Yup! Been there! 1992 or so, when I was a ski photographer. There were only about 15-25 ski media folks (all friends) on that trip, all from the PNW.
On a media fam (familiarization) trip like that, the hosts go out of their way to please! And they did. We were treated, in the grand dining room, to a Medieval Dinner, complete with a king, jester...a stockade, and more. At one time, I was challenged to say nothing for a short spell, and the two folks on either side of me to do their best to get me to pipe up. They won....and I was rewarded with a brief stint in the stockade.
I met Picabo Street in the hot tub. A big girl she was!! This was early in her career before she'd started her winning. Her downhill/super G records for an American gal have now been surpassed by the great Lindsey Vonn. Now she's Tiger's latest....and working her butt off to recover from major knee repair after a bad fall ended her season in Feb. I'll bet she kicks ass again, at the upcoming '14 Olympics in Sochi!
During that trip, it snowed lightly all but one day, only a couple inches. Every day was cold, but the coldest was the sunny day. That day, I was on course photographing the Women's Super G (I think, as the downhill is always first.) It was about 14 below F, one degree above the cutoff for postponing the race. There was a bit of a breeze. Man was I cold! I was set up to catch the racers as they came over a rise. Shooting with a 300 mm lens....had to be quick. I was mostly jumping up and down to keep from freezing. Coldest weather I've ever been in, or skied in....Dunno how I ever scored any usable images, but one was good and got published, of a Russian skier. She had her face covered with white tape.
The next trip to LL was for the yearly meeting of the whole ski writers group. There were a few hundred folks. Again, we were treated to a superb event, and stayed at the Chateau Lake Louise.
On that trip I met the great Nancy Greene, who won the World Cup a couple times, circa 1965. An awesome lady, and a fantastic ambassador for the sport. I raced her head to head in a friendly media race, and won by a nose.
When I was 15, we had moved from the mid US to Vancouver Island. I didn't ski, but often heard Nancy in the sports news. It was a great thrill to meet her some 30 years later. Another time, we skiied together at Sun Peaks, near Kamloops, where she and her husband have played a part in developing the facilities there. Every day at 10, anyone can meet and ski with her for a couple runs! Of course, I requested that we ski off-piste, so we hit the trees, in some nice powder.
Ski to die, die to ski!!!
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