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What’s better than admiring beautiful skiing-related photographs while knocking back cocktails at après hour, munching on free food, soaking up live music and bantering with like-minded mountain folk? Doing all of those things while continually peering out the window, taking note of the massive, unrelenting snow accumulation.

Our Photo Shootout Gallery Tour made its third of five stops last night, setting up shop at Copper Mountain’s Incline Bar & Grill. The Tour is hosted in conjunction with the web-based Photo Shootout contest and consists of 20 blown-up photographs printed on specially coated metal sheets; free, tasty hors d’oeuvres; abundant cocktails; DJs (or in last night’s case, live acoustic guitar); raffle prizes, including some of the fine prints on display; and good ol’ fraternization among skiers. Hosting the Photo Shootout contest and this accompanying Gallery Tour is our way of saying “Thanks,” and giving back to the hard-working ski photographers out there.

Indeed, there was a great deal of thanks going around between 3-6 p.m. last evening, but it wasn’t all directed towards the photog’s. Mother Nature earned her fair share. Event-goers could not stop talking about the impending pow day. By my estimate, over one foot of snow had fallen between the time we arrived at Incline and the time the party came to a close, some three hours later. I use the term “close” loosely. While the party ran ’til 6:00, officially speaking, folks continued to wine, dine and gossip well into the night, because, well, we were trapped. Interstate 70 was closed in both directions, and the Colorado DOT reported no estimated time of re-opening. So, we hunkered down and did what skiers do best: We drank whiskey and discussed the probability of copious face shots come morning. Not to mention the exciting events on tap this weekend, here at Copper, including High Fives’ Retro Shred-a-Thon, Red Bull Slopesoakers, the Eenie-Weenie Bikini Contest and live music by Count TuTu.

And now, as I pen this recap, I’ve got a mere forty-five minutes until the lifts start turning. And thereby, it’s high time I conclude.

I’ll end with this: Heads up, Oregon(!), ’cause we’re comin’ for ya. The Photo Shootout Gallery Tour rolls through Portland and Bend later this week. Come one, come all. Here’s the scoop:

• Portland, OR
  Thursday, April 21, 2016
  @ Basecamp Brewery, 7-10 p.m. (21+)
  RSVP link coming soon
• Bend, OR
  Saturday, April 23, 2016
  @ Velvet, 7-10 p.m. (21+)
  RSVP link coming soon

About FREESKIER’s Photo Shootout contest:

FREESKIER introduced its inaugural Photo Shootout this past fall, a web-based photo contest through which photographers could submit imagery for a chance at winning up to $10,000. With more than 4,000 photos submitted (from 1,126 photographers) it’s safe to say the contest was a smashing success. Our readers cast north of 65,000 votes for their favorite photos, helping us to narrow the vast pool of imagery down to a batch of finalists. Our esteemed judging panel then had the tough task of picking winners for categories including action, scenic, lifestyle, abstract and overall. And now, we take things one step further: As outlined above, we’re taking the winning photos on the road.

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