Four Seasons Resort Jackson Hole

The red cabins of the aerial tram rise out of Teton Village and climb 4,139 vertical feet to the summit of Rendezvous Mountain. Four Seasons Resort Jackson Hole sits at the bottom of the slope beside them, a ski-in, ski-out lodge that opened in 2003 at the base of one of the steepest ski mountains in North America, a few miles south of Grand Teton National Park.

History

Jackson Hole Mountain Resort opened in 1965, and its first aerial tram began running the following year. Teton Village grew up around the base over the decades that followed as a cluster of lodges, condominiums and restaurants. Four Seasons opened its resort in 2003, bringing a large full-service hotel to the village, with private residences built alongside. The original tram was retired in 2006, and its replacement, with larger cabins, opened in December 2008 and has carried skiers and summer visitors to the top ever since.

Architecture and design

The building takes the form of a large mountain lodge in stone and heavy timber, with gabled roofs and wings that wrap around the slope. Inside, the lobby is built around a stone fireplace and windows onto the runs, and Western art and furniture fill the public rooms. The design is solid and warm rather than showy, suited to a place where guests come in from the snow in ski boots.

Rooms and suites

Rooms face either the mountain or the valley, and many have fireplaces and balconies. Suites and the residences add kitchens and living rooms for families, and the largest have several bedrooms.

Dining

Westbank Grill, the main restaurant, serves steaks, game and Rocky Mountain trout with a view of the slopes. The Handle Bar, run with the chef Michael Mina, is a pub with an outdoor terrace at the bottom of the runs that fills at the end of the ski day, with beers and burgers and a fire to stand around.

Wellness

The spa has treatment rooms, a fitness centre and steam rooms, and the heated outdoor pool and hot tubs are used through the year, in snow as in summer sun. The ski concierge stores, warms and hands out equipment at the slope each morning, which in a place this cold is not a small service.

Weddings and events

The resort hosts weddings on lawns and terraces facing the mountain in summer and in its ballroom and function rooms through the year. Meetings and corporate groups use the same rooms, and summer adds outdoor dinners and gatherings with the mountain behind.

Location

Teton Village lies at the southern end of the Teton Range, about 12 miles north-west of the town of Jackson. Grand Teton National Park begins just north of the village, reached along the Moose-Wilson Road, and Yellowstone lies beyond it to the north. Jackson Hole Airport, the only commercial airport inside a national park in the United States, is about half an hour away. From the top of the tram, expert skiers reach Corbet's Couloir, the narrow chute below the summit that is entered by dropping off a cornice, one of the most famous runs in American skiing. In summer the tram carries walkers and tandem paragliders to the summit, and the valley's rivers and trails take over from the snow. For a luxury hotel in Teton Village, being steps from the tram dock is the point, and the mountain shapes every day of a stay.