Jackson Hole: the back story

About Jackson Hole: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Ski Resorts Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Jackson Hole Mountain Resort opened in the winter of 1965 at the foot of the Tetons, with only the second skier tram in North America and a rise nearly double that of the first. Six decades on, it is still privately and locally owned, and still called ‘The Big One’.

The founders

Paul McCollister, born in 1915, retired from radio advertising at 42, spent a year skiing the great resorts of Europe and settled as a rancher in Teton County. With his partner Alex Morley he set out to build a ski area on Rendezvous Mountain, above the valley floor at Teton Village.

The Big One

Nothing about the plan was modest: only the second skier tram in North America, rising 4,139 continuous vertical feet. In October 1965, two months before the lifts first turned, Skiing magazine wrote that Jackson Hole had to be skied to be believed. By the 1970s, ‘Ski The Big One’ had become part of the resort’s identity, alongside the Vertical Foot Club, whose members earned pins and patches as they stacked up vertical.

Jackson Hole has the longest continuous vertical rise of any ski area in the US: 4,139 feet.

Corbet’s

In 1960 the mountaineer Barry Corbet spotted a narrow, funnel-shaped crease of snow high on the mountain and said someone would ski it one day. Corbet’s Couloir, reached only by the Aerial Tram, is now one of the most famous runs in North America, with a drop-in of about 20 feet onto a 50-degree pitch. Each February the best skiers and riders compete there in the Kings and Queens of Corbet’s.

Big Red

The first Aerial Tram carried 63 people to the summit in about nine minutes for 40 years, until it was retired in 2006. Its successor, ‘Big Red’, carries 100 people to 10,450 feet in about the same time, and at the top, Corbet’s Cabin serves its famous waffles.

Wild country

The resort lies in the Bridger-Teton National Forest, bordered by some 8.96 million acres of public land including Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. Its open backcountry gates lead to more than 3,000 acres beyond the 2,500 in bounds.

Our advice

Ski Corbet’s only if you are a very strong skier: watch a few others drop in first, or just look over the edge. Ikon Pass and Mountain Collective holders must reserve lift days for 2026/27.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Jackson Hole: the back story before you go.