Contributors: December 2000

If it weren’t for managing editor Natalie Kurylko, you wouldn’t be reading this issue of SKI. Besides editing Savvy Traveler, Ski Towns, several features (including Best Ski Hotels in this issue) and our instruction pieces, Natalie keeps the entire SKI staff on track with photo, editorial and printer deadlines. And that’s never an easy task. Nat was born in Europe, took her first turns at St. Moritz, Switz., at age 3, and then went off to college at Middlebury, Vt., one of a handful of U.S. schools that has its own ski area. After spending time as an editor at Travel & Leisure in New York, she chucked the big city life and moved to Steamboat, Colo., where she served as a ski instructor, coatcheck girl, art gallery salesperson and rodeo employee. She also befriended both the newcomers who make up the ski scene and the longtime locals, ranchers and the like, who provide so much of the fabric of the Steamboat lifestyle. Natalie, who joined SKI in April 1997, shares her insight on Steamboat in this issue with “An American Original.”

Zach Wolfe, 22, is the first intern to be featured in this space. He earned the recognition with an unflagging commitment to getting the job done, whether it was office grunt work or actual photography. An example? When the art department was lacking a quality photo of a Taos, N.M., yurt that was to be featured in the November issue, Zach jumped into his car, drove 340 miles, shot the photos and then drove back home. Zach grew up in Mt. Vernon, Iowa, and learned to ski at Sundown. He attended the Colorado Institute of Art in Denver, where he fell in love with the mountains. After a short stint in Los Angeles, where he worked behind the scenes at Smashbox, a fashion studio, Zach returned to Denver. He is currently freelancing and looking for his next breakthrough. “I want to photograph people,” says Zach, “and tell stories.” For this issue, Zach again had no problem starting out on the ground floor. He shot the photo that accompanies our Healthy Skier department.