Ron Matous

Died Dec. 18, 2024. He was 72. 

Ronald August Matous was born on Oct. 25, 1952, in New York City.

Ron grew up “rock climbing” on boulders in Central Park with a clothesline and younger brother Steve in tow, skiing on wooden skis in the Catskills and roaming the woods of New Jersey that were next to the camp his parents ran for Sokol, a Czech organization devoted to physical fitness. As a 14-year-old, he and a friend headed north to the Adirondacks for a two-week backpacking trip, carrying 50-pound packs — primarily canned chili and Mandarin oranges.

Ron attended the University of Connecticut, at age 16,where he got a degree in philosophy; however, climbing was his true focus. He said he was drawn to climbing because of the elimination of the dichotomy between mind and body .

He learned to climb at Ragged Mountain, the Shawangunks, with alpine ascents in Maine and New Hampshire. Summers he headed west, with three friends, visiting the Tetons and staying at the recently opened Climbers Ranch. 

Picked up hitchhiking by Glenn Exum, he had the temerity to ask how he could become an Exum guide, to which Glen answered, “Sonny, I hire only the finest mountaineers in the world.”

After graduating, Ron headed to Boulder, Colorado for graduate school but quit so he could climb. He eventually started working for the Colorado Outward Bound School as an instructor, allowing time to climb in Colorado, Yosemite and the Canadian Rockies. In the summer of 1976, he went to Europe to climb classic routes in the Alps and Dolomites, culminating with the first all-American ascent of the North Face of the Eiger.

In 1977, Ron got a job as a climbing ranger with the Jenny Lake rangers and spent his first full summer in the Tetons. He spent every summer in the Tetons until moving full time to Jackson Hole in the early 1980s. His climbing passion took him to Alaska, Peru, Pakistan and Nepal. 

Ten years after asking Glenn Exum what it took to be a mountain guide, he started guiding for Exum. He continued to guide for the next 25 years, both with Exum in the Tetons and eventually internationally, leading clients to Aconcagua, numerous peaks in Nepal and Mount Cook in New Zealand.

Ron continued to direct winter courses for the Colorado Outward Bound School. Wanting to stay in the Tetons full time, he started to work ski patrol, initially for the Jackson Hole Ski Patrol in Teton Village, then taught avalanche courses for the American Avalanche Institute and eventually worked as a Snow King ski patroller.

Ron was also a talented writer, chess champion, hang glider and spent long solo camping trips, winter and summer, in Yellowstone, the Teton Wilderness and the untraveled parts of the Tetons.

In 1977 he met his life partner, Ruth Valsing, who participated in some of his adventures and made a home with him in Kelly. In 1988 their daughter, Anna, was born. One of Ron’s last guiding trips was taking his daughter and future son-in-law up the Grand as teenagers. 

Ron is survived by wife Ruth Valsing, daughter Anna Valsing and husband Charlie Joy, grandchildren Max and Maddy Joy, and brother Steve Matous.