About us

From the editor

Building this summer’s Sun Valley Guide, we learned how the valley absorbed last summer’s lessons. All of us, it seemed, learned the value of a test, and the theme of stalwart individuals overcoming life’s trials took shape.

Rebecca Rusch, one of our local world-class athletes, is a natural for this issue. The "accidental athlete" has built a career on heights of pain and depths of fatigue. Mariel Hemingway, burdened with the looming double shadow of fame and tragedy, opens up in these pages about facing down her demons. Even the wild gray wolf, near extinct in Idaho just over a decade ago, has found a way back into the game. From wedding mishaps to longboard surfing on mountain lakes, the Sun Valley Guide likes a good challenge. A year after Castle Rock, we hope this issue engages readers with those times when fire crosses the path and we are meant to push right through.
 

Sincerely,
Michael Ames

Contributors

Jason D.B. Kauffman is the public lands reporter for the Idaho Mountain Express. Both as a news reporter and a freelance magazine writer, he has tracked wolves with biologists in Idaho’s Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness and Wyoming’s Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. Kauffman’s work has appeared in Backpacker Magazine, The Idaho Statesman, Twin Falls’ Times-News and other regional publications.
 

Dana DuGan is the Living editor and a features writer for the Idaho Mountain Express, as well as a local music promoter and gardening enthusiast. She regards catching a celebrity in a moment of ease to be the Tour d’Eiffel of interviewing.
 

Betsy Andrews Etchart has covered food, home, outdoor adventure and the arts for various magazines, but writing about her own wedding proved her biggest challenge to date. She and her husband are expecting a baby boy in July.
 

Jon Duval worked his way around the world while making the glorious ascent from investment banker to bike messenger. He finally arrived in Ketchum two years ago and now writes full time for the Idaho Mountain Express. When not feeding his addiction to planning and zoning meetings, Duval finds himself frequently humiliated on Wood River roads and trails, whether on his bike or skis.

publisher
Pam Morris

editor
Michael Ames
editor@sunvalleyguide.com

art director
Evelyn Phillips

art production manager
Tony Barriatua

contributing writers
Betsy Andrews Etchart, Kitt Doucette, Scott Douglas,
Dana DuGan, Jon Duval, Jason D.B. Kauffman, Pat Murphy and Sabina Dana Plasse

Editor-At-Large
Jennifer Tuohy

Photographers
Paulette Phlipot, Chris Pilaro
and David N. Seelig

copy editors
Greg Moore, Barbara Perkins

ad production & web site designer
Colin McCauley

business manager
Connie Johnson

marketing/sales director
Ben Varner

advertising executives
Suzanne Mann, William Pattnosh

Idaho Press Club Awards