In 1943, Olympic skier Betty Woolsey began building a Wyoming ranch near Jackson Hole; its 270 acres were later protected from development through a conservation easement

Long before Jackson Hole became a destination for skiers and visitors drawn to the American West, Betty Woolsey was looking for somewhere quieter. An accomplished skier and mountaineer, she had competed internationally, climbed in the European Alps and travelled through remote mountain countries. Yet the place she chose to settle was a stretch of Wyoming land near Wilson, where she could ski uncrowded slopes, ride into the wilderness and build a working ranch. Woolsey began acquiring land for Trail Creek Ranch in the early 1940s, eventually making it her permanent home. By the time she died in 1997, aged 88, the property had become more than a ranch. About 270 acres were protected under a conservation easement.Betty Woolsey’s early life and mountaineering adventures in Europe and North AmericaWoolsey was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on 28 December 1908. Her father worked for the US Forest Service, and her early childhood included life in a log house overlooking the Sandia Mountains. The landscape left a lasting impression. After the family moved to New Haven, Connecticut, with five daughters, Woolsey went on to graduate from Vassar College.Her interest in mountains took her across the Atlantic. In the early 1930s, she travelled to Chamonix, France, where she climbed the Grépon, a granite peak that introduced her to the exposed routes of serious Alpine climbing. In Switzerland, she climbed Monte Rosa with the guide Bernhardt Biner, reaching a summit from which the Matterhorn and surrounding peaks were visible.She later explored North American mountain ranges with members of the American Alpine Club, an organisation she would belong to for 62 years. Her climbs included the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming and the Canadian Rockies around Banff. She also joined an expedition to Mount Waddington in British Columbia, then regarded as Canada's highest unclimbed peak.A ski racer who competed at the 1936 OlympicsWoolsey's mountain experience extended beyond climbing. She learnt to ski in Europe and developed into a competitive downhill racer, eventually representing the United States at the 1936 Winter Olympics. Her fellow team members selected her as captain, and she was the leading American skier in the Olympic downhill event.The Games took place as the “Nazi Olympics”. The racing continued after the event, alongside her friend Marian “Sis” McKean, as the two competed against experienced European skiers.Woolsey's strongest domestic result came three years later. In 1939, she won the US National Downhill Championship at Mount Hood, Oregon. By then, Sun Valley in Idaho had become a centre of American ski culture, attracting racers from Europe as well as well-known figures from Hollywood. Woolsey spent time there, but the resort lifestyle eventually lost its appeal.Finding a permanent home near Jackson HoleWoolsey travelled to the Jackson Hole area with friends and was drawn to the terrain around Teton Pass. In 1943, she began acquiring the Wyoming land that would become Trail Creek Ranch. The property had an old log house, deteriorating outbuildings and no running water or electricity. It was a far cry from a developed ski resort, but the setting suited the life she wanted.Friends helped her make the buildings usable. Woolsey also continued working as a writer, spending winters in New York City as editor of Ski Illustrated, described in her biographical account as America's first magazine devoted to skiing. After three years, she left the position and moved to the ranch permanently.She improved the house, added a barn and acquired more meadowland. What had begun as a modest rural property developed into a guest ranch, with visitors paying to stay and often lending a hand with daily chores. Woolsey's approach combined hospitality with an active outdoor life, rather than treating the ranch simply as accommodation for tourists.A ranch built around horses, skiing and mountain travelTrail Creek Ranch gave Woolsey a base for the activities that had shaped her life. In summer, she led pack trips into the surrounding wilderness, using maps to guide the routes and sometimes relying on trout caught along the way for meals. Local rancher and hunting guide Gibb Scott helped her learn more about horseback travel in the mountains and the practical demands of running a ranch.Protecting the land beyond her lifetimeWoolsey had watched the mountain West change during her own lifetime. In her autobiography, Off the Beaten Track, she reflected on the shrinking availability of uncrowded wilderness and untracked snow, as ski racing became an increasingly commercial enterprise. The changes were personal as well as environmental: the places that had attracted her to Wyoming were becoming harder to find.The conservation easement associated with Trail Creek Ranch helped protect the property's 270 acres from development after decades of use as a working ranch. Rather than leaving the land exposed to the changes Woolsey had observed, the arrangement placed lasting limits on how it could be developed.Woolsey died at Trail Creek Ranch on 11 January 1997, aged 88. The account of her life published by the American Alpine Club recalled her final view of the meadow, horses feeding on snow as evening shadows moved across the property. A memorial service was held at the ranch that June.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.