Of ski hills and beer

(Disclaimer: neither Harpoon Brewery nor any of its employees influenced this post in any way whatsoever.)

To start off today, have you all seen the new Batman trailer? It looks really sweet. The Dark Knight pits Christian Bale's Batman against Heath Ledger's Joker (yeah, it really is Ledger which is kind of nuts) in what looks like an epic flick. I'm really liking this rebirth of Batman with the grungier, colder, more I'm-Batman-and-I'm-going-to-fuck-you-up feel. I think this is exactly the injection of new energy the series needed. Similarly, while I feel that perhaps the new Superman movie was a bit, well, boring as fuck all and an insult to the series, Casino Royale was a phenomenal rebirth of what is already my favorite film franchise ever, with Daniel Craig's Bond also displaying a grungier, colder, more, I'm-Bond-James-Bond-and-I'm-going-to-fuck-you-up feel. Now, I do not pretend to be a film critic, and I know I'm not one of those lame middle-aged men who live in an apartment above their mother's house debating Lord of the Rings trivia in chatrooms with other cyber-geeks from Stockholm, Sri Lanka, and all points in between--thus, I will say nothing more on the upcoming Batman movie. Just watch it yourself here.

So as I was discussing the other day, we have snow. Lots and lots of it. And so, as our local ski area, Whaleback, opened yesterday, it was only fitting that I go appreciate the only thing worth crawling out of bed for in the wintry months: fresh tracks. For those of you who don't ski, fresh tracks are for a skier what blow jobs are for a high school kid: they're a lot smoother and a hell of a lot more enjoyable than the usual fare. With the promise of fresh tracks and free skiing (from 3pm until 7pm under the lights), my brother, my friend Ryan, and I all piled into Ryan's Subaru and made the pilgramage out to our first ski day of the 07-08 season.

Oh, and I had never night skied before. It turned out to be pretty cool, but not all that it's cracked up to be--kind of like that first blow job.

The skiing itself was pretty good. I got to lay down some fresh tracks on one of the more main trails on the ski hill (yeah, it's really much more of a hill, serviced by a single two-rider lift) as well as cruise some of the smoother groomers. But I tell ya, after only six runs, my knees and quads were pretty tired. I'm becoming an old man.

...Old enough to drink, that is! For the better part of a decade I've read articles in ski magazines about fantastic powder bowls and off-piste adventures, which are always followed by articles about the best après-ski bars and saloons. Finally, at the ripe old age of twenty-one, I was able to take part in one of skiings most sacred rites. (I mean, after Tuckerman Ravine, what else is there? Beer and babes, that's what.) Luckily, Ryan had only just turned twenty-one less than a week before, so I had a drinking buddy. And my brother, well, he's only eighteen which made him the DD. Word.

The bar was pathetic by most bar standards. The stage was run down and the bar itself didn't even have limes! But it did have Harpoon on tap and that, my friends, along with its location not fifty yards from the ski slopes, made this bar perfect for our purposes. This was Ryan's first time out buying pints without mommy and daddy around and it was only appropriate that his first legal beer be of the local, Harpoon Brewery, variety. While their Winter Warmer was a tad too nutmeggy for our liking, their Brown Ale was quite good indeed.

A few pints and a couple of hours later, Ryan and I were ready to be driven home. As fate would have it, my brother decided to stop off at the Mobil station to get some of those big-ass iced tea cans he's so fond of. I followed him in, more-or-less coherent, to see what beer selection they had. One by one I nixed one beer after another: Bud (doesn't even count, really), Heineken, Molson, even Samuel Adam's Boston Lager--nothing seemed to satisfy my needs. Then I saw it. Harpoon's UFO Raspberry. I swear to God, this beer is incredible. It's an unfiltered hefeweizen with a bold raspberry undertone that makes it the ultimate summer beer... or the ultimate beer for anytime that one is getting tanked far too early in the night. Needless to say, my night, which started with me downhill skiing, continued in that direction--downhill.

I woke up this morning feeling a little groggy, but otherwise in perfect shape to take on today's adventure: a guided tour and tasting at the Harpoon Brewery in Windsor, Vermont. More to follow...

Oh yeah, here's the Youtube Clip of the Day. It's warmer, fuzzier remix of a classic, albeit a tad shorter. Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy New Year, Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary... Yeah, word.