Lee Cohen’s work as a ski photographer will always be associated with Alta Ski Area at the head of Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah, where the snow falls as light and deep as anywhere, but Cohen didn’t drop fully formed into Alta as a professional shooter. He got his start the old-fashioned way, hitchhiking across country to see what the West might offer a young man from Queens and Long Island, New York.
In the winter of 1978-79, Cohen and a buddy road-tripped to Utah. Shortly after New Year’s, in Little Cottonwood, they dug a hole in the bank above the creek at Snowbird, pitched their tent, and spent ten days sampling the Bird and Alta, where tickets cost seven bucks. At night, the temperature dropped to minus fifteen, but the cold just kept the snow fresher. He spent most of the season camping at Colorado’s Arapahoe Basin, skiing on a midweek pass that cost about a hundred dollars. In 1982-83, he divided his
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