A Strange Era for Jackson Hole Tram Debut

By Michael Pearlman, 12-26-08

If I were 10 years younger, on December 20 I would have been at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, where the much-hyped launch of the ski area’s new aerial tram was taking place. The ambitious construction project was completed on time, and was cause for a community celebration in Jackson, where skiing is a passion shared by many.

Instead, I found myself in a tiny gym in central Wyoming, 15 miles from the Montana border, watching a high school basketball game. Sometimes life changes happen so quickly you feel like they’re out of your control and you’re just along for the ride. Five months after relocating to a town I’d never imagined living in, these “moments of clarity” take place regularly.

The basketball game was quite entertaining. Wyoming Indian High School, a team of Native American players, put on a shooting display. Those kids don’t have much in Ethete, Wyoming, but they have basketball. The 12th kid off the bench was draining three-pointers and the parents were cheering layups with their kids’ team ahead by 40. These teenagers only lived 3.5 hours from Jackson, but I’m pretty sure none of them cared about a new ski lift.

On the reservation these kids have basketball as their anchor. In Jackson Hole, skiing had a similar role for me, at least in my 20s. If there was a holy site for me, it was the ski area’s tram line. My commitment to the sport and its accompanying lifestyle was shaped and solidified there, and I’ve spent countless hours of my life in silent contemplation waiting for the big red box. I watched the sun rise with a few other hardy souls, listened as tourists and residents exchanged strange conversations and analyzed the psyches of my fellow skiers while waiting for my ride to the top of the mountain.

The mythology surrounding a ski lift may seem somewhat strange to a non-skier.  Jackson’s tram has been converted into an icon, an easy way to represent the ski resort’s massive size and expansive terrain. A generation of current ski bums, instructors and lift operators were lured to Jackson in part by the tram’s image, used by ski filmmakers Teton Gravity Research. The resort has marketed the tram’s return extensively, needing to maximize return on it’s $31 million investment. It’s been ingrained into the spirt of thousands of powder-seekers, people who move to ski towns from divergent backgrounds, sharing only simple dreams of an uncertain future.

Sheridan, my current home, is not the land of Subarus, skier-talk and fleece. It’s pick up trucks, hunting-talk and coveralls. December has been so cold that two weekends in a row I opted not to go “up the mountain” and get my backcountry skiing fix. Instead, Lindsay and I took the dog for a walk on a recent Sunday. In 45 minutes of wandering the city’s streets in single-digit temperatures, we didn’t see another person outside.

I’m now a seven-hour drive from Jackson Hole. The nearest lift serviced skiing is more than a three hours away. But thanks to the power of the Internet, I can experience what’s going on in my old mountain range in real time. I can watch backcountry skiers beginning their hike on the Teton Pass web cam or check out what lifts are open at the ski area after a 17-inch storm. I’m still adjusting to the idea I can’t just hop in my car and arrive in Teton Village in 20 minutes any more.

The new year is just around the corner, and 2008 has been stunning in its intensity.  The arrival of a new ski lift seems much less significant now than when the project was unveiled two years ago. The investment opens in an era where the future of tourism is anything but certain. A new financial landscape, a new political landscape and a new personal landscape make the world appear to be a far different place. For 2009, my only New Year’s resolution is to continue figuring out my place in it.