Years of study at The Royal Ballet School earned Francesca Romo a spot with a touring company in the United Kingdom, bringing her to Jackson Hole for the first time in the mid-2000s.
The towering sentinels of the Tetons are well known in the outdoor community as a playground rife for exploration, especially for those who routinely push the boundaries of their bodies, their gear, time and strength. In this audacious arena, pushing limits isn’t a mere concept — it represents the very essence of existence for many
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What is immediately striking about viewing the Jackson valley from above is what isn’t there. Development. Houses. Pavement. With few exceptions, the landscape seen from the top of the Aerial Tram (10,450 feet above the valley floor) looks much as it did a century ago. There are wide open spaces braided with waterways. Stands of
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Spend enough time in this valley, and you will surely hear tales of the old Jackson, the Western lifestyle that once was — “the good old days.” You might hear hearty sighs over times gone by and endless stories of what once was. It is a Western mountain-town epic that has become all too familiar
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B.J. Reed loves to dance and, even more so, she loves to teach dance. If you wander into the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar at about 8 p.m. on a Thursday night, you’ll see her doing just that. The dance floor is full of dancers of all ages and sizes, including locals and visitors. Often, they
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It all starts with snow,” Mark Fisher says with a grin and playful shrug. Without hesitation, he identifies a key thread that traverses his extensive filmmaking and photography experience, showcasing adventures from across the globe. From the summit of Everest to the most revered peaks in the Tetons, the stories Mark weaves begin with a
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Skiing has always been central to Sarah Carpenter’s life. As a kid growing up in Santa Fe, she skied in Taos, and as a teen, she and some friends convinced Ski Santa Fe to start a freestyle team on the mountain. “It was basically us convincing the ski area that we should be able to
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David Bowers has three different lives. A typical day at work involves one of several longtime careers. One as an Exum mountain guide, spending summers guiding in the Tetons and beyond. A second as a professional photographer, whose work has been featured for many years in this very magazine. And a third as a ski
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Growing up in the woods of Maine with two biologist parents instilled a love of the outdoors and the creatures that live there in Aly Courtemanch, a wildlife biologist for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. Aly smiles nostalgically, recalling her initial resistance to becoming a biologist. “I thought biology was geeky!” she remembers. A
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Three cow elk appear almost ghostlike in the soft stillness of dawn. As the first hints of the morning light reflect against their shrouded figures, the quiet intimacy of this moment is almost palpable against the canvas it is painted on. Entitled “Three Matriarchs,” the painting captures a reverent memory from artist Kathryn Mapes Turner’s
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If you want to find Don Sharaf, you need to know the season. Don, also known as “Big Don,” has never held a 9-to-5, 40-hour-a-week job in his 30-year career. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t worked. In fact, when Don is on a project — regardless of what that project may be — he’s usually
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Gary Trauner thinks part of what makes Jackson, Jackson, is its incredible ecosystem. Not just the natural ecosystem — the public lands and wildlife for which the Tetons are famous — but also its ecosystem of talented and accomplished people. These people, he believes, are the ones who can help Jackson become more ecologically, economically,
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Endurance athlete, mountain biker, strength and cycling coach, fly fisher, trail runner, and dog owner can all be used to describe Jenny Wolfrom-Holladay, a true versatile Jackson recreationalist. These passions paired with a background in nonprofit work prepared Jenny to take the helm as the new executive director at Coombs Outdoors, a local nonprofit that
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If Jackson can boast a quintessential “mountain culture” — which it can — then surely Benny Wilson is one of its cultural icons. For a particular subgroup of ski bums, Benny represents the mythical past and the authentic and burly present of Jackson Hole. Benny laughs when I ask him about the early 1970s ski
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For most of the familiar hike up the Glory bootpack, Caite Zeliff and I enjoyed watching the December sun setting in the west. Just when we reached the summit, the full moon rose into the sky, pink with alpenglow. The objective of the day was to move our legs and catch up on each other’s
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Places like Jackson Hole don’t just happen. Critical elements of the community’s everyday infrastructure and services must be thoughtfully designed and mindfully managed. Over the past couple decades, Heather Overholser has been a visionary in developing community systems that are safe, convenient, and reflect the valley’s values. As the county’s director of public works, Heather’s
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On a trip to the Italian island of Sardinia, Dr. Annie Fenn found herself fascinated by the island’s reputation for longevity and its high number of centenarians — people who have reached the age of 100. Annie, a physician and foodie, was particularly interested in the traditional Sardinian diet of powerhouse brain foods. “They typically
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On one side of the door is a rack of skis — old 3-pin metal-edged touring skis, lightweight touring skis, racing skate skis, and everything in between. On the other side is a wall of stacked wood to fuel the stove that’s puffing a trail of smoke into the cold winter air. Inside is a
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Technically, Carrie Wild paints Western wildlife. But the verve and whimsy that she infuses into each of her paintings is compelling and unexpected — you won’t mistake one of her thoughtful animal profiles for a photograph. She hopes, though, that what your eye doesn’t immediately identify as familiar, your heart and memory will. Through an
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Chef Maho Hakoshima calls his cooking “eclectic,” which makes sense when you hear his story. His mother is German and his father is Japanese. He was raised in New York City. “My parents grew up dodging bombs on the way to school during World War II,” Maho says. “In the 1950s, they both immigrated to
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