We were staying with a friend of Mark’s, Amberley, who lived in the mountain’s employee housing units. Erin, Matt and I had never met Amberley before. She was from Australia and came to the States after her first year of University to work and learn to snowboard. We rocked up late Friday night and brought all our gear inside – we had to sneak in because, at that time, employee-housing-residents were not allowed to have overnight guests.
To make a very long story short, I’ll just list the important events of the trip. First, we lost the keys to the car and had to order a new key from the dealership and have it sent to us. Second, we missed two days of school because the new car key didn’t arrive until Wednesday morning. Third, Erin got arrested for using our friend Cassie’s season pass and got a $375 fine. Lastly, the employee housing authorities found out Amberley had overnight guests the last night we were in Mammoth and, therefore, she got evicted from employee housing.
Despite all the disasters of the trip, all of us had an amazing time. We snowboarded, went to the hot springs, had sushi for the first time and partied every night. Amberley and I became great friends over those five days. After being evicted, she was able to move in with a friend who had an open loft and everything turned out to be just fine. She came and stayed with me at my mom’s house in Huntington Beach for two weeks when the ski season ended before heading back to Australia. We have been able to meet up a few times over the years and have consistently kept in touch through email.
This is a picture of Amberley and I the last time we saw each other - January 2006 - before our trip to South America.
In February of 2008, I got an email from Amberley asking if I wanted to plan a snowboard trip to South America for after we both graduate from University. So, a year and a half later here we are – snowboarding in Argentina and Chile.
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