I am so lucky. Oh yes. I live 20 minutes from the greatest mountain resort in North America. And it even has a big beautiful tram that takes you from bottom to top. No effort required. Today I took my first tram lap. I arrived at the top of Rendezvous Mountain with the most incredible sight before me. It was about 12:30, and this beautiful golden light was gracing the peaks of Cody and No Name, with a giant cloud layer hovering between me and the valley. I felt like I was in heaven, whatever that looks like. I can honestly say I've never been more in awe of the scenery here than I was today. I navigated my way through the rocky face below, and then disappeared into the mystical woods. The cloud layer hovered around the Thunder and Sublette chairlifts where I weaved in and out of the woods. Then I burst into the lower mountain, back to the tourists, back to reality. That one run made my day. It was back to work after that.
Speaking of work, I have quite a story about the quality of tourists that I've been encountering lately. One piece suits, 1980 skinny skis, and step-in bindings have no match to the character I met today while I was shooting action photos on Teewinot (i.e. bunny slope). The first thing I saw was a snowboard whizzing down the hill...sans owner. Now, it's pretty hard to have your snowboard get away from you on the slope. You have to strap your feet into the bindings, and there's no way those would just both "pop off" unless they actually broke away from the board. So little old me, afraid for everyone's safety, ran as fast as I could run (I had a camera around my neck with a huge lens and snowboard boots on) to catch this runaway board. Luckily I was able to kick it a bit and it crashed into a bush. Moments later, I saw a very large human bumbling down the hill, obviously the board's owner. When I got closer, I realized the kid was wearing jeans, had his boots undone, and wasn't wearing tall socks. Yikes. With a southern drawl, he explained to me that he didn't know how to snowboard and his boots were too small so he actually "sledded" down the hill on his board. When he got going to fast, he bailed and the board went flying, ready to destroy anything that got in it's path. Wow. Really? Who let this happen? There were so many people and little kids out today, I couldn't believe that this kid was actually allowed on the slope. I wonder what happened when he unloaded the chairlift.
Anyway, this next week is going to be quite an adventure. It's Christmas week, and the tourists are in abundance. I've already noticed a big change in my photo sales, and I'm excited about it. Bring it on Christmas! I'm ready :)
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