Jackson Hole Wants You to Ski in Jeans

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Don your best Canadian tuxedo: on December 9, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort aims to claim the world record for the most skiers and riders in jeans, and to encourage participation, they’re offering cheap lift tickets for the day.

The resort took inspiration from The Remarkables Ski Area in New Zealand, which set the first world record on October 8, 2023 by having 102 shredders on the slopes for a “Denim Dash,” complete with DJs and free mullet haircuts sponsored by Pit Viper, for all who dared. “We got in contact with The Remarkables and asked if they’d be interested in going back and forth on this thing, to see if we can make it a multi-year tradition,” says Andrew Way, vice president of marketing for Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (JHMR).

JHMR hopes to elevate the experience by offering riders $25 lift tickets and $25 rentals (including boots, skis, and poles, or boots and a snowboard) on December 9. Group lessons will also be discounted by $100. The tickets can be purchased online in advance, but the resort hopes that everyone taking advantage of the discount will show up to ride in their best denim duds.

Though this promotion certainly isn’t going to fix the issue of soaring lift ticket prices across the country, we’ll take it. It’s a rare bright spot after several years riddled with headlines about $300 lift tickets and the general inaccessibility of skiing for most Americans.

“We just want to have a great time, get everybody out, and have a whole bunch of fun. That might sound trite, but it’s not, it’s really what we’re after,” says Way. “We think it fits the Jackson Hole brand really well, [because] we have a pretty significant Western heritage that we lean into up here.”

Jackson Hole is also the place where the famously wealthy head to play, with celebrities like Harrison Ford, Kim Kardashian, and Sandra Bullock owning property in the area. But JHMR’s Ski in Jeans Day is at least a brief antidote to elite, billionaire-cowboy mountain town culture and harkens back to other early-season stunts the resort has pulled in past years, like a ski free day in 2013 (in celebration of being voted #1 in a Ski poll) and a $6 lift ticket day in 2015 in in honor of its 50th anniversary.

According to Way, the ski area hopes to make this denim-centric downhill a friendly rivalry between Jackson Hole and The Remarkables, with each spot vying to up the ante and break the record year after year, much like how Park City and Breckenridge consistently try to one-up each other by claiming the World’s Longest Shot Ski record each fall.

Snowfall has been meager in Jackson Hole this fall, and only 35 percent of trails are open at the resort. Tickets for December 9th are currently sold out, but Way says that the resort will release more as soon as snow falls and more terrain becomes accessible, so it’s worth checking the reservations website as the date nears. At the moment, The Weather Channel is reporting a multi-day storm leading up to the event. Jackson Hole is also offering a steep discount ($100 compared to the regular price of $183) for the Friday and Sunday bordering Ski in Jeans Day, neither of which is sold out yet. Already have your ticket to join the cowboy-clad cruisers? The official record count happens at 12 P.M. at the base of the Sweetwater Gondola.

“Best case scenario, we’ll get a nice, week-long winter storm leading up to it, so we can open more terrain,” says Way.

Once the lifts close at 4 P.M. on December 9th, riders can head over to RPK3, their newest slopeside restaurant to enjoy free live music by Grateful Dead cover band, Denim & the Dead, and the world premiere of the Jackson Hole Lager, a collaboration between JHMR and Pure Madness Brewery Group. The Black Tie, Blue Jeans Ski Ball, benefiting the Jackson Hole Ski & Snowboard Club’s student athletes, goes from 5:30 to 10:30 P.M. at the Rendezvous Lodge.