JH Underground – news, sports and music blog from Jackson Hole, Wyoming news, sports and music blog from Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Jackson Hole skiers are mourning the loss of longtime instructor and guide Theo Meiners, who died in a fall from an escalator balcony last night while attending a snow science conference in Alaska. He was 59 years old.

Meiners had taught skiing at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and owned Alaska Rendezvous Heli-Guides. He worked in the ski industry for more than 30 years and was regarded as an expert on avalanche safety.

On the slopes at Jackson Hole, Meiners was revered as a guru who used to wax philosophical about skiing and snow. He enjoyed the winter of a lifetime this year in Alaska, with massive snowfall, and he regularly shared his joy and insights with friends on Facebook. This post from July 15 accompanied a photo of an Alaskan mountain called Happiness, with a 5,200-vertical-foot north face:

Pursuit of Happiness and the wish that Happiness should not be a quick moment, like a big laugh after a joke or a smile at a compliment ,it is a state of being, and we all have the right to this pursuit! Work where you want and do what you love friends and find happiness

There’s no doubt Meiners found it.

He leaves behind a son, Aidan, and daughter, Ali.

Posted under Deaths, Ski Resorts, Sports

Tags: jhmr, skiing

Dick Barker, the river guide and musician who built one of the most successful rafting businesses in Jackson Hole, died this morning at his home in Moose, after battling cancer for several years. He was 75 years old.

Originally from Ohio, Barker began spending his summers at his grandparents’ house on Ditch Creek as a boy. He learned to fly fish from his mother and stepfather, Joe Beerkle, and started guiding for Carmichael’s Tackle Shop in Moose in 1956.

In 1963, he and his wife, Barb, started their own float trip company, just as Frank and Patty Ewing went into business. The two families became partners in 1965, and Barker-Ewing grew to become synonymous with scenic and whitewater rafting in Jackson Hole.

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Posted under Deaths, Democratic Party, Sports, Wyoming

Tags: grand teton national park, river running, snake river

Despite her age and recent illness, it was sad to hear Friday of the passing of News&Guide co-publisher Elizabeth McCabe. One hoped that against all odds she would continue to buck infirmity and make it back onto the Snake River for one last fly fishing trip.

Diminutive in size, McCabe, 101, was a giant in the publishing business, a shutter-clicking bon vivant whose life was a testament to the virtues of drinking red wine and floating the river for longevity. Even in death she led by example, as the News&Guide announced in today’s Daily that per her wishes there would be no memorial service.

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Posted under Deaths, Sports

Tags: fishing, Media, snake river

Back in 2010, I wrote about the anticipation of seeing Levon Helm perform at Jazz Fest. I had just watched The Last Waltz for the first time.

Helm and his band gave a set at the New Orleans Fairgrounds that was practically a mini-Last Waltz, with guest after guest coming out on stage to lend support and play with the revered drummer and mandolinist. Pianists Dr. John and Allen Toussaint, participants in the original farewell concert by The Band, were among the cast, along with Galactic drummer Stanton Moore, who pounded the skins alongside Helm for nearly the entire set.

Then 69, the gravelly voiced Arkansan had been battling throat cancer and looked frail, but his spirit was inextinguishable. His smile shone from behind the drum kit, and he played with an intensity that belied his condition.

“Oh, you don’t know the shape I’m in!” he bellowed to start the set. The Band classic was fitting on many levels, not only given his health, as the grin on his face suggested, but, this being a Sunday after a long weekend in New Orleans, for the audience as well.

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Posted under Deaths, Music, Religion

Tags: jazz fest, new orleans

A wave came crashing like a fist to the jaw
Delivered him wings, ‘Hey, look at me now’
~ Pearl Jam, Given to Fly

A public memorial service for ski mountaineers Steve Romeo and Chris Onufer will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the outdoor plaza at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. A reception will follow afterward at the Mangy Moose.

Romeo, 40, and Onufer, 42, died in an avalanche March 7 in Grand Teton National Park. They were ascending Ranger Peak when the slide occurred.

So much has been written about these two in recent days, and the loss so devastating, that it’s hard for me to add much. I had known both since we worked on the mountain at JHMR in the mid-1990s, me as a photographer and them running the lifts. When I started guiding whitewater on the Snake, Steve was a photographer in the canyon before joining the staff of Skinny Skis.

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Posted under Deaths, Media, Sports

Tags: avalanches, backcountry, ppp, skiing, writing