A Picture You Won't See At Sundance

For as long as there has been skiing, there has been trendy ski towns. Europe set the tone decades ago with places like Kitzbuhel and Gstaad, but America quickly caught up with places like Aspen and Park City. Rich assholes living their 'Sport of Kings' lifestyles -- chopping up the bases of the moguls with their overpriced skis and general lack of skill.

However, I'd just like to make it clear why Telluride, Colorado can't ever be thrown into this abyss of self-proclaimed royalty. Yes Telluride is like these other places with its bigtime film festival and eight-figure home prices. But yesterday someone I grew up with there sent a picture that made me infinitely confident that the regular-guy soul is still alive and kicking ass in Telluride.

Tommmy (or Tom, as he is called in the adult vortex) is the guy who sent the picture. He's in 'group sales' for the Telluride Ski Resort, and makes a living catering to million-dollar egos. Below is the note he sent with the picture:

So ... I'm giving a mountain tour yesterday to about 15 people from Cape Cod. We are skiing See Forever. Beautiful day, awesome views. You can see the La Sals like they were across the street. I stop at the top of North Chute so they can get the great shot straight down into town. They are all eww'ing and ahh'ing. "Pretty impressive view of Telluride" I say. Someone in the group says: "And nice art work too." Nice art work? I think to myself, scanning the other side of the valley, the town, the valley floor ... awe crap!

They ask me if I did that just for them. I said I did but I couldn't remember how to spell Cape Cod, so this is what I came up with.

This would only happen to me.

On behalf of all of the far-flung Telluride natives around the country, let me just say: Way to go Tommy. You've captured one for the ages ... a locally-produced Indy Picture all the bigshots at Sundance are totally missing out on this week.

[Note: you can click picture to enlarge -- heh heh]