Laura Tirado

I'm from Bucaramanga, Colombia. It's a city of more than a million people, close to the equator, and it's warm there all year. I had never seen snow.

In 2010 I was twenty and in college, and I signed up with an exchange program. The agency showed me jobs all over the United States. I picked White Sulphur Springs for two reasons. I wanted something completely opposite from my everyday life, and when I looked up how many people lived in White Sulphur, I couldn't believe how tiny it was. Then I checked the weather, and it said it snows a lot. Okay, I'm in.

I didn't come on the J-1 for Showdown, though. I came to White Sulphur, and the job at Showdown came after, on the same visa. In town I worked at the All Seasons Inn, which is The Edith now, and at a deli.

One day Ben Haugan came into the deli. He was this really social guy, excited about everything, and he said, hey, I'm Ben, I work at Showdown, you should come skiing. I said oh my god, I would love that.

The next weekend I got a ride up with Luz, a girl I worked with. We got there on a Saturday just after noon. Ben met us and told us that if we wanted to learn to ski, we'd better come in the morning next time so we'd get the whole day. Then he said he wanted us to meet somebody, and he introduced me to his brother Evan, who was working behind the bar. Evan had just come back from Colombia. I asked him why he went, and he said why not. He loved traveling around Latin America. We had a lot to talk about, and we hit it off right away.

My first impression of Showdown was that it was just fun. Everybody was smiling and laughing and dancing, the music was great, and everybody was glad to be there. I really wanted to be there too. Ben told me they had some openings and gave me the paperwork, and then Evan went to Ben and George Willett and told them he needed people in the kitchen. He needed the Colombians in the kitchen. So Luz and I went to work in the kitchen with Evan and Sam Sulser.

My first job at Showdown was making the pizzas and the brownies, down in the basement of the kitchen. Working up there meant I could ski every day, and I had never skied in my life. Once I tried it, I was totally in love. I'm no expert, but I'm a lot better than I was back then.

At my first Winterfest, Ben was walking around with gloves on his feet. I can still see it so clearly, and I remember thinking, what are you doing? We all used to look forward to Winterfest and the Crash Fund party, and they were crazy. By the time I got there, there were only two more Winterfests.

Evan and I got married the next year, in March 2011. We were crazy, we got married so soon after we met. We took our wedding pictures at Showdown, by the Showdown sign.

From the basement I worked my way up to the register. After I'd made the brownies, I would go sell tickets at the window by the kitchen, and I taught kids in Snow Monsters. Then I started doing a little kitchen and a little bar. That was when Katie Burton started bartending, and there were two of us behind the bar, so that's how I became a bartender.

Back when Sam and Evan were running the kitchen, there was a thin guy with a mustache named Eric Hanson who would yell out the powder burgers. He was a writer, a poet. I liked him a lot.

One powder day Spencer Paul gave me a ride to the top so I could be the first one down. I'm sure I'm not the only one he did that for.

I worked behind the bar while I was pregnant. I never took a picture of it, and I wish I had. When our son was born, I was still working there, and Evan would bring him over while I was behind the bar. I went back for part of the next season too. All together I worked up there about seven years.

When I think about it, our son wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for Showdown. Isn't that a crazy thought?

I live a long way from Montana now, but I still come back to ski just about every year. Last season I only made it for a few days. I never thought I'd be a Legend at Showdown.