Glad Holidays from the POWDER workers.We hope you are studying this text in between laps, but when not, know that almost all of the POWDER workers is not snowboarding both. Mom Nature has cursed our locales with a moist and heat begin to the season, however the tides seem like turning. Here is hoping we’re snowboarding by New 12 months’s…Within the meantime, I’ve requested every member of the POWDER workers to put in writing a brief story or recall a fond reminiscence associated to the Vacation season. I gave them carte blanche, and so they delivered.With out additional ado, get pleasure from these vacation tales from POWDER writers Ian Greenwood and Izzy Lidsky, social media producer Beny Huckaby, and yours actually.Glad Holidays, associates!The 2026 POWDER Photograph Annual is right here! Search for a print copy on a newsstand close to you, or click on right here to have a replica shipped on to your entrance door.
The Greatest Christmas Current(s) Ever.
By: Matt Lorelli, Senior Editor, POWDER
As I rolled over to have a look at the neon-green numbers of my bedside alarm clock (I didn’t have a smartphone fairly but), I smiled. “6:12 a.m.? That’s late sufficient.”Popping away from bed with the teenage limberness I now yearn for, I opened my bed room door to a darkish and quiet home. I might odor the pleasant scent of the 11-foot Christmas tree that stood tall within the first-floor household room, presents now loaded beneath it, I thought.It was Christmas morning, and as ordinary, I used to be the primary one awake in the home.I walked downstairs, however earlier than letting the household canine out for his or her morning routine, I stole a glimpse of the items wrapped underneath the tree. My eyes have been instantly drawn to the 2 lengthy planks leaning towards the wall adjoining to the tree. They have been sandwiched collectively and completely wrapped in Santa Claus wrapping paper. Skis. Oh my god. Skis.My Mother has a strict rule that every one presents should be opened with the complete household within the room. Remembering this, but additionally floored with pleasure, I walked over to the skis, picked them up ever so rigorously, after which positioned them again down. I seen a present tag connected to the wrapping paper.“To: MatthewFrom: Mother + DadWe hope you get pleasure from these in Utah!”“Utah? We’re going to Vermont subsequent week, not Utah,” I whispered to myself.Confused, excited, and fearful that I’d get caught taking a look at presents earlier than I used to be purported to, I ran out of the household room. I let the canine out, got here again inside the home, after which…waited.For 2 hours, I waited. When my mother and father and brother lastly got here downstairs, I sprinted into the lounge, tore open the skis, and virtually exploded with pleasure. A model new pair of Salomon Shogun 182s. A dream come true.Laughing, my Mother requested, “You noticed these earlier than you have been purported to, didn’t you?”“Sure,” I admitted, “However what’s this about Utah? I believed we have been going to Vermont subsequent week for our ski journey.”“Santa doesn’t come to this home anymore,” my Dad chimed in, “However that doesn’t imply your mother and father don’t have some tips up their sleeves.”Reaching over to me, my Dad handed me airplane tickets to Salt Lake Metropolis that have been scheduled to go away the subsequent day.“Merry Christmas. You able to ski some Utah powder on these new skis?”Merry Christmas and Glad Holidays, associates. Be secure, have enjoyable, and contemplate giving a beloved one a pair of skis for a Vacation current. Who is aware of, it’d change their life endlessly.
GMVozd/Getty Photos
Christmas Goose
By: Ian Greenwood, Author, POWDER
For so long as I can bear in mind, my dad’s cooked his “well-known” Christmas goose. I name it well-known as a result of to our household, and the 20 or so Christmas regulars we invite to our home every winter, it’s a recurring staple. With out the goose, there is no such thing as a Christmas within the Greenwood family.Is it good fame? Or infamy? I haven’t interviewed everybody who’s tried the goose for this tidbit, so actually, who is aware of? I prefer it. I’m additionally biased. It’s my dad’s factor, and I’ll at all times assist my dad. He might combine Hamburger Helper with cranberry sauce and mayonnaise, and I’d fortunately move off the ensuing gruel as a secret household recipe. Anyhow, one yr, in my early maturity, I lastly obtained recruited to assist him cook dinner. It was time to move the torch, marking a pivotal second. I imagined that sometime, within the distant future, I’d train my children the identical arcane strategies. I paid shut consideration as my dad ran via the weathered recipe. However earlier than stringing the hen or coating its pores and skin with salt and pepper, we had some preparation to take care of. That included sharpening knives. This isn’t a crimson herring.Fastidiously, I began slicing an onion for the inventory. Nicely, perhaps I wasn’t being cautious, or I obtained distracted. Both method, the knife, glancing off the onion’s exterior, slid down in the direction of my finger, which was perched like a juicy, susceptible sausage on the reducing board. Metallic met pores and skin, and a tidy chunk of my index finger obtained separated. It harm, I feel. Shock accidents have a humorous method of blurring your senses. Blood welled up on the tip of my finger. My mother and I raced to the hospital, the place, utilizing chemical substances, a physician cauterized the wound. This half positively felt dangerous, as my shock had worn off. So did the throbbing in my finger, which persevered for days afterward. Principally, although, my ego stung. A goose and an onion had defeated me. This didn’t bode properly for the way forward for the Greenwood mantle.And that’s why the tip of my finger is flat on one facet. I hope, fairly than visiting the ER this Christmas as I did, that you just go snowboarding. Unintended physique modifications aren’t an excellent reward. Powder turns are significantly better.P.S.The goose lives on. I’ve since helped cook dinner it with out shedding any digits.
Roberto Ricciuti/Redferns through Getty Photos
Gin n’ Juice in Casper, Wyoming
By: Izzy Lidsky, Author, POWDER
Someday in the course of the pandemic once I was nonetheless dwelling in Colorado, I’d discovered a tattoo artist in Denver who did intricate, handpoked tattoos that I used to be shortly obsessive about. I emailed her when her books opened in hopes of snagging one in all her very coveted tattoo spots, however with out a lot optimism that I’d really get one. Alas, I heard nothing, and ultimately gave up on the thought of getting a bit from her.Greater than two years later, properly after I’d moved to Jackson, I obtained an e-mail saying I’d been taken off her waitlist and asking once I want to schedule a tattoo appointment. Shocked, I responded and mentioned I might possible make it to Denver earlier than Christmas, and figured I’d make a visit out of it to see my household for the vacations. So, three days earlier than Christmas, and within the very worst snowstorm of the yr, my associate on the time and I packed up my truck and headed out at daybreak.Regardless of the sideways blowing snow that greeted us driving via Grand Teton Nationwide Park, solely minutes into our journey, we pressed on, hoping that we’d have the ability to lose the storm as we obtained nearer to Colorado. Sadly, the climate had different plans, and as we arrived in Capser, Wyoming, some 4 hours later, the one freeway out and in of city closed. Formally thwarted, we pulled over at a fuel station to discover a place to remain for the evening.The primary resort we referred to as had one room left and was joyful to e-book it for us. Once we inquired about their restricted emptiness and requested if it was as a result of roads, the receptionist responded, “It’s as a result of Snoop Dogg’s on the town tonight!”A number of hours later, we discovered ourselves having fun with the water slide and scorching tub at our resort and have been newly in possession of tickets to see Snoop Dogg that evening. We loved a hearty meal on the native Texas Roadhouse, full with a fishbowl margarita. It was -22 levels outdoors.The evening introduced us to Casper’s huge stadium-style venue, the place, alongside a woman in a full Grinch costume, we noticed Warren G, the Ying Yang Twins, T-Ache, and Snoop Dogg’s Holidaze of Blaze tour. Full with a reside band, strippers, and Snoop smoking some very unlawful weed in Wyoming, it was a dream come true. We purchased my Mother a t-shirt and regarded it successful.The following morning, we awakened earlier than daybreak to proceed our drive. Lower than an hour in, I had my associate pull over so I might puke up the evening earlier than’s Texas Roadhouse and watch it freeze on the way in which out of my mouth in -32 diploma temps. In the end, we arrived on the tattoo parlor, and three hours later, I walked out with a tattoo of two dancing skeletons that I affectionately named Snoop Dogg and T-Ache, and understanding it was a Christmas I’d always remember.
	Adie Bush
Yellow Christmas
By: Beny Huckaby, Social Media Producer, POWDERNothing screams vacation spirit like pissing your pants. Right here’s the story of my first vacation ski journey to Vermont. It took me some time to comprehend it, however I really grew up in a little bit of a bubble when it got here to ski terrain. What made me understand? The primary and solely time I peed my pants whereas snowboarding.Rising up in one of many nation’s lake-effect machines in central/upstate New York, I used to be used to comparatively constant snowfall, storm snowboarding, and the occasional champagne-powder day, however it got here with a catch—quick runs. My native ski hills had one or two lifts, and for those who straight-lined from the highest, you’d be again on the backside in underneath 5 minutes.So, when my household went on a Christmas-time journey to an expansive ski resort in Vermont, the scale of the mountains caught me a bit off guard.Whereas lapping Sugarbush with my household and associates, I began preventing the urge to pee. My FOMO received. I caught with the group. Ultimately, as a fiercely impatient but fiercely impartial fourth grader, I made a decision I’d break up off, meet my household on the base, and bomb it to a toilet as quick as humanly potential.I bear in mind speed-tucking down the mountain, utilizing each ounce of power I needed to maintain it in, when a horrifying realization set in: how might a full-speed run nonetheless take fifteen minutes?By the point I reached the underside, I used to be in full panic mode. I’d been advised the loos have been in a yurt, so I skied on to the primary one I noticed. I popped my skis off and sprinted inside, solely to find it was a ski demo tent. The precise lavatory yurt was about seventy-five yards away.I ran again outdoors and started trudging via delicate snow in my kid-sized, size-four ski boots. Already livid with my impatience and normal incompetence, I lastly gave up. I bear in mind the sensation vividly: heat pee rolling down my snowpants and into my boots.I used to be often a reasonably robust child, however when my household arrived, I used to be devastated. I skied again to the condominium with my dad and instantly took a restoration nap.In the event you’re questioning, I’ve since realized to pee within the woods, handle my FOMO, and keep away from full-blown powder Panic. It’s at all times value a fast cease on the lodge if it means snowboarding a bit of looser afterward. And now that lodges additionally imply chilly beer, I’ve grown fairly keen on a noon break. Get pleasure from these laps, people.
Associated: The Greatest Pair of Ski Gloves Will not Value $200, They Create Reminiscences
