winter 2002
About us

Editors Note

It happens every year, usually in early November: The first snowflakes of the year fall from the sky, and the world seems to take pause. We look up, listen for a sound that isn’t there and watch mesmerized as the flakes float to the earth. Every year it is as if it were our very first experience with this dreamy form of water.

There is something, at once, mysterious and reassuring about winter. It is a slower, more contemplative season than summer. 

Winter fun, of course, means different things to different people. It might be the weightless experience of powder skiing, or the tranquillity of Nordic skiing, or the belly laughter of sledding. They all, however, offer something we can’t get in summer: motion in a near frictionless world. 

At the beginning of a new century and millennium, the Wood River Valley finds itself at a juncture where the wealth of recreational activities we enjoy meets economic commerce, environmental concerns and aesthetic pursuits. It is with this convergence in mind that we have created this issue of the Sun Valley Guide. We hope it sheds some light on the people, issues, art and style of this valley that make it such a cherished place to live and visit.

— Adam Tanous, editor

Contributors

Marilyn Bauer, former arts editor for the Idaho Mountain Express, is the features editor for The Tribune in San Luis Obispo, Calif. and frequent freelance contributor to numerous magazines and newspapers. Even though she now lives on the coast, her heart remains in the Wood River Valley.

Peter Boltz is a staff writer for the Idaho Mountain Express. For him, how is the more important question than why.

Tina Cole is a freelance artist and writer who has lived in the Wood River Valley for more decades than she cares to mention. She has a penchant for travel to exotic places and likes to spend her summers taking river trips and hiking anywhere and everywhere possible with her husband and son.

Dana DuGan is a staff writer for the Idaho Mountain Express. She worked in film and theater production in New York City before moving to the Wood River Valley with her two daughters. In the quest to cover everything in life from A-Z they are somewhere around K.

Greg Moore is a reporter and editor for the Idaho Mountain Express and an amateur woodworker.

Pat Murphy is former publisher of The Arizona Republic and The Phoenix Gazette and now is a freelance writer living in Ketchum.

Travis Purser, 32, grew up in Gautier, Miss., where his Australian mother taught him how to rake footprints out of shag carpet. Later, he developed a deep appreciation for a hundreds-and-thousands sandwich (Wonder bread, margarine, cake sprinkles) while living in a People’s Palace in Western Australia. These experiences, and more, he vividly portrays in his first novel, “Oh, Golden Pritchards,” which he might someday finish writing.

David N. Seelig is both a freelance photographer and a staff photographer for the Idaho Mountain Express. He lives in Hailey.

Matt Smylie is the newest addition to the Idaho Mountain Express, having moved here last summer from Kauai, Hawaii. He is still in the process of replacing his numerous T-shirts with something with sleeves.

Greg Stahl didn’t know when he moved to Idaho in 1998 that he’d spend vast hours investigating wildlife stories for the Idaho Mountain Express newspaper. Wolf investigations have taken him to remote ranchers’ backyards, to the gleaming skies over Idaho’s White Cloud Mountains and to innumerable, heated discussions among the predators’ defenders and attackers.

Staff

Publisher
Pam Morris

Editor
Adam Tanous

Associate Editor
Barbara Perkins

Writers
Marilyn Bauer, Peter Boltz, Tina Cole, Dana DuGan, Greg Moore, Pat Murphy, Travis Purser, Matt Smylie, Greg Stahl

Staff Photographer
David N. Seelig

Art Directors
Tony Barriatua, Evelyn Phillips

Production Manager
Tony Barriatua

Advertising Graphics &
Website Design
Richard Trevillian 

Graphic Artists
Leanne Klaver, Gavin McNeil,
Gary Rasmussen, Richard Trevillian

Business Manager
Connie Johnson

Marketing/Sales Director
James Mitchell

Advertising Executives
Gayle Kerr, Brad Nottingham,
Jerry Seiffert, Jean Starr

The Sun Valley Guide is published summer and winter by Express Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 1013, Ketchum, ID 83340. For advertising and editorial information, call (208) 726-8060. Find us on the Internet at www.svguide.com.

©2001 Express Publishing, Inc.