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What We're Made Of, Winter

What We’re Made Of: Sawtooth Mountain Guides and Sun Valley Mountain Huts

All manner of people have explored the Idaho wilderness, for as long as it’s been there, but two companies, Sawtooth Mountain Guides and Sun Valley Mountain Huts, are two of the longest-running backcountry businesses in the Wood River Valley. An accredited mountain guide service, Sawtooth Mountain Guides (SMG) has been around for over 30 years, providing summer and winter backcountry guiding services. Sun Valley Mountain Huts (SVMH), formerly known as Sun Valley Trekking, owns some of the country’s oldest and most diverse backcountry hut system, with six huts in five Idaho mountain ranges. Sawtooth Mountain Guides The History Founded in 1985, Sawtooth Mountain Guides is the brainchild of outdoor enthusiast Kirk Bachman, who began exploring local ski and climbing terrain in the area in the early ’70s. When Kirk started SMG in the mid-’80s, it was primarily as a climbing guide service, though he soon added ski guiding on to the company and also built and established some of the first North American yurts as backcountry ski huts in the Sawtooths. This included the Williams Peak Hut, which the company established in 1988 as a winter base for local at-risk youth programs and continues to operate today for both guided …

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24hrs with a Local

24 Hours with a Local: Hailey Councilman Juan Martinez

You may know Juan Martinez from his position on Hailey city council, but Juan wears many hats in the community, from his job coaching varsity basketball for Wood River High School to working as a ticket-checker for Sun Valley to working summers at the Valley Club. A lifelong local, Juan moved back to the area in 2013 initially just to help his dad recover from a surgery but found himself loving being involved in his community in so many ways. He immediately started coaching at his former alma mater (WRHS class of 2010) and from there began adding the many positions he holds throughout the Valley, all of which give him the opportunity to do what he likes best: interact with his community. Now in his second term on city council (he ran unopposed), Juan is in a position to continue to help the community he has always called home. He and his girlfriend (who he met in the soup line at River Run Lodge) live in Hailey through Valley Club employee housing, and when he’s not at one of his many jobs, Juan is skiing, golfing, or mentoring people. “I really enjoy being involved in a lot of things …

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24hrs with a Local, Winter

24 hours with a Local: Professional Skier Karl Fostvedt

Local ski legend Karl Fostvedt (often referred to as “Crazy Karl”) has been skiing Sun Valley’s local mountains practically since he was born at the local Moritz hospital. In his years as a professional skier, Karl has amassed many accolades, from being named King of Corbet’s in 2018 and 2021 to being featured in various free ski movies from Warren Miller Entertainment, Teton Gravity Research, Red Bull Media House, Matchstick Productions (to name a few) to competing in the Dew Tour and War of Rails. Karl’s focus of late is on his own production company, Native Earth Productions, and making his own ski films with his hometown crew in the mountains he grew up in. He and his long-time girlfriend, Sierra (who attends vet school in Logan, Utah for the time being) live in Warm Springs, but he also spends a good deal of time brapping and skiing in the winter, and preparing for brapping and skiing in the summer. “I do everything I can to take advantage of this awesome opportunity to live my dream as a pro skier and having such an awesome backyard to go out in.” Visit Sun Valley caught up with Karl to see how …

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Winter

Best Fireplaces to Cozy-Up by in Ketchum & Sun Valley

After a day on the slopes, or a day at the spa, there’s nothing like lounging next to a roaring fireplace as the snow falls outside. Whether you’re in the company of friends and family, or a good book, the warmth of a well-built fire fills the heart. Here are our favorite places to sit by the fire in Ketchum and Sun Valley. Limelight Hotel Limelight Hotel’s expansive lobby—perfect for a cocktail, a game of cards, a couple hours of work, or hanging out with your favorite person—welcomes visitors with two glass-fronted fireplaces. Sip a drink, taste an appetizer, and let the flames melt away all your worries. Sun Valley Wine Company The Sun Valley Wine Company, in Ketchum’s Town Square, is a wine shop, bar and light fare restaurant. Browse the racks for a great bottle of wine to share, or order a single pour at the bar. A selection of chilled beer is also available. Settle into the couch in front of the stone fireplace and munch on a cheese plate as you warm your toes. Sawtooth Club Hemingway knew how to while away the hours at a beloved bar, telling a good yarn. And his favorite haunt in …

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Winter

Boulder Mountain Tour: What Not to Miss

2023 marks the 50th year of the Annual Zions Bank Boulder Mountain Tour (BMT). This year the BMT will Honor Bob Rosso, one of the original founders of the race and a valued community member here in the Wood River Valley. This historic cross-country race is held on the historic Harriman Trail in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, north of Ketchum.

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24hrs with a Local

24 hours with a Local: Flourish Foundation’s Abby Mills

A local now of fourteen years, Abby Mills traded out one mountain town for another, having grown up in Park City, Utah. After graduating college, Abby moved to Ketchum for a job at Idaho Bioscience, where she worked for five years before going back to school for medical lab science while working simultaneously as a lab assistant. After graduating, she was a medical lab scientist for three years, but found herself searching for more purposeful work. She attended a yoga teacher training in Bali—and still continues to teach yoga, at Gather—but got involved with the Flourish Foundation when she was invited to a Compassionate Leaders Program (CLP) meeting, a weekly meeting that impart skills like attention, kindness, and compassion to students. After attending many CLP meetings and participating in environmental stewardship trips with CLP in the summers, Abby Mills was offered her current job at Flourish as Development Director and Compassionate Leaders Co-Leader. She has now been with Flourish for three years and feels so grateful to be part of a program that is describes as “such a gift to the community.” Her and her husband, Tate, and cattle dog, Ollie, live in Ketchum. In her free time, Abby loves …

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24hrs with a Local, Dining

24 hours with a Local: Johnny G’s Subshack Owners Sinjin and Trevor Thomas

If you’ve eaten at Johnny G’s Subshack in the past year, then you’ve been served by one or both of the Thomas brothers, who purchased the business in November of 2022. Sinjin and Trevor, both locals, were already enmeshed in the casual dining scene of the area before taking over Johnny G’s, with Sinjin already working at the Subshack as well as Grumpy’s and Trevor bringing about twenty combined years of working for Grumpy’s and Lefty’s. When not at the Subshack, you can find Trevor playing for the Suns hockey time, working out, and staying active. Sinjin lives with his girlfriend Hayley Hinojosa (of Hayleywood Salon) out Warm Springs with their cat and “chiweenie” (a dachshund-chihuahua). While Sinjin used to play on the Suns, he now devotes his time to pond hockey and A-league hockey, as well as golf and watching sports. Check out how each of these brothers would spend their ideal 24 hours on a December day in Sun Valley. How does your morning start? Trevor: I would wake up at 5, go to High Altitude Fitness and work out with Kevin. Afterward, I’d probably go to Java or Maude’s and get a coffee and a muffin. Then …

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Biking, What We're Made Of

What We’re Made Of: Wild Rye and Club Ride

Many outdoor brands have their origins in the Wood River Valley; the easy access to the outdoors in so many ways (biking, hiking, skiing) gets the creative juices flowing in terms of how to improve on those sports—and then gives you a big playground to test out those improvements. Outdoor apparel companies Wild Rye and Club Ride are no different, with both company’s founders being outdoor aficionados in the Wood River Valley who found themselves staring down a gap in their respective markets; for Wild Rye, that gap was an outdoor brand exclusively for women. For Club Ride, that gap was casual bike clothes that could be worn from the bike to the bar. Read on to learn the origin stories of these two local companies, who are helping maintain Ketchum’s status quo as an incubator for innovation. Wild Rye Wild Rye’s founder, Cassie Abel, has lived in and out of Ketchum since she was eight years old, but coming back full-time in 2012. Prior to launching her women-focused outdoor brand, Cassie worked in-house at Smith, learning all about the outdoor industry, its marketing—and its distinct lack of focus on women. “We were starting to see all these cool brands …

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24hrs with a Local

24 Hours with a Local: Sawtooth Mountain Guides’ Lindsay Mann Davis

Backcountry ski guide Lindsay Mann Davis didn’t move to the area until 2018, but skiing has always been in her life. Growing up on the east coast, she spent most of her youth exploring the White Mountains of New Hampshire and competitive ski racing, which took her to mountains around the world. Her passion for skiing took her to Dartmouth, where she helped her team win an NCAA title in 2007. After college, she spent time working as an alpine ski racing coach, mountain guide, and avalanche instructor. Before making the move to Idaho, Lindsay and her now-husband Leon were living in Jackson Hole. After he accepted a pilot job in the state, she got a job offer with the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF) to coach alpine and do avalanche education. She’s now a guide for Sawtooth Mountain Guides and also works at Andy Gilbert’s Press Print House and Keely’s Camp for Girls as operations manager. The flexibility of Lindsay’s employers has been instrumental in being able to spend time with her 1-year-old daughter, Matilda. Lindsay and her family live in a house in Hailey, and in her free time she loves to mountain bike, climb, backcountry ski, …

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What We're Made Of

What We’re Made Of: Chums

Referring to your eyewear retainer simply as “Chums,” like you might call tissue “Kleenex”shows just how much this global brand dominates its market. With humble origins that can betraced back to a guide on the Colorado River in southern Utah, Chums is celebrating its 40thanniversary this year. Chums came to Ketchum in 2002 after local Chuck Ferries purchased thecompany along with his son, Tom, and son-in-law, Mike Neary. Many of the company’sproducts are still made in the original Hurricane, Utah, facility and five employees hold downsales and marketing in Ketchum.  How it Started In 1983 Mike Taggett was a dory boat guide on the Colorado River. Tired of seeing his clientslose their sunglasses to the water, he came up with the idea for what is now the Original Chumseyewear retainer, producing the first batch on a $60 sewing machine out of the back of his VWvan. Named for Mike’s yellow lab, Chumley, Chums has always been about those who feelcalled to the water: guides, river rats, dirtbags, anglers. As demand grew, Chums began mass-producing its retainers and selling to retailers nationwide, though the Original cotton eyewearretainer is still the company’s best-selling product (and is still made in the original facility …