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This story has been updated to correct that the celebration of life for Jay Pistono is happening Friday Oct. 10, not Saturday, 4:30 p.m. at Owen Bircher park in Wilson.
Long before Jay Pistono founded the Teton Pass ambassadorship program, he hitchhiked to Jackson with $10 or $11 in his pocket. That was in 1981, after hearing Paul Petzoldt, a founder of NOLS and Exum Mountain Guides, speak at his college in Illinois.
Pistono was hooked right away, working several jobs from youth services at Red Top Meadows, to carpentry and eventually mountain and flyfish guiding.
“And like so many other people, as soon as you first enter the valley, you just fall in love,” his son David Pistono said.
But the job Pistono became known for was the one he invented himself.
The backcountry skiing trailblazer died Sept. 17 at 67 after being diagnosed with a rare disease, AL amyloidosis.
Pistono knew that winter recreation on Teton Pass wasn’t just a privilege, but a partnership. One that hinges on public etiquette as well as the go-ahead from the Bridger-Teton National Forest and Wyoming Department of Transportation.
Along Highway 22 west of Jackson, Teton Pass rises to an elevation of 8,432 feet and reaches some of the steepest grades of any highway in the continental U.S. Mount Glory, a backcountry launch-point popular with skiers and riders, towers nearly 2,000 feet over the pass summit.
“[Pistono] basically saved skiing on Teton Pass,” Teton Pass ski guidebook author Tom Turiano said. “Without Jay, we might not be skiing up there anymore. [WYDOT] would have closed that parking off [and] you would have had to climb from the bottom.”
But even as the area’s popularity began to take off in the mid-1990s, that hasn’t been the case.
If a skier-triggered slide were to close the road, or worse, it could mean the end for everyone. Pistono decided to do something about it, first under the role as the first unofficial pass ambassador.
“At first he was just like, ‘Well, somebody’s gotta do it,’” David recalled. “‘It might as well be me.’”
When fights broke out over coveted pass parking spots, or less experienced skiers considered a risky lap sans avalanche beacon and probes, Pistono was there to suggest otherwise. For years, he kept powder fever tensions at bay and encouraged smart skiing, all without pay.
“He took it upon himself…to be the voice of reason,” David said. “He has such a good personality for it. He approached people in a very disarming way.”
Jay Pistono with what Teton Pass shuttle driver Rick Gordon called his “reliably consistent smiling face at the top of the pass.” (Jonathan Selkowitz / Selko Photo)
After seeing the value of his warm but watchdog-like presence, Linda Merigliano, a longtime friend from his ski days at Grand Targhee in the 1980s, found a way to bring Pistono on officially.
In 2006, Pistono’s volunteer work became paid, with the support of Friends of Pathways. Within the decade, Merigliano, who recently retired as the Bridger-Teton’s recreation wilderness program manager, brought him on as a seasonal snow ranger.
“Jay was so well-known that people were calling him about [what] was going on, on the pass, way before they called me,” Merigliano said.
With a knack for cultivating relationships, Merigliano said Pistono was attuned to the concerns of the WYDOT pass drivers, highway patrol drivers and avalanche experts, becoming a liaising force between all involved with keeping the pass drivable and skiable.
“Jay’s superpower, at least with respect to him being the ‘Mayor of Teton Pass,’ was he worked with… all of those groups together,” said Scott Kosiba, executive director of Friends of the Bridger-Teton. “Even in an informal way, it was just unmatched, truly.”
Rick Gordon has known Pistono for the last two decades, via the pass ambassador program and his role as the winter shuttle driver.
“While many of us in Jackson search for lives of meaning and purpose through ‘big’ accomplishments, Jay was a model of living a life of meaning through thousands of small gestures that individually and collectively made an immeasurable difference in the lives of others and for the community,” Gordon said in an email.
In 2020, the Teton Backcountry Alliance launched the official pass ambassadorship program with Pistono at the helm, ushering in a wave of backcountry stewards adorned in bright coats who now follow his lead.
“I don’t think he ever had any idea that, now when you go up there, there’s three or four volunteers that are helping patrol the parking lot and helping educate people,” David said.
One of the first ambassadors, Daniel Nagy trained under Pistono, but had already known him from a shiftbreak Glory lap years earlier.
“[A] friendly face,” Nagy recalled. “He saw me show up with out-of-town plates and wanted to make sure that I knew what it’s getting myself into.”
Pistono also played a vital role in being one of the first to respond to emergencies when trouble arose.
“He had gotten to literally save people’s lives and be part of some really impactful events,” Nagy said. “He just understood that we all have different places and paths in the world that we can be impactful. The pass and the greater Tetons was where he felt that he was able to do that.”
Nowadays, ambassadorship programs similar to the one Pistono pioneered on the pass are becoming more commonplace. Teton Backcountry Alliance board chair Gary Kofinas, who met Pistono through the Tetons’ tight-knit skier-climber community, said there will be 20 ambassadors educating skiers and supervising the pass this winter, around double from the first winter.
“We are heartbroken that he left us and left us way too early,” Kofinas said. “Our job now is to keep the torch lit and continue with his work.”
Pistono was slated to retire this winter, though his mind was already on the upcoming ski season and figuring out how to best pass the torch, Merigliano added.
“Every time I drive over Teton pass, I think of Jay,” she said. “He will always be part of Teton Pass.”
His retirement party slated for 4:30 p.m. Friday Oct. 10 at Owen Bircher Park in Wilson is now a celebration of life.
