Some Scary Ski News

**vonski** · 01-07-2009, 03:27 PM

it depends on the day. If it is snowing or has snowed and there is snow on the chair I usually try to swat it with my poles to clean it off. I was pushed off the edge of the loading ramp not sitting down quick enough by Northridge one year while cleaning the seat. Kinda funny!!! Always look at the fixed grip chairs as they approach though as they come in Quicker.

I would think something like this might get settled with a season pass or forever season pass or a weeks stay or something. Vail does not want a lawsuit. They were probably making offers as they got his pants back on.

**Dellwood** · 01-08-2009, 04:04 PM

New York Post article today.

headline

"Ski-Buff fotog butted out"

The photographer who grabbed the butt-baring shot of a skier dangling from a Vail chair lift got bum's rush from his boss. ..... after the photo appeared in The Post and other media.

"It looks like I'm going to lose my job over the photo," he said. "But the photo is worth it."

**Plowboy** · 01-10-2009, 06:49 PM

From the vaildaily.com

VAIL, Colorado — Marty Odom’s now infamous photograph of an exposed skier in Blue Sky Basin in Vail, Colorado has made him more popular than he bargained for, and all the attention isn’t paying off, he said.

Odom, a photographer for Sharpshooters on Vail Mountain, caught a photo of a skier who fell through the chair while trying to upload Sky Line Express on New Year’s Day. The skier was left dangling by his pants, hit buttocks completely exposed.

Odom, who wasn’t working at the time, snapped a photo of the incident with his own camera, which then got published in the Vail Daily. Other photos of the accident also made their way onto various Web sites.

News of the incident has gone across the world, and Odom said he’s received 75 to 100 calls from media across the world wanting to hear about the incident and buy rights to his photograph.

“I had 18 missed calls on my phone when I woke up this morning,” Odom said. “I’ve gotten calls from Korea, Norway, Finland, the Today Show, Extra, Fox, ABC and everything in between.”

But the response hasn’t been all positive. He’s gotten his fair share of hate mail, too.

And while various photography services have wanted to buy the photo from Odom, he said he is not allowed to sell the photo because his contract with Sharpshooters contains a “no-compete” clause.

Odom was suspended from work until further notice the day after the photo was taken.

He offered to buy the photos from the company, but Sharpshooters told him that they were going to announce they owned the photo and that it would not be released.

Odom, who is now unsure of his job, said he had hoped the photo would bring in some income.

“There are a lot of people offering money for it, thousands of dollars worth,” he said. “But I can’t make any money off it, and I don’t have a job.”

While the town is still abuzz about the photo, Odom said he’s just worried about whether he’ll be able to stay in the valley.

“I feel like now I’m on a blacklist with Vail Resorts and I won’t be able to get a job anywhere now,” he said. “That sucks, because I’ve been here for a few years. This is my home mountain.”

Gets more interesting... Maybe the truth?

VAIL, Colorado — SharpShooter Imaging, an on-mountain photography company, issued an apology Thursday for a photo taken by one of it’s photographers of a half-naked skier hanging from a Vail chairlift.

The photo, taken by photographer Marty Odom on New Year’s Day, caught an unidentified skier exposed and hanging by his pants while trying to board the Skyline Express Lift (Chair 37). The photo was published in the Vail Daily, across the Internet, and was the subject of talk and news shows across the world.

“SharpShooter Imaging deeply regrets any embarrassment the unauthorized taking and subsequent release of this photograph may have caused to the guest involved, and all other guests and employees of Vail Resort,” said a SharpShooters press release.

“It is our strict company policy to respect the privacy of all resort guests at every resort we represent. The employee who breached company policy while on duty, by his unauthorized release of this image, has been suspended while the incident is investigated.”

The skier was unhurt, and Vail Resorts said it is looking into the incident.

Odom, who said he was not working at the time and used his own camera, has been suspended from his job until further notice. However, SharpShooters spokesperson David Peri said that Odom was indeed on-the-clock, in uniform and using a company camera at the time.

“He had punched in, and everyone in the locker room had seen him,” Peri said. “We’ve presented the evidence to him, and he’s since apologized and admitted he was on the clock that day.”

Odom did not return calls to his cell phone on Thursday night.

SharpShooters said it did not come forth with the information when the incident first happened because they were initially lied to about when the photo was taken and have been investigating the incident.

The Wheatridge-based photography company, which stations photographers at the top of lifts to snap photos, said it wants to “ensure this does not happen again” and makes protecting mountain guests a top priority.

“That is why we’re so chagrined at this,” Peri said. “Our reputation is the most important thing that we own. This is just the dishonest efforts of one individual to do what was unethical to begin with. He had no right to appropriate, give them away, or trade them for any reason whatsoever.”