The New Old-School

by oster.jacob

In the town of Jackson, Wyoming stands an interesting relationship within their tight-knit skiing community. There was once a day when the resort and surrounding backcountry was torn up and tracked out by the best skiers in Jackson Hole. Known as the Jackson Hole Air Force, these talented and seemingly crazy men and women hucked cliffs and skied the gnarliest lines that anybody had ever seen at the time. They ticked off cliff after cliff, line after line and ducked the boundary ropes, setting a precedent that Jackson Hole skiers were a different breed, pushing the limits of how far and big they could go.

Fast forward twenty years and there is a new breed of skiers. Building off of the foundation that the JHAF set, the new-schoolers are shredding lines that even the Air Force had only dreamt of during their reign. Don't discount the JHAF's influence, though. Had it not been for the Jackson Hole Air Force and their new school approach to skiing at the time, the young skiers of Jackson Hole today would not have open access to the backcountry nor would they have a bar to push higher and higher.