Everything is great, I'm Lara.

It's been several years since I've talked with Lara so when I recieved an email titled "Remember Lara" I was sure I was being prompted by friends to give her a call as we had talked about her this winter several times and I'd said I wanted to catch up. My heart sank when the truth of the matter hit home. I missed my chance to fill up on on a dose of Lara and her endless enthusiam one last time. The following "story" was somthing that just manifested itself after a memorable day of skiing the backcountry at Alpental. Shot 8 far above to the left of Alpental lodge has a couple steep ice bulges but Lara was way game to check it out. We hit it on such a great day that when we skied into the base area (which was closed) a snowcat driver who had taken a break from grooming to watch us come down immediatly waved us over. He clapped his hands in enthusiam and said, "Hop in I'll take back up so you can ski it again and I'm coming along!" Thats the kind of thing that happens when your sponsored by life itself and in my eyes Lara was. I wrote the story I'm sure with artistic license in hand and Lara probly wouldn't have put things quite that way but she got a kick out of it and I was proud to have such a admirable friend. It's strange to write this now and actually come to terms with the fact that she's no longer around. One thing that Lara said a long time ago makes me feel better for whatever reason. We were sleeping in a rainy gravel parking lot, squished up underneath a car when some random people pulled up and noticed her sleeping bag sticking out. One of them asked her who she was and if everything was OK? Lara's muffled voice, half laughing came from deep within her bag, "Everything is great, I'm Lara."
Well right now everything isn't great but she was right and still is... Scott Wicklund