Ethan B. Holland

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Meeting a kindred spirit by chance – what a Gore Range moment: Vail YOLO Adventure Part VIII

September 7, 2026

I want to share an incredible story.

When Rori and I rode the gondola to the top of Vail, I was eager to share what we had accomplished on Grand Traverse with any local who might understand how emotional it was for me to come back 32 years later.

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The Gore Range and Grand Traverse from the gondola on the way to the top of Vail… the day after Rori and I summited Grand Traverse Peak.

As we stepped off of the unloading platform, there was an information podium. Behind it stood an older guy wearing the iconic red Vail employee jacket and a Vail hat with a Pepsi logo. He stood there unassumingly as tourists streamed around him.

I approached him and said, “Hey, do you want to hear a cool story?” He said, “Sure.”

I opened my phone and showed him a picture of Rori and me at the summit of Grand Traverse. “Guess what we did yesterday?!”

Without saying a word, he took my phone, pinched and zoomed, looked me in the eye, and asked, “Are you at 13,063 feet?” He saw right into me with his question because he knew the answer.

“Yes, we are,” I said, beaming, knowing he knew where we were, and knowing he was the perfect person to have shown my picture!

“How was it?” he asked. “How did you get past the steep grassy part?” This guy knew exactly what we had just done. I told him it was hard, and I explained our approach and how we got to the top.

He told me, “I want my ashes spread up there. I took my daughter last year, but we couldn’t get past that first grassy incline.”

I told him my story about being a ski bum, that climbing Grand Traverse had been the only thing on my bucket list I’d ever had, and that I would love to try to help him get to the top.

His story was remarkably like mine. He moved to Vail with a friend in the ’70s. He worked at a restaurant and ate for free and worked on the mountain and skied for free. He paid $50 a month for a shared room at a place in Minturn called Wrong Side of Tracks (a historic ski-bum dormitory located in an old YMCA building behind what is now the Minturn Saloon in Minturn, Colorado).

Unlike me, he never left Vail… and he was on the ski patrol. After more than 50 years, Grand Traverse had become part of his soul.

I told Steve my favorite runs and how every day we would hit the Seldom Cliffs. Steve told me one of his friends died tragically in a mountaineering accident, and his friend’s boots were nailed to a tree in the woods near Seldom. The Klickity Klack ski trail was named after one of his friends.

Me at the top of Seldom. It was the first time I’d ever seen a ski run with cliffs that you could just jump off…

My college roommate and partner is ski crime (it was his idea to go to Colorado), Caleb hitting Seldom in 1994

Steve told me stories of his exploits, including his buddy leaping from the rafters into the sleigh that hangs in the Mangy Moose Restaurant and Saloon in Jackson Hole!

Steve’s friend leapt from the railing and managed to sit in the sleigh. I grabbed the photo from Tripadvisor.

He felt the same way I did about Grand Traverse. It had watched over him all these years. I told him there was no doubt he could do the hike. He was in his seventies, in incredible shape, and had summited a fourteener just the day before.

“Check this out,” I said, lifting my pant leg to show him my tattoo of Grand Traverse.

Rori and my tattoos the day before on the top of Grand Traverse. My tattoo has the Grand Traverse on it.

He looked me in the eyes the same way he did when he asked me about the elevation and said, “Look at this.”

He held out his hand and, with his thumb and index finger, turned his wedding ring to reveal a relief of Grand Traverse etched into the band.

We laughed that we might be the only two people who have a tattoo and a wedding band of Grand Traverse. It was even more special that we had both wanted to reach the top with our daughters.

It was one of the most human, surreal, and meaningful chance encounters I’ve ever had in my life.

My mantra throughout the trip with Rori was always: Introduce yourself to strangers in mountain towns, and you’ll always be rewarded. Meeting Steve was the highlight of our entire trip.

I appreciate you, Steve! A toast to the Grand Traverse and new friends.