Myself during cocktail hour after instructing at Outward Bound, 1980. There was definitely a taste of rum in that Broncos cup. The fleece jacket is home brew as well, and check out that ensolite pad. Click image to enlarge.
From days of yore, long ski traverses, flea infested cabins and pirate ships, comes the brew made from scratch.
Start with water. Boil it. Add brown sugar to the water on your stove till it’s quite sweet (about one cup sugar per 6 mugs of cocktail). In mug or cup, pour 1/2 to one shot of the darkest rum you can buy, the kind of stuff pirates might drink to celebrate a successful massacre or kidnapping and violating a Spanish princess. Add the syrup water to the mug slowly so as not to get a dangerous boilover. NEVER pour rum into pot on stove as the vaporizing alcohol can ignite into a fireball which will trim your pirate beard faster than any princess can do it at your local Super Cuts. Add a tablespoon or two of real butter, preferably fresh, not the stuff you kept in your pirate ship larder for four months (though that stuff will work if you are especially fond of fermentation). Sprinkle with nutmeg and cinnamon to taste. Non pirates can use a cinnamon stick to stir. Real pirates would stir it with their dagger. Quaff, then propose to the princess: “Jump in that barrel me hearty, let’s do it hurricane style!”
You guys got any favorite hut cocktails? Comments on!
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
