It’s been a snowy October in Jackson. In fact, it’s the snowiest October on record in the last 16 years, so even though the lifts aren’t quite spinning yet, the locals are already hiking for some waist deep powder turns. For those of you who are reading at low altitude challenged environments (otherwise known as L.A.C.E.), we’ll wait for you to put your ski boots, skis, and rest of your gear on in your living room so you can have a good old-fashioned ski carpet session. Maybe, first vacuum the carpet to give it the appearance of fresh corduroy, then put on your favorite mountain skiing soundtrack (you know the one you rock on the tram to get hyped up), open all the windows, because ski parkas and pants are warm, close your eyes for a moment and drop into your favorite line. Don’t worry if it’s too much of a hassle to dig out all your gear, or if gasp, you are at work, just sit back, relax, close those pesky TPS reports and get psyched up for the coming ski season by learning about some of Jackson Hole’s legendary history. Today’s lesson is about the bad boys and girls of the Jackson Hole Air Force who partied hard and skied harder and changed skiing at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort forever and beyond.
Growing up at the base of the ski resort at his family owned Hostel X in Jackson Hole, Benny Wilson was destined to be one hell of a skier. Throw in a life changing ski lesson with famed Olympian Pepi Stiegler where they focused more on catching air than actual skiing, and the die is pretty much cast. Benny Wilson, AKA the Captain of the Jackson Hole Air Force, skied everywhere and anywhere at the Village as a kid and often skied with older skiers who guided him around the mountain. When he was skiing with his peers, he was causing skiing mayhem in a group called the Teton Village Mafia. In the 80’s he would pioneer and lead another group that became the most famous outlaw skiers Wyoming and the world has ever seen and he named them the Jackson Hole Air Force.
As legend would have it, the resort was riding out a week-long storm that was so epic in severity and accumulation that the resort was closed for a solid week in 1986. Undeterred, Benny and his skiing buddies would show up every morning bright and early to the tram line only to find out that the mountain wasn’t open. No, they didn’t call it a day and head into work. Instead, they went straight to the bar, the Bear Claw, like ski bums do and preceded to wait it out each day, dressed in storm gear, drinking beer and waiting for word that the mountain would open. Between beers, Benny started sketching up the logo that would become the iconic patch of the Jackson Hole Air Force. Based on a military special unit badge, it read proudly their creed “Swift, Silent, Deep”. It was adorned with a skull and ski poles and underneath the tag line 1st Tracks OB (out of bounds). He had them made up and started passing them out to his skiing buddies such as Air Force co-founder Howard “Hollywood” Henderson and eventually future deserving innovative skiers who were known for ripping up the local mountain.
The Air Force was known to crush all the inbound terrain, so they literally pushed the skiing boundaries and went in search of powder thrills outside the closed ski resort boundaries. The creed, “Swift, Silent, Deep”, summed up the Air Force’s attitudes. They were going to get in and get quickly of forbidden powder terrain. They also had a mafioso mentality of not bragging about it or even talking about their mountain conquests outside their small band of like-minded brethren. The mountain was literally their playground and when they weren’t skiing new lines, they were hauling up barbecue grills onto the slopes, making jumps, and simply hanging out and having more fun than just about everyone else.
Benny and his band thought all the fresh untracked lines just past the gates should be open to skiers since it was officially the federal government’s land and not the resorts. A cat and mouse game ensued with Air Force members crossing ropes and patrollers trying to enforce the resort rules. The conflict finally came to a head when famed Air Force member and extreme skiing legend Doug Coombs was caught out of bounds and banned from the resort. The original members of the Air Force wanted to ski like and emulate Pepi Stiegler, but the current members all wanted to ski like Coombs, and his banishment just fired up the Air Force more to poach lines out of bounds and dared the patrollers to catch them if they could. Granite Canyon, known as the dark side, because it’s a northern facing slope with endless, but potentially fatal cliff runs or avalanches proved to be a training ground for skiing’s next frontier, Alaska. Here in Granite they learned about snow science and snow safety. The presence of the Jackson Hole Air Force reached far beyond Jackson as members won repeatedly at the Alaskan extreme skiing competitions. Through petitions and flagrant breaking of the resort’s ski code the Air Force persuaded Jackson Hole to eventually open up their boundaries and let skiers ski the whole mountain. Other ski resorts would eventually follow Jackson’s lead and change the culture of skiing forever. Doug Coombs would be invited back to Jackson in less than three years from being banished. He became a skiing ambassador at Jackson until his untimely death from a fall while helping another rider in La Grave, France.
Next time you are on the tram and see one of those iconic Air Force patches give them a nod that says thanks for opening up the mountain for you to ski. The renegade outlaws of the Air Force in their quest for freedom to ski what they wanted, has given freedom to all skiers. Just don’t kid yourselves and try to follow their tracks because they are probably skiing some insane terrain.
Our company owner, Ron Miller and his brother David Miller, who works in our real estate department, are proud members of the Jackson Hole Airforce.
