exhibitions in addition to its usual signature events.

December’s show, Key Ingredients, travels from coast to coast and spans 500 years to “explore how Americans grow, prepare, and serve food,” says the association’s board president and acting director, Dave Muskat. The annual member show, The Jackson Salon Show, opens January 25. February brings Crystalized Light, a show of glass works, and March is a juried all-medium exhibition, Northwest Contemporary, featuring works from Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, and Colorado artists.

The Art Association also hosts the annual Whodunnit? on March 8. This show offers for sale more than 200 small works by regional and valley artists—the identities of whom are kept secret until the end of the event.

Unique and Functional Artwork

by Terry Chambers

Wilson, Wyoming 307-413-2289

Graphic & Giclée Printing on Canvas & Photo Paper Local Art Gallery Visit Teton Valley’s hidden secret.

A treasure trove of local art and collectibles.

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WINTER 2013 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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Theater Jackson Hole has five theater companies, and each has shows planned for the winter. Off Square Theatre Company, the area’s year-round professional theater, will present beloved Teton songstress Beth McIntosh for an all-too-rare performance December 22 in the Center Theater. The longtime valley resident, Wyoming Arts Council fellow, and author of four critically acclaimed CDs has a warmth and spirit that dovetail the environmental ethic and do-it-yourself drive of the Tetons.

Off Square also brings back to the valley Chi-

Micaela Rossato / Metropolitan Opera

This winter’s theater offerings include Date, an annual Christmas spectacular, and West Side Story.

The Grand Teton Music Festival screens the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD simulcast series, which includes Wagner’s Parsifal, at Walk Festival Hall.

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cago’s legendary improv comedy troupe, Second City, on January 12. From February 12 to 16, it presents Date, Denver actor-writer Luci Lajoie’s multimedia show that weaves together stories she collected from real people about Internet dating— good stories, bad stories, and “utterly unbelievable stories”—in the Black Box Theater at the Center

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

for the Arts. Off Square hosts its annual Madame X fundraising extravaganza on February 2, welcomes touring children’s theatre company ArtsPower on March 13, and presents a series of staged readings that includes adaptations of Moby Dick and To Kill a Mockingbird.

The Jackson Hole Playhouse, in one of the oldest buildings in downtown Jackson, dreams up its annual Saddle Rock Christmas show—an intimate, original production of holiday-related sketch comedy accompanying dinner served in the playhouse’s Saddle Rock Saloon—December 7 through January 1. In February and March, it offers an Academy Awards spoof with short, satirical takes on pivotal scenes from Best Picture nominees. Guests often dress as celebrities, and everyone receives the red-carpet treatment.

Riot Act Inc., the valley’s rambunctious and ambitious young company, offers two productions this winter and spring. In February and March, it’s The Threepenny Opera, Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s 1928 musical masterpiece. (Check out Riot Act’s website to find out where performances will be.) Come April, the company presents Lisa Loomer’s Distracted, a drama about attention deficit disorder and other mental issues that questions how they are being diagnosed and treated.

Jackson Community Theater offers its Night of One Acts, a veritable dim sum of theatrical treats that often results in the discovery of new acting and directing talents, from January 30 to February 2. On February 8 and 9, the company hosts the American Association of Community Theatre’s Wyoming state competition. Jackson Community Theater also presents the AACT’s regional competition for Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, and Utah on March 14 and 15. In 2010, JCT won first place in the state competition with Good Honest Food, directed by John Buhler.

Finally, don’t discount Jackson Hole High School’s crackerjack theater squad. Under the tutelage of drama teacher Evie Lewis, these teenage thespians have produced remarkable work, like last season’s My Fair Lady. This spring features West Side Story, running April 25 to 27 and May 2 to 4.

If you prefer your singing and dancing with more dancing and less (or no) singing, Dancers’ Workshop offers an enormous number of exercise and dance classes for adults and children, original repertory, and a presenting series. Nearly fortyfive years old, Dancers’ Workshop welcomes back to the Center Theater the Los Angeles company Diavolo. This inventive company mixes full-contact dance with custom-made contraptions for performances that blend acrobatics with artistry.

During its six-day residency, January 24 to 29, Diavolo will offer master classes and will present two performances, January 25 and 26.

Phil Round reaches into a quiver of more than 2,000 tunes to play in the Amangani bar three evenings a week.

Live Music Jackson Hole has a reputation for great music and nightlife, not only for the national names that pass through, but also for its large and lively hometown talent and richness of venues large and small. Out in Teton Village, there’s the Mangy Moose. It’s a world-famous après-ski spot and, many nights each week, also a spot for funky rock and soul—Medeski Martin & Wood, G. Love & Special Sauce, Maceo Parker, The Reverend Horton Heat, and Martin Sexton have all played there in the past.

Atop East Gros Ventre Butte at Spring Creek Ranch, The Granary is the place for jazz, with pia-

guest folk and country bands. And there’s a “new” downtown venue, the Pink Garter Theatre. Of course, the Pink Garter isn’t new—it has been around for more than forty years—but it is newly revived. Since its rebirth, the Pink Garter has hosted Band of Horses, Heartless Bastards, The B-Side Players, Karl Denson, 7 Walkers, The Wood Brothers, Lukas Nelson, and Public Enemy. The Rose—a vintage cocktail bar just across from the theater entrance—serves as the venue’s lounge, offering classic cocktails in a hip, contemporarily old-school setting.

And that’s not all: Eleanor’s in Grand Teton Plaza, Four Seasons Resort Jackson Hole in Teton Village, Q Roadhouse on the Moose-Wilson Road, and Town Square Tavern in downtown Jackson all host live music at least once a week. And that still is far from a comprehensive list. There’s also the Center for the Arts, which usually has one of the more eclectic aural lineups in any given season.

(We know they’ve got the Harlem Gospel Choir booked for January 19, but the rest of the schedule was still up in the air as of this printing.)

Classical Music

Glass work by Mary Mullaney and Ralph Mossman of Heron Glass will be part of the Art Association’s Crystalized Light show in February.

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nist Pam Phillips playing solo, or with small combos, two or three nights a week. It’s also the place for killer Teton views. Next to Spring Creek at Amangani, Phil Round reaches into a quiver of more than 2,000 pop, jazz, country, and bluegrass tunes to play in the bar area three evenings a week.

Every Monday night at Dornan’s in Moose, local acoustic players sign up to perform two-song sets at the Jackson Hole Hootenanny. In downtown Jackson, the Silver Dollar Bar in The Wort Hotel regularly hosts Dixieland group Jackson Six, alt-bluegrass unit One Ton Pig, and occasional

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

The Grand Teton Music Festival used to be only a summer organization; winter programs were limited to a handful of chamber concerts, if that. The group’s performance space, Walk Festival Hall in Teton Village, was originally built without heat, but heat (among a slew of other improvements to the acoustically superb and intimate space) was added a couple of years ago. Now the nonprofit, which wrapped up its 51st summer season this past August, can host classical music events every month of the year.

This winter will see classical concerts at Walk Festival Hall on January 11, February 8, and March 9. While in the valley, musicians—who come from across the country and around the world—also visit schools, working with middle and high school musicians, and perform other outreach. March 9 features WindSync, the young wind quintet from Houston that wowed hundreds with its Music in Nature residency here last summer.

Also this winter, for the third season, GTMF will screen the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD simulcast series. Met productions are broadcast live October through April on hundreds of screens around the country and the world, including one in Walk Festival Hall. The season started October 13, and winter highlights include a string of Verdi greats—Un ballo in maschera (December 8), Aida (December 15), and Rigoletto (February 16)—as well as Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda (January 19), Wagner’s Parsifal (March 2), and a new production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare (April 27). JH

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Best of

JH

galleries

Whether you’re passionate about plein-air, a serious collector of western paintings by contemporary or deceased masters, or a casual art fan searching for a keepsake to remind you of your time spent here, in Jackson Hole you have the opportunity to enjoy art in its multitude of forms. Over the past two decades, Jackson Hole has grown to become one of the most heralded art centers of the West, popping off the tongues of highlighted here, where you can pick up a copy of our summer/fall arts magazine, Images West. In it you will learn more about the valley’s artists, galleries, and arts-related classes and events.

ALTAMIRA FINE ART 172 Center Street Jackson, WY PH: 307-739-4700 www.altamiraart.com Altamira Fine Art focuses on exceptional, Western Contemporary artwork, photography, Indian Art, and sculpture in wood, bronze, and stainless steel. Altamira is one of the "must see" galleries in the exhilarating Jackson Hole art district.

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BY NATURE GALLERY 86 East Broadway Jackson, WY PH: 307-200-6060 jacksonhole@bynaturegallery.com www.bynaturegallery.com Specializing in the finest quality fossil, mineral, and meteorite specimens from around the world. Enjoy our collection of locally found Wyoming fossils. Our collection consists of the rarest dinosaur fossils, jewelry, petrified wood, and an extensive kids corner. Our newly added “break your own geode machine” is fun for all ages. Conveniently located next to Hagan Das ice cream.

DIEHL GALLERY 155 W. Broadway PO Box 4860, Jackson, WY PH: 307-733-0905 info@diehlgallery.com www.diehlgallery.com One of Britain’s leading contemporary sculptors, Simon Gudgeon has a signature smooth style that wonderfully concentrates spirit and nature. His minimalist, semi-abstract forms depict both movement and emotion of a moment captured with a visual harmony that is unmistakably his own. Visit Diehl Gallery to view Simon Gudgeon’s current body of work.

Travis J. Garner

aficionados alongside the likes of Santa Fe, Palo Alto, and Scottsdale. Begin by visiting some of the galleries

national museum of wildlife art

GRAND TETON GALLERY 130 W Broadway Jackson, WY 83001 307-201-1172 www.grandtetongallery.com info@grandtetongallery.com Bringing something new and exciting to Jackson Hole, Grand Teton Gallery offers the work of nationally and internationally known painters and sculptors specializing in traditional and contemporary western art. Artists include: Chester Fields, Rip Caswell, Richard Luce, Carrie Wild, Ottley, Middlekauff, Coonts, Weisfield, Clayton, Oliver, and Penk. Located one block west of the town square, diagonally across from the Wort Plaza, Grand Teton Gallery provides a warm and friendly atmosphere for your viewing pleasure.

MANGELSEN – images of nature Gallery 170 North Cache, Jackson, WY PH: 307-733-9752 www.mangelsen.com Legendary nature photographer Thomas D. Mangelsen has traveled throughout the natural world for 40 years observing and photographing the Earth’s last great wild places. Mangelsen has captured wild moments and vast panoramas from all seven continents. We invite you to visit the Mangelsen Images of Nature Gallery located one block north of the historic town square. The gallery features over 200 limited edition and artist proof prints in a variety of display options.

Overlooking the National Elk Refuge Jackson, WY PH: 307-733-5771 1-800-313-9553 WildlifeArt.org Featuring a world-class collection of more than 5,000 items, stunning architecture, 14 galleries, Sculpture Trail, Museum Shop, Rising Sage Café, and Children’s Discovery Gallery, the National Museum of Wildlife Art provides an exciting calendar of events and exhibitions from its permanent collection and changing exhibitions from around the globe.

Open Monday through Saturday, 9am-5pm and Sundays, 11am-5pm.

Experience the wonder of nature through the lens of Thomas D. Mangelsen.

170 North Cache, Jackson WY | 1/2 block north of the town square | 888-238-0177 | www.mangelsen.com CO LL EC TO R ED I T I O N PR I N T S | A R T I S T PRO O F PR I N T S | B O O K S | C A L EN DA R S | A R T C A R D S

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S

ave the Date

21 years of one-of-a-kind artistry What does

look like?

S

Find out

eptember 5-8, 2013 21s t A N N U A L

WesternDesignConference.com • Snow King Center

At Home with Nature Rick’s 75 W Little Ave, PO Box 515 Driggs, ID 83422 PH: 208-354-2030 ricks@silverstar.com www.ricksonline.biz Rick’s, located in downtown Driggs @ the old lumber yard, is a collection of local and regional artisans and their works.

Traditional oils, acrylics, pastels, photography, just to name a few, gathered in a 10,000 square foot arena. Home décor, yard art, “repurposed” furniture, pottery, tile and much more awaits you in a comfortable, open setting. In addition, Rick’s offers full service custom picture framing and graphic printing. Quick turnaround, quality framing, at affordable pricing.

Conservation and preservation framing also available. A price to meet every need.

By Nature Gallery minerals • fossils • jewelry • home decor • gifts 86 East Broadway (next to Haagen-Dazs) www.bynaturegallery.com • jacksonhole@bynaturegallery.com

307-200-6060 BEAVER CREEK LOCATION Gerald R. Ford Hall, 45W Thomas Place, PO Box 8934, Beaver Creek, CO 81620, 970-949-1805

NANCY WEEZY FORMAN L imited

edition images on canvas

RARE Gallery of Jackson Hole 60 East Broadway, 2nd Floor Jackson Hole, WY PH: 307-733-8726 www.raregalleryjacksonhole.com RARE Gallery….. a Collectors Destination!

This 6000 sq' Rick Armstrong signature gallery continues to debut “Art for the New West” in Jackson Hole! Our collections include blue chip works, masters’ collections, museum quality designer jewelry and art from the most acclaimed emerging artists of today. Featuring paintings, sculptures, photographs, glass, 3 dimensional art, and designer jewelry.

Specializing in art consultation and collection management.

Weezy

22/125

“miles” juniperwinddesigns.com ~ 215.805.0035 WINTER 2013 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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The most authentic horseback riding experience in Jackson Hole.

trailside galleries

oduction to r t n i

rodeo

Learn Team-Roping, Barrel Racing & More at Your Own Pace No Experience Needed Safe, Trained Professional Rodeo Horses (307)690-0676

 www.introductiontorodeo.com

130 East Broadway, Jackson, WY PH: 307-733-3186 www.trailsidegalleries.com Trailside Galleries is the premier Western Art Gallery specializing in works by leading contemporary western artists for the discerning collector. A hallmark of excellence since 1963, our gallery actively represents the finest painters and sculptors in the United States and feature an unequaled collection of art across several genres: Western Art, Native American Art, Impressionism, Figurative, Landscape Art, Southwestern Art, Wildlife Art and Western sculpture.

“Our favorite knives” Savuer Test Kitchen “Knife Art” Fine Cooking

On the corner of Deloney and Center St on the Jackson Town Square newwestknifeworks.com

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307 733 4193 Toll Free 877 258 0100

West Lives ON Traditional & Contemporary Galleries 55 & 75 N. Glenwood, Jackson, WY PH: 307-734-2888 www.westliveson.com Discover an extraordinary collection of traditional and contemporary Western art. Both galleries display works depicting the rich heritage of the American West featuring Western, wildlife and landscape art in original oils, acrylics, watercolors and bronze. Come see these impressive pieces from over 100 regional and national artists. Our knowledgeable staff will assist you in finding that special piece you are looking for in our vast collection, ranging in style, mediums and price range. Visit both galleries on Glenwood St. across from the Wort Hotel.

Grand Teton Gallery opened its doors in June of 2011, and continues to bring something new and exciting to Jackson Hole. With a flavor of the west in both Traditional and Contemporary art, the gallery exhibits paintings in all mediums as well as bronzes from some of the foremost artists in the United States.

Rip Caswell, a leading wildlife and figurative sculptor, is featured prominently throughout the gallery, as well as Chester Fields. Field’s eagles and other birds of prey are also sought by collectors throughout the world. Notable sculptors on exhibit at the gallery also include, Al Hone, Jody Kroeger, Kim Corpany, Jim Gilmore and Wyoming native, D. Michael Thomas. Thomas’ bronzes depict cowboys and events he participated in, as well as witnessed firsthand, growing up in Wyoming.

Grand Teton Gallery proudly represents the current Official US Air Force Artist, Chris Hopkins. In 2004, Chris accepted an invitation to join the Air Force Art Program. Recently returning from a tour of Afghanistan, his paintings are included in a permanent collection of the Pentagon in Washington D.C.,in the office of the Surgeon General of the United States, and has been mandated by the Pentagon to document and honor the story of the Tuskegee Airmen. His work on display at the gallery also includes western wildlife, and its traditions.

“No Trespassing” Original Watercolor

by GAYLE WEISFIELD

Contemporary local painters, Deb Penk, Carrie Wild and Deb Fox, exploit a variety of subject matters with vibrant colors and attitudes. The gallery is balanced with equally talented traditional local landscape and still life artists, Gary Keimig, Tom Lucas and Alissa Hartmann.

Bold and distinct describes the watercolor selection offered at the Grand Teton Gallery. National and International award winning painter, Gayle Weisfield’s work captures your emotions and is unique in grandeur.

Australian born, oil painter, Clayton Ottley, has spent the last 15 years in Botswana Northern South Africa. Ottley’s work encompasses the essence of African and North American wildlife. Applying his wildlife guide experience to canvas, Ottley captures personality, environment and the elements. Prestigious collectors around the world praise Ottley for his unique talent and eagerly await his latest release.

“On the Square Original Oil by Local Artist ALYSSA HARTMANN

Entrepreneur, owner, proprietor, Ian McLennan, left a thriving financial business in Australia, moving to Jackson in 2008. Involving himself in the Fall Arts Festival in 2010, Ian pursued his new love and respect for the arts, by opening his own Grand Teton Gallery. With a larrikin streak of the Australian culture, Ian, wearing his authentic Jackson Hole Cowboy Hat, expertly and buoyantly recites “Cowboy Poetry” and/ or dances quick two-step to the music at hand. The gallery not only offers Grand diversity and exceptional talent in all varieties, but is said to be the friendliest gallery in town. This warm atmosphere has artists, collectors, locals and visitors, always leaving with a smile on their face and glad they came.

130 W. Broadway • Jackson, WY 83001 • 307.201.1172 • www.grandtetongallery.com • info@grandtetongallery.com

Best of

JH

mercantile

Lodging Hotels

MetWest Terra: Hotel Terra & Teton Mountain Lodge Where luxury comes naturally, Hotel Terra is a 4-diamond, eco-hotel. Enjoy breakfast/lunch at Terra Café or spoil yourself at Chill Spa. (800) 631-6281, hotelterrajacksonhole.com. Teton Mountain Lodge is the perfect ski vacation base camp. Our 4-diamond lodge is home to Solitude Spa and Spur Restaurant & Bar – Chef Kevin Humphrey’s “Best Executive Chef” in JH, 4 years in a row. (800) 631-6271, tetonlodge.com.

The Lodge at Jackson Hole The Lodge at Jackson Hole offers luxurious, newly remodeled rooms and suites featuring modern amenities enveloped in rustic elegance and divine comfort. This exceptional hotel boasts more than Western hospitality by offering spa treatments, restaurant, lounge, local shuttle services, and complimentary hot breakfast each morning, all while being just minutes from the historic town of Jackson and an easy drive to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.

(800) 458-3866, lodgeatjh.com.

The Rustic Inn Creekside Resort & Spa A premier luxury resort in the heart of the great American West. Located on twelve lush acres along Flat Creek and adjacent to the National Elk Refuge, just a few blocks from Jackson’s lively Town Square, the Rustic Inn welcomes guests with warm Western hospitality. Outdoor enthusiasts and hedonists alike delight in the lavishly appointed historic rooms and luxury cabins, state of the art amenities, revitalizing spa, innovative cuisine, year-round activities and idyllic setting. (307) 733-2357, RusticInnatJH.com.

Resorts

Four Seasons Resort Jackson Hole At Four Seasons Resort Jackson Hole, we love to share our passion for America’s greatest wilderness playgrounds, Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Park. Experience AAA, Five Diamond and Forbes Five Star mountain luxury amidst the grandeur of majestic mountains with abundant wildlife & pristine natural beauty. Enjoy ski- in/ski-out luxury at the base of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort with 156 guest rooms, suites and private residences. Professional meeting services with the largest meeting and banquet space in Jackson Hole. Relax in any one of our restaurants while dining on the freshest regional cuisine. (307) 732-5000, Fourseasons.com/Jacksonhole.

Vacation Rentals

The Clear Creek Group The Clear Creek Group provides caretaking and rental services for private properties in Jackson Hole, from fire lit log cabins to grand mountain estates. Guests enjoy a luxury hotel experience in an exceptional private home, while homeowners simply relax, and reap the rewards. In a word, the very best of Jackson Hole. The Clear Creek Group, (307) 732-3400, 120 West Pearl Avenue, Jackson WY 83001, theclearcreekgroup.com.

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Rendezvous Mountain Rentals & Property Management Specializing in short-term vacation rentals at Teton Village, the Aspens and Teton Pines.

We offer over 40 years of combined property management experience in Jackson. Our only business is property management and we are your direct connection to great homes and condominiums. Locally owned and operated, conveniently located on the Teton Village Road across from the Aspens. (307) 739-9050, (866) 864-0119 or rmrentals.com.

Activities Coeur d’ Alene Art Auction The 27th Annual Coeur d’ Alene Art Auction will be held July 27, 2013 at the Peppermill Resort/ Casino in Reno, Nevada. Coeur d’ Alene is the largest auction of its kind in the country with over $200 million in sales over the last ten years. The auction specializes in period Western American paintings and sculpture from 1880-1940 along with a very select group of contemporary artists.

Now taking quality consignments for the 2013 auction. For evaluation of artwork/collections and consignment information please call (208) 7729009 or www.cdaartauction.com.

Introduction to Rodeo Introduction to Rodeo is a new horseback experience in Jackson Hole, WY. If you always wanted to be a real cowboy, then this is the adventure for you. Learn how to Barrel race at your own speed, you go as slow or as fast as you are comfortable. Then lets Rope, learn how to rope a dummy on the ground before we get you back on your horse to rope a life like dummy.

Then lets learn how to move a real cow around the arena. Sound like fun, because it is and safe for all ages and NO EXPERIENCE NEEDED. (307) 690-0676, introductiontorodeo.com, jamie@introductiontorodeo.com.

Jackson Hole Art Auction The Jackson Hole Art Auction is an annual live auction held each September during the Fall Arts Festival. It has quickly become one of the premier western art events in the country, defined by the high standard of works offered by both contemporary western artists and deceased masters. (866) 549-9278, jacksonholeartauction. com, or coordinator@jacksonholeartauction.com.

Jackson Hole Shooting Experience Whether a novice shooter or experienced marksman, come have a BLAST as we focus on safety, education and FUN! We provide year-round classes (NRA’s Basic Pistol, Rifle & Shotgun; Personal Protection courses; private Defensive Pistol instruction; Archery; Youth instruction & more) as well as customized private luxury entertainment shooting experiences for individuals, groups, wedding parties, family retreats and corporate events! Our ‘Multi-Gun Pistol & Rifle Experience’ can’t be missed!

ShootinJH.com or (307) 690-7921.

Jackson Hole Wine Auction Jackson Hole Wine Auction is one of the preeminent charity wine auctions in the country. Each year brings exquisite wines and food creations from award-winning chefs together for an extraordinary weekend in an incomparable setting, Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Come raise your paddle June 21-22, 2013 at

the 18th annual Jackson Hole Wine Auction benefitting the education and outreach programs of Grand Teton Music Festival. (307) 732-9961, jhwineauction.org.

Teton Valley Ranch Camp Since 1939, Teton Valley Ranch Camp has taught children the values of the American West: hard work, honesty, integrity, perseverance, responsibility, and reverence for the natural world. With horseback riding and backpacking at the core of our program, we offer month long sessions for boys and girls, family camp and high school leadership programs. Contact us at (307) 733-2958 or tvrcamp.org.

Ski Resorts

Big Sky Resort This is Big Sky Resort, where 400 inches of annual powder fall on 3,832 skiable acres and 4,350 vertical feet. It’s the biggest skiing in America, but it’s not just the stats that are giant: vast diversity of terrain, massive wildlife in nearby Yellowstone National Park, and a huge helping of Montana hospitality make for epic experiences and big smiles. The only things that aren’t big are the lift lines, ensuring you get all the vertical your legs can handle. Unwind after a powder-filled day in your luxurious slope-side accommodations, and get ready to live big again tomorrow. (800) 548-4486, bigskyresort.com.

Grand Targhee Resort A year-round mountain resort situated on the western slope of the Tetons in Alta, Wyoming.

The abundance of light powder snow (over 500 inches annually) and lack of lift lines create an uncrowded skier and snowboarder paradise.

The resort is continually recognized for its great snow, genuine Western hospitality, scenic beauty, excellent value and commitment to sustainability.

800-TARGHEE, GrandTarghee.com.

Jackson Hole Mountain Resort Jackson Hole Mountain Resort is a one of kind ski area when it comes to skiing in the west.

2,500 acres of world class skiing awaits with diverse terrain for both beginners, intermediate and expert skiers with everything from expansive groomed runs to powder filled chutes and bowls.

The Aerial Tram takes skiers up the vertical rise of 4,139 feet to the summit elevation of 10,450 feet giving Jackson Hole the highest continual vertical rise of any ski area in the United States.

Jackson Hole’s winter 2012/2013 season is November 24th – April 7th. (307) 733-2292, or jacksonhole.com for details.

Yellowstone Club Yellowstone Club, the world’s only private ski and golf community, located in Big Sky, Montana, offers member access to 2,200 private skiable acres, including over 60 runs and 15 lifts; the Club is also connected to neighboring ski resorts creating the largest contiguous skiing in America, totaling 7,732 skiable acres. The property itself is 13,600 acres, supplying unparalleled opportunities for outdoor recreation in both winter and summer. This private community also includes a spectacular 18-hole Tom Weiskopf designed golf course in a beautiful mountain setting, along with world class fly fishing and unlimited outdoor exploration in the summer. For more information please visit yellowstoneclub. com and contact YC Realty at (406) 995-4900 or ycsales@yellowstoneclub.com.

Wildlife Viewing

EcoTour Adventures Amazing wildlife viewing and park tours through Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks.

Join us for an educational experience that just might be the highlight of your vacation. We offer half-day, full-day, and multi-day options. Small group tours with one of our professional guides assure your desired experience. Jackson’s green and sustainable tour company. Explore with us year-round! Top rated on TripAdvisor.com. (307) 690-9533, jhecotouradventures.com.

Wildlife Expeditions of Teton Science Schools You are invited to join a professional biologist in a comfortable safari-style vehicle for a fun, ethical and educational wildlife viewing experience your family will never forget! Learn about the natural and cultural history of the area with a non-profit organization that has been operating in Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks for over forty years. Expeditions depart daily, year-round and vary in length from four hours to multiple days. Private and custom expeditions also available. Reserve your expedition today (307) 733-2623 or wildlifeexpeditions.org.

A Café with Attitude.

A Spa with Altitude.

Enjoy a combination of organic and healthy alternatives in the Terra Café for breakfast or lunch, and a spa experience like no other at Chill Spa, rated in the “Top 10” by Organic Spa. Jackson Hole’s premier eco-luxury hotel located at the base of the Tetons.

Golf and Tennis

Teton Pines Country Club & Resort Established in 1987, Teton Pines is consistently rated among the world’s finest mountain golf facilities. More than just a spectacular Arnold Palmer Signature Course, Teton Pines also offers year-round tennis, cross-country skiing, fly fishing, lodging, wedding and banquet services and dining at The Pines Restaurant - highly rated by the readers of Conde Nast Traveler magazine.

(800) 238-2223, tetonpines.com.

Teton Village 307-739-4000 hotelterrajacksonhole.com

Museums

Jackson Hole Historical Society and Museum Museum exhibitions display the history of Jackson Hole, trappers, dude ranchers, homesteaders, adventurers and characters. The historical society features a library of Western Americana, research center with archival and biographical data, photograph archives, map collection, oral history collection, and manuscript archives. 225 North Cache, (307) 7332414, jacksonholehistory.org.

National Museum of Wildlife Art Connect with wildlife and the natural world.

Featuring a NEW outdoor sculpture trail with major installations, permanent collection of more than 5,000 items, stunning architecture, 14 galleries, Museum Shop, Library, Café and Children’s Discovery Gallery, the National Museum of Wildlife Art is not to be missed.

With permanent and changing exhibitions from around the world, programming and special events for all ages, there’s always a new reason to experience your museum in Jackson Hole. For information about exhibitions and events, visit us online at WildlifeArt.org. Open daily (9am - 5pm during summer; off-season: 9am - 5pm Mon-Sat; 11am - 5pm Sun) overlooking the National Elk Refuge in Jackson, WY. (307) 733-5771 or tollfree (800) 313-9553.

Artists Nancy “Weezy” Forman “More than just a truck” Specializing in photography of Vintage Pick-Up Trucks and more. Weezy takes these unforgotten relics

Open daily or by appointment • 307.201.1348 • ROCKLOBSTERJH.COM ON THE TOWN SQUARE 36 EAST BROADWAY JACKSON, WY 83001 WINTER 2013 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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and brings them back to life. A piece of American, nostalgic, artistic & automotive…

They sit with beautiful backgrounds where they are discovered. Each picture tells a story.

Weezy’s photographs rival the sensitivity of a traditional fine oil painting. Images are Giclee Prints on Canvas signed and numbered.

JuniperWindDesigns.com.

Art Auctions Coeur d’ Alene Art Auction The 27th Annual Coeur d’ Alene Art Auction will be held July 27, 2013 at the Peppermill Resort/ Casino in Reno, Nevada. Coeur d’ Alene is the largest auction of its kind in the country with over $200 million in sales over the last ten years. The auction specializes in period Western American paintings and sculpture from 1880-1940 along with a very select group of contemporary artists.

Now taking quality consignments for the 2013 auction. For evaluation of artwork/collections and consignment information please call (208) 772.9009 or www.cdaartauction.com.

Jackson Hole Art Auction The Jackson Hole Art Auction is an annual live auction held each September during the Fall Arts Festival. It has quickly become one of the premier western art events in the country, defined by the high standard of works offered by both contemporary western artists and deceased masters. jacksonholeartauction.com, (866) 5499278, coordinator@jacksonholeartauction.com.

Shopping Boot Barn Take home the real. The wild. The West. From boots and jeans to shirts, hats and accessories, you’ll find everything you want and everything you need at Boot Barn. Boot Barn has the largest selection of western and work apparel and boots including Wrangler, Lucchese, Old Gringo, Tony Lama, Stetson and more. At the lowest prices, guaranteed. Visit Boot Barn at 840 West Broadway in Jackson or call (307) 733-0247, Bootbarn.com.

Festive Living Festive Living is a 3,000 sq ft retail store and full service interior design firm located in downtown Victor, Idaho on 13 S. Main St. The store has an eclectic mix of rustic, traditional and modern furnishings and home accessories as well as tabletop and houseware items. Our staff of interior designers can consult, space plan, help you with one room or furnish your entire home from top of bottom. We are open Monday-Saturday 10am6pm. (208) 787-FEST, festive-living.com.

Heriz Rug Gallery Jackson’s premier rug gallery. Extraordinary selection of fine, tribal, nomadic, western, silk/ wool blends and antique rugs in the intermountain region. Our rugs are handmade by master weavers with natural dyes and are one-of-a-kind pieces. We buy, sell, trade, clean and repair. Also featuring exotic furniture. Honest and reliable service every day. Complimentary shipping within U.S. 165 North Center Street. (307) 733-3388.

Jack Dennis Outdoors Shop Locally owned and operated for over 40 years, Jack Dennis Outdoors Shop, on the Town Square, is Jackson’s premier outdoor lifestyle 144

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shop. We offer outdoor clothing, skiing, fishing, camping, hunting, a gallery and gift shop. Check out our North Face Summit Shop. Town Square location, (307) 733-3270.

Jackson Bootlegger Offering a unique shopping experience, we carry an extensive selection of footwear from lines such as Lucchese, Ugg, and Dansko, as well as accessories from George, Gina and Lucy and Hobo International. We are located on the south side of Town Square. Call (307) 733-6207 or visit thebootlegger.com.

Jackson Hole Sports Located in the Bridger Center at the base of the Gondola. The largest selection of fashion, technical outerwear and accessories from Marmot, Patagonia, Mountain Hardwear, KJUS, Smith, Oakley and Giro. Skis and boots from Rossignol, K2, Salomon, Fischer, Dynastar and Atomic. Custom boot fitting and precision tunes and repairs from an experienced staff. (307) 739-2687.

JH Sports Rental & Demo Center The largest fleet of demo and rental skis and boards for the entire family. Quality and convenience at the base of the Bridger Gondola.

High performance demos from Rossignol, K2, Salomon, Fischer, Dynastar and Atomic. Baskets and lockers available to rent for slope side storage. Info and reservations: (307) 739-2649, or pre-order online at jacksonhole.com.

Kismet Rug Gallery Known for fine masterpieces, antique rugs, outstanding contemporary and western rugs. We have been serving the world as a major wholesaler for over 200 years. Extensive collections of Herizes, Serapies, Kilims, Sultanabads, Gashgaies, Caucasians, Kashans, Kermans, Qums, Tabrizes, Sarouks, Bijars and turn-ofcentury tribal pieces. We also specialize in hardto-find oversized rugs and offer professional hand washing, padding and complete restoration. Open 10 - 6pm, Mon - Sat. One block off the Town Square at 140 East Broadway. kismetrugs.com, info@kismetrugs.com, (307) 739-8984.

MD Nursery - Gift Shop, Greenhouse & Garden Café At MD Nursery we are more than just a greenhouse. Our gift shop offers a wide variety of home décor, antiques, unique gifts, kid’s toys and outdoor furniture. We are conveniently located on Highway 33 in Driggs, Idaho, and just 30 minutes from Jackson, Wyoming. If you are looking for something different to do stop by our shop and have lunch at the Thyme Out Café. MD also provides a full-service florist for weddings, parties and funerals. Winter hours are 8am - 6pm Monday through Saturday. (208) 354-8816, mdlandscapinginc.com.

New West KnifeWorks Based in Jackson Hole, WY. The world’s finest kitchen cutlery made sustainably in the USA. Super high performance with an artistic flair. Kitchen knives, steak and kitchen sets, accessories and more. “Our Favorite Knives” Saveur Magazine. Located on the Jackson Town Square on the corner of Deloney and Center Street. (877) 258-0100, newwestknifeworks.com.

Pepi Stiegler Sports Experienced, knowledgeable staff offers precision custom boot fitting, world class

ski tuning, with outstanding customer service. Exceptional brands, express first-rate rentals and a huge selection of brand name skis, boots, poles, outerwear, helmets, goggles and accessories. Bicycle rentals. Pepistieglers.com.

Pepi’s Olympic Center, (307) 733-4505 or Pepi’s at the Alpenhof, (307) 733-6838.

Rick’s Rick’s, located in downtown Driggs at the old lumber yard, is a collection of local and regional artisans and their works. Traditional oils, acrylics, pastels, photography, just to name a few, gathered in a 10,000 square foot arena.

Home décor, yard art, “repurposed” furniture, pottery, tile and much more awaits you in a comfortable, open setting. In addition, Rick’s offers full service custom picture framing and graphic printing. Quick turnaround, quality framing, at affordable pricing. Conservation and preservation framing also available. A price to meet every need. ricks@silverstar.com, ricksonline.biz, 75 W Little Ave., Driggs, Idaho 83422, (208) 354-2030.

Rock Lobster Lifestyle Boutique Located at 36 East Broadway on the Jackson Town Square. “Where classic and timeless luxury meet in the mountains.” Mens casual and dress wear: W.Kleinberg, Peter Millar, Barbour, Southern Tide, Scott Barber, Bill’s Khaki’s, Smather’s and Branson, Bird Dog Bay Ties, Women’s apparel swim to cocktail dresses: Raoul, Barbour, Lilly Pulitzer, Marc Cain, Jude Connally, Elizabeth McKay, Tyler Boe, Laroque, Gifts, Jewelry, Apothecary. Open daily Mon - Sat 10:00 – 6:00pm, Sunday 12:00 - 5:00pm (inseason later closures). (307) 201-1348.

Scandia Home Scandia Home offers the finest down pillows, down comforters, bed linens, duvet covers and foundations. Scandia brings a sense of luxury to everyday life. In the world of luxury sheets, bedding and home furnishings, nothing else comes close. Jackson Hole , Wy. (800) 7331038, scandiadownjh.com.

Spirit Books, Gifts, Life Specializing in material to open and expand the mind and heart to greater awareness and Universal connection, Spirit offers a conscious array of books, gifts and happenings for adults and children, located in downtown Wilson. spiritjh.com, (307) 733-3382. 1230 N Ida Lane, Wilson, WY 83014.

Stio Stio™ is a mountain apparel company. Designed and developed in Jackson Hole, Stio was founded to inspire connection with the outdoors through beautiful, functional products. Stio is apparel you can live in – in both the epic and quieter moments of outdoor life. Stio, Let the Outside In. Visit Stio at 10 East Broadway, Jackson, Wyoming 83001, call (307) 201-1890 or visit our website stio.com.

Terra and Terra Tots Everyday favorites for women, men and children newborn to ten. Find an expertly curated selection from contemporary labels such as Calypso, James Perse, Milly, AG Adriano Goldschmied, Mother, Current/Elliott, Tucker, Vince, TOMS and so much more!

Located on the Jackson Town Square, open daily. 105 E. Broadway, (307) 734-0067, terrajh.com.

Teton Tails Unique gifts for dogs, cats and the people who love them. Collars, toys, gourmet treats, outdoor gear (including Ruff Wear), holistic food and supplements, and breed-specific gifts. 250 W Pearl, (307) 739 – WAGS (9247); tetontails.com.

Teton Village Sports Jackson’s oldest and finest specialty ski and snowboard store, demo center, rental and repair shop. Offering premiere brands such as Arc’teryx, Bogner, Patagonia, and the North Face as well as Volkl, Rossignol, Salomon, Tecnica, Blizzard and many more. Located in the Crystal Springs Lodge at the base of the Jackson Hole Ski Resort. (307) 733-2181, tetonvillagesports.com.

The General Store Located at the base of the Aerial Tram. Warm up with a gourmet hot chocolate of a coffee drink prepared by a trained barista. Grab and go snacks, beer, wine, liquor and souvenirs. Open daily at 7 am.

Vom Fass The Vom Fass concept is based on the simple European tradition of sampling wares prior to purchase. We are proud to offer tastes of our wide selection of products, ranging from artisanal oils, vinegars and spices to exclusive Scotches and whiskeys, fine brandies and other unique spirits and liqueurs to carefully selected wines. 60 E. Broadway (under the Snake River Grill), Jackson, WY 83001. (307) 734-1535.

Wool & Whiskey Located on the Village Commons, next to the Mangy Moose. Wool & Whiskey is a men’s mercantile shop with a fully stocked whiskey bar. Shop for men’s wear and accessories with a modern western twist. Stop by from 4 - 6pm for daily happy hour specials. Open daily, (307) 732-4080.

Dining Cafe Genevieve Located 1/2 block East of the Town Square at 135 E. Broadway. Serving a Southern inspired home cooked menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Cafe Genevieve offers a cozy atmosphere in a nationally registered historic log cabin. Enjoy a specialty cocktail in the lively bar or a bottle of wine from the eclectic wine list with your meal. Open daily. Reservations (307) 732-1910 genevievejh.com.

Couloir Restaurant Located at the summit of the Bridger Gondola at 9,095’, Couloir provides a unique dining experience. Chef Wes Hamilton features American cuisine with Rocky Mountain roots that highlight organic and local flavors. In July 2012 Jackson Hole Mountain Resort with Couloir Restaurant became the first U.S. ski resort to join 1% for the Planet. Open for lunch daily. Dinner Thursday and Friday nights with expanded holiday service. Reservations (307) 739-2654.

Il Villaggio Osteria Italian Cuisine and Wine Bar. Inside Hotel Terra at Teton Village. Open for lunch and dinner. For reservations call (307) 739-4100, jhosteria.com, @jhOsteria.

Wilson, WY. 307.733.3382 spiritjh.com

Spirit, metaphysical books, gifts, and programs nurturing heart, body, and mind.

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Lobby Lounge at Four Seasons Resort The Lobby Lounge is an intimate and comfortable bar and restaurant with a sleek Western look featuring great views of the Rendezvous Mountain. Our creative sushi chefs offer fresh sashimi, nigiri, maki, temaki and specialty rolls in peak summer and ski season.

Bar bites and plates for the whole table to share are also available. Indoor and outdoor seating is available. Complimentary valet parking. (307) 732-5000 or fourseasons.com/jacksonhole.

Discover the

CHARACTER & CHARACTERS

of the Tetons

Through the region’s leading lifestyle magazines

Rendezvous Bistro American Bistro. 380 South Highway 89/ Broadway. Open nightly at 5:30. Happy hour at the bar from 5:30 - 6:30. For reservations call (307) 739-1100, rendezvousbistro.net, @ jhBistro.

Roadhouse Restaurant and Brewery Eclectic roadhouse fare. 2550 Moose Wilson Road. Open nightly at 5:00. Happy hour at the bar from 5-6 and 8-9. For reservations call (307) 739-0700, qjacksonhole.com, @jhQroadhouse.

Snake River Grill Offering fine dining in a rustic-elegant setting for over 19 years on the Town Square. Our Modern American menu features organic produce, prime steaks, game chops and jet-fresh seafood. Our chef was nominated “Best Chef: Northwest” at the James Beard Awards. Over 300 wines and a full cocktail and beer list at our intimate new bar.

Bar 5:30 & Dining Room 6pm. Reservations at (307) 733-0557 or visit snakerivergrill.com.

Spur Restaurant & Bar Voted gold for “Best Chef” in JH Weekly’s “Best of JH,” Chef Kevin Humphrey unveils his new restaurant this December! Former Cascade followers will find a new look, with some old favorites still on the menu. Focusing on Artisan Mountain Cuisine, Humphreys uses fresh ingredients to create wonderful menu options. Enjoy an après ski cocktail on our expanded terrace, or inside in the newly remodeled bar and dining room. Serving breakfast, lunch, dinner and kids menu. Located inside Teton Mountain Lodge & Spa (307) 7326932. Tetonlodge.com.

Local daily news, current events, insightful features, hot topics in the community, business listings, dining and much more.

Log on and explore!

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Terra Café Voted Silver for “Best Breakfast Burrito” in JH Weekly’s “Best of JH,” Terra Café is an eco-friendly restaurant, dedicated to organic ingredients for breakfast, lunch or apres’ ski.

Enjoy a selection of crepes, burritos, wraps, soups and smoothies. Enjoy a great breakfast before hitting the slopes, or slip in for lunch or a break mid-day. And remember us an après ski locale! Located in Hotel Terra (307) 739-4025.

The Handle Bar The Handle Bar is an American Pub & Beer Hall that features a wide selection of American and International beers, whiskeys and provisions.

It is the ideal spot for hungry mountain bikers, travelers and revel rousers. The menu offers a diverse selection of classic pub grub with a modern twist. The Handle Bar specializes in wood grilled burgers and sausages. Snacks, soups and salads round out the variety of lunch and dinner menu items. Open Daily for breakfast, lunch & dinner - Complimentary Valet ( 307) 732-5000.

The Kitchen Modern American Cuisine. 125 North Glenwood in Downtown Jackson. Open nightly at 5:30.

Happy Hour nightly 5:30 - 6:30. For reservations call (307) 734-1633, thekitchenjacksonhole. com, @jhKitchen.

Westbank Grill A modern American steak house inspired by indigenous flavors and local traditions. Prime steaks grilled to perfection on a 1,800 degree infrared grill along with signature side dishes and sauces. Also features an extensive wine list and seasonal farm to table highlights. Enjoy views of the ski slopes and the outdoor terrace on sunny afternoons. Open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Complimentary valet parking - ( 307) 732-5620 or Fourseasons.com/ Jacksonhole.

Catering

Bistro Catering If you are in need of a private chef for a romantic dinner for two, or a large wedding or gala event for 200 or more with all the bells and whistles, Bistro Catering is your premier choice for excellent service and creative menu design.

Bistro Catering will walk with you step-by-step to create the perfect event so you can enjoy the party. Whatever the occasion or location, Bistro Catering will help you create the perfect event. (307) 739-4682, bistrocatering.net, @ jhBistroCater.

Wine & Spirits

Bin22 Wine, microbrews and spirits. Small grocer including cheese, salumi and pastas. Mozzarella bar serving Spanish and Italian style tapas. Open daily 10am - 10pm. Downtown corner of Millward and Broadway. (307) 739-9463.

Grand Teton Brewing Grand Teton Brewing has been brewing handcrafted beers at the base of the Tetons since 1988. Our beers are crafted from only the best ingredients, including locally grown grains, Idaho hops and pure Teton Mountain spring water. 430 Old Jackson Hwy, Victor, ID 83455. (888) 8991656, grandtetonbrewing.com.

Grand Teton Vodka Grand Teton Vodka distillery is on the Yellowstone-Teton scenic loop drive. Opening in June 2012, this craft distillery produces premium vodka from famous Idaho potatoes and pure mountain water. Potato vodkas are often rated the best in the world and this one is produced and bottled in America. We offer tours of the distillery Monday through Saturday, but would appreciate a call for any group over 6. By spring 2014, we hope to offer tastings and purchase at the distillery. 1755 Hwy 33 North, Driggs, Idaho. (208) 35-GRAND (47263). For latest info check the web site tetonvodka.com or facebook.

Jackson Hole Winery A family owned and operated winery that takes pride in producing fine handcrafted wines in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The winery sources fruit from some of the highest quality vineyards in the Sonoma and Napa Valleys. The cool mountain air preserves the wine’s aromatics through a slow fermenting and aging process allowing the wine to develop its distinctive personality. jacksonholewinery.com, (307) 2011057. info@jacksonholewinery.com, facebook. com/jacksonholewinery.

Westside Wine & Spirits Your one-stop beverage destination on the West Bank. We feature a broad selection of liquors, specialty beers and over 700 fine wines from around the world. Our experienced staff will assist you in planning a party, finding the perfect gift or simply choosing the appropriate wine for any occasion. Located at the Aspens on Teton Village Road. (307) 733-5038. Email westside@ wyoming.com.

Wyoming Whiskey Handcrafted Small Batch Bourbon Whiskey made from only Wyoming ingredients under the direction of Master Distiller and Bourbon Hall of Famer Steve Nally. Distilled, Aged and Bottled in Kirby, Wyoming. wyomingwhiskey.com.

Transportation Precision Aviation, Inc. Precision Aviation offers a variety of aviation services including charter, aircraft management, aircraft maintenance, and pilot service. We are central to all locations in the Western United States with aircraft based in Twin Falls, Idaho and Driggs, Idaho. Precision Aviation can fly you to virtually any destination in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Phone (208) 308-1852, Fax (208) 735-1291, paviation.com.

Teton Aviation Center Fly-in to Teton Aviation Center and enjoy our full-service FBO with heated hangar space.

We also offer both scenic glider and airplane rides over the Tetons. If you are already a pilot, our flight department offers both mountain flying courses and aerobatic instruction. Stop in to see the warbird display and dine in our full service restaurant, Warbirds Café. Located at 253 Warbird Lane, Driggs, Idaho. For more information, call (800) 472-6382 or visit tetonaviation.com.

WILDLIFE EXPEDITIONS OF TETON SCIENCE SCHOOLS

Real Estate Brokers of Jackson Hole, LLC Brokers of Jackson Hole, LLC is a newly formed company created and owned by hand picked and tenured Jackson Hole real estate brokers who are proven industry professionals. Each Broker-Owner was chosen based on their demonstrated work ethic, their commitment to excellence and their ethical standards. 2012 company sales leaders are Timothy C. Mayo (307) 690-4339 and Doug Herrick (307) 413-8899.

Jackson Hole Real Estate Associates - Exclusive Affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate JHREA is the regions largest real estate brokerage and the proud recipient of the 2011 Global Affiliate of the Year Award from Christie’s International Real Estate. The reputation of JHREA for exemplary client service and market knowledge combined with the power of Christie’s International Real Estate, the largest network of independent real estate firms, offers a synergy between local strength and global networking.

(888) 733-6060, JHREA.com.

Melissa Harrison & Steve Robertson, Associate Brokers - (307) 690-0086, melissaharrison@jhrea.com Carol Linton, Associate Broker (307) 732-7518, carollinton@jhrea.com

Grand Teton and Yellowstone Expeditions Departing Daily Jackson Hole, Wyoming

(307) 733-2623 www.wildlifeexpeditions.org Nonprofit Organization · Local Biologists Custom Vehicles · Ecofriendly Adventures WINTER 2013 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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David A. Neville, Associate Broker (307) 734-9949, davidneville@jhrea.com Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty We outsell all other real estate brokerages combined - 9 local office locations. 185 W. Broadway, Jackson (307) 733-9009 or toll-free (888) 733-9009, jhsir.com.

Tom Evans, Associate Broker (307) 413-5101, Tom.Evans@JHSIR.com, TomEvansRealEstate.com.

Mercedes Huff, Associate Broker (307) 690-9000, Mercedes.Huff@JHSIR.com, mercedeshuff.com John Resor, Associate Broker (307) 739-8062, John.Resor@JHSIR.com Pamela Renner, Associate Broker (307) 690-5530, Pamela.Renner@JHSIR.com Brandon Spackman, Associate Broker (307) 739-8156, Brandon.Spackman@jhsir.com, SpackmansInJh.com Dave Spackman, Associate Broker (307) 739-8132, Dave.Spackman@jhsir.com, SpackmansInJh.com Jarad Spackman, Associate Broker (307) 739-8131, Jarad.Spackman@jhsir.com, SpackmansInJh.com Ranch Marketing Associates Ranch Marketing Associates represents the top echelon of ranch and recreation real estate brokers throughout the American West. RMA’s Brokerage Team consists of highly experienced business executives who listen and understand their client’s needs. Using inherent knowledge and combined proficiency in real estate negotiations, sales, land use, real estate law, land management, and effective marketing strategies, RMA provides clients with unequaled representation. RMABrokers.com, Ron@ RMABrokers.com, (970) 535-0881 and Billy@ RMABrokers.com, (970) 948-1333.

Teton Valley Realty 253 S Main Street, Driggs ID 83422, (208) 354-2439, tetonvalleyrealty.com, info@ tetonvalleyrealty.com Mark S. Rockefeller, Broker, (208) 351-1411 Julie Rockefeller, Associate Broker, GRI, (208) 351-1412 Mandy Rockefeller, Associate Broker, GRI, SFR, ABR, (208) 313-3621 William Fay, Sales Specialist, (208) 351-4446 Tayson Rockefeller, Sales Specialist, (208) 7091333 Dan White, Sales Specialist, (208) 206-1516 Jenna Child, Sales Specialist, (307) 413-4368 The Double L Ranch Nestled between meandering bends of the Salt River and 9,000 ft mountain peaks, the Double L Ranch affords the most discerning buyers an opportunity to enjoy a true western paradise.

Just 45 minutes south of Jackson Hole in western Wyoming’s wild and scenic Star Valley, the Double L is one of America’s most desirable residential sporting communities. (866) 6844159, dblranch.com.

Yellowstone Club Yellowstone Club, the world’s only private ski and golf community, located in Big Sky, Montana, offers member access to 2,200 private skiable acres, including over 60 runs and 15 lifts; the Club is also connected to neighboring ski resorts creating the largest contiguous skiing in America, 148

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totaling 7,732 skiable acres. The property itself is 13,600 acres, supplying unparalleled opportunities for outdoor recreation in both winter and summer. This private community also includes a spectacular 18-hole Tom Weiskopf designed golf course in a beautiful mountain setting, along with world class fly fishing and unlimited outdoor exploration in the summer. For more information please visit yellowstoneclub. com and contact YC Realty at (406) 995-4900 or ycsales@yellowstoneclub.com.

Interior Design, Furnishings and Architects Carney Logan Burke Architects Carney Logan Burke Architects maintains a commitment to enhance mountain communities through thoughtful, innovative design and to create a legacy of buildings in tune with the region’s natural beauty. The practice includes community facilities, commercial buildings, resorts, mixed-use complexes, affordable housing and residential architecture in Wyoming and the greater west. We are located at 215 South King Street. (307) 733 - 4000, design@ clbarchitects.com, clbarchitects.com.

Custom Iron Design Custom Iron Design is a full-service decorative iron and fabrication shop located in Jackson Hole Wyoming. We specialize in, but are not limited to, working directly with clients to create custom metal artwork, fireplace doors, handrails, lighting fixtures and functional amenities. Your imagination is the only limit to what we can produce. Attention to detail is paramount at Custom Iron Design, and the highest quality work is our goal. We hope you consider visiting the shop to see what is currently underway. Customirondesign.biz, (307) 413-2289.

Festive Living Festive Living is a 3,000 sq ft retail store and full service interior design firm located in downtown Victor, Idaho on 13 S. Main St. The store has an eclectic mix of rustic, traditional and modern furnishings and home accessories as well as tabletop and house ware items. Our staff of interior designers can consult, space plan, help you with one room or furnish your entire home from top of bottom. We are open Monday-Saturday 10am6pm. (208) 787-FEST, festive-living.com.

Harker Design Harker Design has been providing high-end interior design services for over 30 years. Our long-standing tradition has been to exceed the expectations of our clients by individually customizing each project from concept to finished installation. Visit our showrooms located in Wilson, Wyoming (307) 733-5960; Big Sky, Montana (406) 993-9423; and Idaho Falls, Idaho (208) 5233323. References available. harkerdesign.com.

Laurie Waterhouse Interiors Laurie Waterhouse Interiors is a full-service interior design firm with more than fifteen years experience. Both the retail store and design studio feature home furnishings and accessories including an abundance of design resources.

Laurie Waterhouse Interiors offers their clients the opportunity to create the home of their dreams.

90 E. Pearl Ave. in Jackson, WY. (307) 7320130, laurieinteriors.com, lwi@laurieinteriors.com.

Willow Creek Home Furnishings Visit our showroom, just off the town square at 115 East Broadway. Willow Creek Home Furnishings is an eclectic mix of unique home furnishings, one of a kind local artisan pieces, antiques and area rugs. Our large showroom also features home accessories, jewelry and gifts. Our design team at Willow Creek understands that your home is as unique as you and your lifestyle and we are always available to discuss your interior design project needs. willowcreekhf. com, (307) 733-7868.

WRJ Home and WRJ Design Studio WRJ Home and WRJ Design Studio offers a sophisticated selection of high quality furnishings, unique lighting, decorative objects, luxurious throws, exclusive fabrics and antiques from the 18th century to contemporary. We also offer selected works from renowned artists both locally and nationally. Our Showroom locations are at 30 King St., Jackson, WY and 57 South Main St. in Victor, ID. Contact (307) 2004881, wrjassociates.com and wrjhome.com.

Landscaping MD Nursery & Landscaping, Inc. For over twenty years we have been servicing Jackson and Eastern Idaho. We are the region’s premier landscape contractor, garden center and floral shop. We are conveniently located on Highway 33 in Driggs, Idaho, and just thirty minutes from Jackson, Wyoming. Our landscaping department offers concept to design services as well as full installation of natural landscapes ranging from water features, rock work, ponds, trees and shrubs, sod and irrigation. MD also does excavation, road construction and sewer and water work. Stop by and visit our full service greenhouse, gift shop, floral shop and garden café. Winter hours are 8am - 6pm Monday through Saturday. (208) 354-8816, mdlandscapinginc.com.

Medical Centers St. John’s Joint Replacement Center The St. John’s Center of Excellence in Orthopedics is a multidisciplinary endeavor focusing on total joint replacement for hips, knees and shoulders. All joint replacement patients are treated with the latest evidenced based technology and protocols to maximize their safety, comfort and clinical success. St. John’s Medical Center, 625 E. Broadway, (888) 739-7499, tetonhospital.org/coe.

Dog Boarding The Hairball Hotel The Hairball Hotel offers a unique home style, no cage, boarding environment for canine clientele. With fifteen years of experience, three-quarters of an acre of fencing, three separate yards and two separate buildings, your dog will be in good hands. In the summer there are baby pools for your dogs to cool-off.

Whether you are going away for weeks or just for the day, try The Hairball Hotel. Reservations are highly recommended. Located in downtown Victor, just 30 minutes from Jackson. 44 Depot Way, Victor, Idaho. (208) 787-2806, hairballhotel.com.

Jackson Hole's Complete Transportation Service

AIRPORT GROUND TRANSPORTATION YELLOWSTONE TOURS

GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK TOURS CHARTERS • SALT LAKE CITY SHUTTLE

Touring Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks since 1973!

(307) 733-3135 • 1-800 443-6133 • shuttle@jacksonholealltrans.com

www.jacksonholealltrans.com

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Just a few things to do in Jackson Hole

Purchase fine art prints of this map at: http://bit.ly/Uq3GuE 150

JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE WINTER 2013

Jackson n Warm up with a MexiMocha at cocolove. n Take a twirl on the Town Square ice rink (p. 38). n Speed recovery from skiing with a MELT class (p. 112). n Fly downhill in a tube at Snow King (p. 38). n Pick up a bottle of Rendezvous Red (p. 22) or Wyoming Whiskey (p. 30). n Catch the start of the

International Pedigree Stage Stop Sled Dog Race. n Cheer on the Jackson Hole Moose Hockey team.

Teton Village n Ride the new high-speed Casper Quad, and check out the new terrain. n Grab a meal at Michael Mina’s new restaurant, The Handle Bar, inside Four Seasons Resort Jackson Hole (p. 26).

n Listen to a Grand Teton Music Festival concert at Walk Festival Hall (p. 130). n Learn to ski Jackson Hole Mountain Resort’s steeps (p. 104). n Order the make-your-own gourmet hot chocolate dessert at Il Villaggio Osteria. n Find friends to split the $8,000 cost of Elevated Après, a Champagne, caviar, and buffalo carpaccio-fueled party on the JHMR tram.

Grand Teton National Park n Do a ranger-led, guided snowshoe hike (daily from the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center at 1:30). n Snowshoe around Bradley and/ or Taggart lakes. n Get permits and learn about park history at the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center.

n Look for wolves along Antelope Flats Road. n Ask Dornan’s bartenders to borrow binoculars (after you order pizza and a drink).

Wilson n Hit Disco Night at The Stagecoach Bar (p. 115). n Cross-country ski or snowshoe up Old Pass Road. n Dig into local flavor at Nora’s Fish Creek Inn.

n Sample the valley’s newest brewery inside Q Roadhouse (p. 118). n Get a hot bagel (but don’t ask them to toast it) at Pearl Street Bagels. n Wander the aisles at Hungry Jack’s General Store (p. 24).

Further Afield

Dog Tours (p. 38). n Try snow biking the Nordic trails at Grand Targhee Resort (p. 108). n Take a snowcoach into Yellowstone and spend the night at Old Faithful Snow Lodge. n Go to jacksonholemagazine. com for more details.

n Drive a team of sled dogs to Granite Hot Springs with Jackson Hole Iditarod Sled WINTER 2013 JACKSON HOLE MAGAZINE

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Best of

calendar of events

The International Pedigree Stage Stop Sled Dog Race, the largest sled dog race in the Lower 48, kicks off at the Jackson Town Square on January 25.

Ongoing The Big One: Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in Teton Village is open for skiing and snowboarding from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily through April 7.

Aerial tram, gondola, and nine other lifts—including a new Casper chair—access 4,139 vertical feet and 2,500 acres of in-bounds terrain. Mountain Sports School offers ski, snowboard, telemark, and adaptive lessons for all ages and abilities. For snow reports, call 1-888-DEEP-SNO (333-7766) or go to www.jacksonhole.com.

The Town Hill: What locals call Snow King Resort, which looms over downtown Jackson. Lifts open at 10 a.m. daily (except Mondays, when it’s closed), and the season runs through March 31. The King boasts 400 acres of skiable terrain with night skiing available until 6:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; Saturdays and Sundays lifts close at 4 p.m. King Tubes snow tubing park is open Tuesday through Friday from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m.; weekends and holidays 11:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Call 733-5200 or visit www.snowking.com.

Powder Paradise: Grand Targhee Resort on the west slope of the Tetons above Alta, Wyoming, is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily through April 21. Four lifts, 2,400 vertical feet, and 2,000 acres of skiable terrain. Guided snowcat skiing available. Also includes fifteen kilometers of pristine cross-country ski trails, tubing hill, and more.

Call 800/TAR-GHEE or go to www.grandtarghee.com.

Learn More: The newly updated Jackson Hole and Greater Yellowstone Visitor Center at 532 North Cache Street includes information and representatives from seven government and private agencies. It is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. A variety of programs and activities are available. Call 734-9378 or visit www.fs.fed.us/jhgyvc.

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First Sunday Celebrations: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the National Museum of Wildlife Art on the first Sunday of every month. Enjoy kids’ art projects, refreshments, galleries, and for locals, free admission. Call 733-5771 or go to www.wildlifeart.org.

Hootenanny: Enjoy two-song sets by local acoustic musicians every Monday from 6 to 9 p.m. at Dornan’s Pizza & Pasta Co. in Moose.

You’ll get everything from western to bluegrass, country, folk, and blues. And Dornan’s food is pretty tasty, too! Call 733-2415 or visit www.dornans.com.

Puck Fever: The Jackson Hole Moose Hockey team plays full-check hockey against other regional clubs. They’ve got a thirty-game schedule, with matches usually firing up at 7:30 p.m. most Fridays and Saturdays through March at the Snow King Center. Go to www. moose.pucksystems2.com for more.

Wapiti Watch: Sleigh rides onto the National Elk Refuge—and into the middle of the elk herd—depart from the Jackson Hole and Greater Yellowstone Visitor Center at 532 North Cache Street daily (except Christmas) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Reservations for groups of twenty or more are required; reservations for smaller groups are not necessary but can be made by calling 733-9212. Visit www.fws.gov/ nationalelkrefuge/.

Music Under The Tram: Local bands play live music under the Tram dock at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort at 3 p.m. on Saturdays in March— March 2, 9, 16, 23, and 30. Go to www.jacksonhole.com for more.

Après Ski & Art: Every Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. between December 21 and April 5, stop by Diehl Gallery at 155 W. Broadway for a glass of wine and some of the finest contemporary art in the West. Call 7330905 or go to www.diehlgallery.com.

bradly j. boner

JH

December

15 to 24 Santa on the Square The Town Square hosts Santa Claus every evening from 5 to 7 p.m.

31 Jackson Hole Mountain Resort New Year’s Eve Celebration Festivities kick off with a kids’ glowworm parade; a traditional torchlight parade on Apres Vous Mountain starts at 6 p.m. The evening ends with a bang (fireworks) following. Call 739-2770 or go to www.jacksonhole.com.

29 Betty Woolsey Classic A twelve-kilometer Nordic ski race at Trail Creek Ranch in Wilson honors Woolsey, who in 1936 was the captain of the first women’s Olympic ski team. Call 733-6433 or visit www. jhskiclub.org.

January

5

Gore US Ski Mountaineering National Championships Because just skiing downhill is boring, this ski mountaineering race challenges athletes to yo-yo their way up and down the slopes of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. Don’t want to climb up Corbet’s? There’s a recreational class in addition to the race class. Call 7332292 or go to www.jacksonhole.com.

6

USSMA Ski Mountaineering Classic Ski mountaineers can race a second day this weekend, this time at Grand Targhee. Call 353-2300 or go to www.grandtarghee.com.

12 Snow Bike Race at Grand Targhee Resort Call 353-2300 or www.grandtarghee.com.

25 International Pedigree Stage Stop Sled Dog Race Kicking off in downtown Jackson—mushers race their dogs along a spectator-friendly course—the cere monial start of the race, the largest sled dog race in the Lower 48 states, is followed by all sorts of free activities. The race ends Feb. 2 in Uinta County, Wyoming.

For more information, call 733-5200 or visit www.wyomingstagestop.org.

February 5

to 7 Wyoming Winter Special Olympics Jackson Hole hosts this annual competition including alpine and cross-country skiing, snowboarding, and snowshoeing.

Call 800/735-8345 for more.

bradly j. boner

31 Snow King Resort New Year’s Eve Torchlight Parade This open-to-the-public torchlight parade starts at 6:15 and is followed by fireworks provided by the Jackson Jaycees.

A Dodge Ball On Ice Tournament is one of several events scheduled for the 3rd annual Winterfest from February 15 to 24.

15 to 24 Winterfest With events from the Shriner’s All-American Cutter Races to skijoring (skiers being pulled behind galloping horses), snow sculptures on the Town Square, dodge ball on ice, snowshoe softball, and a snow biking race, Jackson Hole spares nothing in this celebration of the season. Call 733-3316 for more information.

16 Moose Chase Nordic Ski Marathon Skate skiers of all ages and abilities compete in a 25K, a half marathon, and a Mini-Moose Chase. Call 733-6433 or www.jhskiclub.org.

March 9

to 10 31st Annual Jackson Town Downhill This annual race with all sorts of different categories—race, telemark, fat, and baggy—decides who’s the fastest of them all. At Snow King. Call 733-6433 or visit www.jhskiclub.org.

21 to 24 World Championship Snowmobile Hill Climb Vroom! Vroom! Racers climb the steepest run on Snow King Mountain on stock and souped-up sleds—different classes—to take the titles of King and Queen of the Hill. Call 734-9653 or visit www.snowdevils.org.

30 to 31 Jackson Hole Mountain Festival Skiing is always more fun when there’s a party going on, and this is JHMR’s party of the season, drawing mountain and music lovers. This year O.A.R., Of A Revolution, headlines. Call 733-2270 or go to www.jacksonhole.com.

30 38th Annual Pole Pedal Paddle This rite of spring challenges individuals and teams to downhill ski, Nordic ski, bike, and paddle between Teton Village and Astoria Hot Springs in the Snake River Canyon. Some take it seriously, others “race” in costume. Call 733-6433 or visit www.jhskiclub.org.

30 Annual Town Square Easter Egg Hunt Sponsored by Wells Fargo, this egg stravaganza (sorry, we couldn’t resist!) begins at 10 a.m. Call 733-3316 for more information.

31 Snow King Closing Day In recent years, Snow King’s end-of-the-season party has gotten more and more crazy with pond skimming, costumes, and entertainment.

Visit www.snowkingmountain.com.

April 7

Jackson Hole Mountain Resort Closing Day Whatever the weather—raging storm or sun—locals come out in outrageous costumes and clothing (or lack thereof).

Call 739-2770 or www.jacksonhole.com.

20 12th Annual Cardboard Box Derby at Grand Targhee Revelers slide down the slopes in comical handmade crafts. Call 353-2300 or visit www.grandtarghee.com.

21 Grand Targhee Resort Closing Day Send the season out with a bang. Call 353 2300 or go to www.grandtarghee.com.

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CHRISTIE’S INTERNATIONAL REAL ESTATE GLOBAL AFFILIATE

Greene & Greene | The Legacy

Simply Stunning

This architecturally significant Indian Springs home is a tribute to Greene and Greene architecture and the Arts and Crafts movement. Meticulous craftsmanship, exquisite finishes and expansive views along with the graceful floor plan offers you the best of Jackson Hole. Curved walls and beams, copper accents and accent lighting focus on the great detail put into this home. This home overlooks a pond that sits on 289 acres of open space with views of the Grand Teton. MLS 12-1838 $7,250,000

Cascading light and impeccable craftsmanship define this exquisite Jackson Hole Golf & Tennis home. This enchanting 4,352 sq. ft., 4-bedroom home is situated on a gorgeous 1.06 acre landscaped lot on the Fairway, with stunning open Teton views - just north of Jackson! Thoughtfully designed inside and out, the home is warm and inviting and enjoys illuminating light all throughout. MLS 12-1269 $2,800,000

Philips Ridge Estate Parcel

The Ultimate Family Retreat

Absolutely incredible 18 acre Estate Parcel in the Phillips Ridge subdivision just north of Wilson. The building envelope resides among a mature and grand setting of Cottonwoods on the banks of Fish creek with views of the Teton Range, The Sleeping Indian, and of course Fish Creek. Quite the home front Promoting a wonderful outdoor lifestyle with access to the Bridger Teton National Forest, Fish Creek, and your private stocked pond, and a just a short walk to Nora’s and the Post office. YES your horses are welcome too. MLS 11-2569 $4,950,000

The impeccable quality and attention to detail which permeates the entire residence begins with the massive stone fire place in the well established great room, and carries through to the soaring glass windows, which drawing in the surrounding vistas and mountain settings. The home boasts 12,000 sq. ft. of living space, 5 main home suites, 7 fireplaces, an executive office, a wine cellar, a home theater, an exercise room, stone patios, and an elevator. The self contained 2 bedroom guest home, as well as an oversized 4 car garage, complete this exceptional property. MLS 12-1329 Price Upon Request

CLIENT CENTERED | PERFORMANCE DRIVEN David A. NeVille, Associate Broker | Susan NeVille Douglas Howard, Associate Broker | Shawn M Asbell, Sales Associate 307.734.9949 | 888.733.6060 | info@thenevillegroup.com

Find out why now is the PERFECT TIME to make JACKSON HOLE your home.

Find This Week’s Best Values Stay on Top of the Real Estate Market Learn about the Community Put an Expert to Work for You

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jhsir.com

2012 MARKET UPDATE

JACKSON HOLE SOTHEBY’S INTERNATIONAL REALTY 185 W. Broadway Jackson, WY 83001 |

888.733.9009 www.jhsir.com

®,™ and SM are licensed trademarks to Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC. An Equal Opportunity Company. Equal Housing Opportunity. Jackson Hole Sotheby’s International Realty is Independently Owned and Operated.

Sanctuary

Find yours in Jackson Hole.

Immerse yourself in the sanctuary of Jackson Hole. Mercedes Huff, Mindy White, Molly Hawks and Laurie Huff deliver unparalleled service with an easy going approach. Let them find your perfect Jackson Hole location.

MERCEDES HUFF, Associate Broker

mercedeshuff.com phone 307.690.9000