Sun Valley Magazine | Winter 2016-2017

EXCEPTIONAL WOMEN | KNEE HEALTH | CURLING | SNOWMOBILE SKIING | VALLEY STARTUPS Winter 2016/2017

A Life in the Sky

ED VIESTURS’ 18-YEAR JOURNEY TO THE WORLD’S HIGHEST PEAKS

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CONTENTS // features

108 A LIFE IN THE SKY

Ed Viesturs’ 18-year journey to the top of the world

BY ADAM TANOUS

116 BALDY OVER THE YEARS

A history in photos

122 ON THE THROTTLE

Finding gas-powered turns in the backcountry

BY KITT DOUCETTE

ON THE COVER

128 MOUNTAIN MUSIC

Historic pianos of the Sawtooth Valley

Ed Viesturs navigates a steep pitch at 22,000 feet on Annapurna. Maurice Herzog’s climbing account, “Annapurna” was what first inspired Viesturs to dedicate his life to climbing.

BY BRYANT DUNN

PHOTO COURTESY ED VIESTURS

CONTENTS // departments

50 42 LOCAL BUZZ Keep Up if You Can

Four women raising the bar

In the Limelight

90

Aspen-based hotel opens its doors

Inspiration for a New Generation Sun Valley’s Olympic ladies

62 360 KIDS

100

Wintertime Fun in Sun Valley Entertaining the little ones

Playing hard, knees feel the impact

Getting Back Out There

Understanding the benefits of knee rehab

Climbing for a Cure

On an Expedition Inspiration climb

82 GET OUT THERE Welcome to Stanley’s Winterfest

The best winter festival you’ve never heard of

Ice Rocks! From End to End

Curling finds a new beginning in Hailey

The Joy of Yurting

Winter magic in the round

The Rise of the Fat Bike Bicyclists take to the snow

96 INNOVATION Valley of Invention

The Wood River Valley economy

Water the Vyykn Way

Rethinking the way we consume water

Silicon Comes to the Valley Orflo keeps bio-tech local

134 IN THE ARTS Passionate About Music

Jenny Krueger embraces a symphony’s growth

Worldly Art

International artists in the Wood River Valley

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE 24 From the Publisher 26 Featured Contributors

148 FOOD & DRINK

64 Favorite Finds

Winter’s Best Friends

92 Summer Events

Winter Squash

142 At the Galleries

Stews & chili

From decoration to dinner

20 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

148

156 Dining Around Town

/ courtesy eddie bauer

Knee Season

top left ( lexi dupont) : will wissman top right: tory canfield

72 BODY & SOUL

ONLINE // sunvalleymag.com VIDEO Read the stories about Nayla Tawa and Lexi duPont on pages 46-52, then visit us online to view a beautiful video of their incredible journey to Kyrgyzstan.

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We recently redesigned our entire website, sunvalleymag.com, to make it more user-friendly. We have also incorporated responsive design so that you get the same award-winning content on phones, tablets or desktop computers. On our site you will find all of our print stories, as well as a wealth of additional online content, including resource guides, videos and online features. Look for the best of Sun Valley life in our Arts, Food & Drink, Community, Health, Adventure, Home & Design, and Wedding sections. You can also enjoy digital editions of Sun Valley Magazine in our extensive archives and access all of our social media sites.

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On our digital magazine page, you can enjoy back issues of Sun Valley Magazine. Travel back in time to see what we were covering at the turn of the century (21st!) and beyond.

Looking for an old article? Spend some time in our archives—an ongoing, living record of life in the Wood River Valley. Also check out our digital edition of TASTE of Sun Valley on the Food & Drink page!

fromthepublisher // insight

inter sweeps across the cover of this issue of Sun Valley Magazine in frosty blasts of crystallized cloud and frozen glacial ice, as Ketchum local Ed Viesturs stands precariously on a steep pitch during his ascent of Annapurna.

It seems a nearly impossible task—ascending an almost vertical sheet of ice nearly five miles above the level of the sea while facing sub-zero temperatures, extreme weather and an environment where the body literally begins to shut down and die from lack of oxygen. And indeed, perhaps it is. Many have died attempting the summit of the world’s highest peaks. And Annapurna, the first Himalayan summit to have ever been successfully claimed (reached in 1950 by a French expedition led

by Maurice Herzog, a full three years before the summit of Everest was successfully claimed), carries one of the greatest fatality rates of the 14 “eight-thousanders” (peaks over 8,000 meters / 26,247 feet).

And yet, Viesturs’ Annapurna summit on May 12, 2005, marked the culmination of an 18-year journey to climb all 14 8,000-meter peaks without the aid of supplemental oxygen and cemented him as one of the world’s elite high-altitude mountaineers (read about Viesturs’ 18-year journey in “A Life in the Sky” on page 108). In completing his Anapurna summit, Viesturs became the sixth person in the world and the only American to ever do so.

It is an impressive record for an unassuming and softspoken man from Ketchum, one made all the more remarkable given the extraordinary risks involved.

But that is not why we do it.

We each have our own reasons for stepping out into the snow-covered terrain and pitches surrounding the Wood River Valley. And while we all may not be climbing without oxygen to the top of the world like Ed Viesturs, many of us carry the same deep and abiding love of the outdoors with us into the mountains of Central Idaho.

And it is to this shared passion that this issue of Sun Valley Magazine is dedicated.

These pages are filled with men and women who embody the character of rugged individualism that defines life in Idaho. They are the personification of the mountain spirit—a quality of character that seems to spike dramatically the moment the first snow begins to fall, and never really ends. It simply changes seasons.

During the winter months, when the tops of the mountains are dusted with snow, then swallowed in deep drifts of foaming white, it is as if the world is washed clean and each of us is an explorer standing on the edge of our own new world. Perhaps this accounts for the desire to step out and blaze our own path.

This is the mountain spirit, and it means a lot more than simply donning the latest North Face gear, clicking into a pair of K2 Pinnacle skis or mounting a GoPro to your helmet. The mountain spirit is a way of life that represents a deep knowledge of your true self, of what you are made of and how far you are willing to push yourself; and also, when to stop.

It is experiencing the reality that nothing turns out how you expect, as writer Kira Tenney learned after interviewing four women who are raising the bar in the world of big mountain sport and mountaineering (“Keep Up If You Can” on page 42). Read about Nayla Tawa, who recovered from a broken back and sternum to strike a resounding “yes” to adventure and launch a career in film and sport (page 46). Her collaboration with fellow-local Lexi duPont was a partnership born out of a shared passion for snow riding that led to a deeper journey and friendship chronicled in the film “Return to Kyrgyzstan” (visit sunvalleymag.com to view the trailer).

Sometimes a friendship can launch its own dream—albeit one anchored in hard work, rigorous training, planning and determination—as it did with the team of Maddie Miller and friend, mentor and stand-out mountaineer, Melissa Arnot, as they set their sights on the “50 Peak Challenge” (climbing the high points in every state in the U.S. in 50 days). Read about their journey in our Local Buzz department, or explore the backcountry of snowmobile-accessed powder turns with local adventurers Kitt Doucette and Wyatt Caldwell (“On the Throttle” page 122).

In the end, the mountain spirit is much more than just stepping outdoors. It is the willingness to take action on the impulse to explore the edges of our own boundaries. It is a state of mind born out of independence and the ability to listen to an inner voice that is not influenced by the noise of the world.

These pages are dedicated to the men and women who take action on that impulse and listen for that voice—and they are also an invitation to follow your own this season as well.

Enjoy the outdoors!

publisher

24 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

Laurie Sammis / editor-in-chief

photo: FiveB studios

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featuredcontributors // writers & photographers

kitt doucette is a enaissance man with unyielding positivity. Groomed in the mountains of Idaho, Kitt is a lifelong skier and kayaker, enthusiastic surfer and award-winning journalist whose work has been published in Rolling Stone, Men’s Journal and Dossier, among others. When not tracking polar bears in Norway, surfing empty waves in Indonesia or sipping coffee in Central America, he can be found busting out signature dance moves at wedding receptions throughout the American West. (“On the Throttle,” page 122).

amy busek is a fairly recent transplant to Idaho, having moved to the Gem State for a job in 2014 after finishing her journalism degree. She has worked as a reporter, editor, lifeguard, election vote counter and barista—currently finding meaning in marketing and proposal development.

Amy was born and raised on the Big Island of Hawaii. Her hobbies include being a newshound, cooking, and hanging out with her boyfriend and their miniature Australian shepherd. (“In the Limelight,” page 58).

dev khalsa a local studio owner, and her husband took a ski vacation to Sun Valley in 2002, fell in love with the area and decided to make it their home. After four years as a staff photographer for the Wood River Journal, she launched her own business, Dev Khalsa Photography. Ten years later, the studio has become a Valley go-to for family portraiture and wedding photography. Dev credits her success to her roots in photojournalism and the lasting relationships she has built with each of her clients. For her, photography is an act of storytelling. It is, first and foremost, an exercise in observation and empathy. (“Wintertime Fun in Sun Valley,” page 62; “A Life in the Sky,” page 108).

todd meier has a passion for telling other people’s stories. He has spent the last 15 years trying to pass on his subjects’ stories through photographs. He immerses himself in their world, taking the viewer along for the ride. From knee-deep powder in the backcountry, to a downtown office in the middle of any city, Todd finds the connection between himself and his subject. Living life in Boise and beyond with his wife, Lorie, and daughter, Ella, Todd is always looking to the next adventure. (“Mountain Music,” page 128).

also in this issue photographers: Karen Bossick, Wyatt Caldwell, Tory Canfield, Kat Cannell, Ray J. Gadd, Chris Syms, and Kevin Syms

26 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

writers: Karen Bossick, Bryant Dunn, Jon Duval, Kate Elgee, Matt Furber, Cheryl Haas, Diana Price, Margot Ramsay, Adam Tanous, Kira Tenney, and Gwen Ashley Walters

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KEEP UP IF YOU CAN Four women who are raising the bar by kira tenney

Women are pushing the limits. They are going faster, enduring longer, and living the message that anyone is capable of anything she sets her mind to and much more. With a community of supportive women and men by their sides, Maddie Miller, Nayla Tawa, Hilary Knight and Lexi DuPont stand out as leaders in their fields. If you want it, go get it. Nothing turns out how you expect.

42 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

Maddie Miller celebrates on the summit of Denali (20,310 feet), the highest point in North America.

Maddie Miller

“I can tell you about when we thought it was going to be impossible,” smiled Maddie Miller.

Weighing in at just over 100 pounds and standing barely five-foot-one, Miller, 19 years old at the time, set out to climb the 50 high points of every state in the U.S. in 50 days with stand-out mountaineer and mentor Melissa Arnot.

The two first came up with the idea while atop Idaho’s high point of 12,662 feet, the summit of Mount Borah. Looking down from what appeared to be the top of the world, Arnot mentioned that it was their second high point together. Miller hadn’t ever heard of a high point before that.

For her graduation present a year earlier, Miller’s parents gave her a guided trip with Arnot to climb Mount Rainier, Washington state’s high point and the most glaciated peak in the Lower 48. Rainier boasts an elevation of 14,410 feet and is typically summited in two to three days after new mountaineers train for one to two days on basic techniques and skills.

Describing that trip up Rainier, Arnot said, “I saw in Miller this incredible passion, and this incredible drive to learn more, to do the best she could, and to be able to explore the mountains in the best way she could. For me it was incredibly inspiring to see a young woman have that kind of drive and that kind of work ethic, and to know that it wasn’t going to be easy, but still be attracted to it.”

As the conversation continued atop Mount Borah, Arnot told Miller about how some people go for speed records and Miller said, “We should do that.” From there, it was on.

Training for the “50 Peak Challenge,” as the women deemed it, involved daily conditioning and multiple expeditions. In December 2014, the two ventured on an expedition to the Cotopaxi volcano, Ecuador’s second highest summit boasting an elevation of 19,347 feet. It was Miller’s first peak with such extreme altitude. It was during this trip that the female duo recognized that Miller needed more time and experience and shifted the goal of the 50 Peak Challenge from summer 2015 to summer 2016.

Reconfiguring their timing in order to best set up for success, Miller and Arnot charged on. In partnership with Eddie Bauer, they organized a four-summit trip to Cocuy WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 43

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Above: Miller and guide Mark Postle approach high camp on Denali. Mount Foraker looms behind them.

National Park in Colombia to develop Miller’s technical training, glacial and mixed climbing skills, and ability to endure high altitudes.

At that time, Miller was also a full-time student at Colorado College. Holding herself to extremely high standards academically in the arts and in the outdoors, Miller adhered to a rigorous training schedule. In addition to full weekend adventures in the mountains, Miller, with her small frame carrying a 65-pound pack, would do conditioning runs up “The Incline,” a trail famous in Colorado Springs for gaining over 2,000 feet of elevation in one mile.

Meanwhile, as the summer of 2016 drew closer, Arnot succeeded in a goal she had been working on for the past nine years: becoming 44 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

the first American female to climb Everest without oxygen.

Soon after Arnot’s Himalayan achievement, the 50 Peaks Challenge was set to kick off with the ascent of Denali in Alaska. As Denali can have very bad weather, technically, the clock would start ticking when the team reached the top of the 20,310-foot glacial peak. Previously, two other all-male teams had succeeded in completing every state’s high point in 45 and 43 days. Miller and Arnot had set their goal to do so in 50 days.

A couple of weeks before day one, the call came in from Arnot that due to severe frostbite on her recent ascent of Everest, she would not be able to join Miller on Denali due to the risk of re-freezing her toes and

causing worse, irreversible damage. Miller and cinematographer Jon Mancuso would have to climb without Arnot.

“What stands out most to me about the 50 Peaks,” reflected John Miller, Maddie’s dad, “is that Arnot, not being able to make the summit of Denali, made it that much more rewarding because Maddie did it on her own.

She said achieving that was the most beautiful moment in her life up until that point.”

After Denali, Miller, Arnot, Mancuso and Allison Groenleer, who was handling driving and logistics, met in Florida. While Miller imagined that the high points of the Southern states would be a sort of rest after hiking Denali, she found herself pushed to her limits, sleep-deprived and extremely tired. The team’s spirits were low and while it was only the beginning, there was a big question as to whether Miller’s goal was way out of reach.

“We were in an RV park in Alabama and basically Melissa asked me, ‘Is this something you want?’” Miller recounted. “It was a pivotal moment because I wanted to prove to myself and my teammates that I deserved to be there, and all the work that we had done the past two years was worth it. I said, ‘Yes,’ and from then on there was a total attitude switch in everyone. It was fun, we laughed a lot and sleep was less important.”

Miller continued, “That experience taught me how much my body is capable of under very extreme circumstances. We would wake up after sleeping on the floor of the van for only an hour and it felt horrible, but it all comes down to attitude. It’s amazing how, in keeping a positive attitude, you can adapt.”

Miller, Arnot and their team checked off the remaining high points in the United States, road-tripping throughout the country, fuelling up on gas station nachos, Subway sandwiches and little to no sleep in between summits.

When Miller and Arnot set foot atop the final summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii on August 7, 2016, the Sun Valley-born-andraised 21-year-old Miller shattered the existing record of summiting the highest points in all 50 states by achieving her goal in 41 days.

“So many people said, ‘yeah, good luck,’ when I told them what I wanted to do. There are so many reasons to doubt yourself, but this trip showed me I can do anything and so can other women or anyone, whatever it is they want to achieve.”

In the end, it’s impossible until it’s not.

photo : jon mancuso

localbuzz // exceptional women

Nayla Tawa takes a break from snowboarding on Bald Mountain. Tawa took up snowboarding at age 11.

For her it became a vehicle to travel the world and explore new cultures.

46 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

photo : jon mancuso

localbuzz // exceptional women

Nayla Tawa

Her back broken in three places, sternum cracked, all the ligaments in her knee torn, Nayla Tawa, adrenaline filled, did not fully grasp the seriousness of her condition.

She attempted to take inventory of the surroundings: bloody snow and crumpled car, awe-inspiring mountains towering to 24,000 feet, one friend and a taxi driver concussed, her other friend completely unresponsive and trapped in the vehicle.

Two days after landing in Kyrgyzstan, everything that had been going so right for Tawa suddenly had gone incredibly wrong.

Born to a French mother and an Egyptian father in the heart of the French Alps, Tawa’s parents moved to Boulder, Colorado, shortly after she was born. Her dad, a doctor, had Thursdays off and would pull Tawa out of school to go skiing, and, ultimately, snowboarding, which Tawa switched to at age 11.

As a vehicle to “experience the outdoors in pure form, discover new cultures, speak new languages and form irreplaceable friendships,” snowboarding fully consumed Tawa after high school. She traveled the world and moved her base camp to Mammoth Lakes, California, where she taught snowboarding during the winters.

She went on to UCLA and was pursuing a geography major and film minor when Brandon Sheaffer, a friend who was in the Peace Corps in Kyrgyzstan, invited her to visit and snowboard. Tawa didn’t know much about the country, but upon hearing about the endless, untouched mountain peaks and perfectly gladed walnut forests, she was in for the adventure and arranged a trip during her spring break.

One of Tawa’s film professors at the time overheard her plans and said that she should make a film about it. Tawa had never done any filming before, but her teacher told her that the only way to learn is to do it.

“I find that women, myself included, tend to find all the reasons we can’t do something,” Tawa said. “‘Oh, I’m not good enough at this, or I don’t have these skills.’ A lot of my male friends just go do it. I try to encourage women to simply try things and with film, although I might not be technically capable, I figured I could probably figure it out.”

Tawa wasn’t interested in making just another ski film in which “Westerners go and conquer foreign mountains,” so she reached WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 47

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It took Hayat Tarikov, head of the Community Based Tourism group, five years to gain the trust of the Arslanbob community. Only then was Tawa able to return to Kyrgyzstan to teach snowboarding, skiing and backcountry safety.

out to Sheaffer to see if there was any local whose story she could tell. Sheaffer put her in touch with Hayat Tarikov in Arslanbob, a town nestled in the world’s largest walnut forest and one of the world’s larger mountain ranges. Tarikov leads a Community Based Tourism (CBT) group that seeks to connect tourists with locals for a unique experience, as well to develop ski and other outdoor tourism in an otherwise struggling economy.

As it is now, Arslanbob’s economy is centered on agriculture. Consequently, in winter, approximately 80 percent of the community is unemployed. Many emigrate to Russia to work as laborers in the construction industry.

“The terrain is insane for winter,” said professional skier Lexi DuPont. “The options for a skier are endless, and it’s just as easy as getting to some place like Japan.” But, in Arslanbob, the majority of those who do ski do so on handmade wooden skis with homemade bindings; gear and training is extraordinarily hard to come by.

Tawa was immediately taken with Tarikov’s mission. “This gets more people to be outdoors, then more want to protect the outdoors,” Tawa said. “You start to see the industry as a tool for prosperity in developing countries, whether it is kayaking or trekking 48 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

or skiing … It’s a big impact for them. I have traveled a lot, and often in developing countries it is those that work in the outdoor industry that can feed their families and send their kids to school. There needs to be a real attitude shift that sports in the outdoors are a not just a hobby but a tool for economic growth. It can be used to really impact people’s lives.”

Tawa put up a Kickstarter campaign and raised $12,000 for her project, which included getting some ski and snowboard gear to Kyrgyzstan. Two days after landing, she got in the horrific car accident that changed the trip and her life.

“I had to help my friends, so I crawled up to the road to wave a car down. I had heard of bridal kidnapping stories in the region, and all I could think when a truck came was that these people are either going to kidnap me, rob me or help me, but I didn’t have a choice.”

They helped her.

Charles, Nayla’s dad, recounted, “The moment that touched me the most during her accident in Kyrgyzstan was that an ambulance came for all of the people who were injured.

One ambulance came, and Nayla was the most injured so was to go in the ambulance.

There was another taxi for the other people

Below: Tawa gives snowboarding lessons to the locals of Arslanbob. The Khrebet Babash-Ata Mountains are in the background.

| boys in arslanbob : jon mancuso

she was with and she asked, in the middle of it all, ‘What’s happening with the Kyrgyz driver?’ He was also injured in the accident.

They replied, ‘He will stay in the village and his family will take care of him; we don’t have room for him in the vehicle.’ Nayla replied, ‘Well, he can take my space in the ambulance; I’m not going if he’s not going. If it’s a matter of money, you can take what you need from my purse and he’s going to be treated also.’

That’s Nayla.”

This winter, after two years of physical rehabilitation in the wake of her injuries and the following mental rehabilitation for PTSD, Tawa returned to Kyrgyzstan to finish the trip she started. She had kept in touch with Tarikov over the years, secured a team, further funding and donations, and spent six weeks with her team teaching snowboarding, skiing, and backcountry safety training. It was the culmination of five years of work Tarikov had put in gaining the trust of the community.

In addition to serving as a Deputy to the Los Angeles Honorary Consulate General to Nepal during the aftermath of the 2015 earthquake, organizing the first all-female trip sailing and skiing on the island of Svalbard in the Arctic Circle, collaborating on nonprofit projects and making documentary films, Tawa charges on with the project in Kyrgyzstan.

For Tawa, the end was only the beginning.

lessons : jerod anklam

localbuzz // exceptional women

FIND YOUR BALANCE

An exceptional ski academy experience for day and boarding studentathletes pursuing their passions while preparing for college and beyond.

Please contact Jonna Mendes, Program Director, at 208.720.0512 or jmendes@sunvalleyskiacademy.org | www.sunvalleyskiacademy.org

photo : jon mancuso

localbuzz // exceptional women

Lexi duPont is all smiles during a powder day on Bald Mountain.

50 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

Lexi duPont

“A lot of members of my family are really accomplished pilots. My grandpa was the first pilot to land in Borneo, my aunts were the first female team to fly across the United States, and my uncle was the first to fly the Amazon. I want to re-do all of their flights with the same navigation and write a book about it. My dad has an old plane from 1955, so that’s the plane I plan to use.”

This is Lexi duPont’s “5- to 10-year plan,” as she calls it. It’s not exactly what one would expect from a 26-year-old professional bigmountain skier, but anyone who knows duPont wouldn’t be surprised at all.

A yoga-loving, surf-bumming, nonprofitsupporting bombshell, duPont has skied her way to top finishes on the World Freeride Tour and into multiple Warren Miller and Poor Boyz Productions films over the years after starting her career at age 19 in Colorado.

Born in Sun Valley, duPont first got on skis when she was 2. She grew up seeing photos of her mother, Holley, flying through the air around the house. Holley was a famous freestyle skier and one of the first women to land a backflip on skis.

DuPont grew up hitting gates and racing alpine with the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF). “The combination of SVSEF and the Community School and its outdoor program created the foundation of who I am today,” duPont with said with obvious gratitude.

She went from thinking she was going to be a professional sailor on the East Coast to transferring to school in Colorado, winning a cash prize at her first ever big-mountain competition in Telluride, Colo., and taking off from there.

Recently, she has transitioned from contests and gravitated toward the filming scene. “In film, I really found my mind can blossom because my only limitation is my own creativity,” she said. “I love coming up with original content and going to different parts of the world to do what I’m passionate about.”

Last winter, duPont joined Nayla Tawa as part of the team “Return to Kyrgyzstan.”

(See profile of Tawa above.) Tawa had been working with Hayat Tarikov, whose Community Based Tourism (CBT) organization is developing an outdoor tourism industry as a means to provide wintertime employment for residents of Arslanbob, Kyrgyzstan. It took Tarikov several years to WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 51

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build the trust of the community to allow the local women to participate in skiing. Tawa had joined Tarikov to make a film about his efforts when she was in a terrible car accident that put her film project on hold for more than two years. After Tawa’s recovery, duPont jumped on board supporting the mission. duPont provided enthusiasm, expertise, and additional sponsors and financial backing for Tawa’s project.

Living in a mud hut with conservative Muslim families for six weeks, duPont said that during the trip, “They said we were never going to get women to ski with us.

‘It’s impossible, women don’t ski. They’re housewives and take care of the farm. They have babies, they don’t play sports.’” But, thanks to years of groundwork by Tarikov, the locals had begun to trust him and accept the concept of ski tourism, as well as the idea of women skiing. While the Return to 52 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

Kyrgyzstan team was there, they were able to include seven young girls in ski lessons.

The first day a young girl showed up, she clicked into her skis and burst into tears.

“Are you hurt?” asked duPont.

“No.” “Then why are you crying?” duPont replied, smiling at the young Kyrgyz girl, who, it turned out, had been told her whole life how dangerous skiing was. She was convinced she had just secured the binding of a death wish. duPont and Tawa navigated the tears and went on to teach sideslipping to the group of local girls and boys. The children lived at the base of towering mountains in a potential world-class ski Mecca, but, until then, had not had the opportunity or equipment to learn how to ski.

“By the end of the day, the girls were flying down the hill, running gates, and

ski jump : will wissman

Clockwise from top: duPont takes flight in Haines, Alaska; duPont at the controls of “Blue Thunder,” the 1955 plane in which she hopes to recreate several adventures undertaken by other pilots in her family; Tawa and duPont make a plan.

saying they wanted to be doctors and lawyers and teachers,” duPont said. “For their whole lives they had been told they couldn’t do (certain things), and then they had this newfound confidence that they could do anything.”

“Kyrgyzstan, like everywhere, is seeing the effects of climate change and experienced an unusually thin snow year,” duPont said. “By the time we left, everyone said, ‘The reason the snow is melting is because the American girls came and melted it with their warm hearts.’”

Being a skier, duPont is especially concerned about climate change. This winter, duPont is hoping to team up with Mountain Collective—a collaboration of 14 independent ski resorts—and Protect Our Winters (POW), an education and advocacy group, to do a web series highlighting a road trip to the Mountain Collective Resorts. In each location, duPont hopes to give presentations about climate change and the history of each ski area, while also spotlighting a local pro.

Recognizing herself as “very fortunate,” duPont spreads the love, being actively involved not only with Protect Our Winters, but also with a number of nonprofit organizations, including Make a Difference, Play Hard Give Back, Higher Ground, High Fives Foundation, CAPOW, and Bead for Life. This year, she partnered with Eddie Bauer to make a pro model glove, the “Lexi Love Mitt,” in which half the proceeds go to a nonprofit organization that takes inner-city kids into the mountains.

As her older sister Emilie duPont Crist noted, “Lexi’s mind is deeply creative, and her heart is huge. She works really hard to conquer her dreams, and helps so many people around her to do the same.”

When she’s not traveling, duPont still calls Sun Valley, Idaho, home. She lives in a 500-square-foot geodesic dome in the Sawtooth National Forest. DuPont seeks to walk the walk of living simply and promotes and practices small daily habits such as recycling, composting, and bringing her own bag and mug to the grocery store and coffee shop. It’s a great big world, and she wants to make it better.

To say the least, duPont does a lot. She works hard, lives with a smile, and can usually be found flying high in the sky on skis, or now, in a plane.

/ courtesy eddie bauer | plans and pilot: jon mancuso

localbuzz // exceptional women

F or A ll T he P leAsures

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photo : courtesy usa hockey

localbuzz // exceptional women

Knight is a two-time Olympic silver medalist who is expected to help lead the U.S. at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in Pyeong Chang, South Korea.

54 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

Hilary Knight

“When I was 5 years old, I turned to my grandmother and told her I was going to play hockey in the Olympics. She immediately pulled my mom aside and whispered, ‘Cynthia, girls don’t play hockey.’ My mom looked her straight in the face and said, ‘Get with the times. Hilary loves hockey.’”

Wood River Valley resident Hilary Knight is the face of the rising sport of women’s hockey. When Knight was 5 years old, women’s hockey was not yet a recognized sport in the Olympics. It did not make its premiere as an Olympic sport until 1998. As recently as two years ago, the U.S. launched a Women’s National Hockey League when a united group of women decided to commit to the four-team league instead of playing for Canada’s national league, which had been in business for 10 years. But none of this mattered. The 5-year-old Knight had made her decision.

Knight joined the U.S. Women’s Hockey Team when she was in high school, was then recruited to play for the the University of Wisconsin Badgers, fought with the Badgers to win the NCAA championship, and skated her way onto the 2010 and 2014 U.S. Olympic teams.

Knight, or “Knighter” as her teammates called her, took a year off from University of Wisconsin to pursue her dreams of being in the Olympics. She was invited to Olympic tryouts and then to “Residency,” which is a time of living and training with other aspiring women hockey players for one year with no guarantees of making the Olympic team.

“Women get cut throughout the months.

It’s usually one month before the Olympics that the final roster gets set. You’re trying to fit into a team, supporting each other and, at the same time, competing against each other for limited spots. It’s a very challenging year, to say the least.”

Knight made the cut and was only 20 years old when she rolled off the plane in Vancouver, B.C., for her first Olympics.

“My first Olympic experience was jaw dropping, eye opening and amazing.

The easiest way I can describe it is to compare it to the first time seeing snow or the first time you get to go to a candy shop and pick out candy as a kid. It’s a fun, overwhelming stew of different emotions.

But when the puck dropped, it was all business. We trained for gold.”

WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 55

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(208) 721-3330 | manemusesalon@gmail.com

Above: Knight takes the puck in the gold-medal game against Canada in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

That year, Team USA came up just short in the gold-medal game, losing to Canada.

While that loss and a subsequent silver medal at the 2014 Olympics continued to motivate Knight to claim gold at the upcoming 2018 Winter Games, she and her team had a lot to be proud of and a remarkable number of wins on the scoreboard.

Reflecting, Hilary noted that, “What that 2000 gold-medal game did for women’s hockey was huge. It was a bummer that we lost, but when I got back, people would come up to me in the grocery store and talk about it. That they had been glued to the TV screen, 56 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

feeling the same exact emotions we were feeling living it, is pretty powerful.”

It is not all bright lights and medals for professional athletes, especially those in sports that do not regularly get center stage on prime time. Recounting a vivid moment after college when she had decided to move to Boston to pursue a career in hockey and train with the U.S. team, Knight said, “I had a real gut check. I have every respect for different people and different jobs, and on my road trip across country I was pulled over at a Stop and Shop and saw a man picking up carts. All I could think was ‘this man makes more money than

photo : lurii osadchi

me.’ I called my mom crying and she said, ‘Hilary, you need to get a job.’ I couldn’t explain that that wasn’t possible with what it took to be an Olympic hockey player.”

Knight taught private hockey lessons in order to make ends meet and called agents and PR companies with the hope of being picked up. She was alarmed at the low visibility of the sport as she found that, even after being highly successful on a world level, no one knew who she was, and, what’s more, no one knew what to do with the sport of women’s ice hockey.

After touring ski resorts throughout the West when she was young, Knight’s family fell in love with Sun Valley on their first visit and bought a house here. While Knight grew up going to school in California and in Illinois, she considers Sun Valley home.

“Sun Valley for me has always been a place of healing and rejuvenation. Everyone seems really happy and very balanced there. It’s contagious, and I am able to take that good energy and awesome vibe with me when I travel or when I’m living in busy Boston.”

After countless rejections, it was through family friends in Sun Valley that Knight was connected with a PR firm that gave her a chance. Since then, she has been featured in ESPN Magazine’s Body Issue, partnered up with GoPro and other brands, and has become the hard-hitter and face of women’s hockey.

When she’s not training to bring the gold medal back to the U.S. in the next winter Olympics, Knight takes it as her full-time job to build the sport and expand the visibility of women’s hockey.

Boston Pride and U.S. Olympic teammate Brianna Decker described Knight: “Knighter is one of the players I would love to go to battle with every time. She works so hard, makes a lot of things happen and is one of the top goal scorers in the world.”

Knight’s drive on ice is just as apparent in her other goals. Thus far, she has done everything from travel with the U.S. Embassy to encourage and spread the healthy impact of sports and of participating on teams, to running hockey clinics over the holidays in Sun Valley.

In the end, Hilary Knight did just what she said she was going to do.

She plays hockey. And she plays it like a girl.

/ shutterstock

localbuzz // exceptional women

Sun Valley Club

The Sun Valley Club has all the trappings of an exclusive golf club, without any of the barriers: Everyone is welcome at the table. Among the most popular places in Sun Valley to eat, drink and relax, the wraparound terrace offers stunning views of Bald Mountain, Dollar Mountain and the 18-hole Sawtooth Putting Course. Open year-round, the club serves as a luxurious Nordic and snowshoe center in the winter and a golf clubhouse in the summer. Inside, our glass and river-rock walls offer a cozy place to put your feet up. Chef Wendy Little brings exciting, contemporary dishes that are focused on local ingredients and big flavors.

1 Trail Creek Road Sun Valley, ID sunvalley.com/dining

localbuzz // hotel debut

IN THE LIMELIGHT

Aspen-based hotel opens its doors

The Ketchum Limelight Hotel welcomes the public to its “community living room” this December. With dog-friendly floors, a kid area in the lobby and large familyoriented hotel rooms, owner Aspen Skiing Company hopes to draw younger visitors to the Wood River Valley.

“Social adventurers” is how Don Schuster, vice president of hospitality for Aspen Skiing Company, has described the Limelight’s visitor profile: outdoorsy, fun-loving folks who take advantage of the beauty outside the hotel walls. The interior is modern and familiar: a three-star hotel designed to appeal to and meet a variety of guests’ needs.

Thanks to an accelerated construction schedule, accommodated by the City of Ketchum, the five-story hotel at 151 S. Main St. is scheduled to open in January 2017.

The hotel will be modeled after the first Limelight Hotel in Aspen, Colo., and has the same owners: the Wilmette, Illinois-based Crown family.

To draw the crowds, the company is focusing marketing efforts on Sun Valley’s feeder markets—Los Angeles, Portland, Salt 58 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

Lake City, Seattle, San Francisco, New York— paying particular attention to Mountain Collective pass holders. The Mountain Collective is a ski pass allowing access to 14 ski resorts, including Aspen and Sun Valley, and, interestingly, one of the biggest clusters of Mountain Collective pass holders is just a few hours from Sun Valley.

“When you look at the top cities in the country where passes are being bought, Boise is number four,” said Jeff Hanle, public relations director for the Limelight.

Mountain Collective members will get discounts on their hotel rooms, Hanle said, somewhere in the range of 20 percent.

The discount and proximity to Sun Valley

Above: A rendering of the Limelight Hotel on the corner of Main and 1st streets. Below: Guest room rendering.

photos : courtesy ketchum limelight hotel

by amy busek

skiing will certainly be motivating. With deck views of Bald Mountain, Forest Service Park across the street and the amenities of Main Street laid out before guests, the Ketchum Limelight is purposefully located to “get people into our property, but send them out the door and spend their money everywhere,” Hanle explained. The hotel boasts a full bar and restaurant on the first floor, but, “we’re not trying to monopolize their time.” The goal is to integrate the laid-back, family atmosphere of the Aspen Limelight with the culture of Ketchum, said both Hanle and new general manager John Curnow. Curnow, a longtime employee of the hospitality business, recently spent five months living at the Aspen Limelight in preparation for his Ketchum Limelight position.

In fitting with the “community living room” vibe, as Hanle puts it, the hotel management is planning a host of events intended to draw locals and guests. In the lounge, “there’s a built-in stage in the corner for music, which we’re going to have five days a week at après ski,” he said.

They also plan on hosting “Limelight Talks”—talks on wide-ranging subjects, from art to nature, presented by national experts flown in for an evening.

To complement the merging of Aspen and Ketchum culture, the managerial staff is a split between Aspen and local professionals: six managers are from the Wood River Valley, six are from Aspen, and one is from New Mexico.

Aspen Skiing Company is also discussing plans to house their 55-60 year-round Ketchum employees. Although the hotel is exempt from Ketchum’s community housing fee, thanks to early negotiations and met deadlines, Hanle said Aspen Skiing Company wants to join the local affordable housing roundtable.

Getting the design approved by planning and zoning involved Aspen Skiing Company working concurrently with the city—showing an investment on their part, too. In addition, Ketchum Mayor Nina Jonas is anticipating a boost in local revenues and local option tax monies.

“The relationship between the [Aspen Skiing Company] and the city has been extremely positive and productive,” Jonas said in an interview.

WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 59

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localbuzz // olympic ladies

INSPIRATION FOR A NEW GENERATION Sun Valley’s Olympic Ladies to be commemorated in bronze by karen bossick

“

When all six are done, our Olympic Ladies will comprise the largest women’s athletic monument in the world.”

60 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

| statue by benjamin victor ; photo of statue by benjamin victor

One of two statues of Gretchen Fraser already in place at the base of Warm Springs

fraser, cooper, corrock, street and davis photos : courtesy sun valley resort

—BRIAN BARSOTTI

Picabo Street, Christin Cooper and four other Sun Valley women became larger-than-life legends in the eyes of many the day an Olympic medal was draped around their necks.

Now they are becoming immortalized in larger-than-life bronzes. “When all six are done, our Olympic Ladies will comprise the largest women’s athletic monument in the world,” said Ketchum resident Brian Barsotti, who is spearheading the project.

Barsotti’s vision for the statues had its genesis when Sun Valley became the first North American city to be designated an Olympic training site for the disciplines of alpine skiing, Nordic skiing, snowboarding, freestyle and Paralympic Nordic skiing.

Two bronze sculptures of Sun Valley’s Gretchen Fraser—the first American to win an alpine ski medal in the Olympics— were unveiled in late August at the bottom of Warm Springs.

And Boise State University sculptor-in-residence Ben Victor is already at work on a 12-inch maquette of Christin Cooper, the Sun Valley skier who won silver the giant slalom in the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.

The 8,000- and 4,000-pound Fraser statues sit on a massive granite base up to 10 feet tall.

“It’s only fitting to put these women up on a pedestal—it seems like a good metaphor of the podiums they stood atop,” Victor said.

Victor will create four more statues—of Picabo Street, who won gold in the super G at the 1998 Nagano Olympics and silver in the downhill at the 1994 Olympics in Norway; Kaitlyn Farrington, who struck halfpipe gold in snowboard competition at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi; Susie Corrock, who won bronze in downhill at the 1972 Sapporo Olympics, and Muffy Davis, who collected a fistful of medals at the 1998 and 2002 Paralympics in Nagano and Salt Lake City before going on to win three gold medals in hand-cycle competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Ketchum artist Jennifer Bellinger will introduce three large commemorative wine bottles featuring Christin Cooper to help raise money for her sculpture.

Bellinger joined Barsotti on a trip to Lander, Wyo., to watch workers at Eagle Bronze—the world’s largest producer of monuments—climb all over the Gretchen Fraser statues as they applied the patina.

“The sculptures are outstanding,” Bellinger said. “We have a great opportunity to bring attention to the story of these amazing women who lived and trained here and went onto medal on one of sport’s biggest stages.”

OUR OLYMPIC LADIES GRETCHEN FRASER

Gold medal in slalom; silver medal in combined, 1948

CHRISTIN COOPER

Silver medal in giant slalom, 1984

SUSIE CORROCK

Bronze medal in downhill, 1972

PICABO STREET

Gold medal in super G, 1998; silver medal in downhill, 1994

KAITLYN FARRINGTON

Gold medal in halfpipe, 2014

MUFFY DAVIS

Three silver medals in the 2002 Winter Paralympics; three gold medals in the 2012 Summer Paralympics

.com WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 61

360°kids

by margot ramsay

What’s a kid to do in a wintry ski town if he or she doesn’t ski? More to the point, what do mom and dad do with their little bundles of joy—and energy—on long winter days? The answer for locals and visitors alike spending time in the Wood River Valley: plenty. Whether your kids are just not excited about ripping down the slopes of Dollar Mountain, or if the entire endeavor is cost prohibitive for the family, there are many other wintertime options for all ages that are guaranteed to please less-than-enthusiastic kiddos, or money-saving parents.

A great way to enjoy the winter in the Valley is to head up to Galena for a day of snowshoeing. Galena Lodge maintains over 25 kilometers of snowshoe trails suitable for all levels. The wealth of choices enables parents to immerse kids in a half-day of winter fun, or just test the waters with a short 30-minute adventure. Galena offers guided snowshoe tours if you are looking to experience the 62 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

|

How to entertain the little ones on a snowy day

there. While the teams are already set for this season, it can be a fun event to watch with the kids. The curling takes place Monday evenings.

The rink at the Sun Valley Resort—open daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.—is a classic outdoor venue with stunning views of Baldy. It is the home of the world-renowned Sun Valley Ice Shows. What’s more, when everyone is worn out from skating, hot chocolate is available in the beautiful Sun Valley Lodge just next door.

If you (and your kids) are ready for “extreme sledding,” Penny Hill is your spot.

It is a local’s favorite that is teeming with sledders— young and old— during the winter season. Located in Sun Valley at the corner of Sun Valley and Saddle roads, Penny Hill rises

pool: courtesy ymca

WINTERTIME FUN IN SUN VALLEY

backcountry without the responsibility, as well as all of the necessary equipment to ensure that you enjoy your snowy adventure.

Another winter activity, one of the simplest, is also one of the most fun: ice skating. The Valley has a number of options for slip-sliding the day away.

Who knew that right here in the Wood River Valley one could find the largest outdoor natural ice rink in the Pacific Northwest? The Christina Potters Outdoor Ice Rink, which offers two acres of ice-skating fun at Atkinson Park, is open for ice skating from mid-December through mid-February.

Skating is free and is a great time for the whole family. The park typically has old skates available to use, and if you can find your size in the box of skates, you’re in luck!

Be aware that the hours and days the rink is open depends on the weather. A fresh snowfall requires the staff to plow the ice clear; exceedingly warm days are also problematic, as the ice gets too soft for skating. But rest assured, as the staff makes clear on the City of Ketchum Parks and Recreation website, “We make every effort to keep the rink open from dawn until dusk seven days a week.”

For those who prefer indoor skating, the Campion Ice House in Hailey is a great option. The brand new Campion rink is spectacular and conveniently located near Hailey Elementary. It offers public skate hours every day, generally in early afternoon. There is also, believe it or not, a curling league held

sledding, snowshoeing, skating : dev khalsa

Clockwise from top: Sledding at Penny Hill; snowshoeing at Galena Lodge; a day on the ice; water sliding at the YMCA.

up 200 feet above street level. There is also a lower peak for the younger kids or cautious adults. Make sure to pack a helmet for kids and a freshly waxed sled for some serious sledding.

If you are looking to get out of the cold for a bit, try swimming at the Y for a winter day shake-up. The Wood River Community YMCA has two spectacular pools: one that includes a 130-foot water slide that drops into a lazy river and a second five-lane saline lap pool with a nearby saline hot tub. Check out the amazing Y pools for a full day of fun, or head over to soak tired muscles after a long day of snow tubing, snowshoeing, ice skating or sledding.

However you decide to do it, make sure to enjoy the fun-packed activities the Valley has to offer! You and your kids will have fun. On top of that, after a full day of action, they’ll likely sleep less like babies and more like teenagers!

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WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 63

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When in...

SUN VALLEY Shop locally ‌ And treat yourself or a loved one to something special! Look no further, as we provide the ultimate guide for finding creative gift ideas for every occasion!

A kaleidoscope of gifts for every room!

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Wildflower | 208.788.2425 WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 65

When in...

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Put a huge smile on her face when you wrap up these scrumptious accessories! Textures that tempt the most discriminating client!

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WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 67

When adventuring the endless trails of the Wood River Valley, keep warm and stylish in these sporty looks.

Backwoods Mountain Sports | 208.726.8826

When in...

SUN VALLEY ‌ Getting outside is part of the mountain culture. Find the perfect layer for him and her to ensure you enjoy the outdoors in comfort and style.

Ski in style with this Smith helmet and goggle duo. The K2 boot bag finishes the look perfectly.

Formula Sports 208.726.3194

Stay warm on the slopes with Zanier heated ski gloves and socks! Controlled by the touch of a button on your cell phone.

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WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 69

Buddle your little one up with this adorable Elmo ski suit. Don’t forget the mittens!

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SUN VALLEY ‌ Delight the little ones with cozy, practical and fun finds that are sure to bring a smile to any face!

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The Mario Cart has come to life!

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Dress up your kids up in these picture-perfect holiday looks.

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Farm Hoppers could not be more perfect for a playful young rascal. Hop around the Holidays!

The Toy Store | 208.726.5966 WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 71

body&soul

KNEE SEASON

Valley locals play hard, and their knees feel the impact by diana price

Robin Sias was feeling great about her ski season in February 2013. The Wood River Valley writer and mom of three school-age kids had chalked up an impressive 99 days on Bald Mountain in the previous year and was steadily scanning her pass again in the current season.

And then, on a flat-light, hard-pack day at the bottom of the Hemingway ski run, she caught an edge.

“I knew something was wrong with my right knee immediately,” Sias said.

“It didn’t really hurt, but when I tried to stand up, it felt unstable, and I got really nauseous.”

Once at the ER, the diagnosis came quickly: a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). An appointment with orthopedic specialist Dr. Anthony Buoncristiani and an MRI in the following days confirmed 72 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

the ACL and added tears to her meniscus to her injury tally. Both would require surgical repair.

“and can include other ligament sprains, meniscus tears and damage to the articular cartilage.”

The Club Nobody Wants to Join

Treatment

According to Sun Valley Sports Medicine orthopedic surgeon Dr. Alison Kinsler, damage to the ACL is among the most common knee injuries local doctors address.

“We see a spectrum of injuries in our active population,” Kinsler said, “including a lot of non-operative overuse injuries, like tendonitis, and more acute injuries, like sprains or tears in the ACL and the medial collateral ligament (MCL), meniscus tears, as well as tibial plateau fractures.”

ACL injuries often occur alongside other damage to the knee. “Concomitant injuries are common with ACL tears,” Kinsler said,

Treatment for knee injuries varies considerably across different types of injuries.

“Overuse injuries, like tendonitis, are generally successfully treated with activity modification, physical therapy, icing and anti-inflammatory medications,” Kinsler said.

SUGGESTED RESOURCE If you’ve hurt your knee, don’t play Dr. Google; seek accurate information through a trusted source. Dr. Alison Kinsler recommends the patient site of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons: orthoinfo.org

Mild sprains to the medial collateral ligament (MCL) or posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) can also generally be treated with physical therapy and will heal on their own with time and activity modification, she noted.

An ACL Injury: a Different Story

“The ACL doesn’t have the capacity to heal, so you have to reconstruct it to restore knee stability,” Kinsler offered.

Like many who tear their ACL, Sias underwent arthroscopic reconstructive surgery. In her case, Buoncristiani performed an “autograft” surgery, in which her torn ligament was replaced with a piece of her

is not completely torn and the joint remains relatively stable, Kinsler added.

The Road to Recovery

Each knee injury is unique, and recovery time and rehab plans are wide-ranging.

“An MCL sprain that doesn’t require surgery might require six to eight weeks in a brace and physical therapy, while ACL reconstruction generally requires six to nine months of rehab,” Kinsler said.

The importance of rehab can’t be overstated, according to Kinsler, especially in the case of surgical interventions: “You can reconstruct an ACL, but if you don’t rehab the knee properly, you’re not going to be happy; the surgery could be a failure.”

Sias, now almost four years out from her injury and grateful for the consistent work she put in to regain strength and mobility, advised the same: “You have to really commit to rehab.”

ANATOMY OF AN ACL INJURY

“

An MCL sprain that doesn’t require surgery might require six to eight weeks in a brace and physical therapy, while ACL reconstruction generally requires six to nine months of rehab.”

—DR. ALISON KINSLER, SUN VALLEY SPORTS MEDICINE

own tissue (taken from her hamstring).

During the same surgery, the tears in her meniscus were repaired.

The autograft surgery is one of two options to repair the ACL; an “allograft,” in which tissue from a cadaver is used to replace the torn tendon, is the other option.

“Autografts tend to incorporate into the knee faster,” Kinsler said. “I generally recommend autograft to patients who are 40 or younger.” However, she noted, “if your first concern is a fast return to work, an allograft might be the right choice because you won’t have the pain from the donor site to manage.”

Ultimately, decisions about surgical approaches and overall treatment planning are made based on activity level and age, Kinsler said. Nonsurgical treatment for an ACL injury is rare in the Valley, given the stability required for the active pursuits we enjoy, but it can be an option if the ligament

QUADRICEPS TENDON

PATELLA FEMUR ARTICULAR CARTILAGE

POSTERIOR CRUCIATE LIGAMENT (NOT SHOWN) LATERAL COLLATERAL LIGAMENT

FIBULA

PATELLAR TENDON ANTERIOR CRUCIATE LIGAMENT (ACL) MENISCUS

TIBIA

The ACL connects the top of the tibia (shin bone) to the lower back part of the femur (thigh bone) and controls the forward and backward motion of the knee; it also provides rotational stability.

There are several different types of ACL injuries, according to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, described on a graded scale of “sprain”: Grade 1 sprain—a mild stretch of the ligament that does not affect stability in the joint Grade 2 sprain (“partial tear”)—ligament stretched so much it causes instability Grade 3 sprain (“complete tear”)—ligament split in two

WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 73

body&soul // knee health

SKI SAFE Preventive Tips

“The commonality seems to be hesitancy in a skier’s form, which can be the result of skiing in conditions that aren’t familiar or comfortable or from fatigue,” Quesnel said. “We see a lot of ACL and MCL injuries through slow, backward-twisting falls, where the skier is sitting in the backseat, with their skis in a wedge, and then catches an edge.”

Quesnel advises the following basic preventive tips to avoid this scenario: ray davis | 360 walnut ave. ketchum

| 208.726.7261

Maintain fitness: “Living in the Valley, there are so many opportunities to stay fit all year round; maintain your fitness so you start the ski season strong.”

Focus on form: “Aim for a forward, athletic stance and pay attention to your posture across all types of terrain.”

Be aware of conditions: “If you’re a groomer skier and you find yourself in new terrain or changing conditions, you’re going to ski hesitantly. Be aware of changing weather and know your limits.”

Listen to your body: “Don’t push yourself to the point of fatigue. If you’re getting tired, take a break.”

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A proper skiing technique can help prevent knee injuries.

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skier : chris syms

Troy Quesnel has been responding to skiers’ injuries on the slopes for 17 years as a member of the Sun Valley Ski Patrol (SVSP).

Quesnel says that the SVSP sees quite a few ACL and MCL injuries each year, and while skiers of all abilities are affected and injuries can be the result of elements beyond a skier’s control, or just bad luck, many share some similarities.

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body&soul // knee rehab Spin class at BCRD’s Fitworks

GETTING BACK OUT THERE

Understanding the long-term benefit of knee rehab

Jeff Mintz knows a thing or two about the ups and downs of rehabbing a knee. The longtime Wood River Valley resident and committed alpine skier (he skis every day the mountain is open, Thanksgiving through closing day) suffered a third anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury in December 2016.

When we talk, Mintz is about three months into rehab after undergoing two surgeries to repair the most recent ACL injury and damage to his meniscus in the same knee.

“I’m on a bike now every day—a spin bike or a road or mountain bike outside—and working in the gym religiously three to four days a week,” Mintz said.

But he admitted that it hasn’t been easy: “It’s tough because I’m a guy who likes to

spend all my time outdoors; I had to switch gears and commit to the gym.”

And yet, if Mintz has learned anything through these series of knee injuries, it’s the value of consistent rehab. “I’m motivated to come back as strong as I possibly can and not compromise the surgery,” he said. “I want to be able to get back out there.”

The Role of Rehab

Helping patients “get back out there” after a knee injury is the goal of rehab, whether in the wake of minor ligament sprains or extensive surgical repairs. The role of the physical therapist is to guide patients through exercises that will help restore function and mobility, reduce pain and limit the long-term impact of their injury.

“

I’m on a bike now every day—a spin bike or a road or mountain bike outside—and working in the gym religiously three to four days a week.”

—JEFF MINTZ, AVID ALPINE SKIIER

76 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

Depending on the extent and type of injury, therapy might range from prescribed rest and regular flexibility and strength work (for a minor overuse injury) to nine months of progressive, targeted exercises.

For someone facing a knee injury that requires surgery, this process might begin before the operation—a stage called “prehab.”

“A patient will generally need to restore basic function to his or her leg before they go into surgery because the surgeon wants to operate on a knee that is behaving correctly,” said John Koth, M.P.T., M.S., A.T.C. “We want to show them how to walk, to teach them what they’ll need to remember post-op about how their body is supposed to move and introduce exercises they can do in the period right after surgery,” he said.

Following surgery, the progression through exercises is necessarily slow, as therapists work to restore range of motion, reduce swelling, and help patients overcome the mental hurdles of rehab, which can include fear of reinjuring the knee and depression in the face of unwanted downtime.

spin class : dev khalsa

by diana price

Strategies for Success

“Our unique Valley lifestyle tends to contribute to both overuse injuries and to acute/traumatic injuries, both of which are incredibly frustrating for our active population,” said Karoline Droege, M.P.T., C.S.C.S., physical therapist at Zenergy Sports Rehab Clinic and sports medicine coordinator for Sun Valley Ski Academy.

“I see ACL tears from snow-sport accidents and soccer, but really I treat patients who

‘go big’ in whatever their given sport,” Droege said.

While the active lifestyle in the Valley contributes to knee trouble, the upside is that many residents have no trouble committing to rehab, anxious to get back to whatever physical pursuit makes them sing. “As a PT in the Valley, I’m blessed to work with active people who have intrinsic motivation to get better—I usually have to tell my patients to do a little less versus do a little more,” Droege said.

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Below, physical therapists Karoline Droege and John Koth share tips for making the most of rehab:

and

strategies

— and what it takes to win.

UNDERSTAND YOUR INJURY “When a person has surgery without understanding the way the anatomy of the knee works, they think their joint is fragile and can be afraid of what we need to do in rehab,” Koth said. “If I can explain to them how their joint works mechanically, and why they can trust the repair, that goes a long way.”

LISTEN “Do what your PT says,” Droege said. “Really. Know that he or she has treated many, many injuries like yours and knows how to prescribe just the right amount of work to get you back to your life as quickly as possible.”

AND DON’T LISTEN “Don’t listen to all your friends who have had the ‘same’ injury,” Droege advised. “You are unique and so is your recovery.”

GO SLOW TO HEAL FAST “Most people in this town want to do as much as they can as quick as they can to get back,” Koth said, “but overdoing will cause inflammation, which sets us back. Going slow in the beginning is actually more efficient because it helps avoid setbacks.”

PREVENT THE NEXT INJURY “If you come into the season in shape, you’re less susceptible to injury,” Koth said. Consider a ski conditioning class and, maybe most effective, consistent wall-sits and other exercises that most closely mimic skiing, he advised. When the ski season is in full swing, think about incorporating a quick warm-up and some stretching before you get on the lift. “If I could design the perfect preventive program, I would tell every adult over 25 to spend 10 minutes on the spin bike, followed by some easy stretching each morning before they head up on the hill,” Koth said. “Lubricating the joints and warming up the major muscle groups is ideal.”

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WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 77

body&soul // expedition inspiration

CLIMBING FOR A CURE

On an Expedition Inspiration climb to the Elephant’s Perch by karen bossick

Christina Monson tried not to look down as she ascended the boulders near the top of The Elephant’s Perch, a peak in the Sawtooth Mountains near Stanley. Though tired, she forced herself to continue—one step at a time—just as she had done while trying to overcome breast cancer.

Finally, after navigating a ridgeline of boulders that was a foot wide at its narrowest, she stood atop The Elephant’s Perch—Idaho’s most famous chunk of granite. She and her fellow climbers raised their arms in victory and unfurled a string of prayer flags in memory of friends and family who like her had been touched by cancer.

Monson thought of her mother, Sue Monson, a board member with the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer just a year after her diagnosis, and joined hands with her sister,

photos : karen bossick

Liz. “I would do anything to see others not have to suffer like my mother and sister did,” said Liz. “It’s a terrible thing to watch people suffer. If what we did here today can help spread awareness, if it can fund research to find a cure so others don’t have to go through this, it will have all been worth it.”

The two sisters were among 12 climbers taking part in Expedition Inspiration’s 2016 Climb for a Cure, which raises funds for a biennial breast cancer symposium that brings together scientists, researchers and physicians to share unpublished information and brainstorm treatments.

The late Ketchum resident Laura Evans founded Expedition Inspiration Fund for Breast Cancer Research in 1995 after her own bout with breast cancer. Climbing is not unlike facing a life-threatening illness, she said at the time: “You take every step alone, digging deep, focused on the goal and your own inner strength.”

Evans and Ketchum mountain guide Peter Whittaker led 17 breast cancer survivors to the top of Argentina’s 22,841-foot Mount Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Western Hemisphere. And the climbs have continued every year since.

“These climbs are so powerful because they’re what Laura envisioned,” said Expedition Inspiration’s Executive Director Hailey Malepeai. “She was a mountaineer when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

And she realized that battling breast cancer Below: Emily and Sarah Williams unfurl the Expedition Inspiration banner.

Your

S PE C I A L PR O M OT I O N

Heart is in your N Hands.

Mental Health Checkup:

An Important Part of Overall Wellness

ews stories, elections, weather, holidays, family, relationships, grief, career, finance and health concerns — all of these individually or in combination can cause emotional or physical stress. Some tools to help us cope and to manage stress include: meditation, music, massage, acupuncture, exercise and fresh air, a hug or a smile and to remember to celebrate successes, no matter how small. It is also important to reach out to others when needed. Fortunately, there are multiple resources available within our community to help us deal with stress and mental health conditions.

We all have ups and downs, things that happen in our lives, that can make us feel overwhelmed.

The key thing to pay attention to is how these events affect us emotionally. If a person starts struggling to function at work or school, that’s a red flag. Many times people wait too long to reach out for help. If you recognize these signs in yourself or someone you love, don’t wait until it gets to the crisis stage.

For the health of our community, it’s important to recognize that depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions are treatable and can improve with professional support and guidance.

Our providers at St. Luke’s Clinic Mental Health Services, practice from the philosophy New! Heart of –the Matter health screening that being mentally well is interrelated with being physically well. Medication can be an important part of treatment, but it is never the entire answer. A variety of healthy changes improved access throughout the year! provides the most effective treatment:

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• Physician O

of mental wellness.

• Payment is due at time of service, cash or check only. (register in S Talk to your primary care physician or call St. Luke’s Center for Community Health, (208) Insurance will not be billed.

727-8733, if you think you might have symptoms of a mental health condition. The staff will take the time to understand your needs and let you know what resources are available.

Download Get Help!, a mental health resource guide For more de for the Wood River Valley, www.stlukesonline.org/gethelp. stlukesonlin Available in English and Spanish

WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 79

body&soul // expedition inspiration

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was like climbing a mountain. It’s a slow slog up the hill. But the power of outdoors and the mountains heals your spirit.”

The day began with a five-mile boat ride across Redfish Lake followed by a swift hike in the shadow of giant boulders that towered over the hikers. Near Flat Rock Junction, the trekkers got their first look at the peak they would stand atop later that day.

First ascended in 1963, its original name was Saddleback Dome, Sawtooth Mountain Guides’ Eric Leidecker told them. But the Iowa Mountaineers, who came out every summer with climbing pioneer Paul Petzoldt, rechristened it “The Elephant’s Perch” for its profile, which is best seen from near the top.

Even Sawtooth Mountain Guide Everett Coba felt a tingle of excitement as he looked at the peak: “I’ve always wanted to do The Elephant’s Perch. It’s like the big one.”

The group crossed the sparkling clear Redfish Creek on three slender and wobbly logs. Then they worked their way up an unofficial trail through boulders the size of VW Bugs.

Two feet to the right, two feet to the left, they climbed—over downed logs, up stairlike rocks, past a waterfall dotted with yellow arnica spilling down the steep hillside. As they 80 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

walked up a rock slab, they could begin to see the thousand-foot south face of the Elephant’s Perch looming like a cathedral over the bluegreen Saddleback Lakes.

Tom Keenan, who owns Towne & Parke Jewelry, nestled into the rocks as he nibbled an energy bar. He made his first climb on Castle Peak in honor of his wife’s sister, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer. “I was 20 pounds heavier then. I smoked a pack of cigarettes a day. But when we got to the top, I was euphoric. That inspired me to get fit, and I fell in love with it,” said Keenan, who has since climbed Mount Borah, Thompson, Galena and Ryan peaks with Expedition Inspiration.

Retired airplane captain Paul Willis joined Keenan on last year’s trip up 11,051-foot Devil’s Bedstead West in honor of a British Airlines flight attendant who lost her life to breast cancer a few years ago. They roped up to scramble the last 80 feet across a short, exposed stretch with a 2,000-foot drop on each side. “It’s a touching moment when you reach the top—you’re sitting there, thinking about how you somehow made it up there.

And you think how you’re alive. Not only is it a great adventure, but it’s a great cause,” Willis said.

photos : karen bossick

From the lakes the group began climbing again, picking their way through a boulder field and hoisting themselves over downed logs until they reached the top—an otherworldly landscape of beige-colored boulders dotting a dome-like shield and trees growing unbelievably out of rock.

They made their way up a narrow boulderstrewn ridge jutting above the dome to the 9,670-foot summit. Smoke from the Pioneer Fire 60 miles away blanketed the Sawtooth Valley in the distance, but it failed to obscure the grey jagged spires and snowfields brown with dust that clung to the scree of the mountains around them. Thirteen hundred feet below lay the lakes—so beautiful they’ve been dubbed Shangri-la.

“You look from the bottom and think: How are we going to get up there?” said Ian Malepeai. “It’s cool to be on top.”

“I did this in honor of a friend who endured a horrible nine months of treatment,” said Glo Kimball, a retired dental hygienist.

“Doing this makes me appreciate my health— it feels great to be healthy.”

Risa Williams, who had done the trek with her husband Terry and daughters Emily and Sarah, agreed: “We believe in the cause so much and to be able to do this together as

a family is very special. Laura Evans had a dream and to be able to continue her dream to raise money and awareness for something that affects all of us—whatever it takes to find a cure!”

Clockwise from top left: Climbers celebrate on the summit; the steep climb up from the lakes; descent along the northwest route.

WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 81

getoutthere // something

etoutthere

WELCOME TO THE STANLEY WINTERFEST The best winter festival you’ve never heard of

There is something about living in a small mountain-town community, especially in the cold funnel of winter months, when the temperature drops below zero and it’s dark by 5 p.m., that makes people want to get weird.

Some call it cabin fever. In the Arctic regions, the Inuits have historically referred to this wild and erratic behavior as “Pibloktoq” (what Western psychiatry has termed “Arctic Hysteria” since the 19th century).

If you were to drive through Stanley, Idaho, come February, for example, you might see a river raft sailing down a snowy mountainside with a pink-wigged man hootin’ and hollerin’ on a cowboy-style bow ride. At the same time, you may find multicolored backcountry planes swirling and swooping and sputtering overhead, to wild applause from the crowd below. Downtown, off in the distance, costumed racers on fat bikes are puffing through the final stretches of a race, and somewhere in the Stanley Club lie remnants of a glow-in-the-dark beach party from the night before.

82 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

That, my friends, is the annual Stanley Winterfest.

Now in its eighth year running, Winterfest began as a way to shake off the stir craziness of long and lonely Februarys, according to volunteer coordinator and Chamber board member, Jennie Stephenson. “Between January and March, it can get pretty quiet around here,” she said (there are, after all, only 63 people living in town year-round).

“So the local businesses wanted to find a way to bring people here and have fun at the same time.”

Many businesses don’t stay open throughout the year due to the seasonal nature of tourism in the town, but Winterfest is meant to support and bolster the ones

that do. As Stephenson explained, “Our motto is: ‘If our businesses do well, our community does well,’ which is how things like Winterfest came to be.”

Much like Ketchum, the locals also relish an opportunity for community bonding in the quieter months (and an opportunity for the midwinter beast to let its hair down and howl at the moon for a few days).

The three-day event, reminiscent of the age-old pagan Winter Solstice celebrations, happens the third weekend of February every year and is entirely free for both attendees and participants. Together, the City of Stanley, Stanley Chamber of Commerce, and local sponsors donate money, and residents, like Stephenson,

Much like Ketchum, the locals relish an opportunity for community bonding in the quieter months (and an opportunity for the midwinter beast to let its hair down and howl at the moon for a few days).

photos : kat cannell

by kate elgee

Opposite page: Men in drag compete in the Woolley Drag Race. Right: Young bass player, Fern, playing with the Stanley School Band. Below: The Outhouse Race held annually at Winterfest.

volunteer time to organize events.

Some of the activities include a downtown street dance, a 40-kilometer fat bike “Gran Fondo” event in partnership with the local Fat Bike Advocacy Group, and a skin/ski/bike “triathlon” (costumes highly recommended).

The Outhouse Race, Winterfest’s most popular event, involves regulation-sanctioned outhouses (which means everything from duct-taped cardboard boxes to a toilet seat on skis), being raced down Ace of Diamonds Street in teams of three—two people to pull and one to ride. There is also a Friday night kickoff party and pub crawl with live music downtown and a cross-dress runway walk and costume competition to judge the Drag King and Queen of Winterfest.

Last year, event organizers added the “Ski Plane Fly In”—14 backcountry planes on skis doing aerial maneuvers for onlookers—as well as the “Howlin’ Wolf ” raft ride (also known as the “best white-powder rafting around”) for the kids. “The adults ended up loving it just as much, though” Stephenson said with a chuckle.

It was important to Stephenson that events like the pub crawl and street party were bookended by more family-friendly

activities. “I wanted there to be something for everyone to do,” she explained.

Stephenson was instrumental in reinvigorating Winterfest three years ago after waning support. Last year, they had a “dragon slide” and playground sculpted entirely of ice, as well as cookies, cocoa, and book readings at the local library. They also added crosscountry ski lessons on Sunday, a wine tasting and art show with Indian Creek Winery in the Stanley Town Square, and a “Movies and Munchies” event.

Whatever they did to breathe life back into Winterfest, it worked. Last year they celebrated their largest turnout yet with over 500 attendees from the surrounding areas— people from Ketchum, Boise, and McCall coming out to support their friends in Custer County (and enter the Outhouse Race, because really, where else in the world can you do that?).

So if you are driving through Stanley in late February and happen to see a mob of people dressed in drag chasing a chicken down Highway 75, don’t be alarmed.

In fact, pull over. You may just have the time of your life.

WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 83

photos : todd meier

getoutthere // curling

This page: Curlers compete at the Campion Ice House in Hailey. Right: Siena Miley lets a stone fly.

84 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

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ICE ROCKS! FROM END TO END

Old world fun, curling finds a new beginning in Hailey by matt furber

The winter diversion of curling is like bowling, but played on ice and without the pins. It’s the game with “the rocks and the sweeping and the yelling,” according to a twominute video introduction produced for USA Curling.

As with bowling, beer is still on tap outside of the Olympic arena. (Canadians have been into the game for well over a century and a half, so, there must be beer on the social pitches.) A plaque on the rink at the New Caledonian Curling Club in Nova Scotia says the club was established in 1850, some three hundred years after the game emerged in Scotland. Since the founding of clubs like the one in New Caledonia, stone for curling has been hewn by private mining right from the island of Ailsa Craig, Scotland’s inhospitable North Sea source of “blue hone” granite some 40 rough nautical miles out.

Today, with a little help from people like a curling stone distributor in North Dakota, a half-hour drive from Winnipeg, Manitoba, the fun is growing south of the border like Kudzu, but with a less invasive, more inclusive feel than the plant, and it’s reaching all corners of the country.

In Blaine County, interest in the sport began a few years ago as homemade fun bred from YouTube videos, kitchen bowls, some concrete, plumbing pipe and construction adhesive. It’s a game played with 16 heavy orbs of stone, which are about 42 pounds per unit. (Two teams of four compete at a time and each player has two stones.) Unlike bowling balls, the objects have handles instead of finger holes and slide rather than roll. They, too, carry the mysterious, strategic physics created by adding spin to a forward-moving object over a flat, smooth surface. It’s all a little “Bend It Like Beckham” with lots of yelling and sweeping to burnish the ice along

a trajectory toward the “house,” a 12-foot target at either end of nearly 150-foot-long lanes, also called sheets. Players slide the stones, then eke out distance and influence direction with the sweeping brushes. The captain, or “skip,” of each four-person team, directs the ice brushing with each shot; thus the yelling as each of the stones per “end” are ushered toward the target as “guard,” “draw,” or “take-out” shots. The team with the stone closest to the bull’s-eye scores the points per round, which is called an end.

Bowlers who have played at indoor bowling lanes know the feeling that comes with achieving the perfect roll and “english” that can produce a thrilling strike. That feeling is replicated on ice in the game that is like shuffleboard, boules or bocce, but with a different mass and substrate. As the name indicates, the main strategy is perfecting the curl.

In his winter free time, longtime Blaine County school teacher James Foster for

WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 85

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Today, thanks to the advent of the beneficent Campion Ice House and James Foster’s inspiration with his friend Glenn Lyndsley to create homemade curling stones, there’s an explosion of local interest in the sport.

years has helped to set up and maintain the outdoor ice in Roberta McKercher Park, the place where his curling interest was sparked. (Full disclosure: Foster let me take the Zamboni for a spin when I found him cleaning the ice late one winter night.

With a bit of a leadfoot, I may have made Foster a little nervous driving a little too fast through the curves of my lap, but the ice was smoother, in any case.)

Today, thanks to the advent of the beneficent Campion Ice House and Foster’s inspiration with his friend Glenn Lyndsley to create homemade curling stones, there’s an explosion of local interest in the sport.

Even refurbished, curling stones cut from granite can sell for $5,000 for a set, so there’s a significant commitment to organizing a league. The fun derived from Foster and Lyndsley’s homemade stones a few years ago inspired a few locals from all walks of life to make the game more official here.

The unveiling of the sport most locals only 86 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

Clockwise from top left: The scoring zone is a 12-footdiameter circle at the end of a 150-foot lane; Brett Bruxton tries his hand at the sport that is a game of touch and teamwork; players Chris Pomeroy and Elise DeKlotz influence the direction and speed of the stones with “sweeping brushes.”

know from televised Olympics has engendered organized, fun-loving competition. Born out of duct-tape inspiration, the new league is a heartwarming example of simple, old-world community building that starts by word of mouth. “(We) decided to make some stones to use on the outdoor rink in Hailey,” Foster said.

“That began the demand for the four lanes we have this season at the Campion Ice House.”

Foster says some of the joy in the sport for him is that teams in the league represent all ages and all demographics of the Wood River Valley.

“We have many folks who have never skated before to one of the Suns players,” he added.

The organizers consulted various websites for rules and suggestions, including USA Curling. The interest is so great that the 24

teams competing on four lanes at the ice house this year filled immediately with even more names on the waiting list.

“We make the schedule. Most people come in, play their game for the night and go home,” said volunteer organizer Sarah Benson. “We keep track of the score, and there will be playoffs at the end of the season.”

The season started in the early fall and goes through the beginning of the year.

Benson said most people playing the novel game are beginners. It’s fun even for nonskaters since that’s not a required skill for curling.

“It’s an adult league and we have all ages from 20 into the 70s,” Benson said. “It’s another sport for winter and an opportunity to get on the ice. I’d equate it to a bowling league.”

photos : todd meier

getoutthere // curling

SPECIAL STONES

The Science and Art of the Rocks All curling stones are old and rare. Hewn from million-year-old granite, the stone for most curling rock comes essentially from only two quarries, Scotland’s Ailsa Craig, which is now also a wildlife sanctuary in the North Sea and restricts mining on the island to a week of rock collecting by hand each year. The second source of so-called micro-granite is the Trefor Granite Quarry in Wales.

Ailsa Craig produces what’s called blue hone and Ailsa Craig common green, two types of granite used in making curling stones. Blue hone is essentially harder and prevents the water penetration that can erode stone by freezing. Ailsa Craig common green is considered a lesser quality granite, but in curling rock it has better shock absorption, which is important to reduce chipping since stones in competition often collide at high velocity. Historically, curling stones were made from blue hone. However, since 2009, stones for Olympic competition have been cut and refurbished so that the main part of the stone is common green for shock absorption and the running surface is cut so a layer of hard blue hone can be affixed with epoxy. The density of blue hone reduces friction on the ice.

“Some of these stones have been used for 100 years,” said North Dakota curling supplier George Phillips, who delivered the 16 old stones for curling at Campion. Phillips added that in addition to the aesthetic beauty of the stones, his favorite part of his lifelong commitment to the sport, including professional competition and refereeing, is the social engagement of amateur play and talking about the refinements like the integration of different granite for each stone. “You use the best of two worlds.”

Today, stones reformed in this way are made with computer-driven saws, drills and polishers that are anchored to a concrete slab to prevent any vibration from causing imperfections. The system is much like 3D-printer technology, Phillips said, explaining that stone uniformity is key because it levels the playing field and truly shows the curling skill of each player.

The Canadian native lives in North Dakota, also James Foster’s home state, and he’s seeing the sport of his great passion taking off in the U.S., even in warmer states like Florida and Texas. In the Twin Cities in Minnesota, there will soon be enough curling sheets in the metro area to host a 500team bonspiel, as a large curling tournament is called.

“I was part of the curling centennial in Manitoba, Canada. Manitoba once had 126 sheets. As part of their centennial, 1,256 teams were competing,” Phillips said. “In Minnesota, there could easily be 2,000 players and their supporters at a single event like that. A bonspiel there would totally blow the roof off of curling in the United States.”

WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 87

getoutthere // yurting

THE JOY OF YURTING Winter magic in the round by karen bossick

Alisa McGowan was a student at the University of Vermont when she skied into one of the 11 yurts dotting the backcountry mountains near Sun Valley. “I couldn’t believe how much snow there was. And the views were breathtaking—huge expansive views with not a road in sight,” she said.

McGowan was so taken by the experience that she became a guide for Sun Valley Trekking, taking people into the Bench Hut, which offers a variety of terrain, including lake skiing a short distance from the iconic Mount Heyburn.

She has rung in the New Year under the stars in these yurts and played Twister and Scattergories while snow dumped outside. And she’s barbecued steak and served up salmon pesto pasta to yurters who want a guide.

Photo: A crew of skiers snaking their way up to ski the Williams Peak area in the Sawtooth Mountains.

88 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

T A F GET

scenic and yurt exterior : ray j. gadd

|

inside yurt: joe st.onge

Above, left: Williams Peak Yurt. Above, right: Local ladies, known as the “Sirens of Snow,” enjoy a meal (with their guides Alisa McGowan and Patrick Graham in foreground) after a full day of powder skiing in the Smoky Mountains.

Local outfitter Sun Valley Trekking offers six yurts with either wood-fired saunas or a hot tub, ranging from the two Boulder yurts just 1.5 miles from Highway 75 to the Coyote yurt, a six-mile trek with 2,010 feet of elevation gain.

Sawtooth Mountain Guides offers the Williams Peak hut, which provides access to alpine bowls, powder glades and extreme couloirs in the Sawtooth Mountains. And Galena Lodge offers four yurts nestled in among 50 kilometers of groomed ski trails.

“There are few places in the world you can have such an intimate experience with your friends with world-class skiing right out the door,” said Joe St. Onge, who owns Sun Valley Trekking. “Some other places have much larger huts that you share with 50 strangers. We have more huts per square mile here and better skiing than you’ll find at most other huts.”

Wood River Valley resident Bob Jonas introduced yurts to the Sun Valley area after he bought a couple of the round tents supported by latticework from an outfitter who had erected four in the White Cloud, Loon Creek and Sawtooth mountains.

Jonas even established a Mongolian dinner yurt outfitted with leopard skins near the Boulder Mountains. The yurt’s five-course meals attracted a number of celebrities, including Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and Demi Moore, who reserved it for her then-husband Bruce

Willis’s 40th birthday.

“I like the roundness of yurts, looking up at the stars through the dome,” said Jonas.

“You get a convivial spirit that brings people together.”

Jason and Janelle Conners took their daughter Mazzy into one of the yurts near Galena Lodge for her 7th birthday, and they’ve returned every year since. They pack beef stew and a chocolate cake onto a sled that they pull behind them, along with their sleeping bag and clothes.

No need for pots and pans—the yurts are equipped with utensils and stoves.

“Mazzy loves the whole adventure—staying in a yurt is a pretty cool thing for a kid at any age,” said Janelle. “And Galena is an ideal place to take kids yurting—the yurts are close to the lodge, you can choose between groomed trails or backcountry skiing, and cell phones don’t work so you feel as if you’re out in the middle of nowhere.”

Galena Lodge will haul trekkers’ gear in by snowmobile. And it offers “room service”— lodge meals—for those who prefer not to do their own cooking. Yurters can also ski or snowshoe to the lodge for their morning espresso or a quesadilla lunch.

“It’s nice to go for a couple days, since it involves packing and unpacking,” said Conners. “And you want to reserve ahead of time—they fill up, especially around full moon nights.”

WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 89

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getoutthere // fat bikes

THE RISE OF THE FAT BIKE

Bicycling enthusiasts take to the snow by matt furber

Innovation in biking is a mix of whimsical inspiration and technical genius, inventions to fit a rider’s imagination like a 36-inch wheel for cross-country unicycle travel and, of course, bikes with exceedingly wide, lowpressure tires that can be ridden on the snow.

Fat bikes with their outsized parts are not reserved for snow, of course, and they frequent the road and serve gravel-grinding pack tourists in summertime as well. Even as their use expands, they are still considered

RIDING TERRAIN DURANCE LOOP (located at the SNRA headquarters, as part of BCRD North Valley trails): It was temporarily approved the last three years and is up for reconsideration for a long-term permit. The trail offers 4.3 miles of groomed Nordic trail with shared use.

SUN VALLEY COMPANY They opened trails last year and propose to do it again. Many are excited for the potential addition of new terrain.

BIGWOOD FAT BIKE PARK This was operated on the Big Wood Golf Course last year and with assistance from Rebecca Rusch/Rusch Relations. The group was hired by the property owner to promote riding there, and the Golf Course managers groomed the trails with the Fat Bike Advocacy Group’s groomers. It sounds like Rusch will not be part of it this year, so the opportunity arises for a new player. Last year there were several evening fat bike criterions and events offered throughout the winter.

WOOD RIVER TRAILS The bike path from Bellevue to Ketchum is groomed for Nordic use and open to all nonmotorized uses (walkers, bikers, skiers).

90 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

photos : tory canfield

/ courtesy of fat bike advocacy group

Opposite page: Fat bike riding along Trail Creek towards Sun Valley. Above: Fat bike racing has become a staple of the Sun Valley Nordic Festival.

new—the outsiders when it comes to winter sport—but they have been one of the latest and perhaps greatest outbursts of the bicycling industry in a generation.

Annually, volunteer organizers who seek to provide outlets for winter riding must advocate for support of the community and finalize official permission on public and private lands for use and events. The process can seem cumbersome to those in the trenches, and a nuisance for officials who grant permission for special use, but the rise of the fat bike has maintained steam even if it has not yet become mainstream. Its fans and advocates continue to push for its addition to the retinue of winter outdoor endeavors.

Certainly, as manufacturers pump out new fat bicycle designs, some with interchangeable wheels sets and forks to further expand the application, demand for events grows. This winter will be the third year in the Sun Valley area that winter events for bikes with phenomenally fat tires will appear in the snow.

Global Fat Bike Day was held the first Saturday in December. The seventh year for that celebration of fat bikes is still a cause célèbre. Winter bicycling, especially in places once exclusive to Nordic skiing, still turns heads at the very least. Sometimes the new kid on the block even engenders disdain from traditional, well-established user groups, but as the permissions and commitments to fat biking competitions gel, the winter riding life is becoming more complete year by year, and fat bike promotion even begins to enter standard marketing campaigns.

Upcoming Events GLOBAL FAT BIKE DAY This is a group ride held annually the first Saturday in December. People can check the Facebook site—FBAG Fat Bike Advocacy Group—for more information or email Tory Canfield (torycan@aol.com) to become a member of the FBAG and receive email updates on events and riding opportunities.

SNOWBALL SPECIAL Held on the last Saturday in January (January 28), the Snowball Special kicks off the Nordic Town USA week. The race is to be held at the Sun Valley Nordic Center; distances are 20k, 40k or 40k relay.

NORDIC FEST SPRINTS Thursday, February 2, bikers will take to the sprint course in downtown Ketchum as part of the Nordic Town ski sprint events.

WINTERFEST 40 Join the Fat Bike Gran Fondo as part of the Stanley Winterfest on Saturday, February 18.

The event is on groomed snowmobile trail and includes 40k and 20k options.

WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 91

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getoutthere // calendar of events

Check out

sunvalleymag.com

for up-to-date calendar and events coverage

WINTER 2016-17 Winter in the Wood River Valley never disappoints.

From world-class skiing to renowned art galleries and openings, there is always something exciting happening in the Valley. Enjoy the theater, ice hockey, charity events, music—it’s all available. Here’s a sampling of the many events taking place this winter.

Suns Hockey

Sun Valley’s 80th

The Sun Valley Suns hosts games at the Sun Valley Ice Rink and the Campion Ice House. The games with teams from Jackson, Park City, Bozeman and Boulder are always exciting. sunvalleysunshockey.com

Celebrate the Sun Valley Resort’s 80th birthday celebration with a night of dancing in the Duchin Lounge of the Sun Valley Lodge. Brooks Hartell will provide the music. sunvalley.com

December 2016 – March 2017

‘A Day in Hollywood’ ‘A Night in Ukraine’ December 14–20, 2016

Company of Fools presents two one-act plays directed by John Glenn (musical direction by R.L. Rowsey). The first is a revue of classic Hollywood songs. The latter is a play based on two works by Anton Chekov. sunvalleycenter.org

Sun Valley Tree Lighting December 17, 2016

Strolling through the Sun Valley Village during the holidays is a magical experience. Come out and see Santa, enjoy the Sun Valley Carolers, ice carving demonstrations, free cookies and hot cocoa, and free “wrap-n-run” gift wrapping at Signatures (1 p.m. – 8 p.m.) sunvalley.com

Annual Christmas Concert December 20, 2016 Top left: Fireworks and a torchlight parade light up Dollar Mountain on Christmas Eve. Top right: The Boulder Mountain Tour draws some of the best Nordic skiers in the nation.

92 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

The Sun Valley Resort will present an evening of Christmas Cheer at the Sun Valley Opera House starting at 6:30 p.m. Hosted by Patty ParsonsTewson, the event will feature Joe Cannon, Joe Fos, soprano Carolyn Parson Cutler and flugelhorn player Ken Cutler. Enjoy song and storytelling. sunvalley.com

December 21, 2016

Christmas Eve Celebration December 24, 2016

Join the fun at the annual Sun Valley Resort Christmas Eve Celebration. The event includes the holiday ice show at 5:30 p.m. and the traditional Dollar torchlight parade following the show. Free hot cocoa and cookies will be served. sunvalley.com

SVGA Gallery Walks

December 29, 2016 – March 10, 2017 The Sun Valley Gallery Association hosts evenings of art and discussion at Ketchum’s many worldclass galleries. Artists are often in attendance.

Enjoy a glass of wine and discuss the latest in the art world. See the association’s website for specific dates. svgalleries.org

Bubbly Bash

December 31, 2016 Sun Valley Resort and the Sun Valley Center for the Arts co-host this New Year’s Eve Celebration to welcome in 2017. Celebrants will gather at River Run Lodge for a night of dancing to the tunes of DJ Lady Sinclair. Enjoy free champagne from 9 to 10 p.m. and a midnight toast courtesy of Barefoot Bubbly. sunvalleycenter.org

Sun Valley Nordic Festival

photo at left: kevin syms

/ courtesy sun valley resort | photo at right: glen allison photo / courtesy boulder mountain tour

February 2–7, 2017

The Nordic Festival is a four-day event culminating in the world-famous Boulder Mountain Tour, which comprises 34- and 15-kilometer Nordic races. The festival features clinics, town races, and other fun events. nordictownusa.com

Boulder Mountain Tour February 4, 2017

Join this taxing but fun Nordic event for pros and amateurs alike. The full Boulder race is 34 kilometers and draws elite skiers; the halfBoulder is a more relaxed event and clocks in at 15 kilometers. There’s no better way to enjoy the spectacular country north of Ketchum. bouldermountaintour.com

International Guitar Night February 14, 2017

International Guitar Night (IGN) brings together the world’s foremost acoustic guitarist composers to perform their latest original compositions and exchange musical ideas in a public concert setting. The event is at 7 p.m. in the Sun Valley Opera House. sunvalleycenter.org

‘Constellations’

February 15–March 4, 1017 Company of Fools presents this play by Nick Payne about free will and friendship. On other levels, it’s also about quantum multiverse theory, love and honey. Denise Simone directs. sunvalleycenter.org

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WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 93

getoutthere // calendar of events

Above: Team Star Wars celebrates their Speed Cup victory in the 19th annual Janss Pro-Am Classic.

Left to right are KJ Savaria, Ben Kanellitsas, Carl Rixon, Jessica Blackburn, Biche Rudigoz and Hunter Storey.

‘Tosca’

Janss Cup Pro-Am Classic

Sun Valley Opera along with Opera Idaho is presenting a semi-staged production of Puccini’s “Tosca” at the Church of the Big Wood. Further details are to be announced after publication.

The theme for the 20th annual fundraiser for the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation is “Comic Book Heroes and Zeroes.” Join the fun as amateur and pro skiers compete in a fun-filled race series. Costumes and fast skiing reign. svsef.org

February 18, 2017

The 15th Anniversary Share Your Heart Ball will be held to benefit Camp Rainbow Gold, an organization providing support, love and hope to the children of Idaho diagnosed with cancer and their families. Enjoy an evening of silent auction and raffles, live auction lots and dancing into the night with the band No Limits. shareyourheartball.org

Family of Woman Film Festival

February 27 – March 5, 2017 The festival presents five films from around the world that highlight women’s issues in different societies. Five feature-length documentaries and dramas from around the world are presented each year. The films focus on the status of women in different cultures. In addition, the festival offers daily screenings, guest speakers and programs for the local schools. familyofwomanfilmfestival.org

The Kindercup

March 2017 (date to be determined) The Papoose Club’s Annual Kindercup on Dollar Mountain features fun races for skiers age 3 to 13. The free event—started in 1957—is a spring tradition for future Olympians. papooseclub.org.

Sun Valley Film Festival March 15–19, 2017

The festival offers avant-garde independent films, mixed-media shorts, premieres and discussions with filmmakers and screenwriters. sunvalleyfilmfestival.org 94 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

Dent Conference March 19–22, 2017

The Dent Conference brings together executive directors, CEOs, entrepreneurs, scientists and politicians for presentations and discussions on how to “put a dent” in the universe. dentthefuture.com

Las Cafeteras in Concert April 7, 2017

Las Cafeteras is inspired not only by Mexican music, but by rock, reggae, hip-hop and Motown. The concert will be at the Wood River High School Performing Arts Theatre. Through music, Las Cafeteras is trying to help build “a world where many worlds fit.” Las Cafeteras will spend four days visiting over 2,000 students with musical performances, sharing their music and their message of inclusivity. sunvalleycenter.org

Sun Valley Wellness Festival May 26–29, 2017

The Sun Valley Wellness Festival is an annual gathering of the top speakers and practitioners of mind, body, spirit and environmental wellness. sunvalleywellness.org

Sawtooth Relay

June 2017 (precise date TBD) Relay teams of six begin the 62-mile race in Stanley, climb over Galena Summit and finish at Atkinson Park in Ketchum. sawtoothrelay.com

/ courtesy of svsef

Share Your Heart Ball

March 30 – April 1, 2017

photo : matt leidecker

February 18, 2017

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innovation // something

innovation VALLEY OF INVENTION

With a recreation and tourism base, the Wood River Valley economy diversifies by matt furber

96 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

orflo : todd meier

Skier days, enplanements at Friedman Memorial Airport, Mountain Rides bus ridership and local option taxes are commonly referenced economic indicators for the Wood River Valley. A quick glance shows that numbers are up across the board and predictions are for continued growth even in the short term. Two new hotels, the Limelight (nearly complete) and the Auberge (under construction) will accommodate tourism’s growth, which Harry Griffith, a longtime student of the local economy and executive director of Sun Valley Economic Development, calls the staple two-thirds of the economy.

“Roughly two-thirds of sales ($800 million) and wages ($600 million) are tourism related,” Griffith said, sharing his estimates based on numbers reported to government agencies that he crunches into what he calls the county’s proxy GDP ($1.8 billion, although the number hasn’t yet been updated for 2015). “That tourism and recreation make up two-thirds of the economy is unlikely to change.”

There are very interesting economic drivers when looking into the details, however. Take, for instance, the fact that there are about 140 nonprofits in the Valley that employ higherwage people who bring their families to the Valley. Many of the organizations like the Animal Shelter of the Wood River Valley are in a growth phase and will provide still more jobs.

“Those individual families are delivering hundreds of thousands of dollars a year,” Griffith said, adding that the money largely goes to recreation and tourism, the staples of the mountain lifestyle, including sports equipment, guide services, arts and entertainment, bodywork, medical care and fitness training. “It’s all of the above.”

A recent economic forum indicated that some 700 new jobs are on the horizon.

Housing crunch is back in the news and property values continue creeping up since the Great Recession. Although it still lags behind the so-called depressed $10.6 billion taxable property valuation of 2010 when the WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 97

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innovation // valley economy

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We are surrounded by creative energy here. Who knows what the next industry is that successful entrepreneurs will happen to be in. We want to give those companies a chance of succeeding.”

—JON DUVAL, HEAD OF THE KETCHUM INNOVATION CENTER

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assessed value of all private property in Blaine County had suffered a $2 billion slash after the 2008 high of $12.4 billion, the abstract net taxable value for 2016, with most of the numbers in, is looking at $9.2 billion, up about 5 percent from 2015.

That’s the short story.

There is a generation of folks who only know the Sun Valley of the Snowball Express, a fitting scene for a romantic snow globe, when adventurous souls from Los Angeles could safely ride Averell Harriman’s Union Pacific train directly to the slopes and learn to ski with great skiing personalities like the late Stein Eriksen. Some trained home after learning skiing’s basics to look back at Sun Valley only with nostalgia. Yet, nostalgia, a yearning for great memories and traditions, is an incalculable economic driver, especially by those who have returned again and again to Idaho’s most famous resort area to stake a claim to the truly dynamic gathering place, a home for invention and creative pathways to living life more fully.

A dentist started a goggle company (Smith Sport Optics), and an engineer moved the skiing industry away from bamboo ski poles toward an aluminum version (Scott Sports).

Recreation equipment retailers Smith and Scott seemed like they’d be here forever. Many thought even the military contractor ESS would be a long-term staple with its ballisticgrade lenses. But the global economy wooed away all those mainstays.

“The macro figures are trending upward, but you’re not going to keep a company from selling,” said John Duval, head of the Ketchum Innovation Center (KIC). KIC recently took over the old Ketchum Post Office building and is quickly filling up with talent, including Solu Publishing, Inc., an interactive digital story-making enterprise that incorporated in March 2015. Solu is led

by David Currier, who succeed in navigating changing waters with the departure of his 98 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

longtime employer, Smith, and thereby keeps his own Sun Valley story alive, all with the cooperation of smart, successful board members and a small crew of employees and programming colleagues in India.

Duval dedicates his time to helping the latest entrepreneurs tap into the vast business brain trust and investment power of Sun Valley. Another example is the Sawtooth Brewery, which made a successful pitch to angel investors to become a regional brewer and beer distributor. The company is now an economic driver even during the slack seasons.

“We are surrounded by creative energy here,” Duval offered. “Who knows what the next industry is that successful entrepreneurs will happen to be in. We want to give those companies a chance of succeeding. We are not trying to take over tourism, but we’re becoming so susceptible to external forces.

There’s nothing anyone can do to predict a better snow year or the impact of wildfires.

The goal is to diversify. We want to support a more diversified pool of companies. The only way to become sustainable is to diversify investment and spread out the risk.”

With a sufficient employee pool and support, technology companies will likely nest in the beautiful confines of the area since business transacted via the World Wide Web is geographically independent. New names like Vyykn (water) and Solu seek to fill the employment gaps left behind, and they stand to reap newly codified tax benefits as they grow. Duval says he fields regular calls from people considering moving their businesses to Blaine County and he’s excited to see what sticks.

In the backdrop, Sun Valley has indelible traditions that define its character and keep the ball rolling, Griffith said. “Businesses will come and go in the other third of the economy, but the basic structure is likely to remain the same.”

There are older celebrations like Wagon

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Days with its lore of mining lodes and more recent additions like Crosstoberfest, the autumn ode to cyclo-cross racing and craft beer that add to the mix. It is conceivable that Ernest Hemingway back from the grave would be a fan of the off-road carnival since he, too, enjoyed ruddy sport and the revelry gleaned of libations amongst friends and new acquaintances. Arguably, it would all be part of an artful discussion of the state of the world.

Now, in an election year and after the Chicago Cubs finally bested opponents for a World Series victory, a new tipping point is here. And with that, the Sun Valley economy begs review by any who have been touched by its graces: career employees of Sun Valley Company, Blaine County or the U.S. Forest Service, the annual jet-set Allen and Company, medical or legal conference goers, recreation regulars from Boise, Seattle or Pocatello, the blue highway traveler stumbling into Ketchum for the first time after dark, and even the third- and fourth-generation visitors, whose families have been enjoying the naturebased amenities of the area since the founding of the resort.

Since the Great Recession the community has inched its way back from the brink like

any community, but at no time in the last eight years have things been static. Jack Sibbach at Sun Valley Resort is often asked to be an economic weatherman and shares as much as he can, since his employer is a private company. Many still marvel at how summer visitor numbers often surpass winter highs. At its peak, around Christmastime, the Sun Valley Resort employs about 1,800 people, with an average for the balance of the winter of 1,650 workers, Sibbach said.

Those numbers have stayed largely constant, even through the economic downturn.

The company continues to add and update facilities and is today more linked to the community through the transportation infrastructure. It employs Mountain Rides to ferry guests between the slopes, town and the resort.

It can be argued that part of the mystique of Sun Valley is that much of what drives the numbers is shrouded in mystery. Invention is important, as is imagination, says Duval, but, the remoteness of the community does have some natural limitations.

“You probably can’t run a restaurant in San Francisco from here,” Duval said. “But it is an amazing place to brainstorm business ventures that could take off anywhere.”

WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 99

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innovation // vyykn

WATER THE VYYKN WAY

How a Ketchum startup is rethinking the way we consume water by adam tanous

Above: The Vyykn water stations offer carbonated, oxygeninfused, alkaline and plain filtered water. Right: Students at Boise High cleaning their water bottles with an ozone flush before dispensing water into them. Users can track their water intake using an radio frequency infrared (RFID) chip or a smart phone application.

100 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

Idaho INVESTMENT

OPPORTUNITIES COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE

—STEVE KUZARA, FOUNDER OF VYYKN

diligently working there, constructing a component of the Vyykn system. Nearby, in the primary work space of Vyykn, there are computers, white couches, a station for product development, many more tools, and different versions of the company’s hydration “platform.” It is a surreal step into a business that could very well be in Palo Alto or Menlo Park, Calif. Curiously, it happens to be in downtown Ketchum, Idaho.

Steve Kuzara, the founder of Vyykn, is, as many of his peers in Silicon Valley would say, “swinging for the fences.” While some entrepreneurs might have an idea for a product and go after one specific market, Kuzara and Vyykn are going after several vertical markets, attempting to build what Nick Harman, Vyykn’s business development head, calls an “ecosystem” of hydration

WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 101

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“

Man’s relationship with water is dysfunctional.

Due to overpopulation and ‘progress,’ we have polluted most of our fresh water sources, and we are running out of fresh water.”

stations. This would be a network of water dispensing machines in airports, coffee shops, restaurants, gyms and public places at which subscribers can dispense highly filtered water, carbonated water, oxygen-infused water, and mineral-laden, elevated-pH water.

“Man’s relationship with water is dysfunctional,” Kuzara told me. “Due to overpopulation and ‘progress,’ we have polluted most of our fresh water sources, and we are running out of fresh water. Our response to this is to package water in a toxic plastic container, ship all over the world and pay (on average) more than gasoline. This cannot be the end of the story. Vyykn plans to build the world’s first private global utility, delivering the most pure and trustworthy drinking water to the world. In the future, people will refer to water as what is in the toilet or what is used to wash our cars, clothes, or for agriculture. Vyykn is what you drink.”

Kuzara’s primary goal when starting the company was an environmental one: to reduce, and, in a perfect world, eliminate, the number of single-serve plastic water bottles in the world. And there are a lot of them. According to the International Bottled Water Association, the 2014 U.S. revenues for bottled water were $14.2 billion, which equates to 11.7 billion gallons, or 36.3 gallons per person. The global market, at least in terms of volume, is double that.

To move toward his goal, Kuzara began by creating web-connected hydration stations that dispense six-stage-filtered water, with the optional enhancements of infused oxygen, minerals, or carbon dioxide, into metal bottles. Each metal bottle comes with an RFID chip that tracks an individual’s water consumption (assuming one is drinking what’s dispensed). It is this microchip—eventually it will be a mobile phone software application— that prefigures a second, more ambitious health and wellness goal of the company, which according to Harman, “… is to modify our behavior (when it comes to water).”

The health benefits of staying hydrated are well documented and range from effects on cardiovascular health, to weight loss, kidney

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Enter the offices of Vyykn, a company that hopes to revolutionize our relationship to drinking water, and one can’t help but be a little disoriented. In the entryway is a high-tech vending machine—for lack of a better word—though this one is replete with sleek, stainless-steel panels, a touch screen that a customer doesn’t even have to touch to operate and cool blue lighting that if it does nothing else lends a futuristic sophistication to what is in simplest terms a water dispenser.

In one work space that used to house a bank, one finds the requisite tech company pingpong table; however, this one is littered with small electronic parts, fixtures, tools, wiring, and an open laptop. Two programmers are

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innovation // vyykn

“

Steve’s goals to reduce the heavy toll of single use plastic water bottles on the earth while simultaneously providing wellness to people (through hydration) strongly echo the values of our community.”

Above: A Vyykn station in Ketchum’s Town Square.

The company also has a station installed at the airport and plans to put in three other stations throughout the city.

health, and skin tone. Kuzara is also keenly concerned with the dramatic increases in diabetes and obesity in the U.S. While cause and effect are not definitive, the correlation between the rise of these health crises and the consumption of sugar-based sodas is startling.

Kuzara believes that an innovative approach to consuming water might make a dent in these problems. An obvious place in which to do that is in the schools. To that end, Vyykn has partnered with Boise High School to deploy one of their hydration stations at the school. The company also provided 2,000 subscriptions to the students and teachers.

One strategy Vyykn employs in modifying our behavior toward drinking water is to “gameify” the process. With software tracking of consumption, Vyykn can create “leaderboards” in a corporate or school setting in which participants can see how their hydration compares with their peers.

In effect, users compete to drink more water.

Recently, Vyykn set up a TV monitor so that the workers building the Limelight Hotel in Ketchum could check in on their “hydration race” during breaks. Over at Boise High, the kids, as one might expect, enthusiastically embraced the game.

Each Vyykn subscriber—the company offers $30-, $60-, and $90-per-year plans— has an account profile with his or her name, height, weight, and target water consumption per day. Subscriptions entitle users up to 102 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

five liters (1.3 gallons) per day. Each time a user dispenses water at a Vyykn station, it is tracked and stored in a Cloud-based database.

Subscribers can opt in for alerts to a phone or computer to keep on pace for their target daily water consumption.

A second platform the company plans to provide is a “wellness” station. These will be similar to the standard hydration stations but will include a means to measure weight, heart rate, blood oxygen level—all while one’s water bottle is being filled. This, Harman told me, is a nod to the emphasis corporate America now places on wellness in the workplace.

Each time a worker fills up a water bottle, this basic health data will be relayed in a HIPPAcompliant way to the company’s wellness director. Ultimately, it’s not hard to imagine this data being used to justify lower insurance premiums for a company or an individual.

A key determinant in the success of the company will surely be the extent to which it can develop networks of Vyykn hydration stations. Just as the value of a cellular system increases with more cell towers—in cell phone marketing speak, “coverage”—so too will the utility of the Vyykn system improve as more stations dot a community. The company envisions having stations in restaurants and coffee shops, where customers can enjoy a “farm-to-table experience,” as Harman told me, in which customers know exactly what they are drinking. For every sommelier in a fine restaurant, Harman can imagine someone performing a similar function for water.

As it happened, Kuzara chose Ketchum as a place in which to prove his model. That choice surely was informed by the willing cooperation by the City of Ketchum and its mayor, Nina Jonas. “When Steve first told me of Vyykn, two elements caught my attention as a company that would be a good fit for Ketchum,” Jonas said. “Steve’s goals to reduce the heavy toll of single-use plastic water bottles on the earth while simultaneously providing wellness to people (through hydration) strongly echo the values of our community. Also, Vyykn has the

—NINA JONAS, KETCHUM MAYOR

great potential to provide jobs not in the tourist and building sectors that will diversify Ketchum’s economy … It is this type of business-sector diversification that Ketchum needs to support a vibrant community with jobs for full-time residents.”

In addition to stations at the airport, the Wood River YMCA, and Zenergy Health Club and Spa, Vyykn plans to put five stations on city property, including the Town Square. “The City of Ketchum is contracting with Vyykn to provide water stations in locations that lack infrastructure completely or seasonally,” Jonas explained.

One of the advantages of Vyykn’s software and data-tracking approach is that the company can monitor in real-time the quality of the water going in and out of its stations.

If there is a spike in an impurity, Vyykn will know it right away and exactly where on the system the problem is arising. As the citizens of Flint, Mich., will attest, the nation’s water infrastructure is aging, if not decrepit, in some parts of the country. No doubt there are other Flint, Michigans out there. Kuzara told me that 96 percent of the municipalities in the U.S. are out of compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1972. It is also perhaps notable that the standard for water safety itself dates back 45 years.

Dig a little into Vyykn’s plans and it becomes obvious that this is no widget company. It’s at once a technology and environmental play with a network business model. Throw in the healthcare and the software as service components and it becomes clear that the company is, to say the least, ambitious in scope.

To the outsider, the challenge may seem daunting, both from a product and a customer behavior point of view. Building an entire ecosystem around an idea is not for the faint of heart. For someone like Kuzara, having that challenge before him, well, that’s the good stuff. As he said to me while taking a power drill to one of his nearly completed public stations, “Remember, Uber started with three cars.”

photo : courtesy vyykn

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innovation // orflo

SILICON COMES TO THE VALLEY photo : todd meier

Orflo Technologies represents a new era in local economic development by jon duval

Company founder Ted Ayliffe makes final adjustments to Orflo’s Moxi GOs, a cell and protein analyzer.

104 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

The first thing you notice walking through the doors of Orflo Technologies is the soft, rhythmic thrum of machines, a steady, hightech beat that you wouldn’t expect walking into an office in a ski town.

Tucked down in Ketchum’s industrial center, Orflo Technologies has been creating leading-edge life sciences equipment for the past 13 years, the last six in the Wood River Valley. As a standard-bearer for cell analysis

“

It was a lifestyle choice.

I wanted to move back to the Rocky Mountain area, and was looking for a place that had an airport, lots of sun and wasn’t too cold.”

—TED AYLIFFE, CEO AND FOUNDER OF ORFLO

instrumentation, Orflo has seen tremendous growth and is also a prime example of a changing economy in which location is a choice, rather than a facet to be dictated by an industry.

“It was a lifestyle choice,” said Ted Ayliffe, CEO and founder of Orflo, describing his decision to move from Seattle to Blaine County. “I wanted to move back to the Rocky Mountain area, and was looking for a place that had an airport, lots of sun and wasn’t too cold.”

While such a move might surprise some in the biotech industry, it wouldn’t have come as a shock to anyone that knew him or his past in the ski industry. While pursuing his Ph.D. in bioengineering in Salt Lake City in the late 1990s, Ayliffe got into telemark skiing and leveraged his knowledge as a mechanical engineer to design an improved binding, which would become the G3 Targa binding, one of the most popular bindings for the sport and one that remains a hallmark of that industry.

This “hobby” creativity continued, as Ayliffe went on to start a company called Sky Alpine, which designed backcountry

climbing skins and subsequently sold to Black Diamond. All of this, however, was a precursor to where his education and chosen field would take him.

In 2003, Ayliffe founded Orflo, looking to build a better mousetrap, but in the bioengineering field as opposed to pest control.

“We took relatively old technology from the 70s, miniaturized it, and made it simple and easy to use—in this case it was cell analysis,” Ayliffe said. “We want to make it accessible to every lab and at a low cost.”

Just over a decade later, this innovation has led to further ones in the same industry, with Orflo sales doubling year-over-year and putting them on target to bring in $4.2 million in 2016. This success has translated into the need for 12 employees, including eight full-time staffers in Ketchum.

As far as local economic development goes, these kinds of companies and associated jobs are highly sought after, as they have good salaries and aren’t dependent on the seasonal swings that impact the Valley’s traditional tourism industry, which remains the backbone of the Sun Valley region.

“We are seeing companies bring in highskilled workers, helping create an ecosystem of talent here, which, in turn, will attract even more skilled employees,” said Harry Griffith, executive director of the nonprofit Sun Valley Economic Development. “We are working

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photo : todd meier

innovation // orflo

Clockwise from top left: CEO Ayliffe with Orflo’s 33 issued patents; Can Xuan Mai works with sensor material; placing sensor material in an automated Orflo system.

toward a critical mass that will help bring in a new influx of skilled employees and new companies that can grow from there.”

While Ayliffe continues to work on expanding the business, designing new product and increasing market share with new customers, he notes that there are challenges facing not only Orflo, but any company doing business here with a similar business model in which outside sales are required.

“The hardest, honestly, is the travel,” said Ayliffe. “If you have meetings or sales trips, you can waste a whole day getting there.”

Ayliffe also noted that while this area is a great attractant for employees, it can also be hard to find highly experienced workers, even more so in a niche industry, as they can often 106 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

already be settled elsewhere.

For those willing to move, however, the lifestyle is hard to beat, especially when the CEO favors lunchtime ski or bike excursions. In addition, Griffith added that for many employees who relocate here with their families, there are additional opportunities for spouses.

“Companies like Orflo check a couple economic boxes for us, both in non-tourism and tourism-related industries,” said Griffith.

“These companies bring in their own employees, but they also often come with families, who can find job opportunities in our large tourism sector.”

For Ayliffe, whatever drawbacks come with

living in the mountains of Idaho, they pale in comparison to the benefits of being able to work and live on the edge of the wilderness, where getting outside is made a priority by those who choose to live here.

“If you can pull it off—and you need to be the kind of company that has an owner that can make that decision—if employees are into the outdoors at all, it’s a fantastic place to have a business.”

left: courtesy ed viesturs

|

right: dev khalsa

a life in the sky

Ed Viesturs’ 18-year journey to the top of the world’s highest mountains

by Adam Tanous

F

or the better part of 18 years, Ed Viesturs spent each spring and fall in places where, physiologically speaking, the human body really does not belong. These are the upper reaches of the mountains that stand at least 8,000 meters (26,247 feet) higher than the sea, places where oxygen is so scarce that as soon as a climber finally gets to such a perch in the sky, his body essentially begins to die.

Most people who dare to brave the avalanches, hurricane winds and double-digit sub-zero temperatures of these otherworldly places do so with the help of supplemental oxygen, which, in effect, tricks the body into thinking it is at a lower altitude than it actually is. Viesturs did not, and in summiting Annapurna—his 14th eightthousander—on May 12, 2005, he became the sixth person in the world and the only American to do so ever. In the history of Himalayan climbing, which dates back to the turn of the last century, approximately 33 people have achieved this mark. It is a select club but, not surprisingly, one many have died trying to join.

The Power of Failure Despite his remarkable successes, Viesturs is very quick to point out his “failures”—the many times he didn’t summit. In one

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regard, however, these setbacks could be considered a badge of honor of sorts in that they just may have been the key to his longterm success.

“For me to climb all 14 eight-thousanders, I went on 21 expeditions,” Viesturs told me one fall afternoon in Ketchum, Idaho, where Viesturs lives. “So, I missed on a third. On Everest, I went 11 times and climbed it seven times. I missed on a third … I knew going into this I couldn’t really decide the outcome; the mountain would … And if the conditions weren’t good and the risk was too great, I would just say, ‘It’s not happening,’ and not that I have to come back but that I get to come back. Yeah, you invest all of that time and energy and money, but, ultimately, I knew it wasn’t my choice; I would have to walk away if I needed to.”

It was a lesson Viesturs learned in 1987 on his first Everest expedition. He and Eric Simonson were attempting to summit via the Great Couloir of the North Face. After two-anda-half months of hiking and climbing, he and Simonson were within 300 feet of the summit. However, out of ropes, and with a

left: Viesturs climbs an icy pitch at 22,000 feet on Annapurna. this page: Viesturs now spends his time with his family in Ketchum, Idaho.

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The World’s 14 Highest Peaks The 8,000-meter peaks summited by Ed Viesturs BROAD PEAK June 23, 2003 26,401 ft

very technical pitch above them and the weather worsening, the pair came to the conclusion that they could probably get to the top but might not be able to get back down. It was a stinging disappointment, one that Viesturs wrote about in his book, “No Shortcuts to the Top” (Viesturs has written four books with Dave Roberts). He wrote, “I thought about those 300 feet every day for the next three years.”

Reflecting on those critical moments in a climb, Viesturs said, “It’s all about decision-making and tempering ambition. There are so many climbers out there who say, ‘I’m here, I’ve spent a lot of time, a lot of energy, a lot of money, and I might not get another chance … I’m just going to go for it.’ And they don’t consider the fact that it’s only halfway. And how many accidents happen on the way down? A lot. Because everyone uses everything for the one-way trip.

There’s no plan for coming down.”

For Viesturs, that decision making process is a visceral one, one partially based in fear. “People always think that we’re fearless,” he said. “But I say, no, we do have fear. Fear keeps you alive, it makes you look and listen and watch, it keeps you alert. But if you feel some uncontrollable trepidation, that something is just not right—I don’t feel good about this snow, or I don’t like what those clouds are doing, or I just feel anxiety—I’ve learned to say, based on my experience, something could potentially happen, and I’m going to turn around before it’s too late.”

In all of Viesturs’ high-altitude climbing, he has gone against his instinct just once. In “No Shortcuts to the Top,” Viesturs describes it as “the one big mistake of my climbing career.”

It occurred in August 1992 during an ascent of K2, the world’s second highest mountain at 28,251 feet. Viesturs was climbing with Scott Fischer (who would subsequently die during a 1996 Everest summit attempt in which eight people died. The disaster was chronicled by Jon Krakauer in his book “Into Thin Air”). The two were camped at 24,300 feet, trying to sleep before their summit bid, when they received word that two other climbers—Chantal Mauduit and Thor Keiser—above them, were in trouble.

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GASHERBRUM II July 4, 1995 26,781 ft GASHERBRUM I July 15, 1995 26,529 ft

DHUALAGIRI May 4, 1999 26,795 ft

The next morning, Viesturs and Fischer put aside their summit plans and headed up the mountain to rescue the nearly snow blind Mauduit and exhausted Keiser. After climbing for two hours in horrendous weather with little visibility, Viesturs and Fischer had to turn back.

The next day they tried again, roped together, as the face they had to climb was riddled with crevasses. The wind was blowing fiercely, and the climbers above struggling to get down were kicking off small avalanches as they moved. At one point, Viesturs got that feeling in his gut—he could sense the slope was getting dangerously loaded with snow. He yelled up at Fischer, who was above him, “Man, let’s not get ourselves killed doing this.” Viesturs then started digging a hole in the slope in which to anchor himself in the event an avalanche did occur. Moments later, Viesturs watched Fischer get swept off his feet by a wall of snow. The avalanche then engulfed Viesturs. Remarkably, his anchoring system held as the avalanche moved over him. Viesturs watched Fischer tumble past him in the wave of snow. As Fischer kept falling down the face, the rope connecting the two climbers pulled tight and yanked Viesturs from his improvised bunker. At that point, he and Fischer were pinwheeling down the slope toward 8,000 vertical feet of cliffs. Viesturs did what he was trained to do—use his ice axe as a brake by driving it into the snow to gain purchase. After several attempts, he finally felt his axe hold in the snow. The rope joining the climbers pulled tight and Viesturs held the full weight of Fischer (225 pounds) until they stopped moving.

Remarkably, neither of them was hurt.

After collecting themselves, the two still had two people to rescue. Fischer and Viesturs found a steeper but icier and safer route to them and eventually got Mauduit and Keiser down to base camp.

Despite the ordeal, Viesturs and Fischer decided to try again for the summit. After two days of waiting out a storm at 26,000 feet, they made their push to the summit. Again, with the massive snow accumulation and still four hours from the summit, Viesturs questioned whether they should keep going. But they did, and Viesturs

photos : courtesy ed viesturs

NANGA PARBAT June 23, 2003 26,657 ft

K2 August 16, 1992 28,251 ft

LHOTSE May 16, 1994 27,940 ft

ANNAPURNA May 12, 2005 26,545 ft

MANASLU June 23,2003 26,781 ft

EVEREST May 8, 1990 29,029 ft

SHISHAPANGMA April 30, 2001 CHO OYU 26,335 ft October 6, 1994 26,864 ft

knew that he was making a big mistake, all the while questioning himself as to whether the conditions were really that bad. After summiting, the climbers nearly got lost coming down in the newly fallen thigh-deep snow. Descending, they kicked off several small slab avalanches; all Viesturs could think was that he had made a last and fatal mistake.

But Viesturs survived it, and freely admits that he got away with one. Still, he learned from the experience that came just five years into his 18-year quest.

A Lasting Partnership The following spring (1993), Viesturs met Veikka Gustafsson, a Finnish climber who would become for Viesturs “that perfect climbing partner” and with whom he would eventually go on 13 expeditions.

The importance of good climbing partnerships is often overlooked by non-climbers. While mountain climbing would seem to

KANGCHENJUNGA May 18,1989 28,169 ft MAKALU May 16, 1994 27,838 ft

be the ultimate individual sport, it is hardly so. One is literally tied to another person in the most adverse of conditions. A mistake by one is a mistake for both.

For Viesturs, the most important condition for a partnership is that he has to like the other climber. “If I don’t like them at sea level, I’m not going to like them at 26,000 feet.” Second is trust. “We have to trust one another, otherwise, there is no reason to rope up together.” Third, Viesturs feels that partners have to have a similar level of acceptable risk.

What Viesturs learned on K2 was that he and Fischer were not well matched in terms of what was acceptable risk and what wasn’t.

By contrast, he and Gustafsson were always in sync when it came to making those hard decisions on the mountain. It was a partnership that never fell apart. Viesturs still considers Gustafsson one of his “true-blue, best friends. We became like brothers.” (After Viesturs reached his goal, Gustafsson went on a few years later to summit all 14 8,000-meter peaks without oxygen, as well. He now works in publishing in Finland.)

Veikka GustafSson and Ed Viesturs after climbing Annapurna in 2005; Viestur’s tiny tent at camp IV (24,000 feet) on his first solo attempt of Everest in 1993.

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Read a few books about high-altitude mountain climbing and one can’t help but be taken aback by the number of deaths, severe injuries, and limbs, toes and fingers lost to frostbite that litter even the upper echelons of the sport. In a hypoxic (oxygen-deprived) fog, elite climbers have simply stepped off slopes falling away for thousands of feet. They have fallen in crevasses never to climb out, or have been swept away by massive avalanches. Some have simply chosen to sit down in the snow and succumb to the exhaustion and cold.

The grim facts make Viesturs’ record even more remarkable; not once during his 18-year quest to summit the world’s highest peaks did he suffer serious injury, frostbite, acute altitude sickness, pulmonary edema, or cerebral edema.

Peter Whittaker, head of Whittaker Mountaineering and an elite climber and guide who has summited Everest with Viesturs, said of his colleague: “On the big mountains, you climb them on their terms. Risks are high, and it takes a laser focus to manage the hazards and maintain a reasonable margin of safety. Ed is a master at managing risk. Few climbers have pushed the limits the way he has without making a mistake and ending up a statistic.”

What’s more, never once did Viesturs have to be rescued by others on the mountain. In fact, Viesturs put his own expeditions aside on six different occasions to rescue others on the mountain and, ultimately, saved lives. As dangerous as a high-altitude rescue can be, Viesturs considers it a “moral obligation.” For instance, Viesturs was on Everest with the IMAX expedition when the notorious May 10-11, 1996 storm enveloped the top of the mountain.

During the storm, eight people perished on the mountain. Viesturs was instrumental in rescuing stranded climber Beck Weathers after he had miraculously survived 15 hours exposed to the horrendous storm.

The Training Ground Viesturs’ path to the top of the world began in one of the flattest places imaginable, Rockford, Ill. As a teenager, Viesturs read Maurice Herzog’s “Annapurna,” an account of the first summiting of that mountain in 1950. It immediately sparked a passion for climbing and adventure. While Viesturs and a friend had taught themselves the basics of rock climbing at the nearby Devil’s Lake crags, he realized the one-day outings weren’t enough for him. “I wanted to go on longer adventures, multi-day trips when you are on snow and in a tent, and there are glaciers and giant vistas,” he explained.

During college at the University of Washington, Viesturs climbed throughout the Cascades, developing his skills and experience.

But it wasn’t until the summer of 1982 when he was hired by Rainier Mountaineering, Inc. (RMI) that Viesturs’ education really began. RMI had the guiding concession on Mount Rainier and was staffed by many experienced climbers, including Eric Simonson,

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Phil Ershler and George Dunn, all of whom were mentors for Viesturs. “Rainier was my classroom, and these guys were my teachers.” Ultimately, Viesturs guided on Rainier during the summers for 10 years.

In 1983, Viesturs began veterinary school at Washington State University. It was in the spring of his final year there, 1987, that Viesturs was invited by one of his mentors, Eric Simonson, on his first Everest expedition (one that ended 300 feet from the top).

Following graduation, Viesturs took a job working as a veterinary doctor in Seattle. However, he was soon asking for time off to go back to Everest to climb the east face (the Kangshung Face) with his RMI friend Andy Politz. As it turned out, with ongoing avalanche activity, the group could never find a safe route to the top. Again, Viesturs had to turn back. However, the missed summit only fueled his passion for Himalayan climbing.

When he was invited to go on a spring 1989 climb of Kangchenjunga, the world’s third-highest mountain, Viesturs had to do some soul searching about whether he could continue working as a vet and pursue his passion of climbing. “I knew I couldn’t do both things well,” he said. “If I wanted to be really good at one of them, I needed to focus. So, I thought I’d focus on climbing for a year or two and see how it goes. In the end, I just never went back.”

The decision came with a healthy dose of angst. He had invested eight years of schooling, a lot of money, and had two jobs as a working vet. “I figured I could build a career from that, but I decided to leave it and try to invent a career as a mountain climber. And Americans weren’t really doing that. There were a few Europeans, like Messner, doing it, but it was easier over there because it’s such a big part of their culture. I thought, ‘Am I making a giant mistake here?”

Viesturs took on part time jobs and started cold calling outdoor companies seeking sponsorships or work as design consultant, product developer, ambassador and such. He said he’d call up companies, introduce himself and be greeted with, “Ed who?” But over time, he built up a climbing resume, and people began to take notice. Eventually, he had a stable of companies that would pay him a retainer to do trade shows, photo shoots, and product testing.

Those retainers enabled him to pay his bills and go on expeditions to the Himalaya and Karakorum mountains.

The Air We Breathe The scope of Viesturs’ achievement—summiting all 14 8,000meter peaks over 18 years—is remarkable enough, but the fact that he did it without the aid of supplemental oxygen puts him in truly rarefied company.

To appreciate the difficulty of functioning at these altitudes, it is helpful to understand basic human physiology. Put simply, we eat food—fats, proteins and carbohydrates—to generate the energy

photos courtesy ed viesturs

Measuring Success

TOP: Camp IV (26,000 feet) on K2 in 1992. BOTTOM: Descending just below the summit of Everest.

e w , o n , y a s I t u B . s s rle a e f e ’r e w t a h t d n k a in k h o t o s l y u a o w y l a s e e k l ma it , “Peop e iv l a u o y s p e e k r do have fear. Fecah, it keeps you alert.” listen and wat —ED VIEST URS

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/ courtesy eddie bauer viesturs : jake norton

| k 2: charlie mace

|

and therefore may be more efficient at altitude for a given workload. But the amount of oxygen you have available to burn and how you respond in that oxygen-‘starved’ milieu is way more important than how much fuel you can burn if given an unlimited supply. Oxygen transport during exercise at high altitude is exceedingly more dependent on the ventilatory drive (HVR).”

Dr. Hackett emphasized another aspect of Viesturs’ physiology: anaerobic threshold. This is the point of physical exertion at which the body begins to carry out metabolism without oxygen, and lactic acid begins to build up in the muscles. It is the “burn” people feel during intense athletic exertion. As Hackett explained, at your anaerobic threshold “your muscles can’t push any farther, lactic acid builds up and you just have to quit.”

According to Hackett, the national average for anaerobic threshold is 55 percent (of VO2 max). “Ed Viesturs’ anaerobic threshold was 85 percent, which is very, very high. I think that’s one of the more outstanding features of Ed’s physiology,” he said. As Viesturs put it to me, between the larger-than-average lungs, high VO2 max and high anaerobic threshold, he could go “longer and farther before going anaerobic than the average climber… in other words, because of the physiology I had by accident, I suffered less.”

Hackett emphasized that summiting in these extreme environments is more than a physiological feat. “Just being athletic and being able to exercise a lot doesn’t mean you can move across snow and ice and rocks easily. And that has a lot to do with biomechanics and experience and training. No matter what your VO2 max is, you can’t be a klutz.”

There is also a psychological factor that can’t be overlooked. On a summit push, Viesturs told me, one travels agonizingly slowly, and it gets harder the farther one goes. “You might be breathing 15 times for every step. Imagine that’s all you do hour after hour. There are a lot of times when you could come up with an excuse to say, ‘I’m too tired, or I’m too cold, or it’s not worth it.’ That’s when your mind has to keep pushing you.”

Climbing mountains at altitudes at which the human body really isn’t meant to live clearly demands more than superior physical attributes. Fitness, a vigorous HVR, big lungs, large heart-stroke volume, high hemoglobin count are certainly necessary but perhaps not sufficient. The path to the top of the world demands a lot more. Pure strength of will, decision-making skills, experience, teamwork, prodigious self-confidence that can coexist with humility, patience, and luck are all critical pieces of the puzzle.

Perhaps most basic to the endeavor is desire. What kid hasn’t looked up at a neighborhood peak and wondered, “What’s up there?” For some kids, it’s a localized curiosity; for others, like Viesturs, it goes beyond that. The seed of curiosity blossoms into a curiosity about the world, the mysteries it might hold, and, ultimately, curiosity about ourselves. The question comes down to: Can I make it? What exactly am I capable of on this Earth?

dhualagiri : courtesy ed viesturs

that enables our muscles to contract, cells to divide, proteins to be synthesized—all of the actions of life. Oxygen is essential to this process; without it, metabolism won’t proceed, just as a fire starved of oxygen ceases to burn.

At high altitudes, air is less dense; in other words, there is less oxygen for any given volume of air, so its pressure is reduced. Near the summit of Everest, for example, the partial pressure of oxygen in the air is one-third of that at sea level. Consequently, the pressure difference between the oxygen in the lungs and that in the arteries nearby is reduced. This pressure difference is what drives the oxygen into the bloodstream, so if it is diminished, less-thannormal oxygen is transported across the lung tissues to the blood.

The supply of oxygen begins to fall short of the demand by the body.

Dr. Peter Hackett, one of the foremost experts on high-altitude medicine, is a professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He heads the Institute of Altitude Medicine in Telluride, Colo., and has, himself, summited Everest. He is also the physician for the Rolling Stones when they are on tour.

“The body has a normal response to low oxygen levels,” Hackett explained. “Its number one defense is to increase breathing (the rate and volume of breaths) and how much you do that is genetically determined. A climber can consciously increase his breathing when climbing, but when he goes to sleep, automatic mechanisms take over. It’s called hypoxic ventilatory response (HVR). A lot of studies have shown that to be a good high-altitude climber, it is helpful to have a vigorous HVR.” Hackett explained that, over time, at high altitude—approximately five to 10 days—the body increases its ventilatory response.

So, for example, a climber who walks into Everest base camp at 17,600 feet might have an oxygen saturation of 78 percent. After a week acclimatization period during which his breathing response increases, the climber’s oxygen saturation level might go up to 85 percent. Also over an extended time, the body will produce more hemoglobin, which, in effect, helps deliver more oxygen to the body.

Through various studies of his physiology, Viesturs has learned that his lungs are very large, nearly 40 percent bigger than average (7 liters versus the average 5 liters). So, at any given altitude, Viesturs can move more oxygen into his system than most people.

When Hackett studied Viesturs, he found that the climber had a high “VO2 max,” which is a common measure of maximum physical exercise capacity. “It’s good to have a high VO2 max so you can move quickly, and it’s good to be in good shape, but it doesn’t guarantee success for high-altitude climbing.”

Dr. Terry O’Connor, an ER physician at the Wood River Medical Center in Ketchum, a climber who has also summited Everest, and a member of the faculty of the University of Colorado’s section of wilderness and environmental medicine, agrees with Hackett.

O’Connor considers VO2 max “a useless predictor of illness or success at altitude. In general, people with good VO2 max are ‘fitter,’

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“Ed is a master at managing risk. Few climbers have pushed the limits the way he has without making a mistake and ending up a statistic.”

—Peter Whittaker, an elite climber and guide who has summited Everest with Viesturs

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y d l Ba PHOTOS COURTESY SUN VALLEY RESORT

OVER THE YEARS

1939 to 1964

HARRIMAN ERA With the Great Depression dragging down big swaths of the American economy, Averell Harriman, chairman of the Union Pacific Railroad, saw a way to save his railroad: increase passenger rail traffic, particularly out West. And to do that he needed a draw, which he decided would be a destination ski resort. To that end, he purchased the 4,000-acre Brass ranch in 1936 and built the Sun Valley Lodge on the property. By 1939, he had developed skiing on Bald Mountain, with three single chairs carrying skiers to the top of the mountain and the famed Roundhouse Restaurant offering food, drink and shelter mid-mountain.

Clockwise from top: First lift plans; sign from??; post on the summit; first single chairlift (which one in 1959; phone station, year?; andRoundhouse 1947.

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Clockwise from far left: The 1939 plan for the first three single chairs to the top; a 1948 painting of the Baldy trails by Florian Haemmerle; the Roundhouse Restaurant and chair #3 to the top; the single chair (#2) that took skiers to the Roundhouse; the Sun Valley Opera House, Lodge and uncut Bald Mountain in the background (1940); a help phone on Baldy overlooking the Pioneer Mountains.

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1964 to 1977

JANSS ERA Bill Janss, a member of the 1940 Olympic Ski Team, purchased Sun Valley Resort from the Union Pacific Railroad in 1964. With his passion for skiing, Janss made a great effort to develop the ski runs on Baldy.

By the end of his tenure in 1977, Janss had added 29 ski runs and seven chairlifts to the mountain. Importantly, he installed the Plaza lift (no longer in service) and what became known as the Mayday chair, which were instrumental in opening up the Warm Springs side of the mountain and the Bowls area, respectively.

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future Seattle Ridge

Dollar Mountain

Opposite page: Plans for the 1965 double chairs (labeled “T�) that scaled the Warm Springs side of Baldy in two sections; skiers riding over Christmas Bowl in 1969.

This page, clockwise from top left: A 1967 trail map showing the expansion of ski runs in the Bowl, River Run, and Warm Springs drainages; Seattle Ridge in 1977, with the original lift placement; sign displaying lift line wait times, c. 1967; Abby Fisher and Christin Cooper at the 1977 World Cup finish line on Bald Mountain.

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1977 to NOW

HOLDING ERA Bill Janss, realizing that much of the infrastructure of Bald Mountain would require an investment that he couldn’t make, sold the resort to Earl and Carol Holding in 1977 for $12 million. As Janss hoped, the Holdings committed to big improvements on Bald Mountain. They added elegant day lodges at River Run, Warm Springs and Seattle Ridge. (They also built an expansive lodge on Dollar Mountain in 2004). In addition, they built the world’s most sophisticated snowmaking system, adding lines every year, and replaced several lifts with new high-speed quad chairs. In 2009, the Holdings put in the Roundhouse Gondola, which has enabled nighttime and non-skier access to the historic Roundhouse Restaurant.

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Opposite page, top to bottom: Bald Mountain in 1983; the Lookout Express, one of the many high-speed quads that the Holdings put in; River Run Lodge at the base of Baldy.

This page, clockwise from top: The Sun Valley Village with Bald Mountain in the background, 2015; the Roundhouse Gondola, which went into service in 2009; the computer-controlled snowmaking system that the Holding family installed covers more than 600 acres of terrain.

LODGE: KEVIN SYMS | SUN VALLEY AERIAL: JOSHUA WELLS | SNOWMAKING: IDARADO MEDIA | QUAD LIFTS: TAL ROBERTS

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by Kitt Doucette photos by Wyatt Caldwell

Throttle

Spencer Cordovano descends a powder chute deep in the Smoky Mountains. Parking his sled near the base of a ridge, Spencer was able to hike a brief 25 minutes to the top and score the best view and deepest turns possible at 9,500 feet in late March.

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Finding gaspowered powder turns in Idaho’s backcountry

It’s

been a few days since the last fresh snow on Baldy—maybe even a couple of weeks. Skiers and snowboarders throughout the valley are getting antsy. The bowls and trees are tracked out. So is the side-country and their secret stashes. The groomers are fun for an hour or two, but what they really want is powder—those untracked slopes sparkling like diamonds in the early morning sunshine, the cold slap of snow in their faces and the smooth, silent push of white fluff beneath their skis and boards …

The good news is Sun Valley is surrounded by three mountain ranges and somewhere in that wilderness there are slopes holding the powder they crave.

It’s out there somewhere. All they have to do is find it.

If they’ve got the cash and prefer a guided experience to quench the powder addiction there’s always Sun Valley Heli-Ski and its beautiful A-Star helicopter.

There’s also a cat-skiing operation nearby at Soldier Mountain in Fairfield. If they’re willing to hike for it, the entire Sawtooth Mountain range to the north is a powder-stuffed playground with steep couloirs, wide-open glades and almost limitless tree lines.

This is all well and good, but finding the spare $1,500 for a day of heli-skiing is easier said than done, and while spending the whole day hiking through the mountains for a few thousand vertical feet of powder turns

A sled-access snowboarder packs out the trail before giving a friend a ride to the top for some fresh turns.

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Occasionally we’re having so much fun riding the sleds that our boards never leave their racks and we spend the whole day neckin’ around in the hills.

—Wyatt Caldwell, pro snowboarder & photographer

Finding a concave gully or key hole such as this one allows easy rides to the top for ski/ board access.

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is a wonderful experience, the Sawtooth Mountains’ long approaches and short days of winter limit the achievable downhill vertical and make any backcountry mission a dawn-todusk proposition. Luckily, there is another option for the devoted powder hound: snowmobiles.

Known by a variety of monikers, such as “sled,” “snowmachine,” and “poor man’s helicopter,” these versatile mountain steeds have become a key piece of equipment for any powder-obsessed skier or snowboarder in the Sun Valley area.

“They offer an unbelievable amount of freedom,” said Wyatt Caldwell. A pro snowboarder and photographer, Caldwell was one of the first Sun Valley locals to realize what a powerful powder tool snowmobiles are. “Sometimes we use the sleds to access a particular zone we want to hike and ride,” explained Wyatt. “Other times we can ride them right to the top of a run or lap a jump we built. Occasionally we’re having so much fun riding the sleds that our boards never leave their racks and we spend the whole day neckin’ around in the hills.” Neckin’ is jargon for “slednecks,” a term snowmobile riders use to describe themselves and the act of off-trail, freestyle riding that’s popular in the Idaho backcountry.

While buying a snowmobile is far from cheap—a new top-ofthe-line, mountain-ready sled will cost about $15,000—they open up a whole new world of accessible terrain with the potential to score countless untracked turns.

Faster than hiking and cheaper than helicopters, snowmobiles

also appeal to the do-it-yourself rugged individualism of Idahoans, providing a broad range of backcountry possibilities with nary a road sign in sight.

Before blasting off the trail and into the backcountry, however, make sure you’re prepared. Far from making their riders immune to backcountry hazards, the extra power, speed and weight of a snowmobile add stress to fragile snowpacks and can leave a rider a long ways from nowhere if the machine breaks down. The level of exposure and danger snowmobilers face in the backcountry increases dramatically when they leave groomed trails. Avalanches kill multiple snowmobilers every year, many of which could be avoided with a few basic precautions and routine snow stability checks.

If you plan on riding in the backcountry, spend the extra cash and get racks to attach your skis and snowboard while you’re on the throttle, and good safety gear like a helmet, and avalanche transceiver, and other backcountry necessities like shovels, probes and a well-equipped first-aid kit.

Never ride alone, take a snow safety course and stay informed about changing conditions and snow-stability forecasts.

With over 120 miles of groomed trails and countless off-trail opportunities in the Sun Valley area, picking a place to ride and practice your off-trail skills can be daunting.

“I think the best zone for snowmobile-accessed powder turns near Sun Valley is the Baker Creek drainage,” said Caldwell.

“It’s really user-friendly with a

Backcountry ski guide Marc Hanselman descends the east side of Castle Divide in the White Cloud Mountains. Hanselman and others were able to access the skiing in the new White Clouds Wilderness Area by using snowmobiles to eliminate the 15-mile hike in to the wilderness border. They were also able to re-supply their 8-day trip with the help of the snowmobiles.

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well-groomed trail that leads to multiple skiing and snow­ boarding options, so it’s a fun place to ride no matter what your ability level is.”

Located in the Smoky Mountains and accessed via a large parking lot on the northeast side of Highway 75 south of Galena Lodge, Baker Creek has it all. A groomed Forest Service road climbs gently up the drainage, with a series of open hillsides to play around on on either side. A few different trails branch off along the way before the groomed road

you know it, you’re in a giant hole of your own creation. Then it’s time to dig and pull again.

Since most of the snowmobile accessible terrain around Sun Valley lies within the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, it’s important to be aware of the different motorized and nonmotorized boundaries and other rules put in place by the Forest Service. For example, riding snowmobiles up Hyndman Basin in the Pioneer Mountains to the east of Sun Valley is only allowed after March 15, and motorized traffic

“ The new sleds are much lighter and easier to maneuver, so the learning curve is a lot quicker.”

—Wyatt Caldwell, pro snowboarder & photographer

comes to a stop. A little off-trail riding from here will get riders into the goods where they can choose to ditch their sleds and hike up the peaks or access the high country via some more technical hill climbs. Rookies beware; riding on a groomed trail is far different from riding off-trail in fresh snow.

Getting stuck is just part of the deal when you’re snowmobiling off-trail. This is especially true when riders are new to the sport and still figuring out the often counterintuitive techniques required to ride a snowmobile in deep untracked snow.

“Dig and pull, dig and pull,” Caldwell said with a laugh, “there’s really no way around it. If you’re riding off-trail, you’re going to get stuck.” The first thing any experienced snowmobile rider will tell you is that the throttle is your friend. Problems arise when a snowmobile driver hesitates and eases off the gas. That’s when the 250-pound machine sinks into the soft snow and gets unruly. Before 126 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

of any kind is forbidden within the Sawtooth Wilderness Area. These boundaries are often marked on trails but can be hard to spot. If new to riding in the area, stopping by the Ketchum Ranger District’s office and picking up a map that delineates where snowmobiles are permitted and where they’re prohibited is highly recommended.

“Once you figure a few things out, that’s when the fun really starts,” Caldwell explained. “Plus, the new sleds nowadays are much lighter and easier to maneuver, so the general learning curve is a lot quicker.”

With the snowmobile Mecca of Stanley just an hour north of Sun Valley, with thousands of acres to ride, it’s no wonder that more and more trucks around the Wood River Valley have snowmobiles hanging out the back of their beds.

With all those mountains to ski and snowboard, not to mention how fun it is to ride the sleds, suddenly those long days between storms are flush with powder potential.

Spencer Cordovano hits the skin trail in the Smoky Mountains.

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mountainmusic HISTORIC PIANOS of the SAWTOOTH VALLEY

by B RYANT DUNN photography by TODD M EIE R

Left: The Woolley family piano was shipped to the Sawtooths in the back of an old Conestoga wagon before the turn of the 20th century. Right: Morning in the Sawtooth Valley.

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t he sun rose magnificently over central Idaho’s White Cloud Mountains on the

morning of July 4, 1863, four months to the day after the establishment of the Idaho Territory. Through a scattered veil of cloud cover, pink, peach and vibrant yellow hues shot across the mist-laden valley below, illuminating the buttressed Sawtooth Mountain range to the west. Concurrently, Civil War veteran Captain John Stanley led a group of 75 gold-seeking miners through the meadows and forests of that range on his way toward Idaho City and its significant, untapped gold deposits.

Simultaneously, somewhere on the African continent 9,000 miles away, leaves of an ebony tree waved in the hot breeze as they had for decades. Within the bark of that tree,

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and others like it, resided the black hardwood that would be processed by the hands of artisans, eventually being formed into the polished piano keys necessary to complete the musical masterpieces of their profession.

But just as the gold-fevered dreams of Stanley’s motley bunch had yet to be realized, so too were the ebony keys of elegant piano keyboards yet to be carved. Within a few short years, however, Idaho’s Stanley

brought his sons into the business in 1889. In fact, the serial number’s historic reference would suggest this was one of the very first pianos built under the expanded family venture, probably in 1889 or 1890, the latter of which was the year Idaho was granted statehood.

Today, the piano resides on the stage of John Graham’s Kasino Club, a popular watering hole for tourists and Stanley locals alike. The stage is often filled with musicians of various stripes sharing country

Basin, named after the warrior-turned-miner, and these yet-to-beconstructed pianos, would become joined until our modern day.

Brett Woolley, fourth-generation Sawtooth Valley resident and owner of the Bridge Street Grill in Lower Stanley, remembered hearing the plinking of high C notes and low Gs bouncing off the walls of his childhood home as his siblings fiddled around on the old dusty piano pushed into a corner of their cluttered living room.

“It was a beautiful instrument,” Woolley said of the family piano.

“The woodwork was intricate, but it mostly just collected dust. My mom said it had been shipped up to the Sawtooths in the back of some old Conestoga wagon before the turn of the 20th century, maybe in the 1880s.”

Further research confirmed Woolley’s suppositions. In fact, this particular instrument was built by James Whiting Vose, who established his Boston-based piano manufacturing business in 1851, 12 years prior to Stanley’s romp through the Sawtooths. According to its serial number, the instrument was built sometime after Vose

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ballads or rock and roll jams. Occasionally, someone will sit down on the piano bench and play the ivory and ebony keys with reverence. The multi-colored lighting of the stage gives the instrument a modern and hip feel, an effect unimagined by its 19th-century builders.

The late 1880s and 1890s were a very busy time in and around the Stanley Basin. The region was experiencing its greatest mining boom, as gold was found to be present in nearly every creek, stream and river bottom and entrained in much of the surrounding geology. Silver and lead, known as the conglomerate galena, was ever-present in these metallurgical veins, and shouts of “Eureka” echoed throughout Custer County as hard-working miners broke their backs to extricate the valuable ore.

Naturally, hard work was often followed by hard play. A multitude of saloons sprung up to service the thirsty men (and a few women). In addition to the coveted whiskey, which was sold by the barrelful, music was often a central feature of the ambiance these drinking establishments offered. Most commonly, music was provided by fiddle, piano

miners : idaho state historical society, 66-26.30

Just as the gold-fevered dreams of Stanley’s motley bunch had yet to be realized, so too, were the ebony keys of the elegant piano keyboards yet to be carved.

Left: Idaho miners in 1885. Right: The family piano of Brett Woolley, which now resides on stage at John Graham’s Kasino Club in Stanley.

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and the odd crooner, but the piano was always the heart of the bar.

Small communities of individual miners and mining teams would make claim to parcels where they discovered “color,” a term used to reference the small gold nuggets and flakes that peppered a waterway, be it a spring side trickle or the mighty Upper Salmon River itself. As word spread about a given area’s potential, other hopefuls would move in, set up shop, and communities were born.

Boomtowns like Bonanza, Custer City, Bayhorse, Seafoam, Yellow Jacket and Cape Horn became thriving townships, if only until the lode ran dry. Some of these communities housed thousands of residents and the businesses to support such populations, including restaurants, laundries, real estate offices, miners’ union halls, doctors’ and dentists’ offices, blacksmith shops and the ubiquitous saloons that were home to the revelry that surrounded such a time of discovery, pioneering and the occasional gunfight.

Idaho truly was enjoying its first heyday, drawing miners from tapped out regions like California and adventurers from the American East Coast, in addition to thousands of immigrants from Europe, particularly Germany, France and England. Interestingly, the etymology of the name Idaho is a mystery. Many explanations exist as to the background of the word but none can be substantiated to this day. A common story is that the word Idaho is a derivative of the Native American Shoshoni phrase, “Ee-da-how,” which roughly translates to “the sun comes down from the mountains.” However, records from the U.S. Congress, which originally voted to approve the name Colorado for the territory and was later refuted when the Senate opted for the name Idaho, indicate the name was suggested by George M. Willing who

by Ted and Phyllis Williams (no known family relationship), early inhabitants of the Sawtooth Valley. It is unknown when the piano arrived in the Valley but it bears the evidence of many years of use.

“It is an old instrument that’s for sure,” reported McCoy who plays the instrument occasionally. “I used to play my grandmothers piano, which was the same size and shape.” It has all ebony and ivory keys, a sure indicator of age due to restrictions on importation of these materials. “It looks like it’s been played so much that some of the keys are worn and chipped. It has been played so much they are worn smooth.

It is a genuinely beautiful instrument.”

The piano was built by Jacob Doll, who was one of the more successful piano manufacturers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Doll established his firm in 1871, and was well-known for constructing high-quality square, upright and grand pianos. Doll died in 1911, and his business was left to his sons, who rebranded it Jacob Doll & Sons Piano Company. However, this model bears only the logo of the senior Doll, indicating a likely manufacturing date prior to 1900.

Jacob Doll’s sons furthered their father’s business interests in a classic story of American opportunism and exceptionalism, eventually taking over companies such as Stodart, Baus, Wellsmore, Briggs, Merrill, Norris & Hyde, Edward Mason and Wentworth. The Brothers Doll also developed a popular series of coin-operated player pianos over the following two decades using the “Electrova” brand name.

Jacob Doll & Sons went out of business in 1931 as a result of the Great Depression.

Fast forward to the modern day and the home of Selma Lamb.

Lamb, known as Cookie to her close friends, is a longtime central

The piano was built by Decker Brothers out of New York City and was hauled to Idaho in the back of a wagon destined for the Ace of Diamonds Club in Stanley. explained its meaning as a native phrase for “gem of the mountains.”

Surprisingly, Willing admitted later that he had invented the moniker, making Idaho perhaps the only state in the nation whose etymology is truly without documented meaning.

Shortly after the turn of the second millennium, on a dark, cold winter day, Joe Lamb secured thick, steel chains around another black upright piano and raised the instrument from the ground as gently as he could with his weathered yellow backhoe. Driving slowly and carefully, Lamb steered his creaking machine down the shoulder of Highway 21 toward the residence of Jane McCoy in Upper Stanley.

Once the piano was lowered to the wood-planked sidewalk in front of McCoy’s home, she and her husband wrestled the instrument inside, where it remains today.

The piano was left to McCoy by Stanley resident Nancy Williams upon Williams’ passing. It had been gifted to Williams decades earlier

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Idaho resident and a woman of strong mind and a healthy sense of humor. In her home resides a third piano of historic note.

“Sometime in the late sixties or seventies,” Lamb recalled, “a gentleman in Ketchum came into our gas station in need of car repairs. He didn’t have any money to pay up, and he offered the piano in trade. We took it in and it sat in the compressor room for a while. Eventually we moved it into our home.”

The piano, a black upright, was built by Decker Brothers Piano Manufacturers out of New York City and was hauled to Idaho in the back of a wagon destined for the Ace of Diamonds Club in Stanley.

The Decker Building in New York remains on the National Register of Historic Places to this day. Sadly, the Ace of Diamonds Club burned down many years ago.

Decker Brothers was founded in 1865, the same year the territorial seal and documentation papers of the Idaho Territory were

pilfered in the dark of night from the territorial jail in Lewiston.

Clinton DeWitt Smith and his U.S. Army regiment overwhelmed the Lewistonians charged to guard the papers that secured Lewiston as the territorial capital. Smith and cohorts swept the documents away to their permanent home in Boise, thus effectively transferring the state capital by force.

Due to the death of one of the Decker brothers, the piano manufacturers closed their doors to business in approximately 1900, thus assuring a production date sometime in the last couple decades of the 19th century. According to Lamb, Annie Dooring gained some fame as the Ace of Diamonds pianista and would smoke cigarettes and drink cocktails while entertaining the miners, ranchers, and outdoor enthusiasts who happened through the dark and musty bar.

“The cigarette burns are still on my piano from when Annie was playing in the 1940s and 1950s,” Lamb recounted. “Drink stains are

imprinted on the piano from where she would set her drinks. The old-timers say the floor would bounce and the piano would bounce, and she would keep on playing.”

Today, as the sun rises each day on Stanley’s double-digit population at the confluence of Valley Creek and the upper Salmon River, onlookers continue to be amazed at the natural beauty bestowed upon this mountain hamlet. Little has changed since the days of John Stanley’s first passing through the valley. The alpine waters still run cold and clear, the elk still bugle in the thick Douglas fir forests and a few hardy souls continue to celebrate life with the vigor to which only Rocky Mountain residents can relate. And through the passage of time, this magical region has been home to many who have worked and died hard lives, which, on occasion, were brightened with the tickling of ivory and ebony—the mountain music that floated like smoke through the prairies and peaks of the Sawtooth Mountains.

Selma Lamb and the historic Decker Brothers piano.

WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 133

inthearts

Above: Jenny Krueger addresses the symphony audience before a Joyce Yang concert.

PASSIONATE ABOUT MUSIC

New symphony director embraces growing, enthusiastic audiences

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the sons and daughters of those who forged Cajun music.

She hit the ground running as she tried out various seats in the Pavilion and the lawn to learn what the experience was like. “What struck me was how experienced our audience was,” she said. “I remember sitting on the lawn during the Prokofiev performance.

Prokofiev, though brilliant, is not a top 10 audience favorite, and I assumed the audience would not be very engaged. But pianist Joyce Yang finished and the lawn audience jumped to their feet. In my opinion, the only thing that counts is when you’re so moved that your immediate reaction is one like that.”

Krueger grew up on a horse ranch near Las Cruces, N.M., where she was introduced to classical music by her grandmother, a concert pianist from Madrid who trained at a conservatory in Hong Kong. Krueger spent Saturdays and Sundays practicing flute for the sheer joy of it. And it paid off when she won all-state as a freshman.

At 15 she won an audition to play professionally under a feisty, fiery Italian conductor. And the intoxicating applause convinced her that music was her calling.

She played with the El Paso Symphony, then accepted a job teaching music in her hometown. “I realized then how passionate I was about music education,” she said. “It was where I thought I could make the biggest impact.”

In Lafayette, Krueger co-created “Do Re Mi,” using music to teach 4-year-olds reading and math.

She’s eagerly delved into creating new experiences for the 400 youths involved in the Sun Valley Summer Symphony’s Summer Music Workshop and the 300 youths enrolled in its School of Music.

She brokered a partnership with the Blaine County Schools for symphony cellist Ellen Sanders to teach cello and lead the chamber orchestra. And she’s working on a student music exchange that she says could

photo : nils ribi

Music from “The Wizard of Oz” emanated from the Sun Valley Pavilion as Jenny Krueger and Sun Valley Resortg General Manager Tim Silva walked the perimeter of the Pavilion lawn where nearly 9,000 people were enjoying the Sun Valley Summer Symphony’s Pops concert.

It was a record-breaking crowd. And Krueger, the symphony’s new executive director, wanted to see how lawn speakers and other things could be enhanced to provide a better experience for the symphony’s evergrowing audience.

“We grew our audience at every concert this year, with more than 50,000 people altogether. If there’s one thing I’ve noticed with this organization, it’s that there’s one trend you can count on, and it’s growth. We need to be prepared for that growth.”

Krueger came to Sun Valley in June from Lafayette, La., where she had directed the Acadiana Symphony and spent Sunday afternoons tapping her foot to the music of

/ courtesy of sun valley summer symphony

by karen bossick

LY N D A L O W E UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS Victoria Adams • Michael Beck • Squeak Carnwath • Linda Christensen • Daniel Diaz-Tai • Raphaëlle Goethals • Morris Graves • Michael Gregory • Suzanne Hazlett Margaret Keelan • Gary Komarin • Hung Liu • Lynda Lowe • Robert McCauley • Kenna Moser • Gwynn Murrill • Ed Musante • Marcia Myers • Carolyn Olbum Luis González Palma • Christopher Reilly • Will Robinson • Rana Rochat • Alexander Rohrig • Brad Rude • David Secrest • Jack Spencer • Theodore Waddell

GAIL SEVERN GALLERY 400 First Avenue North • PO Box 1679 • Ketchum, ID 83340 • 208.726.5079 • w w w . g a i l s e v e r n g a l l e r y . c o m • info@gailseverngallery.com

inthearts // jenny krueger

“

Our crowds were unbelievable and the musicians were so happy. We work hard to plan things according to how they figure into what Alasdair (Neale) calls the Gross Domestic Happiness quotient.”

Tara Hoff Matteson 208.788.4046 tarabellaflowers.com

136 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

arts organizations: “The symphony has always been a future-oriented organization. It has never stood on its laurels, always trying to bring new musical experiences to the Wood River Valley. And Jenny is on top of that.”

The kick-off for the 2017 season will salute the Pavilion’s 10th anniversary with an encore performance of “Hymn of the Sun,” which was commissioned for the Pavilion’s debut,

/ courtesy of sun valley summer symphony

be life changing for students involved.

Krueger has embraced her new life in Sun Valley, which she calls “paradise on Earth,” with equal relish. She made the rookie mistakes of wearing flip flops to go camping and white pants to go hiking, as dust turned them beige. But she loved being able to pack a full day of activities in after work, thanks to Sun Valley’s long summer days. And she loves being able to go camping a few miles north of Ketchum after work, returning to the office the next morning.

“My 11-year-old son Ben loves being able to be outside and the freedom he’s experienced here,” she said. “And he has learned how to engage with adults because everyone is so friendly. He liked that he could walk into Johnny’s Subshack and they’d say, ‘Hey, Ben, how’s it going?’ ” Krueger was not disappointed by the symphony, either, as it performed a wide range of selections, from “Firebird” with its giant puppets created by those who created the puppets for “War Horse,” to Mahler Symphony No. 3 in D Minor, which featured the largest orchestra to ever perform here.

“Wow! It was the finest orchestral experience I’ve ever had, and I’ve had a lot of them. It was eye-opening how good they are,” said Krueger. “Our crowds were unbelievable and the musicians so happy. We work hard to plan things according to how they figure into what Alasdair (Neale) calls the Gross Domestic Happiness quotient.”

Krueger and music director Alasdair Neale have spent many hours going over the components of the upcoming season to keep it fresh and make sure it meets the expectations of an audience that has come to expect every season to top the season before.

Krueger is full of exciting new projects and ambitious ideas, said Neale: “Jenny brings to the Sun Valley Summer Symphony an infectious blend of energy, experience and personal charm. I’m very much enjoying our partnership in shaping a vibrant future for the organization.”

Longtime board member Carol Nie praised Krueger’s efforts to collaborate with various

Above: Jenny Krueger at a fundraising event

and “Fanfare to the Common Man,” which honored the late Earl Holding, who built it.

“I wish I could have met Mr. Holding— such a gift he gave us,” Krueger said. “Even Kristin Chenoweth was very inspired—moved by the Pavilion and the symphony. She said it was so magical here, and she’s been all over.”

The season will close with the rarely done “Verdi’s Requiem,” featuring some of the biggest names in the vocal world, along with 150 chorus members and an antiphonal brass providing surround sound.

The classical garage string trio Time for Three will conclude its three-year residency with a concert featuring original works and their arrangements of pop favorites. And the symphony’s trumpet section will perform together during the In Focus Series.

“Our trumpet section is the best in the world,” said Krueger. “To have them all here together will be something that’s not to be missed.”

photo : nils ribi

CHRISTINE MARIE PHOTO

—JENNY KRUEGER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SUN VALLEY SUMMER SYMPHONY

MARCIA MYERS UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS Victoria Adams • Michael Beck • Squeak Carnwath • Linda Christensen • Daniel Diaz-Tai • Raphaëlle Goethals • Morris Graves • Michael Gregory • Suzanne Hazlett Margaret Keelan • Gary Komarin • Hung Liu • Lynda Lowe • Robert McCauley • Kenna Moser • Gwynn Murrill • Ed Musante • Marcia Myers • Carolyn Olbum Luis González Palma • Christopher Reilly • Will Robinson • Rana Rochat • Alexander Rohrig • Brad Rude • David Secrest • Jack Spencer • Theodore Waddell

GAIL SEVERN GALLERY 400 First Avenue North • PO Box 1679 • Ketchum, ID 83340 • 208.726.5079 • w w w . g a i l s e v e r n g a l l e r y . c o m • info@gailseverngallery.com

inthearts // international arts

WORLDLY ART

International artists find their way to the Wood River Valley by cheryl haas Above: “The Future Told Under Clear Skies,” by Julio Larraz, oil on canvas, 60” x 78”, Frederic Boloix Fine Arts

One of the many glorious aspects of living in the Wood River Valley is that despite the fact that we are nestled among some of the most spectacular mountains in the world in the middle of nowhere in Idaho, we still have access to the amenities that one would find in a major metropolitan area: world class couture, cuisine, music—and international art.

International art is a term that is often loosely bandied about on the assumption that any artist who has shown work outside the boundaries of his or her homeland must be international. But gallery owners in Ketchum who represent international artists have specific criteria as to what defines an international artist, the most important of which is resale value.

Gary Lipton of Lipton Fine Arts, Frederic Boloix of Frederic Boloix Fine Arts and Minette Broschofsky of Broschofsky Galleries agree that to be considered an international artist, the artist must have an international 138 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

presence in galleries, auction sales, art fairs and museum shows, as well as a presence in secondary markets.

Boloix says the crucial distinction between international and emerging artists is their resale value. “When you are working with living artists, as I do, it is the artist who determines the price range,” he said.

“Typically as the artist’s career progresses, the sales become more brisk, and you can track his price range over the years. Resale is based on longevity and presence in the market.”

The urbane Boloix, who speaks five languages and whose parentage is Spanish and Cuban, spent a number of years as a professional musician playing trumpet in European orchestras and jazz bands before entering the gallery business in the U.S. His life experience informs the kind of art he is drawn to. “My sensitivities and the way I look at the world are through the eyes of someone with European heritage,” he said. “I’m influenced by where I’ve worked, what I’ve

seen and the museums I’ve admired through my life. I look for art that captures your attention even if what’s coming out is jarring or shocking. I’ll take that over boring or too safe any day!”

Boloix deals in 20th-century masters such as Matisse, Magritte, Picasso, Chagall and Miro as well as contemporary artists such as Jose Bedia, Julio Larraz and Gustavo Acosta, three Cuban-born artists whose work—in very different ways—“hovers somewhere between real life and an imagined one,” as one critic described a Larraz canvas.

Boloix Fine Arts featured Bedia in a show last August and September. Artnet, the leading online resource for international art, says Bedia is known for his “neo-primitivistic” figurative style. Said the LA Times: he “marries the shamanic impulse with the vocabulary of modern abstract painting in his striking exhibition ... Applying expressive paint handling to iconic figures and animals (or hybrids of the two), he reactivates imagery

inthearts // international arts

Above: “Quilt,” by Alexander Calder, 1966, at Lipton Fine Arts Above: “Black Man Face,” by Alexander Calder, 1970, at Lipton Fine Arts

drawn from Native American and African spiritual traditions.” Bedia’s work hangs in the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Tate Modern and the Smithsonian Museum, to name a few.

Minette Broschofsky represents the iconoclastic Russell Young, known for his portraits of social icons caught in moments of vulnerability that expose the underbelly of celebrity. He screen prints iconic photographs onto linen, uses acrylic paint and enamel, and coats the works with diamond dust that glitters on the surface. One gallery described his impact thus: “He re-invents

Broschofsky. “The art world has become global through the Internet—explosively global in the last 10 to 20 years—and that’s very good for artists who were formerly isolated or politically suppressed.” She often finds her artists through gallery shows or art publications.

Broschofsky is the sole U.S. gallery representative of the Dutch artist Jan Grotenbreg. “One of my clients had seen his painting in a magazine and asked me if I could find that artist,” she recounted.

“

My sensitivities and the way I look at the world are through the eyes of someone with European heritage ... I look for art that captures your attention even if what’s coming out is jarring or shocking.” —FREDERIC BOLOIX, OWNER BOLOIX FINE ARTS bold, sometimes brutal, imagery turned upon itself in alienation … while bearing witness to the ambition and glamorous excesses of 21st century America.” His photographs of Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Onassis are simultaneously compelling and devastating.

Young’s 2016 exhibitions have ranged from Sao Paulo to Santa Barbara, and his work is in the White House, Getty and Saatchi collections.

“I look for artists who are unique, whose work fits into the genre of art I do and who are reflective of their culture,” said 140 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

“I found him, sold her a couple of pieces and immediately saw what else he had.”

Grotenbreg uses concrete for abstract backgrounds in counterpoint to an almost photorealism of horses, bulls and birds in the foreground. “The effect is suggestive of weathered old frescoes or murals of the Middle Ages while at the same time looking quite modern,” commented Broschofsky.

Gary Lipton of Lipton Fine Arts deals almost exclusively in 20th-century masters such as Calder, Dubuffet, Miro, Jasper Johns and Saul Steinberg. His business model differs

radically from other galleries in Ketchum in that he owns all of the work he shows—he doesn’t take work on consignment. He also boasts a buy-back guarantee: if after five days the buyer does not want the work and returns it in like condition, Lipton will refund 80 percent of what the buyer paid.

“I started collecting when I was 16,” said the Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, native.

“I struggled to buy my first work, which was a Calder gouache, and started visiting art dealers and galleries. The ones I liked represented international art—so my eye was drawn to those artists from an early age.”

While Lipton buys only work that he would hang on his own walls, he makes no bones about being a for-profit business. “I had a hell of a year in this town because I sell name-brand artists and because of the Internet,” he said. “I sell all over the world because when people Google Chagall or Annie Leibovitz, my name comes up.”

Currently, Lipton is in the process of setting up a website for local artists he admires. “I’m doing this because I truly feel there are extremely talented artists in this Valley and being attached to my website will give them exposure. The Internet has become that profound.”

The Internet and technology allow Lipton to reside in this Valley where he said, “God would live” and sell to an international audience. “I’ve had a lot of fun, no pressure, and I’m doing exactly what I want!”

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THE FRIESEN BUILDING | SUN VALLEY ROAD AT FIRST AVENUE | KETCHUM | IDAHO 2 0 8 . 7 2 6 . 4 1 7 4 | f r i e s e n @ f r i e s e n g a l l e r y. c o m | F R I E S E N G A L L E RY. C O M ALTUS | 48” x 60” | OIL PAINTING ON ACID-ETCHED & MIRRORED GLASS

inthearts // gallery guide promotion

Detail of: Alex Timmerman’s “Bubbles,” at Gilman Contemporary gallery

AT THE GALLERIES

FREDERIC BOLOIX FINE ARTS

Galleria Building • 351 Leadville Avenue Ketchum, ID • 208.726.8810 www.boloix.com

FRIESEN GALLERY

320 1st Avenue North Ketchum, ID • 208.726.4174 www.friesengallery.com

New exhibits opening for the winter season The Wood River Valley certainly boasts remarkable recreational opportunities. But what visitors and residents alike quickly discover is that the cultural offerings in the Valley are equally rich. Witness, for instance, the many art galleries here that offer everything from the classics, to native art, to contemporary pieces. Below you’ll find brief descriptions of some of the area’s fine galleries, as well as mention of the artists showing this winter.

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“CROW,” by Tom Lieber, oil and gesso on canvas, 72” x 48”

Julian Voss-Andreae, Slender Woman, Bronze Sculpture, 71” x 14” x 12”

Established in 1994, Frederic Boloix Fine Arts specializes in 20th Century Masters and Contemporary Art. Over the past 20 years we have shown and represented works by masters Picasso, Matisse, Miró, Chagall, Francis Bacon, Françoise Gilot and by contemporary artists Gustavo Acosta, Salustiano, Rainer Gross, Julian Voss-Andreae, Martin Herbst and Julio Larraz.

We also offer consulting services and expertise in building art collections.

Now in its 30th year, Friesen Gallery exhibits contemporary paintings, glass and sculpture by widely recognized and acclaimed artists Adela Akers, Christopher Brown, Mia Brownell, Rachel Brumer, Nicole Chesney, Ford Crull, Dennis Evans, Lawrence Fodor, Jeff Fontaine, Gregory Grenon, Susan Russell Hall, Isabella Huffington, Steve Jensen, Richard Jolley, Mary Josephson, Tom Lieber, Dana Lynn Louis, Holly Lyman, Ann Mallory, Lauren Mantecon, Dara Mark, Nancy Mee, William Morris, Piper O’Neill, Phranc, Mark Rediske, Ross Richmond, Chris Richter, Ginny Ruffner, Preston Singletary, Sebastian Spreng, Leslie Stoner, Lino Tagliapietra, and Barbara Vaughn, among others.

LORI MCNEE “Serenity Pool”, encaustic, 30” x 30”

K N E E L A N D G A L L E R Y

208.726.5512 www.kneelandgallery.com art@kneelandgallery.com 271 First Avenue N, Ketchum, ID 83340

MAKE PLANS TO JOIN US

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Much more than a Western art exhibition and sale, The Russell is a Western art experience!

C.M. Russell Museum • 400 13 th Street North • Great Falls, Montana • 406.727.1939 • CMRussell.org

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inthearts // gallery guide promotion

GAIL SEVERN GALLERY

TOUR OF GALLERIES 1. Aurobora 415.546.7880

6. F riesen Gallery 208.726.4174 7. G ail Severn Gallery 208.726.5079

2. B oulder Mountain Clay and Art Gallery 208.726.0773 3. B roschofsky Galleries 208.726.4950 4. Davies-Reid 208.726.3453 5. F rederic Boloix Fine Art 208.726.8810

11. L ipton Fine Arts LLC 208.720.6331 12. O CHI Gallery 208.726.8746 13. S un Valley Center for the Arts 208.726.9491 14. Wood River Fine Arts 208.928.7728

8. G ilman Contemporary 208.726.7585 9. H arvey Art Projects USA 208.309.8676 10. K neeland Gallery 208.726.5512

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400 First Avenue North • Ketchum, ID 208.726.5079 • www.gailseverngallery.com

“Coyote X Ed. 1/6,” by Gwynn Murrill, bronze, 28” x 30” x 16”

Celebrating 40 years featuring contemporary painting, sculpture and photography: Victoria Adams, Nicolas Africano, Squeak Carnwath, Linda Christensen, James Cook, Kris Cox, Raphaëlle Goethals, Morris Graves, Michael Gregory, Rod Kagan, Margaret Keelan, Lisa Kokin, Gary Komarin, Hung Liu, Robert McCauley, Laura McPhee, Cole Morgan, Gwynn Murrill, Ed Musante, Marcia Myers, Luis González Palma, Robb Putnam, Joseph Raffael, Christopher Reilly, Jane Rosen, Brad Rude, David Secrest, Anne Siems, Mary Snowden, Julie Speidel, Mark Stasz, Allison Stewart, Inez Storer, Boaz Vaadia, Theodore Waddell and Laura Wilson. Visit Severn Art Services for all your custom picture framing, art installation, conservation needs, art packing and shipping.

Follow us on Twitter Gail_Severn.

K E T C H U M 2

GILMAN CONTEMPORARY

661 Sun Valley Road • Ketchum, ID 208.726.7585 • www.gilmancontemporary.com

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6 Alex Timmerman’s “Bubbles”

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At Gilman Contemporary we believe art should be thought-provoking, inspirational and resonate in a personal place for our clients. Established in 2007, the gallery has become a place of conversation and discovery. We have a passion for photography and represent the largest collection of Rodney Smith’s fashion photography. We also represent a variety of artists from internationally renowned American painter Hunt Slomen to Los Angeles sculptor Hacer, whose monumental works can currently be seen along Santa Monica Boulevard.

Frederic Boloix Fine Arts 20th century masters and contemporary art

JULIAN VOSS-ANDREAE “QUANTUM NEFERTITI” – BRONZE 20 X 9 X 15 INCHES

Picasso • Magritte • Matisse • Chagall • Gilot Vuillard • Rivera • Larraz • Bedia • Acosta • Herbst Salustiano • Voss-Andreae • Gross 351 Leadville Ave. N (Galleria Building on 4th and Leadville) • Ketchum, ID 83340 208 726 8810 • www.boloix.com • www.facebook.com/boloixfinearts

Severn Art ServiceS since 1974

Master Framing & Installation

KNEELAND GALLERY

271 First Avenue North • Ketchum, ID 208.726.5512 • fax: 208.726.3490 art@kneelandgallery.com www.kneelandgallery.com

“Autumn,” by Robert Moore, oil on canvas, 48” x 48”

Severn Art Services has been the principal framer to collectors and galleries for over 39 years.

Specialized in quality custom and archival framing, featuring exquisite copies of vintage and contemporary frames for fine art, mirrors, and three-dimensional objects of all sizes. We provide experienced installation and curatorial services for homes, offices, collectors, and corporations. We also provide cost effective framing and care for prints, posters, personal mementos, and family photos.

Severn Art Services offers professional conservation and restoration services.

When your needs include rearranging or hanging new acquisitions we can provide cost effective professional services for both indoor and outdoor installations.

Please visit us in our showroom, next to Gail Severn Gallery in the Severn Building at 400 First Avenue North, Ketchum, ID.

Exhibiting paintings and sculpture by nationally recognized as well as emerging artists living and working in the West. Featured artists include but are not limited to: Steven Lee Adams, Carol Alleman, Joe Anna Arnett, Virginie Baude, Ovanes Berberian, William Berra, Cristall Harper, John Horejs, Shanna Kunz, Jennifer Lowe, Lori McNee, Robert Moore, Jean Richardson, Thom Ross, Carl Rowe, Linda St. Clair, Sherry Salari Sander, Bart Walker, Andrzej Skorut & Pete Zaluzec. Additional artists can be viewed on our website.

WOOD RIVER FINE ARTS

360 East Avenue • Ketchum, ID (In The Courtyard) • 208.928.7728 www.woodriverfinearts.com

Art Hanging & Installation Hardwood • Leather • Speciality Mats • Plexiboxes Gold Leaf • Custom Metals • Period Frames Conservation & Restoration

Severn Art ServiceS 400 First Avenue North • PO Box 1679 • Ketchum, ID 83340 208.726.5088 • artservices@gailseverngallery.com

mag.com

# s u n va l l e ymag

“Close Hauled, Ship Henry B. Hyde,” by Christopher Blossom, 16 high X 20 wide, Oil on Linen

Wood River Fine Arts features traditional and contemporary works by artists who capture the natural grandeur and unique peoples of the American West. The award-winning paintings and sculpture of these contemporary masters have received national and international acclaim and appear in private, corporate and museum collections throughout North America. In addition to CAA gold medalists Grant Redden and R.S. Riddick, and Prix de West Purchase Award winners Christopher Blossom, Terri Kelly Moyers and Andrew Peters, the gallery proudly represents Kenneth Bunn, G. Russell Case, Walt Gonske, Logan Maxwell Hagege, Quang Ho, Richard Loffler, Dave McGary (1958-2013), Jim Morgan, John Moyers, Ralph Oberg, Daniel Pinkham, Mary Roberson, Amy Sidrane, Matt Smith and Kathryn Stats.

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John Moyers

360 East Avenue | In The Courtyard | Ketchum (208) 928-7728 | www.woodriverfinearts.com

“Interstate Through His World” by John Moyers | 36” high X 36” wide | Oil on linen

food&drink

WINTER’S BEST FRIENDS Stews & chili

by gwen ashley walters

Snow is falling, trails are blazed, and somewhere there’s a big pot of stew simmering, ready and waiting for you to stash your skis and come in from the cold. Nothing warms like a steaming bowl of stew or chili.

The one-pot wonder is almost as easy to make at home as it is to order in a restaurant. When temperatures drop, chefs and home cooks pull out soup pots and slow cookers.

The same can be said for stews and chili— soup’s bulky cousins. There is nothing wrong with stew or chili in a can, but no one can argue that made-from-scratch is superior in taste. A slow cooker (crockpot) is the winter outdoor enthusiast’s best friend. So are local restaurants, which offer a surplus of bellywarming soups, stews and chili this time of year.

Doug Jensen, chef of Sawtooth Brewery Public House, offers a daily soup or stew throughout the winter. “People love stews and chili in the winter because they’re hearty,” he said, “and they’re one-pot meals, so you don’t have to dirty a lot of dishes.” Jensen prefers to use a neutral stock, some variation 148 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

of vegetarian stock—be it mushroom stock, vegetable stock or even Parmesan broth—for most soups, unless the soup or stew itself is meat-based, like beef stew or chicken noodle.

Tangy, rich and hearty, his vegetarian tomato Tuscan stew is thickened by slowly cooking heirloom tomatoes he canned at the end of summer and stirring in a princely amount of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. Garbanzo beans and kale provide heft to this rustic, deeply flavorful stew.

“I never serve soup or stew the same day I make it. It needs time—at least 24 hours—for the flavors to meld.” – Doug Jensen, chef of Sawtooth Brewery Public House Don Shepler, chef of Galena Lodge, makes 1,000 gallons of soups during the winter season, and that doesn’t include stews and chili. “By far, our soups, stews and daily chili are the most popular menu items,” he said. “It’s the quickest way to warm up after coming in from skiing or snowshoeing.”

Shepler said they make their own stocks and cook beans from their dried state, not canned.

“People say, ‘this chicken noodle soup tastes like chicken!’ and I say it’s because we use real ingredients and cook from scratch.”

Shepler, a culinary school graduate and

longtime Valley chef, has managed the Lodge with his wife, Erin Zell, for the past 11 years. He admits Idaho isn’t Napa Valley when it comes to ingredients. “We use local ingredients—so think squash, beans and potatoes. And of course meat and game.” He mixes and matches those base ingredients with a deep, globally inspired pantry. “You might find Thai curry squash soup one day, and toasted cinnamon with local apple squash soup the next day. We will do white bean and fennel one day, and white bean and ham another.”

Idaho doesn’t have a definitive chili style like other regions do, but there is no shortage of good, hearty chili in the Valley. Shepler has dozens of chili recipes up his sleeve. He might serve a pork mole chili one day—chock-full of tender pork chunks, beans, chipotle, ancho and guajillo chile powders, and enriched with mole paste and unsweetened chocolate.

Another day it might be a tomatillo-chicken chili. Jensen loves to make chili with game meats, including elk and bison. “It’s a leaner chili than traditional beef chili,” Jensen said.

Dave Hausmann, owner of Lefty’s Bar & Grill credits his wife, Martha, with the signature chili on the menu of his 23-year-

“

Wish I had time for one more bowl of chili.”

old restaurant. “It’s her recipe. We made it at home, and we really liked it, so we just kind of multiplied it out to make a big batch. We sell tons of it in the winter,” he said. With lots of chile powder, paprika, oregano and cumin, it resembles a Texas-style chili, except it includes beans, both kidney and navy. To give it a little extra kick, Hausmann includes spicy sausage in addition to ground beef. Thick and rich—and filling from the beans—it’s easy to see why it’s a winter staple on the menu.

For a genuine Texas-style chili, look no further than the Power House. Chef Mike McLean, a Hailey native, said the Waygu steak chili he serves is true to Texas—meaning no beans—and is based on a recipe the kitchen adapted from a cookbook called “Cowboy in the Kitchen,”

by Grady Spears, a Texas cowboy-turned-chef. McLean said the restaurant makes gallons of the chili at a time. Power House uses a custom grind of chuck and sirloin from “Americanstyle Kobe” beef from Idaho’s M & N Ranch. The chili, topped with diced red onions, cheddar cheese, and sour cream, deviates from a Texas style with a topping of goat cheese, but the fresh cheese adds tang and helps tame the spice.

When asked for the recipe, McLean said, “Sure, first make a chile paste with 240 New Mexican red chiles, two cups of chipotle flakes, 32 red onions, 80 cloves of garlic, six pounds of diced

—KIT CARSON, 1868, ALLEGED LAST WORDS

STEW RECIPE Tomato Tuscan Stew Adapted from Chef Doug Jensen of Sawtooth Brewery Public House

tomatoes and four gallons of beef stock. And that’s just the chile paste before you start the chili.”

At our home, we’ve cut the recipe down considerably—and simplified it without losing the intense chile flavor—and we adapted it for the slow cooker. Assemble the ingredients in the morning, brown the beef, and throw everything into the slow cooker. By the time you return from a full day playing in the snow, your best friend—a pot full of chili— will be waiting to chase the chill from your bones. Bon appetit.

Chef Doug Jensen’s vegetarian stew is rustic, tangy and filling. It’s been adapted to cook in a slow cooker for four hours, although it could cook a few additional hours, too. He offers additional garnishes in the notes below. We topped ours with garlic croutons for crunch.

Serves 6 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 8 to 10 garlic cloves 1 large yellow onion, peeled and sliced into thin half-moons 1 (28-ounce) can Italian plum tomatoes (crushed with basil) 3 cups vegetable stock, warmed 3 cups lightly packed baby kale (about 3 ounces) 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil or Italian seasoning 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 1 (15-ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese for garnish Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and stir to coat in oil. Cook until soft and translucent, about 20 minutes. While the onions are cooking, peel and thinly slice, crosswise, the garlic cloves. After the onions are soft, stir in the sliced garlic and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the tomatoes with their juices. Cook for a couple minutes to heat the tomatoes through. Pour the mixture into a slow cooker and turn to low heat. Stir in the warmed stock and the kale.

Stir in the dried basil or seasoning, and salt and pepper. Cook for 4 hours. Stir in the drained and rinsed garbanzo beans and turn the heat to the high setting. Cook another 30 minutes, or until the beans are heated through. Taste and season with more salt and pepper if desired. Serve in bowls and top with grated Parmesan.

NOTE from the chef: Stew is best if made in advance and given 24 hours to rest, but you can eat it the same day. Red chile flakes and fresh basil are also excellent additions for garnishes in addition to the Parmesan.

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food&drink // stews & chili

CHILI RECIPE Texas-Style Slow Cooker Chili

Adapted from Hailey’s Power House Restaurant recipe

Serves 4 to 6 2 tablespoons canola oil, divided 2 pounds of beef stew meat, cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes Salt and black pepper 1 large red onion, diced, about 2 1/2 cups 5 large cloves garlic, minced 2 tablespoons mild chile powder 2 tablespoons ancho chile powder 1 teaspoon chipotle chile powder 1 tablespoon tomato paste 6 ounces (1/2 can) of lager beer 1 1/2 cups beef stock, warmed 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes and its juices 2 tablespoons cumin 1 tablespoon Mexican oregano

Garnish: 1/4 cup sour cream 3/4 cup grated cheddar and/or Monterey Jack cheese 1/4 cup diced red onion 1/4 cup crumbled fresh goat cheese Heat 1 tablespoon of canola oil in a large sauté pan over high heat. Season stew meat with salt and pepper. Brown half the meat for about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove and place in the slow cooker.

Repeat with the remaining meat, allowing the pan to get hot before adding the beef. There should be some residual fat and brown bits in the sauté pan.

Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the same sauté pan. Stir in the onions and cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until just beginning to soften, about 3 to 4 minutes.

Stir in the garlic and cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in all three chile powders and the tomato paste and reduce the heat to medium.

Stir frequently until the mixture comes together as sort of a paste and the color darkens, about 3 minutes. Pour in the beer and stir, gently, scraping the bottom of the pan to remove any brown bits. Cook for a couple minutes. Remove from heat and scrape into the slow cooker with the browned meat. Pour the beef stock and tomatoes with their juices into the slow cooker. Stir in the cumin and oregano.

Turn the slow cooker to low heat and cook for 8 hours, covered. After 8 hours on low, stir the chili and turn the heat to high heat for 30 minutes.

Before serving, stir and taste to adjust seasoning if necessary.

It might need a pinch of salt, depending upon how salty your beef stock is. Serve in a bowl with sour cream, grated cheese, diced onions and crumbled fresh goat cheese.

Left: Power House Restaurant’s Texas-style chili served with onion, sour cream and cheese, shown here with a side of hand-cut fries and homemade ketchup.

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photo : courtesy power house restaurant

This spicy chili was adapted from the Power House recipe for a slow cooker, so you can assemble the ingredients in the morning before hitting the slopes and return in the evening to a hot bowl of Texas-style chili. It will taste even better the next day, thickening up some and the spice will be slightly more mellow, too. The chili fits in a 3.5-quart slow cooker. If you have a 6-quart or larger slow cooker, you can double the recipe to feed 8 to 10 people.

WELCOME TO THE WELCOME TO THE LIMELIGHT LOUNGE LIMELIGHT LOUNGE When late afternoon hits, we swing our doors wide open

When late and afternoon hits, weinto swing doors widefood openand for guests locals to dig our our friendly après for guests and Chef localsJeff to dig into our après isfood and drink specials.

Gundy’s full friendly dinner menu available drink specials.

Jeff Gundy’s full dining dinner or menu is available evenings in theChef Lounge, for in-room take-out. evenings in the Lounge, for in-room dining or take-out.

151 South Main Street · 208-726-0888 · limelighthotels.com WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 151 151 South Main Street · 208-726-0888 · limelighthotels.com

food&drink // winter squash

WINTER SQUASH From decoration to dinner by gwen ashley walters

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“Drop it on the ground,” said Callie Rasberry, of Rasberrys Catering & Bistro in Ketchum.

“No, literally. Just…” she mimicked holding a basketball-size Hubbard squash out in front of her. Then she let go, fingers stretched out. Her eyes fell to the floor, where the imaginary squash lay busted in pieces.

She looked up and cracked a devilish grin.

She was demonstrating how her grandmother, who baked pies with the sweet orange flesh of the gnarly blueish-green squash, manages to pry the thing open.

Winter squashes—pumpkins, butternut, spaghetti squash, acorn, and others—are notoriously hard to cut open, so smashing one on the floor doesn’t seem out of line, but don’t forget to put it in a bag first.

It is possible to cut these hearty squashes open with a sturdy chef ’s knife, but it takes patience and practice, and isn’t for the faint of heart. Perhaps that’s why winter squashes often rest on the kitchen island as decoration rather than dinner.

With some effort comes sweet rewards for those who decide to tackle hard squashes.

There are hundreds of varieties of hard, winter squashes, but most people are only familiar with the ones mentioned above. Seed Savers Exchange (seedsavers.org), a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of heirloom seeds, offers 36 varieties of winter squashes, some with unusual names, such as

Kikuza, a squat, pumpkin-shaped Japanese squash with large ribbing, and Musquee de Provence, an enormous, wider-than-tall pumpkin with gorgeous mottled green and orange skin.

Winter squashes do have a season (fall through winter), even if some varieties are available year-round. Most hard squashes take 100 days or more to grow from seed to

“

It’s good to have a little frost kill the leaves because it’s easier to see the squash to harvest.”

—MIKE HEATH OF M & M FARMS

maturity, so Mike Heath of M & M Heath Farms based in Buhl, Idaho, plants near the end of May or beginning of June in order to harvest beginning mid to late September through October. “It’s good to have a little frost kill the leaves,” he said, “because it’s easier to see the squash to harvest.” Heath

grows seven or eight varieties, including red kuri and kabocha. Most of his squashes end up at local grocery stores such as Atkinsons’ throughout the Valley through Idaho’s Bounty, a cooperative produce distribution company.

The new Natural Grocers in Hailey also stocks a hefty selection of organic squashes, said Erin Dorr, the store manager of Natural Grocers. “Organic produce is what we are known for,” she said.

The beauty of hard squashes is that they keep for months, lasting all the way through the dark, cold winter days if they were cured properly. Properly cured means some of the stem was left on after harvest, and the squash was left to “cure” in a warm, dry place for about 10 days or so, during which time the skin hardens. After that, the squashes are ready to decorate your table or, better yet, fill your dinner plate.

Heath’s three favorite varieties are delicata, an elongated, variegated squash with relatively thin skin for a winter squash; kabocha, a squat green squash with deep orange flesh; and spaghetti squash, famous for its bright yellow flesh that easily shreds into pasta-like WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 153

food&drink // winter squash

SQUASH RECIPE Chipotle Spiced Butternut Squash Soup Recipe adapted from “The Great Ranch Cookbook” by Gwen Ashley Walters

Naturally sweet butternut squash pairs seamlessly with smoky hot chipotle peppers. As with most soups, this tastes even better the next day.

The recipe calls for two chiles, which provides a noticeable throat-warming kick. You can use only one chile if you prefer a milder soup.

8 Servings

strands after roasting. He prefers to roast them whole instead of cutting them. “The secret to not cutting your fingers off is to cook them whole,” he laughed. “Stab with a knife to let

“

Look for a small bowl on the bottom and a long thick neck because you are going to get a lot more ‘meat’ out of it that way.”

—CALLIE RASBERRY, ON PICKING BUTTERNUT SQUASH

some air in, but there’s no reason not to cook them whole. You can scrape the seeds out after you roast them.”

Rasberry doesn’t mind the extra work of peeling and cubing squash, especially butternut. “It really depends on what you’re going to do with the squash as to whether you cook them whole or cut into them.”

Roasted cubes of butternut can dress up a chicken salad or fill tacos, and grilled slices often accompany the vegetarian fajitas on the Rasberrys menu. When choosing a butternut, Rasberry said, “Look for a small bowl on the bottom and a long thick neck because you are going to get a lot more ‘meat’ out of it that 154 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

way. I cut it in half where the round bottom and the long neck meet.” If you are making a soup or a puree from the squash, you can roast it whole, but if you want it to remain intact, like cubes or slices, then it needs to be peeled and cut before roasting. “And remember,” she said,” the smaller the pieces, the faster it will cook.”

Delicata is also a favorite squash of Rasberrys because it is so versatile, and it is one of the easier ones to cut. “We’ve made delicata chips in the dehydrator,” she said.”

“We’ve also sliced really thin strips from raw delicata, like ribbons, to garnish a salad. And kids love delicata. You can slice it into rings and use some cinnamon, brown sugar and butter and roast. You can eat the skin after roasting because it’s soft, too.”

Not only do winter squashes lend themselves to a multitude of cooking preparations—baking, roasting, steaming, grilling—they are nutritional powerhouses: low in calories but high in complex carbohydrates and dietary fiber. Squashes are a rich source of vitamins and minerals, and are high in antioxidants, especially beta carotene.

So, don’t let squashes linger on the counter.

Crack one open—on the floor or with a knife—and add more color to your dinner.

1/2 cup finely chopped celery 1 large yellow onion, finely chopped 1 teaspoon salt 4 tablespoons butter (1/2 stick) 1 apple (like Braeburn), peeled, cored and chopped 1 teaspoon cracked black pepper 3 cups chicken or vegetable stock 1 cup dry white wine 2 3/4 to 3 pounds butternut squash, peeled and chopped 2 chipotle peppers (canned in adobo sauce) chopped* Juice of 1 lime Garnish: 1/2 cup sour cream 3 - 4 tablespoons milk 1/4 cup toasted, salted pepitas Sauté celery, onion and salt in butter in a stockpot over medium heat until tender, about 5 minutes. Add apple, pepper, white wine, two cups of stock and squash. Turn heat to mediumlow and cover. Cook until fork-tender, about 45 to 50 minutes. Stir in chopped chipotles.

Puree soup in batches in a blender. (Caution! Hot liquid in a blender can shoot the lid off. Never fill more than half full and hold the lid down tight while pureeing.)

Return soup to pan and thin if necessary with the remaining cup of stock, but the soup should be thick, almost like apple butter. Stir in lime juice and taste for seasoning, adding a pinch more salt if desired. Heat until hot enough to serve, but not boiling. To present soup, ladle 6 to 8 ounces in a bowl.

Mix sour cream and 1 to 3 tablespoons milk.

Using a squeeze bottle or just a spoon, zigzag lines across soup surface. Sprinkle with toasted pepitas. *Find canned chipotles in the Mexican food section of your local grocery store. You can also substitute hot smoked paprika, 1 to 2 teaspoons per chile replacement.

Inventive Spanish-American fare & open-fire grilled steaks served in a vibrant, stylish atmosphere. barbacoa-boise.com • 276 Bobwhite Court, Boise • 208.338.5000

food&drink // dining guide promotion

DINING AROUND TOWN

A brief guide to the Valley’s best eateries The Wood River Valley offers an abundance of excellent dining options after a long day of skiing, sledding, shopping, skating—whatever is on the agenda. To help you navigate the many options, we’ve put together a quick guide to some of the Valley’s best places for food and drink. For a look at full menus and more in-depth coverage of the dining scene, check out Sun Valley Magazine’s dining and menu guide, TASTE of Sun Valley, available for free throughout the Valley.

breakfast & cafes BIGWOOD BREAD Visit us at one of our spectacular locations, both featuring beautiful outdoor views, fantastic food and outstanding service. Our bakery café offers the customer a chance to see our bakers in action at our new 12,000-square-foot bakery. Our downtown location offers you the chance to be in the heart of the city’s bustle on the corner of East Street and Fourth Avenue. Fresh and homemade is how we do it! Downtown Café – 380 N E. Ave, Ketchum 208.928.7868; Bakery Café – 271 Northwood Way, Ketchum 208.726.2035.

ESTA’S PREMIUM CUISINE Longtime catering business Esta’s has opened a new breakfast and lunch restaurant in the 511 Building in Ketchum. Esta’s offers a wide range of deliciousness, including Esta’s famous corned beef hash breakfast dish, traditional delicatessen and contemporary sandwiches, luncheon salads and fresh, homemade desserts. 511 Leadville Avenue North, Ketchum, 208.726.0841.

GRETCHEN’S Adjacent to the Sun Valley Lodge lobby, Gretchen’s Restaurant welcomes you with a relaxing indoor/outdoor feel with easy 156 sunvalleymag.com | WINTER 2016/2017

access for Terrace dining all day long. Enjoy breakfast, lunch or dinner and full bar service.

Sun Valley’s own Gretchen Fraser is the restaurant’s namesake, the first American to win an alpine Olympic gold medal. Sun Valley Lodge, 208.622.2144.

JAVA COFFEE AND CAFÉ Truly a great coffeehouse! Baking from scratch daily. Serving the finest Fair Trade and organic coffees. Sound like a local and order the “Dirty Hippie Burrito” and a “Bowl of Soul.”

Wake up and live! 191 4th St. W., Ketchum 726.2882, 111 N. 1st Ave., Hailey, 208.788.2297.

KONDITOREI Lunch dishes range from pumpkin spatzle with sausage and apples to roasted chicken crepes with spinach and spicy Liptauer cheese.

To satisfy sweet-tooth cravings or just to warm up on a chilly day, the café offers a full complement of artisanal coffee and hot chocolate drinks, plus house-baked European pastries. Sun Valley Resort, 208.622.2235.

PERRY’S Voted “Best of the Valley” by the Idaho Mountain Express readers numerous times for breakfast, lunch, and sandwiches, Perry’s Restaurant has been a Ketchum fixture for 26 years. 131 West 4th St., Ketchum, 208.726.7703.

RASBERRYS Whether you are seeking a quiet getaway place for lunch or are wanting to host an elegant gathering for friends, Rasberrys’ two establishments in Ketchum and Hailey will meet and exceed your desires. Callie and Maeme Rasberry believe all the senses must be involved in meal preparation, therefore, the menu is eclectic, just like the chefs, with dishes prepared with fresh local ingredients when available and their own take on comfort and ethnic food. 411 Building, 5th St., Ketchum, 208.726.0606.

SUN VALLEY CLUB Among the most popular places in Sun Valley to eat, drink and relax, the wraparound terrace offers stunning views of Bald Mountain, Dollar Mountain and the 18-hole Sawtooth Putting Course. Chef Wendy Little brings exciting, contemporary dishes that are focused on local ingredients and big flavors.

1 Trail Creek Road, Sun Valley, 208.622-2919.

delis ATKINSONS’ MARKETS Atkinsons’ Markets serving you and your family at our three locations in the Wood River Valley. 451 E. 4th St., Ketchum, 208.726.2681; 93 E. Croy St., Hailey, 208.788.2294.

JOHNNY G’S SUBSHACK “The Subshack” was born in 1992 with killer sandwiches, toe-tapping music, cold beer and personal service. Only the finest quality meats and cheeses on delicious freshbaked bread are used at Johnny’s. Take it to go, or stay awhile— you won’t leave Johnny G’s wanting. 371 Washington Ave., Ketchum, 208.725.7827.

SHORT LINE DELI From the deli case to the sandwich board, over 15 sandwiches can be made to order, such as The Challenger: Italian ham, dry salami, genoa salami, banana peppers, roast red peppers and provolone piled high on a baguette. Sun Valley Village, 208.622.2060.

WRAPCITY Wrapcity is fast, fresh, and fun food! Located next to the Kentwood Lodge on Main Street, Wrapcity serves up creative wraps and salads, homemade soups, and unique quesadillas.

Wrapcity also serves breakfast wraps all day with special breakfast creations on Saturdays and Sundays. Voted “Valley’s Best Lunch” in 2011. 180 Main St. S., Ketchum, 208.727.6766.

pubs & grills APPLE’S BAR & GRILL Established over two decades ago, Apple’s Bar and Grill is still the best spot to fuel your body after a long day ripping turns on Baldy! Of course, it is also the best spot to grab a beer or glass of wine and entertain one another with stories from the epic day of skiing! Let Hank and Heather and their great staff take care of all your needs. Kick back and enjoy a great meal and a pint of beer at one of the most spectacular mountain bar locations! 205 Picabo St., Ketchum, 208.726.7067.

GRUMPY’S It started as a place where the workingman and local could come, have a beer and burger and not be bothered. Today, Grumpy’s is a favorite of locals and tourists alike. We are a little hard to find, but not hard to find out about. Grumpy’s hosted Rachel Ray for a lunch segment on “40 Dollars a Day in Sun Valley” in 2004 and was most recently mentioned in USA Today’s “LIFE” section. But don’t just read about us, come in and discover the local’s hangout. 860 Warm Springs Rd., Ketchum, no phone.

LEFTY’S BAR & GRILL Lefty’s has been a local and visitor favorite for more than 20 years, and for good reason.

Lefty’s has a great casual dining menu, including killer burgers served on fresh-baked bread, monster hot sandwiches, wings, salads and our specialty, fresh-cut French fries. For families, Lefty’s has all the foods kids love, at a price you’ll love. There is no better place to watch sports than Lefty’s, whose motto is “All the games, all the time.” Live music.

Great outdoor deck! 231 6th St. East, Ketchum, 208.726.2744.

SUN VALLEY BOWLING ALLEY The Bowling Alley and Game Room in the Sun Valley Lodge is one of the Northwest’s oldest bowling alleys. Full of 1950s soul, it’s a favorite across generations. It’s open yearround and is now bigger, better and hightech. Enjoy a great pub menu for adults and kids alike. A new party place awaits in the basement of the Lodge! 208.622.2191.

VITTLES Located in Bellevue, Vittles is well worth the drive. Famous for their “finely crafted comfort food,” Vittles serves a variety of dishes that will delight your palate. Come grab your favorite meals ranging from fried chicken to homemade mashed potatoes. Open nightly, Wednesday through Saturday, as well as Sunday for brunch. 118 S. Main St., Bellevue, 208.928.7955.

mexican DESPO’S A local favorite for over 25 years. Founder and owner Jim Funk is committed to authentic, delicious Mexican dishes that respect your desire for a healthy meal without compromising flavor. Offering fresh ingredients, highquality, regionally sourced meats, daily specials, vegetarian selections, and three kinds of salsa made daily. 211 4th St. E., Ketchum, 208.726.3068.

KB’S The New York Times named KB’s as a muststop in its article of top 10 things to do in 36 hours in Sun Valley, Idaho. Travel writer Sarah Robertson wrote, “Even when people are far away, they’re still thinking about the food at Ketchum Burritos. This cheerful, laidback burrito joint serves delicious fish tacos and offers a make-your-own burrito, with a choice of 27 fillings. 260 N. Main St., Ketchum, 208.928.6955; 121 N. Main St., Hailey, 208.788.7217.

italian & pizza BALD MOUNTAIN PIZZA & PASTA A family-friendly restaurant featuring handtossed pizza, pasta bowls and salads.Very casual and fun fare for kids. A full take-out menu is available and Bald Mountain Pizza delivers to Sun Valley Resort properties.

Sun Valley Village, 208.622.2143.

ENOTECA Ketchum’s newest gastronomic addition, with its upscale pizzeria and wine bar. Enoteca has a plethora of small plates to choose from.

300 N. Main St., Ketchum, 208.928.6280.

IL NASO Owner Sam Turner invites you to enjoy his warm, inviting restaurant with Italianinfluence cuisine. Il Naso is special whether you drop by to have a burger and beer at the wine bar, or to relax in the candlelit dining room. The extensive wine list and knowledgeable staff will help you choose just the right bottle to enhance your dining experience. Large parties welcome.

480 Washington Ave., Ketchum, 208.726.7776.

RICO’S Founded in 1982 by Rico and Amy Albright, RICO’S menu includes starters, soups, salads, over 20 signature pastas, hand-picked nightly specials, calzones and 11 specialty handtossed brick-oven pizzas. 200 Main St., Ketchum, 208.726.7426.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN PIZZERIA GRILL Smoky Mountain Pizzeria Grill is a comfortable, casual, dynamic family restaurant in downtown Ketchum. Our extensive menu features unique pizzas and pastas, delicious salads, sandwiches, grilled steaks, hamburgers and more. You’ll also find a kids’ menu, an exciting selection of seasonal appetizers, entrées and desserts, daily lunch specials, an extensive beer and wine selection, TVs, catering and fast, friendly delivery service. 200 Sun Valley Rd., Ketchum, 208.622.5625.

asian / sushi DANG’S THAI Also known as “Dang Good,” Dang’s Thai Cuisine is a favorite among the locals! A newer addition to the Wood River Valley, Dang’s offers a wide selection of popular dishes ranging from Sushi, Green Papaya WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 157

food&drink // dining guide promotion

Salad, Pad Thai, and their famous Green Curry with Chicken! If you like spicy food, don’t forget to ask for the little jars of Sambal and Thai Chili Sauce! Highly recommend as an affordable, flavorful and fun experience in Hailey! 310 N Main St., Hailey, 208.928.7111.

GLOBUS If your palate demands flavorful and adventurous cuisine, then a unique dining experience awaits you at Globus. Located in downtown Ketchum since 1992, Globus serves delectable and satiating world fare where patrons often come more than once a week to try executive chef Tracy Bailet’s fresh and creative daily specials. 131 Washington St., Ketchum, 208.726.1301.

RICKSHAW Serving “ethnic street foods,” as chef Andreas Heaphy likes to say, Rickshaw has been well received by locals, visitors and critics alike.

Creative, fresh, small plates are inspired by the flavors and foods in locales such as Thailand, Vietnam, China, and Indonesia.

CORNERSTONE It’s Wild West meets haute cuisine at the Cornerstone Bar and Grill. Longtime locals Meg and Erik Vorm welcome you to a Main Street venue as stimulating to the eye as it is to the taste buds. Inside its modern decor, you’ll enjoy a seasonally changing array of game, seafood and vegetable dishes, complemented by handcrafted cocktails and a list of beer and wine that’s both familiar and eclectic. 211 Main St., Ketchum, 208.928.7777.

THE PIONEER SALOON If you haven’t been to the Pioneer Saloon, you haven’t been to Ketchum! The Pioneer Saloon, renowned for perfectly aged, tender and flavorful beef, is typical of an earlier Idaho where ore wagons rattled down Main Street and business was done with a handshake and a drink. Natural woods, mounted game, and period firearms help recreate an authentic saloon atmosphere.

DUCHIN LOUNGE All new and inviting, this legendary lounge serves up cocktails, imported beer and an extensive wine list. Now you can also duck in for a quick bite from our lounge menu.

THE RAM Modern steakhouse with organic and local Idaho products, full service. Live Music with Larry Harshbarger on the piano. Located in the Sun Valley Inn. Make your reservation now! Sun Valley Village, 208.622.2225.

Sun Valley Lodge, 208.622.2145.

GRILL AT KNOB HILL The environment at the Knob Hill Inn is casual and comfortable, yet sophisticated, with distinctively Northwest cuisine, and a variety of American and European classics.

A top local favorite! 960 N. Main St., Ketchum,

460 N. Washington Ave., Ketchum, 208.726-8481.

208.726.8004.

SUSHI ON SECOND Established in 1994, Sushi on Second is the Valley’s oldest sushi restaurant. But don’t let age fool you. Head sushi chef Zack Venzon is at the center of a talented crew of sushi chefs that delight in creating dishes that are as appetizing to look at as they are to eat.

ROUNDHOUSE Perched midway up Bald Mountain on the River Run side, the Roundhouse was built in 1939 by Sun Valley’s founding father, Union Pacific Railroad Chairman Averell Harriman. Today this restaurant is a culinary destination not to be missed. Serviced by the Roundhouse Gondola, the restaurant is accessible for skiing and non-skiing clientele.

260 Second St., Ketchum, 208.726.5181.

mediterranean TOWN SQUARE TAVERN Town Square Tavern, established in June 2015, is a gathering place in the center of Ketchum, Idaho, serving fresh and inspired World Cuisine. With flavors inspired by the Mediterranean regions stretching from the Middle East, to North Africa, to Spain, Italy and France, there is something sure to please everyone’s palate. 360 East Ave. N., Ketchum, 208.726.6969.

regional northwest CK’S REAL FOOD Real food from real places featuring local and Northwest regional ingredients and fresh fish nightly. Great wines from all over. Dine in a comfortable, casual and energetic space. Eat here, eat well! 320 Main St., Hailey, 208.788.1223.

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320 N Main St, Ketchum, 208.726.3139.

TRAIL CREEK CABIN A romantic hideaway since 1937, Trail Creek Cabin is a must Sun Valley dining adventure.

Wagons depart for the restaurant from the village near the Sun Valley Inn during the summer season, sleigh rides during the winter season, and you may also drive. The purchase of a wagon ride ticket confirms a reservation for dinner at Trail Creek Cabin.

Dinner is additional and is paid for at the cabin. The seasonal menu has a Western flare all complemented by a great wine list and a full bar. 51 Trail Creek Rd., Sun Valley, 208.622.2800.

Bald Mountain, Ketchum, 208.622.2012.

SUN VALLEY CLUB Possibly Sun Valley’s most popular lunch spot. The Sun Valley Club is open for guests and the public and doubles as the Sun Valley Nordic and Snowshoe Center in winter.

1 Trail Creek Rd., Sun Valley, 208.622.2919.

steak & seafood SAWTOOTH CLUB Always busy with a great mix of locals and visitors, The Sawtooth Club offers a unique blend of American steakhouse classics, fresh seafood, wild game, unique pasta dishes and much more. The Sawtooth Club has been recognized in a local reader’s poll as “The Valley’s Best Overall Restaurant” in five different years. 231 North Main Street, Ketchum, 208.726.5233.

Sun Valley Magazine’s dining and menu guide, TASTE of Sun Valley, offers chef profiles, features on innovative dishes and foods, as well as exquisite recipes to try at home. Pick up a free copy on racks throughout the valley, or read the digital edition at sunvalleymag.com/ Dining/. The winter issue is on stands now!

Try our Monkey Fries!

Best Deck in Town!

THE LIMELIGHT LOUNGE

THE LIMELIGHT LOUNGE

“Ketchum’s Killer Meal without the Killer Price A Great Kids' Menu Too!”

APRÈS

Grill Open

APRÈS HAPPY

11:30am - 10:00pm Daily (Bar open late) Burgers, Salads, Wings, Hoagies, Fresh Cut Fries and More!

HD Satellite TV Sports “All the Games, All the Time”

HOUR HAPPY HOUR DINNER DINNER

For Takeout Call: 726.2744 231 6th Street, Ketchum at the corner of 6th & Washington 151 SouthMain MainStreet Street · 208-726-0888 · limelighthotels.com 151 South · 208-726-0888 · limelighthotels.com

Wake up and Live

Apple’s Bar & Grill WARM SPRINGS ROOTS • homemade soups • local beers • great wines • lunches daily

Home of the Bowl of Soul

Happy Hour 4-6 daily!

two convenient valley locations

JAVA HAILEY

JAVA ON FOURTH KETCHUM

111 1st ave. n.

208.788.2399

191 4th street west 208.726.2882

Tuesday - Sunday & closed on Mondays (skiing) 5 minutes from Ketchum with tons of parking!

215 Picabo St, Ketchum 208.726.7067 • applesbarandgrill.com

WINTER 2016/2017 | sunvalleymag.com 159

“Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.”

—ANNE FRANK

photo : wyatt caldwell (taken in the smiley creek drainage of the smoky mountains)

whywelivehere // #sunvalleymag

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