Ketchum/Sun Valley Synopsis
Okay. Yeah. Sun Valley changed my life and I give it and the people there full credit. Moved to Sun Valley in beginning of UCLA jr. year...blown out knee. totalled car. A pair of skiis, an american express card and $200.00, knowing not a single soul except the memory of hot (super Hot) skier girl I met in High School one summer.....Jennifer was a complete goddess with sculpted amazonian legs and a sexy smile....I can't thank her enough for praising sun valley .
No money to ski initially....I learned to hike up catracks and pop onto the upper lifts for free. Yeah, it was worth every 2.5 hour hike through sometimes hip deep snow. Think I got fit...think i got strong...hell yeah. Made and slept in snow caves, worked different jobs, gettin stronger. Met lots of good people (some super rich, some working just like me), great girlfriends and families. YEs...they have a 'tude...but it takes balls to move there and live there....the rewards are worth it. 1st summer...mtn biking up and down 10K vertical feet per night. Hiking, rock climbing, kayaking. Learning the secrets of eating well from 60 years olds fitter than my 22 year old butt......
Next year, made ski school first on skiis. Made 1st 6 snowboard instructors, I was lucky cause I was honestly the worst of the bunch...but then I got good. Did Corbett's at Jackson, with ease on my board. Did everything else available around there. Sun Valley's Mountain sucks? WTF? there are no flats spots on ol Baldy. Wonder why so many olympians grow up there...hmmm. Yeah it doesn't snow like it does down at snowbird, but sun valley doesn't have 14 ft boulders in the way...smooth surfaces take less snow. You want to talk about flat...drive over to Grand Targee......no place for boarders. I lived in Sun Valley two winter seasons, became a snowboarder, rebuilt my injured body (prior to SV 6 operations on my rt knee including 2 ACL reconstructions), then went on to play college tennis with scholarship. Thank you ketchum/SV.
I met all the movie stars and wealthy people of the day. One of my roommates was arguably one of the best Kayakers in the world, and all roommies were motivated, excited, intelligenct and we all realized how great and lucky our fortune was to have ended up in ketchum...living the dream. Sure, money seems to bring snobbery, but along with that came respect of our abilities. They couldn't pay money to do what that mountain, those locals, and that terrain can unlock within those who are ready, and they showed a nice respect and admiration for that. It was a VIBRANT place to live. Just typing this I get a hungry in my throat to go back...well..maybe you can't go back in time.. This post is for those who maybe never experienced this...or maybe did and would like to relive it.
So yeah, if you said Sun Valley has some snobs I won't argue. But see it for what it is....just people with money some not getting it, but some understanding that it is a very special place made more special if you "get" the active lifestyle and challenges that it poses, and the subsequent growth you will have when you accept those challenges.
So eventually I end up settling in southern california in a little red town at the base of the San Bernardinos. We are 45 min from Snow summit, friend convinces me to get a pass, and i dust off my old Mistral assymmetric 167 and proceed, in my 40s, to roast and leave in the dust some of the best riders at summit (no tricks, just speed and carving). Wooden core, mounting plates, and one of the heaviest boards in the world. Again, thank you Sun Valley.
Back to the snobbery comment, most of the real snobs just didn't get the real lifestyle: the rugged, balls out, challenge that those mountains provide you. Not a hater here at all. I could write for days on my experiences there, but suffice to say ketchum/sv rates an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10.
No regrets!