We do all kinds of jobs as SnowHosts, and today I was fortunate to do one of the most fun ones: a VIP tour. For some (including today's), our constraints are off and we can take people anywhere their little heart desires (except of course the Dive or the Wild West, both of which require special equipment we don't carry).
My VIP? Someone with their own Wikipedia page and his family, all very good skiers.
However, the logistics of the day were entertaining. I was working Map Board in the village for the morning, and just as I was skiing in to commence my duties, my phone rang with my VIP tour assignment. I was to intercept the guests at ~11 AM, ski from 11-1:30, take them for lunch, then ski with them after lunch, too.
However, they were late, as VIPs sometimes are, for very good reasons. They arrived at 12:45. So my day started standing for 2 hrs in front of the Ski School office, saying hi to people, waiting for my guests. Mostly in a raging blizzard, sometimes in a swirling white out, but I had to wait.
Around here, I should mention that the ski suits they give us are very good.
So I was only able to manage 2 quick runs with the family before lunch. Fortunately, the viz was good enough to get them up near the top of the mountain, and we got some nice powder runs in.
Then we ate lunch. For 90 minutes.
So at 3 PM, I was able to get them back out. My guests wanted gnarley, so I headed to Goat's Eye. Sadly, the red signs were on the South Side Chutes, but we had fun on some good tree runs -- right up to the moment where he had to do a live interview by phone with TSN. Smack dab in the middle of the Scapegoat run.
We just made last chair on Goat's Eye, and when we got to the top, the Chutes had miraculously opened. In we went to a rockingly great run through boot top or better fields of untracked powder, which my guest loved.
I was sad we only got in 5 runs with them, but really glad I was able to show them a tiny slice of the best that Sunshine has to offer.
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