It seemed only reasonable. Traveling the world, like daddy said, broaden your horizons, slum it, see how the other half lives. I mean, only ONE suitcase? Only ONE credit card? She'd had to BUY more fut coats and ballgowns, because she could hardly wear one a second time and anyway the suitcase was too tiny.

The little mountain village was certainly remote, but there seemed to be a fair number of people around. Prospectors, she gathered. Apparently, there was still gold in them thar hills, even though it was a century and half since gold rush fever. There were even some quite good looking young ones, rough and tough outdoor types with big, scarred hands. She rather liked teasing those ones (although of course she never went further than a quick grope and a fondle. Well, maybe once or twice if they were REALLY good looking...)

They had cash, and they had secrets, and the village inn had a PC where you could surf the web, even though mobiles wouldn't work this far from civilization. It was hardly he fault if they couldn't stop boasting about where they had found the latest big strike when they'd had a few beers too many on an empty stomach, was it? They should have been more up-to-date with the possibility of registering their claims online. All it took was a few mouse clicks and- bingo! A claim jumped. She stood to do very nicely, thank you very much, and daddy would be so pleased that she was showing the correct entrepreneurial spirit on her gap year.

It all seemed so reasonable. Right up to the point where the first miners found their claims already staked by the "good time girl" slumming it in the inn and dancing with them in her fancy clothes. An old-fashioned lynch mob seemed to be the answer! They dragged her up to the abandoned railroad tracks in the snow, tied her tight, gagged her and left her there! She supposed she was lucky they hadn't tarred and feathered her. She was going to do horrible things to the lot of them the moment she got out... but damn it was cold up here. And remote. It suddenly dawned on her that she might just be in REAL trouble...

Hywel's Note: this was actually the second set we shot of day two of our snow shoot expedition, and it is the one where the sun, snow and scenery suddenly came together in the most spectacular fashion. Ariel had already stripped off in the bitingly cold morning sunrise, so it was something of a relief for her to be allowed to stay fully-clothed with a furry jacket this time! It was hardly walking kit, though, and we got some politely bemused looks from the snow-shoe equipped group who marched past us up the mountain shortly after we finished shooting the set! They were very interested and wished us well on our shoots, though clearly a bit mystified as to why someone would be wearing a satin ballgown at minus one degree centigrade...

We weren't that high up, around 1800 metres above sea level, but we were still feeling the thin air a bit wading through softening snow as the day wore on and the hard crust of fresh snowfall over the top of the slushy stuff started to give way. It was the best fun I've had on a photoshoot in years, though... it felt great to be out of the studio, way outside my comfort zone photographically doing stuff I'd never dreamed I'd be able to do.

This set is properly a vision come to life for me. The very first drawings I ever did for fun were of gorgeous blonde girls in snowy mountain settings, and it was a pleasure and a privilege to be able to bring them to life, 20 years later, with the lady who is surely the best bondage model in the world at the moment. There are very few models who would be prepared to put up with the hard work and effort required to get the pics, and even fewer who would be right there pushing to do more and more exciting and interesting stuff. Although I did have to stump up for an unreasonably large number of gluhwines and cakes to keep her going ;-)

Thank you, Ariel. It seemed like the perfect set to put up to celebrate the seventh birthday of the site.