Steamboat
Epic! That word is spoken enthusiastically on powder days in Steamboat. My backcountry companions say it often; we can be a bit smug about our tele excursions into unofficial terrain like Way Right, Drunken Indian, Storm King and North Woods. But the truth is, Back in the Day, Loris and Buddy Werner and their friends had truly epic ski adventures. In the 1950s, they’d drive up Rabbit Ears to the top of Hogan Park Trail… before it was a marked Forest Service route. They’d put skins over their alpine skis and break trail all the way to what is now Morningside. That’s seven miles. Once there, they’d build a snow cave, light a fire and settle in for the night.
Epic! That word is spoken enthusiastically on powder days in Steamboat. My backcountry companions say it often; we can be a bit smug about our tele excursions into unofficial terrain like Way Right, Drunken Indian, Storm King and North Woods. But the truth is, Back in the Day, Loris and Buddy Werner and their friends had truly epic ski adventures. In the 1950s, they’d drive up Rabbit Ears to the top of Hogan Park Trail… before it was a marked Forest Service route. They’d put skins over their alpine skis and break trail all the way to what is now Morningside. That’s seven miles. Once there, they’d build a snow cave, light a fire and settle in for the night.
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Food & drink | Story/Photography By Jennie Lay |<br />
Drink Local<br />
Bottoms up. These<br />
spirits are distilled<br />
in Colorado – and<br />
they’re delicious.<br />
<strong>Steamboat</strong>-made Daniela’s Cowboy Bourbon<br />
Pecans are glazed with Breckenridge<br />
Distillery’s Bourbon Whiskey.<br />
Relax, locavoRes. apRès ski with genuine local flair<br />
has moved beyond microbrews. Booze is earning its mountain<br />
cred as craft distilleries are piling up across colorado like<br />
snowflakes on a powder day.<br />
late this fall, a motley crew of local 40-somethings gathered<br />
around a raging bonfire to sample an array of spirits hailing<br />
from nine distilleries located in the state. Debating and tastetesting<br />
ran into the wee hours of the morning while our critical<br />
drinkers sought to distinguish the impacts of locally harvested<br />
ingredients and pure mountain springs.<br />
each bottle was sipped straight-up, then blended with<br />
various mixes to see what stood out. comment cards, submitted<br />
blindly, grew a tad bit blearier as the evening wore on. in the end,<br />
here’s what our swarthy volunteers liked best.<br />
Top honor goes to stranahan’s colorado Whiskey from<br />
Denver. The tasters decreed it “the best. a really good sipping<br />
whiskey. i would never mix a cocktail with it – that would<br />
probably be sacrilege.” another admirer said, “it doesn’t even<br />
need an ice cube. smooth and traditional. straight up sippable.”<br />
colorado bourbons left everyone grinning. in fact, our<br />
46 | ONLINE AT WWW.STEAMBOATMAGAZINE.COM<br />
diehard bourbon fans agreed they wouldn’t be remotely<br />
disappointed to receive any of these bottles in their christmas<br />
stockings. Breckenridge Distillery’s special Release Bourbon<br />
Whiskey was the favorite pick. They said, “killer with ginger<br />
ale. Best bourbon we’ve had in years,” and downright “sippable<br />
but mixable.” (Bourbon bonus: steamboat’s own Daniela’s<br />
chocolates and sweets glazes the spicy cowboy pecans with<br />
Breckenridge bourbon too. They are delicious and addicting.)<br />
Boulder Distillery’s 303 Whiskey, with a remarkable deep<br />
caramel color, got high marks for its “yummy smoke flavor”<br />
and being “very smooth, very oaky, good stuff.” peach street<br />
Distillers’ colorado straight Bourbon Whiskey from palisade<br />
gets a thumbs up for being “heavier on the palette in a good<br />
way,” due in no small part to being 92 proof, which is heavy<br />
on the alcohol compared to its contenders. colorado Gold<br />
Distillery’s straight Bourbon Whiskey from cedaredge got high<br />
marks as a “soft sipping bourbon” that’s “smooth and oaky with<br />
nice charcoal.”<br />
Believe it: They’re distilling rum in crested Butte. and it<br />
rocks. Montanya Distillers makes oro High Mountain Rum
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