26-летний физик и горнолыжник Холден Паразетт погиб в результате несчастного случая в джакузи

Holden Parazette lived in his own world. Comfortable with who he was to a degree most people never reach, he spent 26 years of his life with himself and with carefully chosen friends who opted not to live within the confines of a societal box. He was both pragmatic and cerebral in his approach to conversation, skiing and life in general. A “who cares?” attitude wasn’t one of indifference but of a broader perspective on existence and time. He cared, but just not about the same things most others did. Parazette passed away unexpectedly on July 9 as the result of a tragic accident. He drowned in a hot tub, and drugs and alcohol were not a factor, his parents said. An investigation into the cause of death will take months. He was 26. “There’s definitely a bigger world out there for Holden,” his mother, Danielle Parazette, said. His parents, Danielle and Andy Parazette, opened Pica’s Mexican Taqueria when he was just 11 months old, in 2001, and immediately he was thrust into the chaotic energy of the restaurant industry. Danielle carried him, their oldest, around in a backpack, while Andy oversaw the kitchen operation of carne asada smoke and smashed avocados and vibrant margaritas. Though he wasn’t fully conscious of it, his son was a major reason why Pica’s succeeded initially, Andy Parazette said. Sometime in the early days of the restaurant, longtime Jackson resident Missy Falcey told the owners, “We were never going to let you fail because Holden’s in the backpack, you guys are working so hard, and we love you,” Parazette recalled. It wasn’t long until Holden Parazette started working at Pica’s. All of them did — his two younger brothers, Oliver and Noah, too. They bussed tables, delivered food, washed dishes and learned Spanish to communicate and connect with other members of their staff. “The community got to know him because he was always with us at the restaurant,” Danielle Parazette said. When Holden was 14 years old, Oliver 12 and Noah 7, the three opened their own business adjacent to Pica’s: the Los Tres Bradas shaved ice stand. The older brothers wanted to go on a ski trip, and Andy agreed to fund half of it, so they were left figuring out how to make up for the gap. With a heavy-duty ice machine, they served up “Average Joe” and “Hulk” sizes to their customers, though most of the ice was consumed by the proprietors. “We maybe broke even on the machine,” Oliver said. Though the shaved ice pursuit didn’t prove to be the greatest investment, skiing was for Holden Parazette. He joined the Jackson Hole Ski and Snowboard Club when he was 6 years old, having already spent his earliest years skiing on weekends and after school. Around the same age Parazette started racing, the family would ski at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, and Danielle would watch him gracefully glide around the cat tracks. “He’d be so happy just doing that,” she said. Eventually, Parazette rose through the ranks within the ski club, with more effort than uncanny talent. “Oliver’s a natural athlete,” Danielle said. “I would say Holden had to work harder at it, but he had the mindset to listen to coaching and try to really study it.” At one point, as Parazette’s sights turned toward skiing in college, one of his coaches told Andy that his way there would require a “pick-and-shovel” approach. After graduating from the Jackson Hole Community School in 2018, he won a U19 giant slalom championship race at Junior Nationals in 2019, and instead of lauding himself, he gave credit to the conditions. “’Well, I did get a little help from the snow,’” Andy remembered Holden telling him. The next winter, he began skiing at Middlebury College. Still, to the levelheaded Parazette, who had a deeper understanding of life than most, it was only skiing. “I just think it doesn’t really matter what happens,” Parazette said in 2019. “As humans, we’re not really that important. At the end of the day, it’s about having fun and doing what you like. And it seems pretty cliche, but for me, it’s just that I’m skiing.” It’s the same mindset he tried to bestow upon his younger brother when Oliver went on to ski at the University of Utah, and Parazette was an assistant coach for the Utes while earning his master’s in mechanical engineering in 2025. Oliver was a senior and was having a difficult senior year, but Parazette “made me look at ski racing differently,” he said. Anytime Oliver would finish a race that didn’t meet his own standards, Parazette would minimize it, saying, “Whatever, dude. Who cares?” Together, they won a national championship. By then Parazette had unlocked a bit of himself in his four years at Middlebury. Growing up in Jackson, he was never uncomfortable with who he was, but he didn’t necessarily relate to what other teenagers were doing. He was an intellectual, introverted, extremely hardworking, kind human, said Danielle — a departure from the archetype of an insecure youth going through the tribulations of high school. “Holden was a deep thinker, and for a young man, all the things that he did and experienced, he was definitely comfortable with himself,” Danielle said. “He was not your typical teenager.” Not in an obstinate way, but more curious than anything, Parazette was what his parents referred to as a “contrarian intellect.” He constantly challenged his family and friends to think about the “other side on everything all the time,” Danielle said. When he lived in Vermont, none of that changed, but through the like-minded friends he met there, Parazette and his interests evolved. One year while recovering from injury, he learned to play the guitar, and he began to write music and poetry. In February 2024, he graduated with a degree in physics. After graduation, he traveled the world, sometimes solo and sometimes with friends. Throughout his travels, he wrote more poetry, now leaving behind seven journals. Eventually his youngest brother, Noah, started college, and being the quintessential older brother, Parazette checked in with him constantly. Prior to leaving for the University of Utah, Noah received a brief and thoughtful note from Parazette that said, “You’re the man. Keep making good friends and calculated bad decisions. Don’t forget to have fun at college, and I’m always a phone call away.” “He was Holden, no matter what,” Noah said. “He wouldn’t change, but he would also try to form a connection with every single person he met.” Seemingly, those connections mattered to others, as well. Since the news of his death, college teammates have shared with the family how Holden affected their lives. “They were trying to live a certain way, and they spent time with Holden,” Andy said. The Parazette family is holding a celebration of life from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday at the top of Snow King Mountain. In lieu of flowers, the Parazettes ask to consider making a donation in Holden’s name to support the Snowbowl Initiative to restore a ski cabin for the Middlebury Alpine Team. Donate at HonoringHolden.com.