Where are you from? I’m from a small town in the country with rolling hills and between the coast and the mountains. I just grew up riding my bike and working on the farms…

How do you end up here in Jackson? I actually moved west to pursue forest fire fighting and that was in the summer of ‘93. It rained all summer, so I didn’t have much success in that. I was living in Boise, Idaho at the time, just kind of trying to figure out college and what my next pursuits would be. I met a guy from Rexburg around that time and he invited me to go climb the Grand (Teton). So, my first trip to Jackson was on that July 4th weekend to climb the Grand. Well…it snowed two feet on that 4th of July, 1992. So, that was my look at Jackson Hole and I started planning how I would come back to finally climb the Grand. We had like 20 bucks to our name and I ended up moving to Jackson at the ripe age of 19 and just got kind of stuck here, as they say.

Did you end up getting to climb the Grand? Oh yeah, and all the Cathedral Group.  

How long have you been a part of the department? I started in the spring of 2005 with my red card. I just wanted to be a yellow hat, nozzle firefighter at that point, but I just kept taking the next course available and I found a lot of advancement opportunity there. 

So, you talked a little bit about moving west and pursuing wildland firefighting, is that the basis of why you joined this department? What was the inspiration there? Honestly the inspiration was a little bit of throwing my life away…I was a problematic drinker and was having a little bit of trouble with the law enforcement community and just society in general and I was looking for an outlet that didn’t revolve around drinking. Even mountain climbing was becoming heavily affected by my drinking. I was just looking for a sport that didn’t revolve around partying. And, honestly, it’s just a really great way to be of service and to give back to the community and to feel needed and valuable. It was a healthy new outlet for me.

Did you have any medical background before joining? No, not really. I had a lot of basic first aid certifications but I had never really applied them in the medical field at all. 

What are your future goals in the department? Ummmm…..survival? No, I’m kidding. The future goal has been kind of the same goal for a while: to stay relevant in the operations. It’s a lot to keep the skills up when you don’t have a lot of access to a lot of calls. It’s daunting. Also trying to keep up on swiftwater and some of the more technical stuff with hazmat and ropes is always a challenge. So I’d say just staying relevant and trying my best to be a part of what’s coming.

How do you balance having this job with family? I’m pretty fortunate that my wife’s very independent and she just loves everyone. So, she’s tolerated lots and lots over the years: the volunteer years, having my own business and contracting, lieutenant or captain at Station 7… I was definitely gone a lot, and she was very tolerant of that.

Do you have a side gig at the moment or any passion projects?  I work with Stage Stop dog sled race and have for 26 years now. It’s morphed into the largest dog sled race in the lower 48. The world’s fastest dog teams compete: they’re not distance mushers like everybody’s heard of.. That’s a slog compared to this sport. So I start and finish every day in a different town. I set all the race courses and coordinate snowcats and put in the turnaround loops and mark the trails, making sure everyone goes the right way and making sure they all come back. 

What do you do in your free time? Do you even have any free time? I do a lot of fishing. I spend a lot of time fly fishing the rivers. I hunt as well, although climate awareness and all is making me notice that the seasons are getting messed with…so I just fish more until about November.

What would you say is your favorite part of this job? I think just being that solution that people need: to show up and have the answers and the ability to make the touch decision is really satisfying. Being in harms way sometimes is exhilarating and some people just need that marriage between danger and mitigation…it’s awesome to be able to see relief in people’s faces and know that help is there or on the way. I really enjoy being in that moment, helping others.

What would you say is the most challenging part? Well, it’s a double edged sword. You never know what you’re gonna get. Sometimes I feel like we work so hard to make progress, and then we’re finally getting somewhere, and it’s sort of undermined by the amount of distraction that we’re put under. But I guess that’s what makes it fun.

What advice would you give new recruits? It’s such an amazing job and it’s hard to know where it’s going to lead you personally. Something that was told to me when I took this job was to appreciate and work on your ability to accept change. Begin chasing your success. I’ve fallen in love with the job for what it is but you definitely have to have a grip on what it means to you in the grander picture so that you can let it become what it needs to become for you to stay the course, because it does change so drastically so often.

Is there anything that you wish you had known when you started or anything that you’d tell your past self now? I guess I would say the same advice that I would give a rookie firefighter: allow for growth, in yourself and in your career, and be adaptable to change. 

What do you think is the most valuable skill or trait for someone to have in this line of work? For someone to be able to be cool under fire, and to stay focused. To be able to have situational awareness but not be paralyzed by everything going on around you or get tunnel vision.

What do you feel you contribute to the department? I am humble and I am a workaholic. I’m also approachable, and I’ll get things done.