SkiMag_Timeless

JACKSON HOLE
J
ABOVE: The family trekked to Everest Base Camp during a 20-day trip in September
2017. “The kids asked to go,” says Kit DesLauriers. “They’d heard all about it.”
BELOW: Grace and Tia can tick Japan off their bucket list thanks to a visit last winter.
Ski mountaineer Kit DesLauriers has traveled
the world in pursuit of mountain adventures—as
if being the first person to complete
ski descents from each of the Seven Summits
doesn’t give that away. In 2001 DesLauriers, along
with husband and fellow ski mountaineer Rob,
settled down in Jackson Hole’s mountainside
Teton Village and set forth on a different kind of
adventure: parenthood. Not surprisingly, the two
DesLauriers girls, Grace, 11, and Tia, 10, are total
rippers. They joined their folks in front of the
camera on their home slopes alongside athletes
Forrest Jillson, Cam Fitzpatrick, Caite Zeliff, and
Jess McMillan to film a segment for Timeless,
making the business of appearing in ski movies a
true family affair.
Despite being arguably one of the most successful
and prolific ski mountaineers ever, Kit
DesLauriers says that she’s never pushed her
kids to compete. “I was given the opportunity to
become who I am because of the way my family
raised me,” she explains. “I want them to have the
latitude to decide what their passions are. I’m not
driven to make my kids ski race.” Both girls tried it,
but it didn’t stick. Grace has recently started getting
into the backcountry (with mom’s guidance)
and Tia enjoys Nordic skiing in a local program. “I
would like them to ski race because it provides a
good foundation, but they don’t have the competitive
spirit for racing, at least right now.”
That’s not to say that the girls are not driven.
Grace climbed the Grand Teton last summer at
age 10, and Tia has already bagged the Middle and
South Tetons. And the family has traveled all over
the world, plowing pow in Japan, carving turns in
the Dolomites, and trekking to Everest Base Camp
when the girls were only 6 and 8. “It’s so important
to us that our kids understand our mountain tie,”
DesLauriers says. “This culture of a welcoming
tribe of people has been so impactful in our lives,
and we want them to know this kind of hospitality.”
At the end of the day, the kids know that they
need not venture too far from their front stoop
to find all the adventure a girl can dream of—
adventure that can sometimes result in playing
hooky from school. “The day Grace decided to ski
Corbet’s, she was heading out to school and she
looked at the clearing sky and said, ‘It’s been snowing
for three days, I bet it’s a good day to do it,’”
says DesLauriers. That was winter of 2017-18. This
past winter she got her first touring setup and can
now skin up Teton Pass with mom and dad. Not
too shabby.
Yet none of that holds a candle to Grace and
Tia’s favorite thing to do at Jackson Hole. “Getting
a waffle at the top of the Tram,” DesLauriers
laughs. “That’s in the film, of course.”
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE DESLAURIERS FAMILY
56 SKI MAGAZINE SPECIAL ISSUE
TIMELESS WARRENMILLER.COM