1. 1993 – The coin toss

Six months after graduating from high school, Tal Fletcher sat at the bar in the Beer Garden in Squaw Valley, California, drinking draughts of Milwaukee’s Best. The bar was below street level, windowless, and dimly lit. The in-house band, The Beer Gardeners, cranked through covers of the Stones, Credence, Dylan, sometimes hitting just the right combination of pitch and volume so that the old-school ski posters buzzed on the walls.

Nearly everyone there had come off a shift working somewhere on the mountain. They still had on their work clothes, work boots, ski boots, Gore-tex jackets duct-taped together. The drinking and lounging was mostly relaxed, with stories of the day’s accidents, mishaps, or particularly good runs recounted over mugs of beer. But everyone there knew that at some point during the night, one of the bartenders, Jimbo, would turn on the blue police light that crowned the bar. As it started flashing, beer and mixed drinks were a quarter. It would become a frenzy of drinking—the swirling light and the music adding to the madness—until somebody either stiffed the bartenders, or left a crappy tip.

But for now it was mellow. Tal snacked on free peanuts, adding to the mountains of shells that would cover the floor by night’s end. He noted that for some of the more dedicated ski bums, the peanuts were dinner. Jimbo casually pulled draughts—many into personalized mugs—then slid them across or down the bar. As always, he was sporting his mad scientist glasses, Ray Ban Wayfarers, only with clear, coke-bottle lenses. On anyone else they would’ve looked ridiculous, but on Jimbo they seemed to fit, somehow reflecting his intensely magnified vision of the world. He ran an outfit called Primal Instinct, which specialized in secret bungee jumps, oftentimes hitting local bridges late at night wearing all black gear and face paint.

Tal watched the mugs sliding by. You had to show commitment, good attendance to get your own mug. But for regulars who didn’t have one yet, or for friends and special guests, there was also “the floater.” Tal had been putting in a fair amount or hours in the Beer Garden since moving to Squaw. He eyed the floater. Then he looked back at Jimbo. Tal had to shout to get the bartenders’ attention.

“Hey!” he said, “can I get the floater?”

Tal was there on a coin toss. After graduating from Redwood High School in Marin County, California, in 1993, he flipped a quarter. Heads, he’d go to college, either at U.C. Davis or U.C. Santa Barbara. Tails: he’d move up to Tahoe and try to get on the ski patrol at Squaw Valley. But even as the coin spun through the air, he thought if it landed heads he’d have to go two out of three.

He didn’t have to: it landed tails.  Read More...