Happy 2012!
Have you ever heard of this place - The Yellowstone Club? Basically a members only ski mountain/golf resort plopped right near Big Sky, Montana. If you've ever skied at Big Sky, you may have noticed some of the mega houses off in the woods while skiing down to the Southern Comfort lift. This is a ski hill where bazillionaires and A-listers come to frolic outside the public eye. It's what a place like the Mansion is to Vegas - except even more private.
In any event - I had the extreme fortune to ski here over the holidays. One of the members was kind enough to extend me an invitation here and there was no way I was going to miss out on this adventure.
I'm not sure what I expected going in - I had read somewhere that Bill Gates is a member - so I figured it'd be pretty nice. Now that I'm home and able to look back on the experience, it blew away my expectations.
The skiing terrain was above average - it still doesn't compare in size and variety to a Jackson Hole, Vail, or even Whistler. However, it doesn't need to. Why? Because there is virtually NOBODY on the hill or in lift lines. There's a two seater lift that takes you to the top of a peak where you can get off and either blaze down some double black diamond chutes or head down some black runs through pristine glades and you'll be the only one back there. Want long leg busting blue cruiser runs - plenty to be found. And for those that aren't good skiers? Lot's of nice easy green paths that wind all over the mountain.
I guess I shouldn't be that surprised - this is after all a mountain that only money could buy. How else do you explain the Sugar Shacks on the slopes? Sugar Shacks you ask? Little warm huts that are stocked with candy, cookies, libations, soft drinks, soup, cheese, crackers, etc., etc. . . huts that you just ski up to and head in and help yourself to whatever.
I have some pics that I'll post once I get them transferred over to this computer I'm typing on.
I guess while I was there there were a few celebs around - I did see Jessica Biel hitting the slopes - she's a very good skier. It's kind of hard to tell who's who when everyone is wrapped up in ski gear. But, truth be told, this isn't a place where someone goes to be "seen".
Price tag? I think the current cost to get in is $300,000, plus you have to purchase real estate which runs around $1.5 - $30 million. Drop in the bucket for guys like Gates . . .
More later . . . .
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Blog Update - 12/1/11
For those of you that check in now and then to see if there's anything new, or even for those of you that are new to this blog, I just thought I'd spill a few words out into cyberspace concerning the wholesale lack of activity on this Blog. There are a few reasons for my inactivity:
Reason 1: I haven't been back to Vegas since September 2010 (here's a LINK to the trip report from that epic voyage).
Several factors at work here. First, the last trip was so over the top, so big, so huge, that I think there's a general feeling among the crew that any subsequent Vegas trips will be sort of a let down. Time, I believe, will help make that feeling fade. Second, my main partner in crime, Whale Jo, has made a decision never to return to Vegas - EVER. That makes it harder to juice up the energy to plan a trip since he brings so much to the table on these trips (literally and figuratively). I'm definitely proud of his choice and how strong he's had to be to make it.
Reason 2: My writing energy has been focuses elsewhere.
Even though I kind of knew after the last Vegas trip that I probably wouldn't be going back any time soon, I still thought it'd be cool to write other posts on other travels or even random musings. That has not really happened. A large part of that is because for the last year+ I have been trying to make my way in the world as a writer. And maybe this factors into Reason 1 a little too. For 15 years I was a practicing attorney, toiling my way as a white collar zombie drone doing little in the way of anything creative. Looking back on it now I have no idea how I got from fresh faced disinterested law graduate to grumpy faced disinterested partner in a private firm. But it did and I guess one day I woke up and decided the life I was leading and path I was heading down weren't OK. So, thanks to a variety of factors that I'm extremely grateful for, I quit. I decided to turn back the clock to when I graduated college and my first choice of what I was going to be was "screenwriter." I had dabbled in it throughout the years, but never was able to give it a serious go. Now was the time. So, that's all a long winded way of saying, rather than write stuff on this blog, I've been writing elsewhere.
So what now? Why write all this down?
No reason other than I'm completely stuck in the mud on a script at the moment and am looking for any chance to write something other than that story. I have a journal that I hand write things in - but all I could do today was make angry stick figures. I figured getting on this blog and writing something down would force my hand. So if you've gotten this far in reading this post, what you've really been reading is an unedited stream of conscious type post from me.
And you know what? I think it's worked . . . I suddenly see a choice I wasn't making in the story that I should make . . . .
Will I come back? Will there be more posts?
Yes.
What about Vegas?
Just got an offer for 3 free nights and $300 credit . . . so I think it's highly probable.
Cheers.
Reason 1: I haven't been back to Vegas since September 2010 (here's a LINK to the trip report from that epic voyage).
Several factors at work here. First, the last trip was so over the top, so big, so huge, that I think there's a general feeling among the crew that any subsequent Vegas trips will be sort of a let down. Time, I believe, will help make that feeling fade. Second, my main partner in crime, Whale Jo, has made a decision never to return to Vegas - EVER. That makes it harder to juice up the energy to plan a trip since he brings so much to the table on these trips (literally and figuratively). I'm definitely proud of his choice and how strong he's had to be to make it.
Reason 2: My writing energy has been focuses elsewhere.
Even though I kind of knew after the last Vegas trip that I probably wouldn't be going back any time soon, I still thought it'd be cool to write other posts on other travels or even random musings. That has not really happened. A large part of that is because for the last year+ I have been trying to make my way in the world as a writer. And maybe this factors into Reason 1 a little too. For 15 years I was a practicing attorney, toiling my way as a white collar zombie drone doing little in the way of anything creative. Looking back on it now I have no idea how I got from fresh faced disinterested law graduate to grumpy faced disinterested partner in a private firm. But it did and I guess one day I woke up and decided the life I was leading and path I was heading down weren't OK. So, thanks to a variety of factors that I'm extremely grateful for, I quit. I decided to turn back the clock to when I graduated college and my first choice of what I was going to be was "screenwriter." I had dabbled in it throughout the years, but never was able to give it a serious go. Now was the time. So, that's all a long winded way of saying, rather than write stuff on this blog, I've been writing elsewhere.
So what now? Why write all this down?
No reason other than I'm completely stuck in the mud on a script at the moment and am looking for any chance to write something other than that story. I have a journal that I hand write things in - but all I could do today was make angry stick figures. I figured getting on this blog and writing something down would force my hand. So if you've gotten this far in reading this post, what you've really been reading is an unedited stream of conscious type post from me.
And you know what? I think it's worked . . . I suddenly see a choice I wasn't making in the story that I should make . . . .
Will I come back? Will there be more posts?
Yes.
What about Vegas?
Just got an offer for 3 free nights and $300 credit . . . so I think it's highly probable.
Cheers.
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