Hikers Explore

On Episode 147 of the Enormocast, I sit down with current American Alpine Club CEO, Phil Powers. Phil cut his climbing teeth as an instructor at NOLS, and went on to combine a deep personal climbing resumé with guiding and instruction across the US and the world. At the helm of the AAC, Phil has tried to guide the club back to relevancy and broaden its base to include old-timey mountaineers and sneering boulderers alike. As a former NOLS instructor, a guide throughout the US, owner of Jackson Hole Mountain Guides, and spearheading the AAC‘s education component, Phil reckons he’s taught thousands to not only climb, but cherish the places that all climbers love.

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It’s been a good summer. Karel Sabbe set a new FKT on the Appalachian Trail. We roasted Backpacker over its cheddar cheese s’mores. And we hiked and camped and got bug bites from ear to ankle. But before pumpkin spice latte season kicks off, let’s take one last weekend to sit back and watch the campfire flames through the sheen of a tasty cocktail. Here’s what we’ll be sipping.

Dusk

This is what Rob Guimaraes, who tends bar at Union Common in Nashville, Tennessee, likes to drink on campouts. “All three main ingredients are perfect sippers on their own,” he says. “But together in a glass, with a single large cube, they make for a great roaring-fire drink.”

1 1/2 ounces High West Campfire Whiskey
1 ounce Punt e Mes vermouth
1/2 ounce Green Chartreuse
2 dashes Angostura bitters

Add all ingredients to an empty water bottle. Shake, then pour over a single ice cube. If you didn’t bring ice, don’t worry: It goes down fine at the ambient temperature.

Floodwall Nights

If it already feels like fall in the mountains, set the kettle over your fire and make this tea-based cocktail. The recipe is from Eron Plevan, a bartender at ALEX&NDER in Louisville, Kentucky.

1 ounce Copper & Kings Floodwall apple brandy
1 ounce Destillaré Intense Pomegranate
2 ounces hot rooibos tea
1 ounce honey syrup (or to taste)
Cinnamon stick, lemon wedges, and rosemary sprigs, for garnish

Heat a kettle and steep your favorite rooibos tea. In a fresh mug, add all the other ingredients, then top with two ounces of the hot tea. For extra pleasure, garnish your cup with a cinnamon stick, a squeeze of lemon, and a sprig of rosemary. Pleyan suggests singeing the rosemary just a touch in the fire for a bit of smoke flavor.

An Improved Vodka Tonic

This woodsy iteration of the vodka tonic comes courtesy of Yana Volfson, beverage director for two of New York City’s trendy Cosme and Alta restaurants.

2 ounces Zirkova Together vodka
1/4 ounce Zirbenz Stone Pine Liqueur
1/4 ounce lime juice
3 ounces Q Tonic
Pine sprig, for garnish

Add all ingredients to a highball glass or (more likely) your Hydro Flask, mixing in the tonic water last. If bringing ice along is impractical, you can stick the tonic water in a cool stream or lake for an hour. Browse the forest for a perfect pine sprig and use it to give the whole thing a stir.

The Smoky Bear

The best smoky cocktails are made with mescal. We love that this one uses ingredients we usually have on hand at the campsite: hot cocoa and marshmallows.

Hot cocoa (pick your favorite)
1 1/2 ounces mescal
1 sugar cube
Toasted marshmallows

Make the hot chocolate according to package directions. Add the mescal and sugar cube to your glass and stir. Top with as many toasted marshmallows as you can handle.

Flapjack Old-Fashioned

Upcycle your leftover pancakes from breakfast with this maple-flavored Old-Fashioned from Lee Noble, who works at Art in the Age’s Philadelphia tasting room.

2 ounces Art in the Age Maplejack
1/2 ounce maple syrup
4 dashes Bitter Housewife aromatic bitters
Blueberry silver dollar pancake, for garnish

Combine all ingredients in your camp cup and stir. Cut a slit in the pancake and wedge it onto the lip of your cup. Sip and repeat.

The High on Fire

This is a smokier version of your regular ol’ Old-Fashioned. The recipe is courtesy of Chicago-based mixologist Eric Rosentreter.

1 orange peel
2 ounces Redemption High Rye Bourbon
1/2 ounce Averna (an Italian liqueur like Amaro)
1 tablespoon demerara sugar (Regular sugar will work in a pinch.)
1 orange peel

Start by thoroughly wiping the inside of your cup with the orange peel. Next, hold the glass upside down over the fire, allowing the smoke to catch inside. You want to do this pretty far above the fire—you don’t need the heat, you need the smoke (and skip this step if you’re using chemically treated wood). After a minute or so, when the glass smells of smoke and orange, fill it with the remaining ingredients. Add an ice cube or two, stir, and garnish with a touch more orange peel.

Krystin Norman
Age: 28
Hometown: South Lake Tahoe, CA
Occupation: Senior Scientist and Microbiologist at Fremont Brewing, Seattle, WA

PHOTO: Philip Schneider

Growing up skiing at Heavenly, California, Krystin Norman always envisioned herself getting a PhD in cancer research. Instead, she found her calling in brewing beer. Last year, Norman handcrafted the Snowpack Pale Ale, a limited-edition brewski for Fremont Brewing that became the Seattle-based brewery's most successful beer release to date.

They sold out of 2,000 tall boys and 14 kegs in two days and donated $3,000 from proceeds to support avalanche education scholarships through SheJumps, an organization Norman has worked with for three years.

When she's not in the lab monitoring fermentation levels to improve beer quality (the Lord's work), Norman can be found leading freeride courses with SheJumps or coaching youth ski clinics at Crystal Mountain Resort.

Early ski memories:
We were at Mammoth for vacation. It was super windy and snowing really hard. All I wanted was hot chocolate.

First Job:
I worked in a fossilized plant lab at the Desert Research Institute in Reno right after high school.

How I got into brewing:
I had been home brewing for fun and I was really interested in the microbiology of beer. At the time, I was working at a cancer research center, but found an opening at a beer lab. I liked it so much that I went to full time.

What I do at work:
I basically move very precise amounts of liquid (beer) and cells (yeast) around with fancy instruments and glassware.

Why I sold a beer to benefit SheJumps:
A lot of women in the Pacific Northwest are in the backcountry, which is awesome, but many can't afford avy courses. I wanted to help provide affordable avy education for my peers.

Advice I'd give my 15-year-old self:
Learn how to do backflips.

Hobbies other than skiing: 

I love climbing and mountain biking.

Pump up song: 

"Don't Move" by Phantogram. I love listening to that song when I'm driving to the mountains.

What I wanted to be when I was 10: 

A marine biologist. I got certified to scuba dive when I was 10 and I was obsessed with the ocean.

One myth about growing up in a ski town:

I guess it's that all you do is ski and that everyone has goggle tans. In reality, I had plenty of friends who lived in Tahoe and never skied.

On my to-do list:

I want to ski off of the top of Mount Rainier. I don't just want to summit it to summit it; I want to be able to ski off the top.

This story originally appeared in the October 2018 (47.2) issue of POWDER. To have great stories like this delivered right to your door, in print, subscribe here.

This time I used a black/green color combo pattern paracord, attached to the same old snap shackle.  I had added the small sailor's cross knot (1.4mm cord) to the spring pull a couple of years ago, and it's still in good shape, but was faded, so I went over it with a black Sharpie marker to make it look almost new again.

The slightly longer loop end (3") has multiple attachment options and is large enough to ring hitch the lanyard onto MOLLE webbing if desired or to run a belt through it, or ring/cow/girth hitch/lark's head onto a belt loop or directly to a lanyard attachment on a multitool/flashlight/knife/keychain or use the snap shackle end, however you want to configure your everyday carry loadout.

Back in 2009, I had bought a couple of the snap shackles from MIL-SPEC MONKEY, bronze painted/coated black with 1" sized attachment slots, and I think they had an 800lb load rating (fine for utility uses, not life supporting/climbing/suspension though), but most of the black finish has worn off over time, leaving a mostly polished look to it.

My sandpaper seems to be hiding from me since we moved house last year, so the remnants of black paint on the shackle can continue to wear off as it has been doing for almost a decade now.

I've given Pa a number of different lanyards over the years that I've been tying them, but this is the one he's kept on his keychain the longest, and the shackle spring is still in good working order, so I reckon there's years of service still left in it.

The current offerings on the MIL-SPEC MONKEY site for the same design snap shackles seem to be made of stainless steel now instead of bronze, still good enough for keychain and edc gear usage for those that want to use them for their own paracord projects.

There are a variety of snap shackles on eBay and Amazon, and I believe all of the painted/coated ones seem to have the same issue of the finish scratching and wearing off very easily, although that's just a cosmetic issue for some folks, and character marks for others.

If the item description information on the shackles doesn't say what they're made of, I'd just assume it's mystery/pot metal instead of something stronger, so be wary of that.

The lanyard could be untied and re-purposed if needed, but as you can see in the pic of the two year old strand that I removed, it's kinked up quite a bit after having been knotted in the doubled Solomon bar/Portuguese sinnet/king cobra stitch pattern, and it is dirtier than it looks in the photo.

When you consider the dirt and wear and tear, the cord's original strength would be compromised, but still usable in a pinch to replace a broken shoestring/bootlace, or as a temp fix for a broken backpack strap, to tie something up or down and so on, just like a common paracord bracelet would be.

I'd started this lanyard with a 12.5 foot long length of paracord, and when it came time to tuck the end strands I still had more than a foot left over between what was left of both working ends.  So, I used a lacing needle and ran each working end down opposite sides of the lanyard, under the outer knot work, all the way down the center of the lanyard. It can be a tight fit, so having a marlinspike handy can help, and if the lacing needle isn't working, sometimes I'll use hemostats to pull the end strand under the knot work.

If you look at the photos, you may notice the slightly rounded bulge from the added thickness of those strands, as I just wanted to make sure there was at least twelve feet of paracord in the lanyard, and I ended up trimming about five or so inches worth of the cord when I finished the project.

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