TGR Internship - Shit Jobs

TGR's summer interns–Jonathan Desabris, Micah Berman, Henry Lanman, and Bryce Sacks–enjoying a rare outing for intern appreciation at Jackson Hole's bike park with Editorial & Community Manager Ryan Dunfee, who made them pay for his drinks.

Skiing, snowboarding, biking, and action sports in general have been a big part of all our lives. It is one of the reasons we have dropped everything to move to Jackson Hole to intern for TGR this summer. We have traveled from every corner of this great nation, from the Green Mountains of Vermont, the plains of Texas, deserts of New Mexico, and even the arches of St. Louis. We had high hopes for the experience–hopeful to brush shoulders with some of our heroes, make an edit or two, or write a story–all with the promise of a gold star on our resume or maybe a letter of recommendation. All of these dreams, and more, came true during our few months at TGR's Wilson, Wyoming headquarters.

TGR's summer interns emerge from employee housing.

Right off the bat, it was great to be welcomed with open arms by someone who would become my mentor and hero in life, Ryan Dunfee. Ryan is a caring guy and gave us nicknames like “nerd” and “turd munchers” right off the bat. After driving hundreds of miles to Wilson, it was nice to be accepted instantly and welcomed into the fold.

TGR's Editorial and Community Manager Ryan Dunfee, who welcomed the interns with open arms and unending harassment. 

Another perk of the job was employee housing. Jackson has a reputation for being a place where it's notoriously hard to find housing, and we had all been searching for months prior to the start of our internships. Luckily, the Jones brothers traded a box of old TGR DVDs for a kick-ass car topper for us to all share! 

The asbestos wasn't as bad as we original had feared, and we ended up making a cozy home in the shack. Fun times were had in this beauty, although none of us seem to be able to shake this nagging cough!

Despite the bed bugs and lack of wifi, running water, toilet paper, sheets, or clean air, TGR's employee housing provided welcome respite from the interns' 16-hour shifts.

TGR recently relocated to a new office in Wilson, and it was such a privilege to work in the new office. Ryan had already got our workstations all set up by the time we arrived on day one. I had a sweet, cozy space right off the main editorial room that allowed for a tranquil, focused work spot. 

Despite my 6' 2” frame, the spot wasn't that bad! I learned to love my little hidey hole away from the hustle and bustle of the main office. I spent my sixteen-hour shifts adding tags to all our website posts from the last few years. I just wish I would have been allowed to use the main bathroom instead of the closet's pre-supplied bucket.

Jon had the best spot, however, located within the men's bathroom. He had great lighting, as well as the option to close the door for added privacy. His cooler chair and desk were pretty awesome, and with his shoes stuck to the sticky floor, it allowed for focused, steady work. 

One of Jon's daily tasks was acting as a human ottoman for Senior Designer Olaus Linn when he needed a break from design work to play Angry Birds.

I mainly saw Jon working as a ottoman for the web team, but I also heard he was the TGR hygienist.  One time, he got a little sick when Sage came in and destroyed the bathroom. Workplace hazards, I guess!

Production interns Taylor and Micah laboriously piece together the intro from TGR's The Continuum.

Micah and Taylor, production interns, spent the summer laboriously piecing together old film. While everything is now shot on digital, the production team thought it would be great for them to take apart old films and piece them back together exactly how they first appeared. I believe they finished the intro segment of The Continuum by the end of the summer!

The interns scrounge and battle for their Cheetos lunch.

It's funny how the Jackson area works. It's easy to get jobs, but super hard to find housing and expensive to buy food. This year, Ryan had asked for a surplus in his budget to give the interns some sustenance. It was great, as we didn't have to pay for breakfast or lunch! One time Micah gouged my eye in his excitement to grab a Cheeto but I can’t blame the kid–I once punched Jon in the nuts for an old tuna sandwich.

With limited funds and support, TGR's summer interns had to resort to dumpster diving to keep their calorie count intact.

Dinner was a different story. As broke college students left out on our own, we were forced to scavenge, although we quickly found a plentiful amount of food in TGR's own dumpster. A nightly scavenge would yield great things! We really embraced second harvest. We also discovered that the local animals, like moose, elk, and grizzly bears, still have plenty of edibles in their droppings.

Ryan awards Henry with a letter of recommendation for his contributions to TGR this summer.

Looking back on the summer, it was one for the record books. We all learned a lot about the grunt work required to produce awesome ski, snowboard, and mountain bike films. From being human mannequins in the merchandise store to hand-fanning the web servers on 24-hour shifts, being a TGR intern taught us real work ethic. Thanks a lot for everything guys!

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stash member Henry Lanman

I am a Santa Fean at heart who loves to ride any sort of two wheeled vehicle.