Growing up in Charleston and attending Sacred Heart, Charleston Catholic and George Washington High schools, John Bukac kept detecting rising murmurs of the call of the wild.
He responded to the call relatively tamely at first, skiing in the winters and mountain biking in the summers at Snowshoe Resort with his family and friends. But the call of the outdoors -- particularly in Colorado's Rocky Mountains -- persisted within him.
"I almost skipped out on college, to just go skiing out there," Bukac said. "But I was persuaded by my mother and other women at the time that was a silly idea. I did the WVU thing, but upon graduation, I was persuaded again by my mom's sister, who lives in New York City, that I'd be playing catch-up my entire life if I would move out to Colorado."
Swayed grudgingly by her admonitions, he moved in with his aunt in Greenwich Village rather than heading westward. "After living there for six or eight months," he recounted, "I was looking at myself and thinking, 'This isn't for you.'"
From then on, things just seemed to work out, he said. "When I came to that realization, a handful of other people were still in the same boat.
"I found a house in Colorado in 2010, moved with my friends and haven't looked back. It was kind of serendipitous and a stepping stone to what's happened since."
He and six friends from West Virginia shared a seven-bedroom house. "I had a small chunk of home in the mountains here."
In 2011, he helped open a sushi restaurant in Vail. "I worked there for about five years while also skiing, snowboarding and mountain biking.
"Moving to Aspen later was one of the best things I ever did," Bukac, 33, said, "not just because of the quality of skiing, but the innate group nucleus that lives in this town and connections you make."
A fateful detour in Denver
Bukac said the encounter he shared in his blog (see related article) seemed preternatural in how it unfolded in 2019.
"It was summer, my dad called me and he was just a mess. His partner of about 15 years -- my folks split when I was in high school -- passed away of a freak heart attack. He asked if I could come home, and I took the next couple of days to line up time to go.
"A client at my restaurant had this trip planned to South America I had told him about; I had spent some time skiing there the previous summer. He told me he had the heli-skiing trip planned to start in Santiago by that Friday.
"It just so happened that the guide was Chris Davenport, a legendary ski figure in the world who lives in Aspen. With all of those factors, it was pretty hard to say no, but given what was going on at home, I knew family comes first.
"I called my dad, who told me, 'I could not ever tell you not to do something like that.' He's been a free spirit all his life. He totally understood," Bukac said.
Then things started to seemingly go Murphy's Law haywire. Instead of flying from Aspen as he usually did, he went to Denver instead -- where his "chance" encounter occurred.
"It seemed like the world wouldn't show up," he said. "It's like it wanted me to connect with this gentleman in the airport. He was in front of me and tried to start small talk, but I was already in a bad mood."
Worsening that mood was an announced delay to his flight to Houston due to an electrical storm there. "I was supposed to be in Santiago by 9 a.m. that Friday. They were going to fly us by helicopter to the lodge, a 100-story building. I wanted to experience that.
"The gentleman told me his son was supposed to go there this week but had died. When somebody says something like that, it definitely stops you. We started talking about his son. He was a really a nice guy and torn up about his son, Henry, who had died while cliff jumping. ... He'd had those coins pressed in memory of Henry; whenever he'd go by a fountain or any body of water, he'd toss a coin and make a wish. He said, 'I'm going to give you one of these coins and you have to dump it in a special spot for me in the Andes Mountains.'
"We didn't find the spot until the last day," he added. "Chris Davenport said he felt the spot where we should dump the coin. Henry's dad was really, really blown away by the video we sent him of it."
He said he and Henry's father have remained in contact since their 2019 encounter.
A shifting career slope
Several months ago, Bukac receive a job offer to pursue his dreams as a ski guide and owner/operator of a helicopter adventure travel company. The pandemic and other circumstances upended the career move.
"As the winter continued, COVID-19 really put kind of a hex on expanding the heli-ski business, just as COVID has done with everything else," he said. He has continued working in the restaurant industry as director of operations for Nakazawa Aspen in Colorado, but he is also in the process of helping Nakazawa open other sushi restaurants, currently involved with one in Miami, Florida.
Over the years and in the meantime, his outdoor adventures have encompassed a global scale. "I've been very fortunate. I've been all over the planet -- Japan, France, Italy, Canada, all over the United States. In the summertime, I love to ride dirt and mountain bikes. I like kite surfing. I recently took a trip to Egypt and the Red Sea and went surfing at the mouth of the Suez Canal. It's a pretty wild sport. It's just as much a rush having a board and a kite in my hand in warm places, but skiing will always be numero uno," Bukac said.
'Just following the ridge'
"It's funny how it all works out in the world," he added. "I've worked with my company for 10 years, and I look back on all the people I've met and the connections I've made. As a kid in West Virginia, I watched ski films and dreamed of going to these places. I never imagined I would have had the experiences I've had and that I'd have touched and seen all the things I have.
"A big part of it is just following the ridge. Skiing has always been the bottom line for me, the impetus for decision making and where I direct my energy. I've always had this awesome balance of putting on my ski boots every day because I want to and not because I have to.
"For the time being, the cards will show themselves when the time is right. It seems like the cards are saying right now to continue this crazy, pop-up sushi restaurant thing, but who knows in 10 years from now?" Bukac said.
He responded to the call relatively tamely at first, skiing in the winters and mountain biking in the summers at Snowshoe Resort with his family and friends. But the call of the outdoors -- particularly in Colorado's Rocky Mountains -- persisted within him.
"I almost skipped out on college, to just go skiing out there," Bukac said. "But I was persuaded by my mother and other women at the time that was a silly idea. I did the WVU thing, but upon graduation, I was persuaded again by my mom's sister, who lives in New York City, that I'd be playing catch-up my entire life if I would move out to Colorado."
Swayed grudgingly by her admonitions, he moved in with his aunt in Greenwich Village rather than heading westward. "After living there for six or eight months," he recounted, "I was looking at myself and thinking, 'This isn't for you.'"
From then on, things just seemed to work out, he said. "When I came to that realization, a handful of other people were still in the same boat.
"I found a house in Colorado in 2010, moved with my friends and haven't looked back. It was kind of serendipitous and a stepping stone to what's happened since."
He and six friends from West Virginia shared a seven-bedroom house. "I had a small chunk of home in the mountains here."
In 2011, he helped open a sushi restaurant in Vail. "I worked there for about five years while also skiing, snowboarding and mountain biking.
"Moving to Aspen later was one of the best things I ever did," Bukac, 33, said, "not just because of the quality of skiing, but the innate group nucleus that lives in this town and connections you make."
A fateful detour in Denver
Bukac said the encounter he shared in his blog (see related article) seemed preternatural in how it unfolded in 2019.
"It was summer, my dad called me and he was just a mess. His partner of about 15 years -- my folks split when I was in high school -- passed away of a freak heart attack. He asked if I could come home, and I took the next couple of days to line up time to go.
"A client at my restaurant had this trip planned to South America I had told him about; I had spent some time skiing there the previous summer. He told me he had the heli-skiing trip planned to start in Santiago by that Friday.
"It just so happened that the guide was Chris Davenport, a legendary ski figure in the world who lives in Aspen. With all of those factors, it was pretty hard to say no, but given what was going on at home, I knew family comes first.
"I called my dad, who told me, 'I could not ever tell you not to do something like that.' He's been a free spirit all his life. He totally understood," Bukac said.
Then things started to seemingly go Murphy's Law haywire. Instead of flying from Aspen as he usually did, he went to Denver instead -- where his "chance" encounter occurred.
"It seemed like the world wouldn't show up," he said. "It's like it wanted me to connect with this gentleman in the airport. He was in front of me and tried to start small talk, but I was already in a bad mood."
Worsening that mood was an announced delay to his flight to Houston due to an electrical storm there. "I was supposed to be in Santiago by 9 a.m. that Friday. They were going to fly us by helicopter to the lodge, a 100-story building. I wanted to experience that.
"The gentleman told me his son was supposed to go there this week but had died. When somebody says something like that, it definitely stops you. We started talking about his son. He was a really a nice guy and torn up about his son, Henry, who had died while cliff jumping. ... He'd had those coins pressed in memory of Henry; whenever he'd go by a fountain or any body of water, he'd toss a coin and make a wish. He said, 'I'm going to give you one of these coins and you have to dump it in a special spot for me in the Andes Mountains.'
"We didn't find the spot until the last day," he added. "Chris Davenport said he felt the spot where we should dump the coin. Henry's dad was really, really blown away by the video we sent him of it."
He said he and Henry's father have remained in contact since their 2019 encounter.
A shifting career slope
Several months ago, Bukac receive a job offer to pursue his dreams as a ski guide and owner/operator of a helicopter adventure travel company. The pandemic and other circumstances upended the career move.
"As the winter continued, COVID-19 really put kind of a hex on expanding the heli-ski business, just as COVID has done with everything else," he said. He has continued working in the restaurant industry as director of operations for Nakazawa Aspen in Colorado, but he is also in the process of helping Nakazawa open other sushi restaurants, currently involved with one in Miami, Florida.
Over the years and in the meantime, his outdoor adventures have encompassed a global scale. "I've been very fortunate. I've been all over the planet -- Japan, France, Italy, Canada, all over the United States. In the summertime, I love to ride dirt and mountain bikes. I like kite surfing. I recently took a trip to Egypt and the Red Sea and went surfing at the mouth of the Suez Canal. It's a pretty wild sport. It's just as much a rush having a board and a kite in my hand in warm places, but skiing will always be numero uno," Bukac said.
'Just following the ridge'
"It's funny how it all works out in the world," he added. "I've worked with my company for 10 years, and I look back on all the people I've met and the connections I've made. As a kid in West Virginia, I watched ski films and dreamed of going to these places. I never imagined I would have had the experiences I've had and that I'd have touched and seen all the things I have.
"A big part of it is just following the ridge. Skiing has always been the bottom line for me, the impetus for decision making and where I direct my energy. I've always had this awesome balance of putting on my ski boots every day because I want to and not because I have to.
"For the time being, the cards will show themselves when the time is right. It seems like the cards are saying right now to continue this crazy, pop-up sushi restaurant thing, but who knows in 10 years from now?" Bukac said.
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