Today is the last day before the Teton Park Road, Moose-Wilson Road and Signal Mountain Road close for winter and it’s the last day of fishing on Jackson’s beloved Flat Creek.

It’s also the one day a year when Carhartt-clad Jacksonites get to show a little skirt and skin.

Today, locals and visitors should enjoy this access one last time – bike to Moran, drive to Yellowstone through Grand Teton National Park, traipse through the grasses around Flat Creek.

And then scurry home to dress up.

In honor of these quiet and crazy pursuits, I’ve listed the party options and also included an inspiring flyfishing update from Cloudveil pro Jonathan Heard. Read his words, go outside, then go dancing.

Parties tonight are as follows.

* KMTN Halloween Bash at 8 p.m. Snow King Center for $15, * Q Roadhouse Halloween Party at 9:30 p.m. for $20,  * Halloween Ball at the Pi Club for $15.

Other events include a costume bash at Victor’s Knotty Pine, DJ Thunder at 43 North, a DJ at the Virginian Saloon, The Jackson 6 at the Silver Dollar Bar and Steam Powered Airplane at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar.

If you’re going outside before dancing or want to escape the crowds all together, get some inspiration from Jonathan Heard’s update below. Be safe out there, whatever you do!

My name is Jonathan Heard and I am a bona fide fly fishing guide/professional knot untangler for Gore Creek Flyfisherman out of Vail, Colorado. Originally from Nashville, Tenn., I started pestering the trout of the Vail valley from a very young age while on summer vacation with the family. My love of fly fishing quickly blossomed to encompass not only chasing trout, but pursuing beefier species in both warm and salt waters. Now that I am out of college (done gradumacated last year from Furman University in South Carolina) I’ve been able to get out, see the world, and pursue my passion to the fullest extent.

My travels have led me from my back door in Tennessee to Colorado every summer to guide, as well as fishing destinations such as Wyoming, Mexico, the Bahamas, and Florida. It has been a crazy ride to this point, but the best part for me are the folks I have met along the way. In my opinion, experiences are worth so much more when you can share them with someone close or a new friend. Aside from the glory shots of myself, the last pic is of me with Lt. Dan Luckett, a war veteran wounded while serving in Iraq.

For me, getting the opportunity to participate in the Vail Veterans Program was the most fulfilling experience I have had as a fly fishing guide for the sole reason that I was able to give a little back to the men and women that have given so much. I plan to be a part of Project Healing Waters back in the east this fall once I return from my paid vacation out in Vail. Pretty cool stuff.

Aside from that, my plans are to keep on keeping on, hopefully in the short grass as much as I can. If you get a chance, look me up to talk fish, travel, tunes, or even just the weather. I love people, which is why every day on the water is a new and exciting experience!

As our favorite ghastly ghoul of a holiday rapidly approaches, and everyone here in Jackson is scrambling to find that final perfect costume accessory, news is spreading about a new vehicle to show off your creativity and hard work. … YOUR BIKE! Read More »

For a small mountain town, Jackson Hole sure does have a lot of politically active citizens!

TONIGHT’S EVENTS:

*Jay Varley is hosting a party from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary on Jackson Street tonight.

Candidates will meet and greet; party goers will drink free beer and wine and everyone will groove to the band The Rotating Superstructure.

*Pro snowboarder turned restaurateur Julie Zell will host a party at 7 p.m. tonight at her Stone Table restaurant at 850 W. Broadway. DJ Mikey Thunder will drop the beats.

Our radio airwaves ooze political ads (thanks a lot in part to Capt. Bob Morris’ donation), our newspapers feature full page ads from elite athletes and local bloggers can barely post fast enough to keep up with the door-to-door knocking, phone banking and election dance parties springing up in Jackson Hole.

The ads, by athletes such as snowboarders Travis Rice (below) and Rob Kingwill and skier/rodeo queen Crystal Wright (above), are not affiliated with a party or candidate, but simply feature the athletes talking in their own words about the importance of voting.

You may recognize the ad photographs from Heather Erson’s “Revealed” show, that debuted at Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary last winter.

This athlete ad campaign was masterminded by Jim Stanford, whose newly relaunched JH Underground site will be working overtime between now and election night covering the candidates and issues.

Go read, go listen, go ask, go party, go vote!

Here’s another dispatch from a Cloudveil pro. The following was submitted by Lisa Raleigh, who directs communications at the Colorado Rocky Mountain School.

Photo: Wilderness Orientation, August 2008 (10 day new student wilderness experience)

Belief in a sustainable future

As a formally trained environmental scientist, and someone who has spent the past 14 years in the outdoor industry, I returned to the academic world somewhat skeptical about the real-life impact of the environmental movement and the role our youth are playing.

Well what a pleasant surprise.

Here at CRMS, high school students come from all corners of the world to engage in college-prep academics. Witnessing these teenagers participate in an active curriculum makes me want to be 15 years old again and shows me that it’s possible to raise the bar on what we can expect of our youth from a community and philanthropic perspective.

In addition to their academic and sports/outdoor obligations, each student is involved in a two day per week afternoon work crew which includes a significant environmental and sustainability component. From growing organic vegetables to composting all our meal waste (napkins included) to the debut of our new half acre solar array done in conjunction with the Aspen Skiing Company and Xcel Energy, I truly believe our future is bright.

And it is our youth that are leading the way. So I toast the next generation, and am confident they will leave a greener, more sustainable and responsible world in their wake.

Here at Cloudveil, we’ve been receiving check-ins from our professional athletes stationed around the world. The following was sent in by Susie Molnar about her 15 minutes.

(Susie is pictured far left.)

My name is Susie Molnar and I am a full time professional ski patroller at Blue Mountain Ski Area in Palmerton, PA. I am excited to report that our patrollers, myself included, are featured on truTv’s “Ski Patrol,” a new reality show that debuted Oct. 20.

Bunim/Murray Productions, well known for its work on “The Simple Life” and “The Real World” chose Blue Mountain as the ideal place for this show due to the patrollers’ personalities as well as the large volume of people we deal with (370,000 skiers, boarders and tubers flocked to Blue Mountain’s flanks last year!)

Thanks for your support and look forward to a wonderful winter!

truTV has this to say about Blue Mountain:

Climbing to a height of 1,082 feet, Blue Mountain is the highest vertical ski slope in Pennsylvania. Its three terrain parks include a snowcross trail and a 350-foot halfpipe. The slopes feature 33 trails for all abilities spread out over 155 beautiful acres, with the longest run spanning 6,400 feet. The trails, which are lit for evening fun, can be accessed via nine lifts, including the only detachable, high-speed ski-pack lift in the region. Blue Mountain is also home to an immense snow-tubing park. And the park’s extensive snow-making and grooming ensure perfect conditions on every slope.

truTV’s overview of “Rough Start” airing this evening:

The day is off to a rough start when a call comes in of a little girl laying injured and trapped in the rugged backcountry. But her remote location along with a storm rolling in is making it nearly impossible for patrol to pinpoint her. Meanwhile, a group of kids put everyone in jeopardy when they jump off the ski lift, a beginner snowboarder gives up mid run and a skier who’s traded in his snow pants for a toga learns that it’s not always a party on the slopes.

Check out more on truTV.com.

Lauren and Michael and David have it covered re: the sudden defunding of Alpinist magazine. Further, DG puts into context what the Alpinist-centric lifestyle means at this precise national moment. (In short, it’sall about the thinner air and the flushed-out blood veins and the firmament humbled at our feet — not the moolah.)

To me, Alpinist magazine is a stack of glossy bound volumes next to the futon, phat pages of sweet up-high dreams and exquisite laughs, stark word-pictures and beautifully stark picture-pictures created by the canny fearless and the successfully crazy. What a body of work.

Marc Ewing wanted to be a successful publisher. As a consolation, he will be forever an admired patron of the arts, contributing as much to literature as to mountaineering. What sport has produced as fine a pile literature as mountaineering? Well, alpinism — mountaineering’s zen-master subset — has, probably for this reason: you don’t spectate alpinism without being fully committed, either by design or misstep.

Christian Beckwith landed in Jackson Hole the way hungry climbers do. Instead of “looking for work” he arrived with a preternatural good-editor conscience fully formed. The power of a good editor on society is a well kept secret. Good editors lead a community’s philosophical arc. CB put a finer point on the inner life of outdoors junkies, polishing countless tales of competence for its own sake.

Ironically, Alpinist was an antidote to what kilt it: consumer gluttony, hollow dreams bought on easy credit, phony money made purely of pixels on a spreadsheet.

Ironically-er, Alpinist’s demise is an odd omen. When archaeologists sift through the remains of our culture — we shall be known as The People With All The Stuff — that stack of Alpinists will confuse researchers. “The downfall of the Stuff People is curious,” the thesis will read. “Its most competent citizens took pleasure in performing the impossible and the ridiculous, away from crowds and for reasons other than financial. It appears that the less competent were more compelled to demand unrealistic comfort, fealty from the masses, amuse themselves with undue authority, and made up for their lack of mountain time by starting wars.”

Oh well. Tonight, The Gathering Not Unlike The Event Formerly Known As The Alpinist Film Fesitval (formerly known as the Barry Corbet Film Festival) brings the tribe together once more.

The kids will be all right.

Photo: Swift captures former Alpinist interns and employees fawning over Alpinist Rock Dan Long.

Editor’s Note: Talented photographer, writer, filmmaker, columnist, adventurer David J. Swift has a new debate-based blog about movies.

Jake Zamansky plans to win on his own.

With the first races of the season kicking off in Sölden, Austria, this weekend, former U.S. Ski Teamer Jake Zamansky is gearing up to prove his mettle.

Zamansky may be the reigning GS NorAm champ, but he will not be racing as a member of the U.S. Ski Team this season. After being let go for not making USSA criteria, he is more fired up to continue racing and racing well. Unlike Bode Miller, Zamansky doesn’t have the results or star status to easily make it on his own. Raising what he estimates will cost $80,000 – $100,000 to compete only in the GS World Cup events is a daunting task.

“That’s one thing we lose track of when we’re members of the national team is how much it takes and how much outside influence there is and what the team really does provide for us,” he says.

His journey will be slightly easier because as a NorAm champ, he automatically gets to compete in every GS World Cup race this season. I caught up with him while on a hunting mission back home in Carbondale, Colo. (he’s a big bow hunter). He explains why he missed criteria, why he wants to continue racing, and how a recent shoulder injury while riding his dirt bike may affect his return to racing.

Vanessa Pierce: Why was being the GS NorAm champ not enough to make the team again?

Jake Zamansky: I made the Development team when I was 18, but because I’ve been around a little bit longer than Ted Ligety, the U.S. Ski Team figured I should be winning World Cups. … I personally think I have the ability to win World Cups. I have had the speed in training, but so far I don’t have the greatest track record. I’m well aware of that, but I don’t think I’ve shown my true potential yet.

VP: Describe your “track record.”

JZ: Two years ago I had a great year, finishing off the year with the NorAm title—the first time I won the GS title. Then I started off the next season really strong, and was third at the opening NorAm, and at the Beaver Creek World Cup race I had really fast splits but crashed three gates from the finish and would have been well within the top 30. In the next World Cup, I had a season ending knee injury. I missed the entire season and was out of competition for nine months, and when I came back from the ski team I was put on special criteria. Being born in ‘81, I had last year and this year to qualify for the B team by the criteria they set out. I qualified for the B team last season, but because of the special criteria they gave me, it was based on World Cup results only. The first three races of the season were what they gave me to meet that criteria, and not having competed in nine months, it was a little bit of a rebuilding process.

VP: Can you succeed without the team’s support?

JZ: A lot of Europeans do it, and people don’t know about it, but they are successful without 100 percent of their governing body. There are Austrians and Swedes and people from every country like Bode. Starting last year with Bode, and now a lot of guys [who just missed criteria but are still racing] are going to start to show success and start to get World Cup starts, and do some great things.

VP: Are you worried about competing after your shoulder injury?

JZ: My main goal is to compete in the World Cup giant slalom throughout the year. I had a little setback this summer and broke my collarbone while cross training. I ride motocross in the summer for cross training, and I crashed. Skiing and motocross are a lot alike. It’s not a matter of if you’re going to get hurt, it’s when and how bad. I’ve been dodging the bullet for four or five years now with motocross. Same with skiing, I’ve never had a major injury until I hurt my knee. That’s the way it goes.

VP: What’s your biggest challenge?

JZ: I have to do a lot of fundraising. That’s the biggest task I have ahead. Everything else is pretty easy. Just for me to compete in six World Cups [plus World Championships and Finals], it costs somewhere, with an assistant, $80,000 to $100,000. I want to make the World Championship team this season and my long-term goal is to make the Olympics in 2010.

VP: If you do well and make criteria, would you go back to the ski team?

JZ: We have not talked about my future with the team. I still have another year to make the B team so I don’t know what will happen. Would I go back to the ski team if I’m successful on my own, is another question. I think we would have to sit down and put everything on the table and see what works best for everybody. … I thought the ski team and I had a wonderful relationship. There are many wonderful people in that organization, and I don’t hold any grudge toward them at all. They did a lot for me over the last nine years.

VP: Why are you going through all this effort?

JZ: We love to ski race. We love skiing and ski racing. That’s why we all do it in the end. With my competitive nature, I just love being out there and running courses. It’s not a judged sport. I don’t have someone telling me how good I look, it’s about going fast. At the end of the day, time never lies.

VP: Do you feel any pressure to do well now that you’re on your own and the Olympics are coming up?

JZ: No. Not at all. The only pressure that I put on myself is getting out there and doing it and having fun doing it. To go out there and do it on your own, it has to work and has to be fun otherwise you’ll never be successful. It’s a lot of work. To make all the contacts for sponsorships for money, to do everything that has to get done, and do my training at the same time, it’s like two full-time jobs. That’s one thing we lose track of when we’re members of the national team is how much it takes and how much outside influence there is and what the team really does provide for us. I think the team would be a little bit better off if they made us do a little bit more of that stuff and really made us realize what it takes. It’s not easy.

Vanessa Pierce is a Ski Racing correspondent and Salt Lake City freelance journalist. She is co-founder of the non-profit SheJumps. Photos courtesy Pierce/Ski Racing.