From Our Editor: The Lay of the Land

Mountain Living's Editor in Chief Darla Worden shares her thoughts on the first issue of the year.

December 24, 2025

Darla Worden,

Photo: Courtesy of Darla Worden

The land brought us here, calling like a siren song, with steep black-diamond pitches, wide-open valley floors, canyons chiseled through volcanic rock, meandering oxbow streams, turquoise blue glacial lakes and soaring mountain peaks. Homeowners often begin their stories with the land, and in this issue we hear odes to the Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana terrain that drew them—and the architects, designers and builders who help create homes on their land.

Scott and Kathy Happ fell in love with Montana when they were first married and, after two decades of visiting, decided it was time to build their legacy home. They found a secluded 45-acre property on a wooded hillside in Big Sky and enlisted the help of JLF Architects to design a residence on a steep natural slope with so much foliage “you couldn’t see more than 15 feet in any direction,” according to architect John Lauman. The result is what they’d hoped for: a legacy home tucked into its surroundings and bringing them close to nature.

A Florida couple had a special attachment to land in western Wyoming, just south of the Idaho border, where the husband’s great-grandfather homesteaded. They felt a strong attachment to the land and a sense of stewardship to continue that familial heritage. A 70-acre site proved the perfect location for their home, which they wanted to be “timeless in the landscape,” according to the husband, and following their site’s steep slope rather than perching “on top of it like a sundae with a cherry on top.”

Kurt Mitchell, founding partner of With the Grain, designed the home. “It just blends right into the natural topography of the land.” he says. The finished home has the sense of permanence the homeowners were hoping for. When they are in Florida, “My heart and soul are in Wyoming,” says the husband.

As we enter a new year, I encourage you to get out on the land—take a walk in the snow, snowshoe through the woods or tackle those black diamonds. When I create my list of 2026 resolutions, I’m starting with “Ski more!”