HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
•
NOVEMBER 2013
107
JACKSONHOLE
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THREE PERFECT DAYS
You consider a sensible start to your
day on the mountain—say, by heading
to the intermediate area served by a new
high-speed Casper quad chair, or some
other part of the mountain appropriate
for people without rubber knees. Instead,
you’re seduced by the prospect of the
10,927-foot Rendezvous Mountain—and
are transported to a swirling, disorient-
ing snowscape straight out of “Game
of Thrones.”
Deciding that no one needs to see what
happens next, you find the off bu on on
your helmet cam and prepare to make
your way down by any means necessary.
But thenyour skis find their edges andyou
begin carving the most graceful turns of
your life, descending into Laramie Bowl
on groomers so smooth youmight as well
be flying.
The rest of the day goes like this.
From time to time, the mountain bares
its teeth—presenting you with vertigo-
inducing panoramas, narrow chutes and
the occasional whiteout—but for themost
part it cooperates and doesn’t leave you in
anunmanageable situation. Everynowand
then, the bizarre feeling that youmight be
the only person there adds to the drama,
and you hoot and holler accordingly.
An epic morning has earned you a
hearty lunch. You hand your skis to the
valet and tromp over to
Il Villaggio Osteria
,
another one of Fine’s eateries, where you
order wood-oven pizza with mascarpone,
mushrooms, sausage, caramelized onion,
Swiss chard and wild arugula, with a side
order of friedBrussels sprouts toppedwith
pomegranate. It is magnificent. Fortified,
you head up to the edge of Jackson Hole’s
most infamous drop, Corbet’s Couloir, and
… back away slowly. The aforementioned
Casper quad chair it is.
You’ve been longing for a hot tub soak
since youfirst hit the slopes, so by the time
youjoinasmallgroupoffellowlightweights
intheoutdoor tubbackat thehotel, abarrel
filled with hot water would have sufficed.
But this is the Four Seasons. Heated locker
for your bathrobe?Check. Bar serving local
microbrews? Of course. When light flakes
start making a lazy descent, rendering the
mountainside impossibly picturesque, you
wonder for a moment if someone at the
concierge desk pushed a bu on.
You’ve skipped the traditional après
base party, but you more than make up
for the lapse at dinner. What appears to
be an all-snowboarder waitstaff lends an
extremely convivial atmosphere to the
small dining room at
Teton Thai
. Husband-
and-wife owners Sam and Suchada
Johnson swing by your table to make a
HOT SHOTS
Wyoming makes room on the shelf for one of its own
Wyoming has long held all of the key elements for a successful bourbon business: land that can
grow corn, wheat and barley; a massive limestone aquifer providing fresh water; residents with
an appreciation for handlebar mustaches.
While it may come as a surprise that it took until last year for the state’s first locally produced
bourbon to hit shelves, it’s no surprise how quickly Wyoming Whiskey flew off them. Last winter,
when the first batches went up for sale at a launch party with local distributors in attendance, it
took just minutes for all 3,000 cases to be snatched up. More batches were released in February,
June and October, and in December shipments will go to a few markets outside Wyoming.
The bourbon, which is distilled in Kirby, a town of 92 residents along the Bighorn River, is
the work of three attorneys from Jackson who lured Steve Nally, a veteran Kentucky bourbon
distiller, out of retirement. Their efforts appear to be paying off: At the launch, Mark Gillespie, an
editor at
Whisky Magazine
, rated it 95 out of a possible 100. “It is one of the best bourbons I’ve
ever tasted,” he said.
BAR LIFT
The Mangy Moose,
Teton Village’s most
popular après hangout
