Just about everyone who knew Adam Palmer talks about a sudden, electric realization shortly after meeting him: this is an extraordinary human.
It was a common epiphany when Palmer was on a stage, trail or a remote, snowy peak. It struck just as often in meetings as Palmer cajoled others to join him on a mission to clean up his community’s carbon footprint.
And now, despite his death in 2021, everyone gets a chance to feel the inspiring light of Palmer, thanks to a new movie touring the state. “The Casual Enormity of Adam Palmer” documentary is both a celebration of the mythical father, husband, musician, athlete and community leader and a call to arms in the fight for clean, renewable energy.
Palmer died on the first day of February 2021 in an avalanche in the San Juans outside Silverton that also killed Eagle entrepreneur and fellow town councilman Andy Jessen and local architect and father Seth Bossung.
The well-named documentary details Palmer’s lasting impact on his community, from raising two daughters to spearheading a transformative effort to wean a giant swath of the Western Slope off coal. He was one of the first green-minded board members to push the Holy Cross Energy utility toward clean energy. (The 45,000-member electric cooperative reported 100% of its energy from wind and solar farms in March, reaching a milestone first pushed by Palmer in the early 2000s.)
“Adam’s spirit is very much with us today. To know Adam was to know joy in so many ways,” said Bryan Hannegan, the president and CEO of Holy Cross Energy, who was one of more than two dozen people interviewed for the documentary. “Just embracing the opportunity and being optimistic. Waking up optimistic, man there is nothing we can’t do and a lot of that I gained by being around and in his aura.”
Palmer landed in the Eagle River Valley in the 1990s helping Vail Mountain seed one of the resort industry’s first recycling programs. He rocketed into a career focused on energy and sustainability helping Eagle County develop efficient building codes and founded Energy Smart Colorado, which has audited the efficiency of 11,000 homes and supported 5,500 home energy improvements. He helped script an Eagle County Climate Action Plan that was pioneering in its day, pushing for cleaner air with electric vehicle charging stations long before the EV boom.
“His sustainability and environmental work at the county level was putting Eagle County on the map statewide for really important local government action and partnerships that were happening in his community that we were able to talk about at the Capitol and statewide,” Colorado Rep. Julie McCluskie said in the movie.
Today, the Adam Palmer Sustainability Fund is carrying on his legacy, with projects in the Town of Eagle that include Adam’s Way, a sustainable community of high-efficiency, affordable homes for local employees that was built by Habitat for Humanity and Eagle County School District. The fund also helped Walking Mountains and local parents at Eagle Valley Elementary switch the heat at a greenhouse at the Walking Mountains Science Center campus in Edwards from natural gas to solar power.
The fund has a mission — the champions of the fund call it their B-HAG, or Big Hairy Audacious Goal — of raising $2.6 million for an endowment that will fund more than $280,000 in sustainability projects in the town of Eagle every year.
If you are already exhausted from hearing about Palmer’s relentless motor, buckle up. He also helped found the Hardscrabble Trails Coalition, which has carved some 150 miles of single track on federal and town-owned lands around Eagle. He was instrumental in securing funding for a surf wave in the Eagle River in town. He got a bunch of hockey folks together to build and maintain an ice rink in Eagle’s Town Park. He played music with several bands over the course of three decades in the valley. He served on the Eagle town council.
And, per the Palmer way, he was a gifted mountain athlete who excelled at skiing, river surfing and mountain biking.
“He was so accomplished as an endurance athlete that he just thought anything was possible and anything was attainable,” said his neighbor and longtime outdoors partner Ben Zeeb, who has an almost limitless supply of adventure stories with Palmer. “Just keep moving forward and keep charging and you could accomplish anything.”
“It’s fun to be like Adam Palmer”
The movie celebrates Palmer’s unique ability to unite diverse voices in a singular mission. Many people spoke of his uncanny ability to calm nerves with his laughter and easy-going vibe.
“He was always so good at bringing everyone together … and trying to find a solution that worked for everyone,” said Laura Turitz, the president of the Hardscrabble Trails Coalition.
“Trying to do it now I realize how challenging it is and Adam did it with so much skill. It just seemed effortless.”
Adam’s wife Kalie still marvels at his relentless drive. In the movie she recalls many years ago hearing people call him “El Jefe” and “El Presidente” when he formed the trails group.
“Wait, you’re on another board,” she said. “People don’t want to just do things the normal way … and they saw through Adam’s life that you can make things happen in a way that is different.”
His oldest daughter, Montana, is an aspiring musician who plays a song she wrote after her dad’s death in the documentary.
Montana says she feels herself becoming “more and more like him.”
“It’s fun to be like Adam Palmer,” she said. “I think everyone should be like Adam Palmer.”
“The Casual Enormity of Adam Palmer” premiered at the Capitol Theater in Eagle in June, kicking off a statewide tour that is raising money for sustainable energy nonprofits at every stop. Each film showing includes a panel of local sustainability advocates discussing how everyone can play a role in transforming their communities.
The movie tour includes these stops:
- Saturday at the Sheridan Opera House in Telluride
- Wednesday at the Dairy Art Theater in Boulder
- Aug. 7 at the Alma Stone Church in Alma
- Aug. 13 at the Backdoor Theater in Nederland
- Sept. 9 at the Wheeler Opera House in Aspen
- Sept. 10 at the Paradise Theater in Paonia
- Sept. 17 at the Crystal Theater in Carbondale
“It’s bringing out all these amazing stories and amazing people and our goal is to really pay it forward in each of the places we go and hopefully give everyone the courage they need to step up their efforts around sustainability in their own communities,” said Geoff Grimmer, an Eagle town councilman and director of the Adam Palmer Suitability Fund.