A farewell for Melissa

I have to say I feel a bit sorry for Melissa. She arrives into Jackson Hole early November so she can find work and a place to live. It was good that she came to do this before the season officially started as there weren’t as many people. But having missed the job fair only a couple weeks before she found that no one would hire here until the season started and more people were in town. Equally as difficult was finding accommodation.

No one wanted someone who could only commit to only 3 months, as she had to go back home to start uni in March.

After about 3 weeks, she found a way to make it all happen. Found a nice place to live and ended up with 2 jobs. One, in retail working for Cloudveil. A clothing company. And another working for ski school teaching kids.

Next the list of unfortunate occurrences, a very bad start to the

snow season. A horrible snow-pack, and one of the driest Decembers on record. This lead to little quality skiing and a generally depressed mood surrounding the town.

Finally on the 19^th of January, the day after I arrived, it started snowing, and the season turned around. The skiing was great and the mountain was in great condition. Unfortunately 2 days into the storm Mel was skiing with friends, and crashes in the powder. Twisting her knee and ankle so much that she tore her MCL and cracked a bone in here ankle.

2 weeks later (today) I dropped her at the airport, bound fo

r Melbourne. Back home so mum can look after her.

Even after all these miss-haps I know Melissa had an awesome time and made some very good friends.

So, last Friday we had a going away party for Mel. 80’s themed party at a bar in town. It was a pretty awesome night, everyone was getting into the sprit of the event. I think the photos here speak for them self’s. Also to add to the overall feel for the night, the clouds had pushed in and it was dumping snow again. It looks like the skiing would be once again DEEP.