T-Bar Tommy laughed broadly and said to me, "I had to let that last chair go by. It was the only seat covered in snow!" I laughed-- because T-Bar's laughter is infectious-- and told him I hadn't noticed. Then, before either of us had a chance to get too comfortable, I told T-Bar I was about to ask him an odd favor.

"Hey man, I'm about to ask you an odd favor."

"Okaaay..." he hesitated.

"I'm working on a photo essay this winter and I want to meet 100 skiers over 100 days and take their picture and get to know them and you're going to be numero uno."

"OKAAAY!!!" he roared. "That sounds great. Hey, you're getting a 100-day season!"

We laughed about how great the snow was. We laughed about what a great job the lifties were doing. We laughed at how much we love skiing. We laughed our way to the top and wished each other a good run, "...you too man, have a good run."

I laughed my way top-to-bottom (TTB), and slipped into the lift maze as T-Bar pulled alongside so we laughed our way onto another chair.

It looked like the boot-packing crew had done a pretty solid job under Chair 1 and T-Bar said he saw them working last Saturday, so I asked him who it was-- patrollers or volunteers?

“Patrollers, well… brown jackets, national guys, so I guess... volunteers.”

I laughed.