REWIND THE WATSONBURGER Photo and Caption LEE COHEN December 1983, on the deck of the old Watson Shelter in Alta, UT. This was during Alta’s record snow month (210 inches), a record that stood for 40 years until March 2023. It was a magical month of skiing deep pow all day with no one around. Seemed like we knew almost every local, and most of them stopped at Watson’s to defrost or hang out. Water dripped into buckets placed about and I’d put the day pack with my camera into the freezer so it wouldn’t fog from warming up. It was my first year trying to shoot photos more regularly. Before there was any pro skiing scene, my buddies and I were glorious, pitiful, unem-ployed ski bums. I love this pic—I call it the “Watsonburger”—the smiles on the faces of Scotty Strand, Steve Garrett and the singularly named Simòn tell it all. 036 The Ski Journal
The Ski Journal Volume 17, Issue 2: Page 36
