Three generations on the same hill
Ruth and Bill Dalby cut the first timbers with a borrowed sawmill in 1968. Their granddaughter Kate runs the lodge now, and the sawmill is still in the barn.
A lodge that was never sold
Most of the valley's lodges have changed hands three or four times. This one has not changed hands at all, which shows in ways that are hard to fake.
The Dalbys were not hoteliers. Bill ran a small logging outfit in Victor and Ruth taught at the school in Wilson, and the first eight rooms were built to catch the overflow from a valley that had started to fill up with skiers. They were not trying to build a resort, and nobody since has tried to turn it into one.
What that means in practice: 46 keys instead of 300, a kitchen that grows most of its own vegetables, a housekeeping team who have been here long enough to remember your children, and a firepit lit at the same time every night because that is simply what happens here.
It also means the things we are not. There is no nightclub, no conference centre, no gift shop selling branded fleeces. If you want those, Teton Village is fourteen minutes away and does them very well.
Pinecrest Mountain Lodge in numbers
- 46Keys, cabins includedNever more than 96 guests on the property
- 4.9Average guest ratingFrom 1,284 verified stays
- 58Years on this hillOpened by the Dalby family in 1968
- 14 minTo the Teton Village tramFree shuttle, 7 am to 6 pm
Fifty-eight years, six moments
The history that still shows up in your stay.
- 1968
Eight rooms and a borrowed sawmill
Ruth and Bill Dalby bought 230 acres of elk winter range for 14,000 dollars, milled the lodgepole themselves and opened with eight rooms, one bathroom per floor and a stove in the hall.
- 1971
The fire in the courtyard
Bill dug the firepit after a guest asked where everyone went after dinner. It has been lit at seven every night since, including the winter the pass closed for nine days.
- 1994
The hot springs well
A well drilled for irrigation came up at 118 degrees. Two pools and a cold plunge were built the following summer, and they still heat the cabins through the winter.
- 2009
219 acres, protected
Rather than sell the meadow to a developer at the top of the market, the family put it under a conservation easement with the Jackson Hole Land Trust.
- 2019
The Aspen cabins
Four two-bedroom cabins in the upper grove, timber framed in the same joinery as the original lodge by a crew from Victor, Idaho.
- 2026
Third generation
Kate Dalby runs the lodge, Nora Whitcomb runs the kitchen and the garden, and 41 people work here, two thirds of them for more than five years.
What we care about, in four numbers
- 1968
A family lodge, still
Ruth and Bill Dalby built the first eight rooms with a borrowed sawmill. Their granddaughter Kate runs the place now, and the same sawmill is still in the barn.
- 41
People who stay
Forty-one staff, two thirds of them here more than five years. Our head of housekeeping, Alma Reyes, has made these beds since 2004.
- 230
Acres, mostly left alone
We own 230 acres and have built on eleven of them. The rest is elk winter range, willow flats and a conservation easement we signed in 2009.
- 100%
Powered by the valley
Roof solar on the barn and Lower Valley Energy's wind programme cover our electricity. The hot springs heat the cabins in winter.
The people you will actually meet
Forty-one staff. These six are the ones guests ask for by name.
Kate Dalby
Owner and general manager
Third generation. Grew up in the room that is now the map room, left for hotel school in Lausanne, came back in 2014.
Nora Whitcomb
Head chef
Cooked in Bozeman and Portland before deciding she would rather grow the vegetables she cooks. Runs the kitchen garden herself.
Marcus Wheeler
Head ski host
Nineteen winters in the valley, four as ski patrol at Snow King. Knows which run opens first after a storm.
Alma Reyes
Head of housekeeping
Here since 2004. Trains every new housekeeper personally and has strong and correct opinions about linen.
Dr. Priya Raman
Resident naturalist
Wildlife biologist, in the valley since 2011. Leads the dawn drives and writes the field notes in your room.
Hal Brennan
Front desk, evenings
Lights the fire at seven, plays guitar badly on Fridays, and has answered every question this valley can produce.
Licences, awards and promises
- Condé Nast Readers' ChoiceTop 20 US resorts, 2025 (sample)
- Wyoming Green LodgingCertified since 2016
- Conservation easement219 acres protected, 2009
- Licensed and insuredLodging licence #LT-4471 (sample)
Come and see whether we are telling the truth
Two nights is enough to know. Book direct and the front desk will put you in the room that suits you, not the one that suits us.
4.9 from 1,284 stays, and 61 percent of guests come back.