“The Mountains are the Place for Me”

Amy Jane David’s Heritage and Resilience

Wyoming Range

Photography contributed by Cooper Morton, Sky Garnick, Kainen Krueger, Tatum Monod, and Teton Gravity Research

For Amy Jane David, the story of her ancestors has profoundly shaped her life, from her core values to her career as a professional skier.

In 1919, her great-grandparents, Milt and Ethel David, homesteaded at the base of the Wyoming Range mountains near Pinedale. Milt had discovered the area while working as a fur trapper. Ethel’s family delivered supplies from Rock Springs with an ox and wagon team, at a time when Pinedale was the furthest town from a train station in the lower 48. Milt and Ethel corresponded via letters until Milt sent money for her to come back. Milt met her at the Rock Springs train station with two saddle horses and a pack horse. They made the trek to Sublette County and their homestead. There, they married, lived off the land, and raised seven children.

In the 1950s, Amy's maternal grandparents moved to Pinedale, where her grandfather "Doc" became the community's first long-standing physician. Together with his wife Jane, they spent every possible moment on horses and skis, serving their community while embracing the mountain lifestyle.

The family lines merged when Amy's parents, Matt David and Liz Johnston, married in 1986. Liz was a horseback instructor, ski instructor, and teacher, while Matt came from a family of cowboys and outfitters. Together, they ran Wyoming Rivers and Trails, taking guests on outdoor adventures. Their two daughters grew up with the mountains as their playground. It was here that Amy developed her values of dreaming big, working hard, and building community. 

“My childhood was a dream. I grew up raising 4-H animals, spending summers in the Wind River Mountains around horses, and spending winters learning to ski at White Pine Ski Area,” Amy said with a smile. 

Amy’s big dreams started when she attended the viewing of a Teton Gravity Research (TGR) film in her town. Seeing skiers tackle massive mountains, she quietly told herself, "That is what I want to do."

While studying psychology and marketing at college in Salt Lake City, Amy pursued her dream of becoming a professional skier. However, she faced significant setbacks when she tore her ACL twice in consecutive years. These injuries taught her valuable lessons about forming an identity beyond skiing and finding different ways to contribute to her community. 

“I learned my happiness couldn’t depend on my skiing success,” shared Amy. “When I was injured, I had to get creative about how to remain optimistic and how I could add value to my community.” 
After getting healthy and building some inroads into the world of video and print media, Amy’s career was starting to gain some momentum. This time, however, tragedy struck when her boyfriend died in a cliff jumping accident. Her grief morphed into a relentless pursuit to live life fully.

“I was skiing in big mountain competitions all over the world, and I just kept going bigger and skiing faster,” said Amy. 

Before long, the line started to blur between confidence and recklessness. In 2016, Amy suffered a devastating crash that left her with a broken pelvis, strained C4 in her neck, broken ribs, bruised lungs, and a concussion. Packaged tightly in a medical toboggan in front of her friends and away from her family, Amy had to face the reality that the risks she was taking had impacts on her loved ones. This experience led to a deeply-rooted understanding that having the right headspace in the mountain requires acknowledging, not ignoring, the consequences.

Amy worked hard to recover from the crash and to put herself in a position where opportunity and luck could strike once again. Little did she know the next chapter would be intertwined with the makers of the first big-time film that she saw. Her persistence and hard work paid off when she earned a feature spot in TGR's film "Magic Hour" (2022). 

“Filming the segment with the film crew in Cooke City was a dream come true,” Amy shared. “Going to the release in Jackson was surreal. My dad came to the first showing, and then I watched the second showing with the other athletes. I just kept thinking back to when I was a kid and I had set this goal. And then being in awe that it had happened.”

However, Amy’s triumph was short-lived. While competing in the 2023 Kings and Queens of Corbet’s at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, she crashed and tore her ACL again. Most people would have hung up their skis after experiencing yet another season-ending injury. But Amy doesn’t come from a lineage of “most people.” 

Less than 18 months later, she was back filming with TGR, this time for a deeply personal project aptly called, "The Way Back" (2024). Amy had actually pitched this idea to a TGR producer many years prior, but it had taken a few years and a wandering road to get to a place where the company was ready to film it. The film beautifully merged her skiing prowess with her family heritage, riding horseback from her grandfather's original homestead into the Wyoming Range mountains to skiing challenging lines.

The film captured intimate moments, like her father cooking dinner at his childhood ranch and the serendipitous return of her Great-aunt Mary's saddle through a chance Facebook Marketplace post. Amy and the two other women featured in the film shared their own personal journeys of overcoming fears, both past and present.

Amy specifically chose the Wyoming Range because it’s where her family homesteaded and made a living. Her Great Grandpa Milt built some of the first trails on the route where they rode horses and skied. Her Grandpa Melvin later owned one of the first outfitter licenses and hunting camps on Horse Mountain as a way to financially supplement their small cattle operation. 

Once the idea had been hatched, Amy and TGR decided spring was the perfect time of year to do the trip. Enough snow had melted at lower elevation to ride horses safely into the foothills and on the southern slopes. And enough snow remained at upper elevation to provide good skiing in the alpine terrain and north facing slopes. 

“Spring was a beautiful time to be in the mountains filming with lots of daylight hours, birds, flowers, and corn skiing,” said Amy.

Amy went on to describe what the film meant to her, “There was depth to it, telling multiple stories woven into one short film. It was all about connecting our passions. There is a timelessness of moving through the mountains on horses, especially compared to the advancements in skiing and snowmobiling. Think about it, the western saddle has stayed nearly the same for 100 years. To be able to blend the history of my family and my own winter recreation pursuits was such a gift.”

Amy's philosophy – "If you're having these dreams, it's because it could be something that's meant for you" – resonates beyond Wyoming's mountains. Her journey demonstrates that success comes from continuing to show up, regardless of setbacks.

For Amy, it was never about fame or recognition in the skiing world. Like the generations before her, it's about a genuine connection to the mountains. 

She reflected, "I'd rather have a cluster of eye wrinkles from squinting into the sun, cracked lips from getting pelted in the face by icy wind on cold, dry mornings, and a mind full of mountains. I'd rather be real, with eyes honestly showing the yin-yang of joy and sorrow from getting thrashed by the realness of pain and filled with genuine happiness and love. The mountains are the place for me."