The heated blogging about Stephen Koch’s firing from Exum Mountain Guides has reached a national audience. Last week after The Associated Press picked up the story from the Jackson Hole News and Guide, Outside magazine’s online version posted a retelling of the story on their blog, and readers weighed in.

Koch was fired last week from the Jackson-based guiding service after Grand Teton National Park cited him for using a snowmobile to cross Jackson Lake and access Mount Moran for a ski descent. The incident was videotaped and posted on numerous websites, including Koch’s own blog. The national park allows only ice fisherman to use snowmobiles on the lake, and the policy itself has received a rash of criticism over the years.

Koch, a well-known mountaineer in the valley, had worked for Exum for 15 years. He offered a public apology for the incident, which ran in the News and Guide and on his own blog.

Locally, people have been weighing in heavily on Koch’s firing. Bloggers have sen huge traffic on the subject, as locals give their take on whether firing Koch was fair or not.

With Outside’s blog now taking on the subject, it will be interesting to see what the rest of the country has to say about a hot topic in Jackson Hole.

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