Outsider's Almanac » Rentals

Great Vienna Sausage Recipe

brian — Tue, 03 May 2011 17:20:04 +0000

I’ve been experimenting with a bunch of different sausages. My favorite as of late are these Vienna sausages. Tender and plenty juicy and flavorful, when you put these on the grill and crisp up the natural casings they have that mandatory snap that you want in any good sausage, especially a Vienna.

Here’s the recipe:

1lb beef
1lb pork
1/2lb veal shoulder
1/2lb pork fat
1/4 cup + 1 tblspn flour
2 tspn corriander
3 tspn salt
1 tspn paprika
1 tspn sugar
1/2 tspn cayenne
1/2 tspn mace
2 tblspn minced onion
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup ice water

Grind your meat with fine blade. Mix in other ingredients. Freeze for 30 minutes. Grind fine again. Freeze 30 minutes. Grind fine again. Freeze 30 minutes. Stuff into natural casing. Parboil gently for 45 minutes. Then add to the grill to crisp up the skin.

Awesome!

6 Things to Know Before Making Your Snowboarding Trip to SLC

brian — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:54:05 +0000

I’ve been going out to Salt Lake City pretty consistently for the past 5 years, at least once a season, to indulge in what could arguably be the best snow in the world. Over that time I’ve learned a couple things that are worth sharing.

It’s cheap to fly there. Real cheap. Typically it’s about $200 round trip from Chicago to SLC depending on who you fly with. Add in taxes and the cost of shipping your board both ways and it will realistically cost you around $250. Compare that to $450 to Reno or $600 to Aspen or Vail and there’s just no question. Check expedia.com and try not to travel on heavy days like Fridays and Mondays and you should find some great deals.
They have the largest variety of resorts within less than 1 hour of the airport. Sure Reno has Mt. Rose and Aspen has the Highlands, Snowmass and Buttermilk, but SLC has an incredible variety of resorts like The Canyons, Park City, Brighton, Solitude, Alta, Snowbird and more all within 30-45 minutes of the airport.
Buy discount tickets. Utah Ski & Golf has a great selection of discounted tickets for sale right downtown SLC. You can ride most resorts all day, any day for just over $50. In some cases that can save you up to $40 in a single day.
The Park City area is nice because it has plenty of infrastructure to house and distract you while not on the mountain, but Park City gets the least amount of snow of all the resorts. Check SkiUtah.com for an honest daily listing of snow reports. Just this past Sunday the Canyons got 1″ of new snow, whileThe Wasatch Mountains get crazy dumped on consistently that last week of March every year. Last year I was out there for 7 days and they got at least 1 foot of snow 5 of those 7 days and that storm kept up the week after I left. Now, granted, this is an el nino year and snow has been pretty scarce everywhere, but if I were a gambling man I would still put all in that the last week of March is the perfect time to hit your favorite resort or two in the Wasatch Mountains.
For the past few years the Canyons has been running a great deal during that last week of March and first week of April. $200 gets you lodging, 2 lift tickets and 2 breakfasts every day. So far I have not seen them advertising this deal for this year though, the closest being the Ski Free & Breakfast, but you only get that deal if you rent one of their suites that start at $350. Not as good of a deal. I’m going to keep my eyes open and I’ll shout if I see that deal come up. It’s kind of a bummer because then you’re stuck riding the Canyons the whole time you are there, but the price and convenience is just real hard to beat. Plus, if you’re staying at the base of the mountain, no storm, even the one as epic as last season’s that shut down 80 up to Kimball Junction, can keep you off the mountain.

Tahoe Is Rad As Hell, But It’s Time For Us As A Species to Talk Seriously About Gassing the Hippies Once and For All

brian — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:26:55 +0000

I knew when we saw the married couple of hasidic midgets at the airport that magic was in the air, real and ancient magic, the kind of magic that builds nations, changes lives and alters the course of human history. Those little buggers in their devotional doll clothes had clearly been sent by central casting as harbingers of The Great Plenty, though there was little indication as to what form the Plenty wold come. But, after locking paths with those likable little jewish folk, it was clear that grand mysteries were destined to be revealed.

Naturally, since we were about to leave on a snowboarding trip I had assumed that magic would come in the form of fluffy white pillows of dry western snow, sheared rock faces and fresh mountain air. And it did in spades. But, on this fateful trip into that picturesque crease that splits down the center of the lushly decadent acreage of the fiercely individuated Nevada and the ceremoniously broke and broken California, there would be more.

Our plan was to fly into Reno, grab a half day at Mt. Rose then head into Tahoe for a couple days on Heavenly. But as we talked to people at Mt. Rose it become very apparent that, forced to choose, we’d be fools to skip Kirkwood.

30 minutes from the Reno airport, Mt. Rose offers something rare, the ability to leave Chicago in the morning and still have a half day’s worth of riding waiting for you upon landing. Mt. Rose is home to an impressive collection of pretty dramatic chutes and decent off trail runs that were challenging, though a bit rockier than they betrayed on first glance.

On the east side of Mt. Rose there’s the Winter’s Creek Lodge, as fine as any place you might find at a resort to stick your face into beer and it has an all glass wall providing one of the more staggering views of the Sierras we would get all weekend.

After a few good hours of riding and some carbonated medication we set off for our accommodations.

We picked up what seemed like a deal for our room on Craig’s List; $250 for 3 nights at the Diamond Resort, a time share community that was part day care center and part nursing home. It wasn’t a terrible price at $40 a night per person, but it was advertised as having a kitchenette. Unfortunately, the kitchenette consisted of a sink, a small fridge and a microwave, definitely not equipped for actually making food of any consumable sort and rendering that $40 a night price tag a bit more expensive by forcing us to eat out. Another bummer was that the pool and hot tub weren’t outside, a strange decision in a mountain town. Oh, and the foyer between our room and our neighbors smelled like an old person urine, that fine senior solution of one part stale, salty, manwater to two parts medicine. Ah, yes, and the maid service never so much as peaked in our door. But so what, I didn’t take this trip for the accomodations, though it is worth noting that when we return we won’t be staying at the Diamond Resort in South Lake Tahoe.

But where the Diamond Resort with it’s geriatric situations failed us Heidi came to our rescue. And our rescue, in all it’s Nordic splendor, came stacked three high and smothered in butter and warm maple syrup. That’s right, I’m speaking of bacon filled pancakes, specifically Heidi’s Pancake Houses Bacon Stack. The Bacon Stack is a delicious, classic repeller cake filled with chunks of bacon cooked right inside of Heidi’s delicious batter. Heidi’s also offers a bacon waffle which, in retrospect, I think might be even better than the bacon pancakes, the light crunchiness of the waffle I’m guessing will provide an even more appropriate throne upon which that sweet salty hog can hide before running flavor ambushes on your jaded palette. Every dish at Heidi’s is served lovingly large with a clementine on the side and our waitress, Jane, was about as sweet and attentive as you’d want your waitress to be without being creepy or phony or following us home.

Our first full day of riding at Kirkwood killed. Natural bowls, rolling tubes, soft snow and a warm afternoon sun. It delivered on every level you would want and then some. I was loving this one run that we did several times picking it up off of Solitude, scooting behind a terrain park and then ducking into some tree lines. It was a long tube filled with rollers and little grade changes and drops. It hadn’t been touched much and nobody was around when we were riding it.

Later, we dug around on Deadwood Spur for a while picking out some nice lines inside the trees. Trevor ultimately grew several extra pairs of balls and took the t-line up to the top of Larry’s Lip. I’m just a nice midwestern boy whose synapses aren’t quite as damaged as his so I kept chipping away on Deadwood Spur while he did that.

After 4 good hours of riding we bellied up at the Tower to indulge in some of Lake Tahoe Breweries fine devices. The beer was effective enough, perhaps too much so, as before long I found myself on “The Wall” climbing to just over 9,400′ and what I was assuming with increasing certainty would be my complete undoing.

Whinnying like a small, gelded, lamb the only solace I could find was in the continued promises to punch Trevor in the nuts repeatedly as soon as I could find some level ground on which to properly levy my strength. But before too long he was talking me through it and managed to get my brain to more adequately process the information needed to get myself down the mountain.

Once I decided I was actually going to ride the bloody mountain and not slide down as slowly and perpindicular as possible, it was an incredible release. I stopped staring as far below me as my eyes could theorize terrible events and started focusing in the 20′ in front of me that I could actually react and respond to and hope to manage and maintain a desirable fate. I kept my knees bent and soft and popped my hips around as I essentially jumped down the mountain from point to point. I stayed loose, remained focused and fell into a rhythm the eliminated everything in the world from existence but my brain and the contours of this holy mountain.

I got to the bottom, my lungs dialated, my pupils air tight and my whole body running at a resonant hum. I couldn’t get back up the mountain soon enough.

We did a few more runs, hit the Tower for some more libations and cheesy fries, before ultimately loading up our coffees and heading back down the pass to South Lake Tahoe. We still had a day of riding left, but it was clear my peak had passed.

That night we hit the Lakeside Casino for an $8.50 Prime Rib dinner, got a peanut butter smothered ice cream at the Red Hut and passed out watching the X-Games.

Sunday was a gorgeous bluebird day, but my legs were shot to hell. Early on Trevor hiked up to the highest point on the resort at Thimble Peak and rode down the mountain to random spikes of hoots and hollering.

We split the rest of the day between the taps and the trails lighting out of Kirkwood before the musical illiteracy of the spongey-headed native Californians could truly negatively and permanently effect us.

Seriously, I heard a dub remix of Pink Floyd’s “The Lunatic Is In the Grass” not once, but twice in the same day. I’d rather be raped by a board room full of advertising geeks dressed in paisley priest outfits and farting axe body spray from their bleeding pores than have to sit through another downbeat of that tasteless morass of sonic psuedo-goovism ever again.

I don’t know, maybe I had had too much of that cookie from that kind native and it was making me edgy and cranky, but for the love of all that has self-respect and a functional state economy I needed to get home STAT, take myself a music bath and wash this third rate schwag rock hippie horse shit off me for once and for good, “bro”.

We retreated to the nursing home and slowly, cathartically, and with a kind of religious attention to detail cleaned ourselves and shuffled out the door for the casino. It had been an amazing run, Tahoe had been quite good to us and the midgets had pulled their tiny little magical weight. We bellied up for some Black Jack that paid for our dinner and drinks and brought a slow, grounded, mahogauny sensibleness to our weekend’s pursuits.

Sitting at the Harrah’s about to get dealt my 6th of 9 Black Jacks I would win for the evening when the pit boss summed it up better than I ever could, he said:

“This is fucking Nevada, sir, you can smoke in here if you like. Hell, we’ve got gambling, fishing, all kinds of skiing, prostitution, those amazing lakes out there and our bars are open 24 hours a day, every day, no matter what. Could you possibly need anything else?”

Yes, one other thing. Bacon filled pancakes…

Full Outsider’s Almanac Website Still Coming

brian — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 03:52:58 +0000

Don’t lose hope dear internetting ones, we still have every intention of launching the full Outsider’s Almanac website in the near future, it just won’t be quite as soon as we had hoped. We’re pretty insanely busy these days, between writing projects, client needs, body/mind/spirit rehabbing and the pursuit of winter in it’s many splendered and distracting forms, but you should expect to see the site live by around April 1st, 2010.

We’ve got our sites on making Outsider’s Almanac the most exhaustive and user friendly site for all Outsider activities by combining tutorials with expert articles, videos, web based and mobile communication apps, up-to-the-minute live and critical information on sites and conditions, gear reviews, site reviews, events, and so much more.

Like you, we love the Outside, it’s beautiful out here, and boy is it easy to get distracted. We wouldn’t want it any other way.

Crazy Cheap Steamboat Ski Packages for Early and Late Season

brian — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:47:36 +0000

You might remember my post about the Canyons Spring Gruv from a few weeks ago? Well, it looks like Steamboat Ski Resort is trying to match that, but they’re doing it both at the beginning and the end of the season.

From November 24 – December 18 and then again from April 4 – 11, Steamboat is offering Free Lift tickets. Or, at least, that is what they are calling it. For $687 you get 3 nights in a two-bedroom condo and 4x 2-day lift tickets. Do the math on that, that’s just over $170 a person for 2 days snowboarding and 3 nights at the mountain. Buy your third day pass at the full $76 price and you’re getting 3 days of snowboarding and 3 nights lodging for under $250!!

I’m keeping my eyes on the weather reports and jumping a plane at the first sighting of a good blow. This is an amazing ski package.

I’m thinking we’re going to see a lot more great ski deals like these this season, please post in the comments if you know of any.

Lake Vermilion Fishing Vacation Reviewed

brian — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:46:30 +0000

As I’m sure you’re aware if you’ve been following the OA blog these past few days, we just got back from our second annual fishing trip. While our fishing skills still require some earnest attention our efforts at decadence and leisure were masterfully honed prior to our departure and, fortunately for us, our destination this year, Lake Vermilion, offered as much for the truly leisure prone as it did for the cadre of world class fisherman it hosts annually.

This year’s trip was, in every manner, a marked improvement over last years trip and last year was nothing to sneeze at. We ventured up to Heaven on Stevens Lake in the UP, MI enjoying some modest fishing (some bass, a few pike, and plenty of pan fish) as well as a chartered trip on Lake Superior hosted by the fearless and stealy-eyed Dave Kimar. If you’re up in the UP and want to dine on some seriously delicious Lake Trout I highly suggest tugging the sleeve of Mr. Kimar and make sure he takes you to the Stannard Rock location. There was a frightful moment during our excursion where Matty snagged a lake trout that attempted to snap his pole in half. Without missing a beat, Dave jumped half over his rail and snagged the trout by it’s snout, festooned his foot for leverage and pulled the slimy, barking beast into the boat with both hands, a gnarled GPC cigarette still clinched between his teeth. Taking a breath, he dragged on his smoke and cooly removed it from his wind-scabbed lips. He looked over at me with a mischievous smile and punched the fish between the eyes killing it instantly. As he tossed the limp demon into our cooler he flipped a whisp of his long white hair and hissed, “Welcome to the club mate.”

Dave Kimar, when he’s not running chartered fishing trips onto Lake Superior, spends his time drinking Old Grandad Whiskey and carving his grave stone from the reformed metal of a 1947 Plymouth Mercury Club Coupe, the car he lost his virginity in. He told us he’s not interested in putting dates or religious affiliations on his tomb, but instead he’s only going to etch one phrase on it when it’s ready to go live: “I caught my lunch and I ate yours, too.”

But, while last year’s trip was a great success, this year we wanted to find a spot with a bit more seclusion and a slightly larger expanse then the 65 acres of last years Stevens Lake. Lake Vermilion with it’s 40,000+ acres, 365 islands and over 45 mile run from end to beautiful end safely fit that bill. Just 20 miles south of Ontario, Lake Vermilion is teeming with crystal clear water, a large bald eagle population, and claims to be home to otters, moose, black bear and some of the best Muskie fishing in the country.

Lake Vermilion was a serious upgrade from last year and our accomodations on the lake were a marked improvement as well. After some modest web hunting we came across the Eagle’s Nest, a log cabin styled house with 3 bedrooms, satellite tv, a hot tub, jacuzzi bath, extensive deck, fire pit and all glass a-frame that over looks it’s perch at the far apex of Black Bay. Every last amenity was given careful consideration and provided in the most purposefully articulated manner possible down to the providing of 2 fully charged walkie-talkies making communication between people at the house and those at the dock – and the other end of the 110 steps downhill to get there – completely effortless. All the multitudes of lights and fans were well marked and the “Cabin Manual” gave clear explanation of any question you might have even before having it. When we ran up against a question we called the number provided and our host answered promptly giving us both reassurance and a warm attitude.

With 3.1 acres of private land backed up by national forest and the only other house anywhere in the back of the bay being another rental that was uninhabited during our stay we were able to have the seclusion, the comfort and the rustic excesses we were in search of. I have had few greater pleasures than sitting under the star-lit night sipping 12 year Glenlevit and listening to Joanna Newsom’s “Y’s”
through the Bose outdoor speakers wired from the stereo inside the Eagle’s Nest.

But long afternoon’s and slow, steady evenings were only the spaces between the important notes of this trip. While a properly timbered unwind is paramount to a savory vacation the truly important moments of a fishing adventure are steward in the golden hours of the morning and dusk. For this, our twice daily hunt for the elusive Walleye, we turned to Gander Mountain and the wonderful folks at the Spring Bay Resort for proper dressing.

I broke my fishing pole somehow during the off season so I had to pick up a new one. I settled for the Ugly-Stik Lite a totally servicable pole for my purposes. I moved the Daiwa Sweepfire from my previous pole and was ready to fish in under 5 minutes. I actually prefer the feel of Matt’s pole that he picked up from Cabela’s, the Pro Guide IM6, as it sets a bit easier in the hand than my Ugly-Stik Lite, but honestly this is only a minor and fairly unimportant distinction when you get down to it. Probably the best aspect of Matt’s Cabela’s rod is it’s price point, coming in at under $50 for both a rod and reel is a pretty sweet deal in today’s odd market.

While at Gander Mountain we also picked up plenty of tackle (which we subsequently donated to Lake Vermilion) and I picked up a nice and toasty flannel that helped take some of the bite out of our late dusk fishing excursions.

The good folks at Spring Bay Resort hooked us up with a 50hp Alumacraft, the Lunker, for $100 off their posted price and kept us armed with fishing nets as we somehow managed to lose one during the week. Joe Amundsen, the owner of Spring Bay Resort, refused to take any money from me for the replacement net he only laughingly inquired about just how much the three of us must be drinking. It was this kind of warm, accommodating, laid back attitude we found from – literally – everyone we interacted with up at Lake Vermilion at the surrounding areas. Coming from Chicago with all it’s noise and tempo it’s easy to forget that, with a few good decisions and a restful attitude, life can provide you with every essential you might need and, in honor of that, you can act in accord with that wisdom. If nothing else, our trip up to Lake Vermilion in northern Minnesota reminded me of that and, for my money, that was the best result I could have hoped for from our trip.

Dining is always an essential part of a trip and, as far as essentials go, one that receives more than a fair amount of attention from us here at Outsider’s Almanac. In fact, at this point, if you didn’t know better – and you may not – you might think Outsider’s Almanac is a food blog as, I believe, we are statistically heavy on posts about eats. But, while we’re not exclusively a food blog, we’d be criminally remiss to pretend that a majority of our outside activities (especially in the summer) constellate around a variety of culinary investigations. Our fishing trip was no different.

I’ve spoken a bit about one of our favorite meals we had on the trip in another post, the Poutine and Walleye dinner was amazing. We also had some deadly delicious barbequed chicken, some bleu cheese stuffed burgers, several variations of Breakfast Poutine (just add over easy eggs and toast, yo!) as well as the ubiquitous prime New York Strip. But these are just the meals we prepared for ourselves, on any good trip it’s vital to venture Outside (ahem) and see what the local faire has to offer.

We hit 3 restaurants during our trip, 2 of which were on the road to our destination and the 3rd, the Landing, was on Lake Vermilion. The first place we stopped was at our hotel in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, the Green Mill. We didn’t really expect much going in except for half-priced happy hour hores d’voures and pints. But we got inside and found that not only did they have a pretty decent selection of food but they also had this beautiful copper tower for their fairly extensive collection of pulls. It being Wisconsin we felt obligated to drink the New Glarus Spotted Cow flowing cold and steady and, it being vacation also, we managed to find a few shots of Jameson to spill across our chins as well. Combine their very serviceable food, with their great selection of pulls and the apparently rigorous hiring standards of lovely young co-eds from Eau Claire University and the Green Mill turned out to be a exceptionally pleasant surprise after a longish day of driving.

The next day we stopped at Gronk’s in Duluth for a late lunch. I was feeling pretty ill so I stuck to the Spotted Cow and deep fried cheese curds. But Matt and Alex ordered up the Gronk burger – a half pound patty covered in grilled onion, deep fried provolone and BBQ sauce. It was a delicious burger to be sure, the bun in itself a revelation. The only drawback is that the patties were clearly not hand packed nor were they cooked to order. A couple of odd decisions to be sure, but an otherwise pretty delightful sandwich.

And, if you’re stopping at Gronk’s, and you’re feeling froggy, they offer the Enger Tower Burger challenge. Named after a 5 story tower in Duluth this 6 patty, 5lb burger is served to the more heroic of patrons for a price of about $20. If you can manage to eat the entire Enger Tower and a basket of fries in under 2 hours you also get a shirt boasting your savage victories to others. Frankly, it seems to me if you are able to complete the challenge you should have your burger comped in addition to getting the t-shirt, otherwise I would have a hard time finding the incentive in a t-shirt to make myself sick on burger for what would certainly be at least a couple of days. But, some odd sons of bitches enjoy a culinary challenge and measure their size pant leg in how much food per pound they can put down. For you, I offer the Enger Tower Burger Challenge.

Here’s a pretty lousy video of a kid allegedly meeting the challenge:

Our final restaurant experience was born from the riddled hands of desperation and bounded determination to eat some freaking fried fish on this trip. As the Walleye gods mocked us from below we stayed resolute and made damned sure our lips would drape across the tiny acreage of battered Walleye before leaving Lake Vermilion. Our strategy was elegant in it’s simplicity: drive the boat over to the Landing, order 3 plates of the $9.95 All-You-Can-Eat Friday Fish Fry (soup and salad bar included) and proceed to get drunk on cheap beer and Jameson. As one of the few plans that remained ordered from concept to completion our trip to the Landing proved a great success. The Walleye was fresh and well breaded with a cornmeal batter, the service was unwaveringly sweet and the company we kept, a couple from the twin cities who just inherited a house on the lake, was both full of great stories and at least as pickled as us. If you’re at the Landing on a Friday evening in the summer or early fall keep an eye open for our fabled friends Chad and Julie they’ll offer you no end of enthusiastic and good-spirited trouble to help the buttery delicious Walleye go down.

I received a great piece of wisdom one time from Hunter Thompson’s co-conspirator and Road Manager, Wayne Ewing. He told me that he learned early on when traveling with Hunter to always pack the night before as “You never know what terrible thing may happen around dawn.” I may be stupidly stubborn at times, but I am not stupid, so I learned quite quickly to heed any wisdom handed to me either from the Good Doctor by way of Wayne or directly from Wayne himself, the unfortunate glutton who had to clean up after Thompson’s excess for the better part of 15 years. And, in this and every other case, the wisdom proved highly profitable. Had I not done the better part of my packing the night before our departure the 10 AM drive time might have rightfully killed me.

There’s another piece of advice related to this trip I can only offer adamantly. If you’re staying at the Eagle’s Nest – and you should definitely do yourself that great favor – pay the extra $100 for the “Pack and Go” option, allowing you to, as you might guess, simply pack your bags and drag your vacated and bruised body to your vehicle for the slow and labored escape back to the dark realities of your day to day life. Nobody likes to clean, especially on vacation, and there really is no better way to spend one’s money – at home or on the prowl – than to enable someone else to tend to the unappealing and menial tasks of life. Save your time for the Good Work and always, always keep your eyes on the prize which is, usually, located just Outside your door.

Amazing End of Season Deal @ the Canyons

brian — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:16:25 +0000

Probably the single most difficult part of snowboarding, when you live in Chicago, is being able to come up with the cash to afford your fix. There is nothing worth riding within reasonable riding distance so any attempt to tap your vein appropriately means time off work, airfair, hotel accomodations, food, drinks, shuttle service, and, of course, lift tickets. It’s not hard to see how this can become prohibitively expensive extremely fast.

Because of this I’m always looking for some way to cut back on expenses without sacrificing experience. One truly great deal I’ve found, and my wife and I continue to exploit year after year, is the Canyons ‘SpringGruv’ special. ‘SpringGruv’ is typically the last 2 weeks that the Canyons are open for the season, this year it was from March 21st – April 6th. During that time the resort hosts live music and the infamous Pond Skimming event where participants get dolled up in costumes, thoroughly hamboned and attempt to cross a fairly large and very cold body of water without sinking.

Honestly, the day of the Pond Skimming is typically a day me and wifey-poo take off, sip cocktails by the pool and escape the throngs of humans denting up the mountain and filling out the Ganjola line like it’s Disneyland. But, for the locals, this is a huge draw.

Oh, and frankly, the music typically sucks at ‘SpringGruv’ as well. This year featured the Wailers, Bob Marley’s old back up band which has been pretty thoroughly renovated to compensate for time. I have a hard time stomaching reggae ever since I got past age 13 and it’s even harder to sit by and watch throngs of Hard Lemonade sipping Trustafarians ease their well-considered vibrations to music that has more post-consumer recycling applied to it than the bottle they’re drinking out of. Though, we did happen to be staying in the hotel room next to a few of the Wailers and, being the solid, good-natured folk you would expect, they managed to deliver on more important levels than simply the stale ‘Redemption Songs’ of days of yore.

But, I digress. The reason I drag my middle western tuchus to The Canyons in Park City, Utah every end of March is twofold:

Hands down, no bones about it, Utah has the best snow in the world. In the world. And it DUMPS those last few weeks in March.
The lodging deals at the Canyons are off-the-hook.

We paid, this past year, $200 a night to stay in a decent sized room with a kitchenette at the base of the mountain. For that $200 we also got 2x $25 breakfasts every morning and 2x the $80 lift tickets. Not to mention right out our door is a heated pool, a hot tub and 2, yes 2, gas grills where we cook our dinner (salmon was the meal of choice this year). Combine that sick deal with the incredible natural bowls that are all over this GIANT mountain (I think there are like 6 peaks at the Canyons?), add-in Southwest offering roundtrips to SLC from Chicago for under $200 and top it off with the majesty of this fine planet’s atmosphere bestowing us with the best snow in the world night after night and there’s just no beating it, no way.

This year we were there from Sunday – Sunday and it literally dumped at least 1 foot of delicious, delicious powder every day from Tuesday – Sunday and kept that up for at least another week after we left. It was crazy.

The downside: The Canyons resort is pretty lame. The food is just mediocre and the bars are closed by 8pm. If you need to drink you’re going to have to rent a car, take the free public bussing (which are clean and on time typically), or get raped by a cab service.

The upside: Crazy cheap deal and the best snow you’ll ever ride in your life.