I want to live and work in a mountain town this summer, but finding affordable housing is proving to be near impossible. Can you give me any tips or direction so I can turn this dream into reality? —A Frustrated Flatlander

“I came for the winter and stayed for the summer” is a common mountain-town refrain. That sentiment, combined with a pandemic-fueled real estate boom, has resulted in a dearth of affordable housing, both seasonal and permanent, in mountain towns across America.

In many small western communities like Steamboat Springs, Durango, and Snowmass, Colorado; Sun Valley, Idaho; and Mammoth Lakes, California, it used to be that employees and locals lived in houses, and tourists stayed in hotels. The reverse is now true: houses are monopolized by Airbnb and VRBO rentals and second homeowners, and some hotels are being purchased by ski resorts and converted to affordable employee housing.

Sadly, more and more essential jobs are going unfilled, some with six-figure salaries, because potential employees can’t find reasonably-priced rentals. As a result, many mountain towns are shifting their focus to year-round, affordable-housing programs. In Wyoming, for example, Habitat for Humanity of the Greater Teton Area helps to fill critical nursing and teaching positions by building homes for individuals and families making between 30 to 80 percent of the area’s median income.

What does this mean for seasonal workers? Here’s my advice for finding affordable summer housing in a mountain town.

Find Towns Working on Their Housing Shortages

Whitefish, Montana, the gateway to Glacier National Park, is one such place. Its , which supports full-time and seasonal employees, is funded in part by a added to local lodging, food, and transportation. Half of the contributions from its participants go to Housing Whitefish, a nonprofit that facilitates affordable housing.

Part of last year’s $52,000 allocation went toward a newly launched rental-assistance program, modeled after a similar one in . Over 12 months, Housing Whitefish will distribute a total of $64,620—or $5,385 a month—to 17 qualified applicants. (The money goes directly to the property owner or management company.)

The , which advocates for better options in the North Tahoe and Truckee, California communities, aims to add inventory for the local workforce through its recently launched Accessory Dwelling Unit pilot program. Homeowners are incentivized to add rental space that includes a bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen, and in return they receive assistance with building, permitting, and leasing processes.

Although the organization can’t help you find housing, it does direct prospective renters to resources through the .

In 2022, Breckenridge, Colorado, allocated $50 million to a five-year workforce housing plan to create some 1,000 new units. The town’s housing fund also receives money from a short-term rental fee requiring owners to pay a set amount for each bedroom they rent. The goal is for nearly half of the town’s workforce to live in Breckenridge, with a little over a third of the housing inventory reserved for locals.

In 2016, Aspen Skiing Co., the town’s largest employer, purchased six 280-square-foot tiny homes for about $100,000 each and put them in the Aspen-Basalt Campground for both summer and winter seasonal employees. The project was such a success that it now offers 69 tiny homes for hires, and for the first time this year has introduced units designed to accommodate year-round employees. Units range from $550 to $750 a month, and summer leases are available from May 15 through October 31. The units currently have a waitlist for Aspen Skiing Company employees.

Employers in Sun Valley, including the Limelight Ketchum hotel, have also purchased tiny homes in the Meadows RV Park, 3.5 miles away, to rent to employees. Many of these programs run on an application system and most take enrollment for summer employees in March.

Land a Job Before You Head Out

Many large employers, notably ski resorts such as Aspen Snowmass, , and , Colorado, or , Vermont, offer housing or make an effort to help you find housing after you’ve been hired. Sun Valley Resort, for example, has two dorm-style buildings with free laundry and fitness centers available for seasonal employees on a waitlist basis. Two-to-four-person accommodations range from $140 to $210 per person every two weeks. There’s also an option to pay day-to-day, starting at $10 a day.

Beyond ski resorts, places like offer town employees short-term seasonal rentals, for jobs at businesses like the recreation center or golf course, as well as rental-deposit-assistance programs.

Betsy Crum, housing director for the town of Snowmass Village, notes that winter housing is typically full, while there’s sometimes more housing available for summer workers.

Montana’s Big Sky Housing Trust has housing for up to 100 seasonal residents in four- and five-bedroom dorm-style configurations. These units are leased to local independent employers. Lone Mountain Land Company, another major employer in Big Sky, offers dorm-style housing for up to 400 seasonal residents employed by their entities.

Check Out These Helpful Housing Websites and Social Media Sites

Due to the huge demand for housing, many landlords avoid popular rental-listing sites Craigslist and Zillow. One resident seeking a new tenant for housing she has in Carbondale, Colorado, 30 miles from Aspen, didn’t publicly post a listing because she knew she’d be overwhelmed with calls. Instead, she put the word out quietly to friends and looked at posts from people in need of housing on a local Facebook group, .

In fact, local Facebook community groups or neighborhood-focused sites like often have rental listings you won’t find on larger, public sites like Craigslist. is a free site where you can find a roommate or a room available to rent within a house.

When posting that you’re seeking housing, be clear about your employment situation, desired rental dates, and budget. Younger people should present themselves as a mature, responsible option, preferably coming in with a job already secured. (For example: “Hello, I’m coming here to work for the Solar Institute and need a place to stay from mid-June through July that’s less than $600 a month.”)

You might find success on , a housing marketplace for vacation towns that pays property owners to convert their homes to short- and long-term rentals for the local workforce. Mountain destinations include Woodstock, Vermont; Truckee and South Lake Tahoe, California; Wood River Valley, Idaho; East Placer County, California; and Eagle County, Colorado.

Finally, is a membership-based platform (starting at $10.75 a month) where you can find house-sitting or pet-sitting gigs.

Consider 5 More Resources

1. Look at a Town’s Website

Many communities offer housing programs or partner with local nonprofits or housing authorities, like the , to administer programs. “It’s always worth a call to any city’s housing development and housing authority to see if they have resources,” says Daniel Sidder, executive director of Housing Whitefish.

2. Embrace Camping or Vanlife

In Colorado, and have options for free car camping for a season. You can shower at local rec centers.

3.ÌęCruise the Town

Some good old-fashioned neighborhood drive-bys to spot “For Rent” signs posted outside of apartments, on community boards at grocery stores, or in coffee shops can lead to deals, too.

4. Talk to Locals

Lindsay Nohl, 46, enjoyed free communal housing in Tucson, Arizona, while working as the director of NOLS Southwest. But when the campus closed during Covid, she moved to Teton Valley, Idaho. Recently, she made her eighth move in four years, as landlords continue to increase prices or start to rent their properties on Airbnb.

Her go-to strategy for finding cheap housing on the fly? Word of mouth. Another lesson: be flexible. Even though Nohl hasn’t had a roommate in two decades, she’s now paying $1,000 a month to share a two-bedroom, 800-square-foot house so she can remain in Teton Valley for the summer.

5.ÌęScan Newspaper Classifieds

You might come across opportunities to pet-sit or nanny. Or working as a property manager can also lead to free or affordable housing.

Weigh Your Options

The last thing you should consider, Flatlander, is which mountain towns are too pricey or too popular. For example, Steamboat, Aspen, and Telluride, Colorado, as well as Jackson, Wyoming, and Big Sky, Montana, have reputations as luxury vacation escapes, which means housing is in high demand and the cost of living will be greater there than in lesser-known but more economical mountain towns like Le Grande, Oregon, and Reno, Nevada. Or even Laramie, Wyoming, which has a lot going for it.

Many seasonal jobs pay minimum wage, which varies from state to state. In Utah and Wyoming, for example, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, while Montana pays $10.30 an hour, Colorado $14.42 an hour, and California $16 an hour.

You should also consider free services offered by the mountain town you’re considering. Aspen is expensive, but it offers free public transportation, which is another way to help save on costs.

Spending a summer working in a mountain town can be one of the best experiences of a young person’s life. I hope my advice lands you good, affordable housing. I’ll be pulling for you.

Travel-advice columnist Jen Murphy has scored affordable rent by offering free travel tips to her landlord, as well as volunteering to take out the building’s trash cans on garbage day and maintain the gardens. 

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If you’ve been to a yoga festival, you know the hum that takes place. Everywhere you look, there’s activity. Attendees are unrolling their mats on the grass, lecturers are offering insights, vendors are sharing artisanal wares, and food trucks are dishing out their creations. As the sun goes down, the live music becomes louder and the learning shifts to dancing. It’s an unparalleled experience.

In recent years, yoga festivals have evolved to appeal to those of all experience levels and interests. Some focus on traditional practices while others are more new age-y and “glittery.” Whether you’re just starting yoga or are years into your practice, there is a festival that will vibe with you.

Although each yoga festival has its own distinct personality, they all share the common threads of connection, presence, and celebration. The following list explores 11 annual yoga festivals along with some of the history and highlights of each.

11 Yoga Festivals You Need to Know About

1. Bend Yoga Festival

Bend, Oregon | June 8-11, 2023

Explore the majesty of the Cascade Mountains at . Situated in the beautiful mountain town of Bend, Oregon, this festival features a focused mix of world-class presenters, wellness sessions, and outdoor adventures.

This year, the Bend Yoga Festival moves to Riverbend Park, offering direct access to the flowing Deschutes River, stunning mountain views, and more than 15,000 square feet of lawn. During the festival, attendees can explore nearby natural attractions, such as the lava caves and . Join a guided hike to the top of Smith Rock, followed by a yoga practice and local brew tasting, or take to the river in an open paddle class.

Throughout the weekend, you can join international and locally loved presenters including and for afternoon yoga sessions at participating local yoga studios, all within walking distance of the main venue. You can also schedule your own yoga photo shoot with acclaimed photographer . Lodging isn’t included, so you’ll want to find a stay at a local Airbnb, campsite, or hotel.

2. Telluride Yoga Fest

Telluride, Colorado | June 22-25, 2023

For a fully immersive yoga experience, the is not to be missed. The four-day event offers more than 100 classes, including yoga, meditation, music, hiking, wellness talks, and social gatherings. The event takes place amid the intimate setting of a small village nestled at the base of the Telluride Mountains, surrounded by rugged peaks, mountain air, and crisp blue skies.

Start your day with a mountain-top meditation, hike the fan-favorite Jud Wiebe memorial trail, practice standup paddleboard (SUP) yoga on Elk Lake, or simply sleep-in. With its new campus in Mountain Village,  connected to the historic Town of Telluride via a free gondola, the festival provides a unique gathering that’s entirely removed from the hubbub of everyday life. The festival has hosted some of the most well-seasoned yoga teachers, including , , , , and .

Telluride offers a selection of hotels, condos, and private residences that cater to every budget.

3. LoveShinePlay

Asheville, North Carolina | July 20-23, 2023

The , formerly known as the Asheville Yoga Festival, is a four-day event held in downtown Asheville, North Carolina. The festival offers an expansive schedule that includes more than 70 styles of offerings, including Bhakti and anatomy, Kundalini and Yin, and everything in between.

Asheville is considered the wellness capital of the South, and the festival takes advantage of its surroundings, allowing attendees to expand their knowledge and practice in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Throughout the weekend, attendees can experience lectures on practical astrology, Ayurvedic yoga classes, “yin yoga and story time,” plus classes and concerts from and .

Classes are dispersed around Asheville in hotels, community centers, and outdoor stages, all walkable from the marketplace. The central hub for the festival, the marketplace features 60-plus hand-selected vendors offering high-quality wellness products. You’ll also find food trucks, free community events, and outdoor spaces to rest.

LoveShinePlay started in 2016 as the Asheville Yoga Festival and has since grown to include partnerships with Lululemon and Yoloha. In 2024, the festival will expand and offer a similar incarnation in Charleston.

4. OM Festival

Manchester, Vermont | July 26-30, 2023

Dance, flow, and play your way to wellness at the annual , a summerfest held on 150-plus mountainside acres overlooking the Battenkill River. Also known as the Vermont Yoga Festival, it offers five days of yoga, meditation, dance, and flow arts classes where festival-goers can flow, play, and groove.

The OM Festival combines natural beauty and historic charm. Classes take place in a 200-year-old barn on the expansive private grounds and in the perfectly coiffed meditation garden. At night, the festival comes alive with music and embodiment celebrations, including kirtan, bhakti yoga, and ecstatic dance DJs.

Most guests stay on-site, either at , the hub of the festival, or camp in a private field or alongside the river (river camp sites are limited and sell out quickly). Those staying at the inn can expect romantic, antique-y rooms, mountain views, and farm-fresh dining.

5. Soul Circus

Elmore, UK | August 17-20, 2023

somehow manages to be both healthy and hedonistic. And somehow it works. Spearheaded by the charismatic founders, Roman and Ella Wroath, Soul Circus is a holistic yoga, arts, and music festival set in the rural countryside of Cotswold, United Kingdom. The combination of yoga asana, wellness workshops, and live music is undeniably more glittery wellness rave than traditional yoga festival. With its world-renowned DJs and afterparties that last until 2 am, Soul Circus wants to help you tune in and let loose.

By day, stretch out in yoga tents dotted along the countryside or join sought-after yoga instructors and wellness practitioners in any of the 300-plus wellness sessions, including cacao ceremonies, astral projection, lucid dreaming, and ecstatic dance. It’s a chance to indulge your woo-woo side.

As the light fades, the festival takes on an entirely different vibe. DJs set the skies alight with exhilarating music and dance. Those who need a reset after a marathon dance session can settle into a wood-fired hot tub or sauna at the on-site Soul Spa, which also offers daytime holistic therapy sessions.

Soul Circus is an undoubtedly energetic and unique yoga experience.

6. Dirty South Yoga Festival

Atlanta, Georgia | August 25-27, 2023

The , held at the end of August, is a homegrown celebration that’s all about promoting community and mindfulness in a way that embraces the “rough around the edges” energy of the South.

Founded in 2013 by a group of Atlanta-based yoga teachers, Dirty South Yoga arose from a need for authentic connection in the wellness community. The group cites the Zen Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hanh and his famous saying “No mud, no lotus” as a foundational inspiration and will be the first to admit they’re not prim and proper. They regularly practice falling and try to show up to themselves, their practice, and each other as best they can.

The festival takes place at The Loudermilk Conference Center in downtown Atlanta, where participants can revel in an entire weekend of workshops, classes, and activities. Founder has said she knows what it’s like to long for connection in the yoga world, and with Dirty South Yoga, she hopes to provide a place of support, guidance, and friendship. It’s yoga, real and raw.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CoYRp9NPMgR/

7. Mammoth Yoga Festival

Mammoth Lakes, California | September 14-17, 2023

is a getaway for those seeking adventure, growth, and connection in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. Every September, it offers “yoga and meditation for every body, every age, and every ability,” making it accessible to all who wish to make the pilgrimage.

Whether you’re a curious beginner or a yoga teacher seeking to expand your understanding of how to share the practice, Mammoth Festival shares an array of classes to help you develop your practice. Anyone can attend early morning sessions on creative yoga sequencing, the power of cueing, and decolonizing yoga. And every night, the Vendor Village Market lights up with performances from mystically-minded musicians, which included , , and in recent years.

Weekend asana and meditation classes from teachers such as and will help you settle a restless spirit and immerse yourself in the present. Also, presentations from yoga and health institutions such as Mammoth Hospital and the work trade and job opportunity website, , allow instructors to diversify their teaching tools beyond advanced asana. The festival is recognized as an approved Continuing Education Provider by the National Academy of Sports Medicine, making it an excellent opportunity for yoga and fitness professionals to gain needed continuing education credits.

8. Lamu Yoga Festival

Lamu Island, Kenya | October 25-29, 2023

From sunrise yoga sessions on pristine beaches to moonlit meditations beneath the stars, emphasizes total, undisturbed bliss. This celebration of yoga, culture, and tranquility happens in the coastal region of Kenya and immerses in a world of serenity, culture, and mindful exploration.

Yoga, breathwork, and meditation are taught at a dozen unique venues and studios. Discover the allure of Lamu Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with its charming architecture and captivating history. With no cars in sight and donkeys and boats instead dotting the landscape, the scene creates a true escape from the everyday. Experience the local culture and traditions through an awe-inspiring opening ceremony on the beach, a traditional Kenyan dinner, a scenic sailing trip, and a mesmerizing bonfire to close your journey.

9. International Yoga Festival

Banks of Ganges River, India | March 2024

A week-long celebration of yoga and meditation, the in Rishikesh, India, attracts thousands of people from around the world to the birthplace of yoga. Nestled among the Himalayas on the banks of the holy River Ganga, the festival takes place at Parmarth Niketan Ashram, one of the largest interfaith yoga institutions in India. It’s a tranquil environment where participants can connect with themselves and their spiritual practice.

The aim of the International Yoga Festival is to “expand global consciousness and bring healing back to the planet, one person at a time.” In support of that, it hosts some of the greatest teachers from both eastern and western lineages of yoga, making it an ideal pilgrimage for dedicated students looking to connect with the origins of the practice.

The extensive schedule includes a mind-boggling array of activities, from early morning kundalini sadhana to evening kirtan and everything in between, including asana classes and talks. It regularly draws more than 2000 participants from 80 countries, offering a unique opportunity to come together and share in the transformative power of yoga. The festival’s emphasis on the origins of the practice is a testament to yoga’s enduring spirit, influence, and ability to unite people in the pursuit of growth and well-being.

10. Sedona Yoga Festival

Sedona, Arizona | April 2024

Many believe that certain locations on the planet experience a higher vibrational energy than others. With its seven vortices, or energy centers, Sedona is one of those places. The , now in its tenth year, draws on this enigmatic energy to foster community and spiritual growth.

Billed as a “consciousness evolution conference,” the festival boasts an impressive roster of speakers and rich coursework and continues to be a pioneer of large-scale mindful events in the United States. Workshops and immersions take place amid Sedona’s mystical landscape and world-class performing arts facilities and offer opportunities to explore all eight limbs of yoga.

Attendees can gather in the mornings for a communal ceremony before dispersing into lectures or desert excursions. There are more than 100 sessions to choose from, including yoga practices amid the red rocks. Evenings feature keynote addresses from top-tier spiritual minds, lectures, sacred chanting sessions, and live entertainment.

11. BaliSpirit

Ubud, Bali | May 2024

If practicing yoga in Bali is your dream, the in Ubud may be the ultimate destination. Held annually at the , this three-day “spirit festival” encompasses yoga, dance, martial arts, breathwork, personal development, and more, making it a catalyst for transformation.

A magnet for conscious travelers and spiritual seekers, BaliSpirit has grown considerably since it was founded in 2008, bringing economic growth and evolution to the town of Ubud. Held in a traditional Balinese open-air venue surrounded by wildlife and flanked by a sacred river, the fest offers a unique opportunity for attendees to connect with themselves, others, and the surroundings.

The holistic approach of the festival is reflected in its more than 150 workshops representing different styles of yoga (including Hatha, Yin, Anusara, and Ashtanga) as well as other types of movement (Capoeira, Qi Gong, Silat, Poi, Laughter, and hula hooping). Each night ends with a musical lineup of global performers, creating an intimate concert experience leading to deeper connections and sacred celebration.

About Our Contributor

Sierra is a writer, yogi, and music lover living in the Pacific Northwest. She’s been practicing yoga for nearly a decade & got certified to teach in 2018. She writes and teaches all about connection: connection to the body, to nature, and to the universal love that holds us together. She’s also the author of , a moon magic journal and witchy workbook.

For free yoga and witchy wisdom, find Sierra at , on Instagram , and on .

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The massive dichotomy between the snow-rich and snow-poor areas of ski country is growing larger by the day—case in point, while the Mountain West and Far West are getting buried. Perhaps nowhere is it more evident than at , California, where it started snowing in late October and basically hasn’t stopped.

The snow continues to fall this week. (Photo: Peter Morning/Mammoth Mountain)

The last storm dropped several feet of snow over the weekend through Monday, January 9, pushing the overall snow total to 270 inches. The next storm has already arrived and is expected to leave another 30 to 36 inches in its wake. of snow as of Tuesday, January 10, with a 164-inch base at the Main Lodge and a 230-inch base at the summit.

By contrast, the mountain saw 233 total inches of snow during the 2021-22 winter.

While Mammoth is used to getting big dumps, the intensity and frequency of this season’s storms are unique. “This amount of snow isn’t atypical at Mammoth,” said resort communications director Lauren Burke, “but it doesn’t matter how many times you see snow this deep, it still leaves you a bit in awe. We’ll likely have close to 30 feet of snow at Main Lodge by the end of the week—with much more up top. It sets up for an incredible season that will likely extend well into the months that start with ‘J’.”

Needless to say, it’s positively nutty in Mammoth right now, so much so that the ski resort did not open on Tuesday. According to mountain ops: “Mammoth Mountain will be closed [Tuesday] due to intense snowfall conditions and very dangerous travel in the area. Roads are heavily impacted and not plowed. Our focus will be on avalanche mitigation work today and protecting our equipment. We plan to reopen tomorrow, January 11.”

With clearing skies for the rest of the week, the big snow is waiting to be skied at Mammoth. Just be sure to give mountain ops a couple days to dig the lifts out first.

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You could sit behind your steering wheel and creep along one scenic pass or another in search of crimson fall colors with the rest of New England’s leaf-peeping hordes. Or you could ditch your car and the Northeast to have some of the season’s best foliage all to yourself. We’ve rounded up some under-the-radar spots to catch autumn in all its glory.

Buffalo National River

Ponca, Arkansas

The 135-mile is one of the country’s few entirely undammed waterways. Each fall, the region comes alive with tinted beech, ash, and hickory trees and an especially active elk population. If the water is high enough, rent a canoe from Buffalo River Outfitters and spend two to ten days basking in the vibrant colors along the water and camping under soaring limestone bluffs on the river’s iconic gravel bars. If you’d rather observe from land, the 37-mile western portion of the Buffalo River Trail weaves along the riverbed and clifftops between the towns of Boxely and Pruitt, Arkansas. Or it’s only a three-mile round-trip to Whitaker Point, a craggy rock reminiscent of a hawk’s beak that juts over a misty valley filled with red and orange maples. at the for a hot tub with unobstructed views of the Ozarks (from $129).

Monarch Pass

Salida, Colorado

You may not find a more iconic mountain bike ride than Colorado’s Monarch Crest Trail, which starts at 11,312 feet atop Monarch Pass and flows 36 miles through golden aspen trees. offers guided rides, including a shuttle, bike rental, and lunch for $195, or do it yourself with help from , which will pick you up at a gas station in Poncha Springs and drive you to the trailhead for just $25. Stay in nearby Salida at the remodeled , where you can sleep in a room or a sleek Airstream trailer out back (from $100).

Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Cleveland, Ohio

is only 30 minutes from Cleveland but feels worlds apart. There are 125 miles of trails, but for some of the best fall colors, hike the 3.8-mile Stanford Trail for views of 65-foot Brandywine Falls framed by colorful sugar maples and white oaks. You can even rent a room right at the trailhead in the , a historic farmhouse built in 1843 (from $400). The next day, pedal 20 miles along the Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath Trail before hopping on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad for the return trip.

Guardsman Pass

Park City, Utah

This backcountry road, which connects to , is closed all winter. But in fall, it’s a spectacular drive through fiery red oaks and brilliant yellow aspens that tops out at 9,700 feet. Get out of your car and hike 4.2 miles round-trip to Shadow Lake from the Guardsman Pass Overlook, or mountain bike the Wasatch Crest Trail, where cyclists are allowed on even-numbered days. For easy access to the stellar trails at Park City Mountain Resort, snag a room at the remodeled right across the street (from $99).

Wheeler Peak Wilderness

Taos, New Mexico

It’s an eight-mile round-trip hike to reach the tallest mountain in New Mexico: 13,161-foot Wheeler Peak. You’ll be rewarded with panoramic views of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and a valley floor covered with aspens, spruce, and white fir. For alpine meadows and a burbling creek, hike the five-mile near Red River, a tiny town 35 miles north on the Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway, an 83-mile driving loop around Wheeler Peak that’s a leaf-peeping destination in its own right. Just outside Taos, you can sleep in a revamped vintage trailer from the 1950s or pitch a tent at , where you can get French press coffee and a free pint of beer next door at Taos Mesa Brewing (from $70).

Reds Meadow Valley

Mammoth Lakes, California

In fall, the aspen trees surrounding Mammoth Lakes turn fluorescent. Hike the six-mile River Trail, which parallels the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River and winds through Reds Meadow Valley and , named for a formation of eerily geometric, 60-foot-tall basalt columns. You can make it a 17-mile loop by connecting to the High Trail, a segment of the famed PCT. Book a cabin at , and you’ll have canoe rentals and hiking trails out your door and breakfast burritos at the on-site general store (from $189).

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When opens for its 2018 season on May 25, it will become the first major park on U.S. Forest Service land where riders can saddle up on electric mountain bikes.

Mammoth, which leases its 3,500 acres from the USFS and is one of the largest mountain bike parks in the country, will allow e-MTBs on its 80 miles of singletrack and 3,100 feet of vertical descent. Specifically, Class 1 e-bikes—those without throttles and with motors that max out at 20 miles per hour while the rider is pedaling—can ride on all trails within park boundaries. They won’t be allowed on any neighboring USFS land. Park access points will be clearly marked with signage, according to a statement issued by Mammoth officials.

The move marks another first for Mammoth, which has been a pioneer in the mountain biking community since opening in 1987. It was the first mountain bike park with lift access to its trails, helping fuel the downhill riding craze.

“First and foremost, it’s about accessibility,” says Joani Lynch, a spokesperson for Mammoth Bike Park. “Many of the trails require a fair amount of pedaling to get to some cool destinations. And we think that with the use of e-bikes, our guests will be able to able to travel to those places in a much more comfortable fashion.”

But some in the modern-day MTB community see this latest development as potential fuel for the ongoing debate between e-bikes and their human-powered predecessors.

“We do have some concern any time e-bikes are lumped in with 100 percent human-powered bikes,” says John Fisch, a board member of mountain biking advocacy nonprofit Sustainable Trails Coalition. “We see them as two separate entities, one of which—strictly human powered—is in concert with wilderness ideals, while the other—artificial power—is not.”

In other words: “There’s no way for this not to sound pejorative, but what we’re concerned about is lazy city people will go buzzing into the backcountry without any respect for it,” Fisch continues. “Then we’ll get the wilderness advocates saying, ‘See, this is what bike people are all about,’ and that would be, in our view, misleading.”

Indeed, debates over access are heating up as e-bike usage continues to increase. But the current situation at Mammoth is unique for several reasons. First of all, the park is zoned predominately for downhill mountain bike use—hikers, trail runners, and equestrians are not permitted on mountain bike trails, eliminating potential conflicts between the different groups. Second, most trails are one-way downhill, meaning that head-on crashes between all riders, whether e-MTB or traditional, are less likely. Finally, park officials don’t anticipate e-MTB riders seeking out the park’s most difficult terrain.

“Our expert terrain is technical downhill trails that people with eight inches of suspension and a full-face helmet and full body armor are riding,” Lynch says. “I don’t see, at this stage of the game, consumers who will come and rent an e-bike and start attacking those trails.”

E-bikes aren’t entirely new at Mammoth. For the past two years, the park has included an e-bike category called the Electric Boogaloo (which was allowed under a special use permit by the USFS) during its annual Kamikaze Bike Games. That served as a sort of trial run for the current permit, which took about a year to obtain, according to Lynch. (The USFS did not respond to șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű’s request for comment before publication.) Trek is also on board: A fleet of 70 of its e-MTBs will be available for rental at Mammoth early in the season.

So far, Lynch says, park officials haven’t heard much criticism from MTB purists about sharing the trails with their motorized versions. But the local MTB community is keeping a close eye on how things unfold.

“If the trails are being trashed and people are getting out of control and lot of damage is being done, then, yeah, you have to deal with that,” Alan Jacoby, owner of the in Mammoth Lakes, told șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű. “But I agree with them trying something. And a lot people are going to hate me for saying that, since I’m a human-powered advocate, and everyone who knows me knows I’m a singlespeed rigid rider—that’s been my M.O. for years. But in the bigger picture, I think about myself in 20 years, and I think of my dad. If he comes up to Mammoth, he could ride an e-bike beside me while I ride my regular bike. That would be huge for me.”

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I tied in and started up the cliff. The route was rated only 5.6, and because one of my friends had led it a few minutes before, I had a top-rope belay. It was the first time in 15 months that I had climbed outdoors—the longest such hiatus of my adult life. 

Two years earlier, the 70-foot pitch would have been a trivial warm-up before I tried something “real.” Now it was all the challenge I dared face. 

In July 2015, I was diagnosed with Stage IV throat cancer. During the next four months, I got zapped with 35 doses of radiation and seven weeks of chemotherapy. Confined to a hospital for a third of that time, I thought I was about to die on three occasions, and at one low ebb, racked with pain, I was ready to embrace oblivion. By January, back home in Watertown, Massachusetts, I was so weak that when I tried to walk a single block of my street, I had to stop and sit on a neighbor’s wall every 200 feet. 

Sometime in early 2016, I called my climbing buddy Ed Ward. We’d been partners on the rope for 45 years, and back in our glory days had paired up on two of the finest first ascents of our lives—Shot Tower in the Brooks Range, and the southeast face of Mount Dickey in the Alaska Range. “I guess no reunion this year,” I said. “Though you could organize one without me.”

“Nah,” he said. “Nobody has the heart for it.” 

Back in January of 1996, Ed and I had dreamed up what became a nearly annual reunion, one that grew to involve our best friends in the worlds of climbing and writing. In Las Vegas, on a freelance magazine assignment to cover the AVN Awards—better known as the Oscars of porn—I spent a week interviewing such starlets as Juli Ashton and Jenna Jameson. After a few days I realized that, only 15 miles west of the Flamingo Hotel, the sandstone massif of Red Rock Canyon erupted from the desert—one of the best climbing arenas in the country.

I invited a few of the porn stars to go on a climb, but they politely declined, so I called Ed and demanded that he drop everything, grab a rope and rack, and fly to Vegas. We had so much fun that the next year we invited what we thought of as our old gang on a return trip to the same crags.

In 1997, the gang ranged in age from 41 to 53 and had added other charter members: Matt Hale and Jon Krakauer. My linkage with Matt was even older than with Ed. Back in 1965, when we were in our early twenties, he and I climbed the west face of Alaska’s Mount Huntington, the subject of my first book, . Jon was a student of mine and Ed’s at Hampshire College starting in 1972, and he soon became our equal on rock and ice. (A few years after Jon graduated, I convinced him to quit pounding nails and try to make his living as a writer.) The two junior members of the group, Chris Wejchert and Chris Gulick, both in their forties, had stormed peaks with us over the years, ranging from Katahdin to the Tetons.

Soon we added Aussie-born Greg Child, one of the most talented all-around mountaineers of his generation, whose résumé boasts new routes on El Cap, K2 from the north, and the second ascent of the prize of the Karakoram, Gasherbrum IV. Greg had become a trenchant writer, whose book is the classic account of the 2000 kidnapping and self-rescue in Kyrgyzstan of four young American climbers, including Tommy Caldwell and Beth Rodden.

At Red Rocks, we had such a fund of shared adventures and mishaps that a big part of each day was devoted to dredging up old tales and improving them with each telling. But the trips also generated great new stories. In 1997, for instance, we were hiking in to one of the walls. A team of younger climbers were hot on our heels.

Were they trying to beat us to the first pitch of Epinephrine? No. When their leader caught up to Matt, he breathlessly asked, “Would that be Jon Krakauer in your group?” had been published only months before.

Matt said yes.

“Wow. Do you think I could ask him for an autograph?”

Matt frowned. “I don’t know. He’s a little touchy about that sort of thing.”

“No, no! It’s all right,” the guy said. “It’s enough just to have seen him.”

Throughout the rest of our trip, sitting in our favorite Vegas bar, we would clink beer glasses, gaze at Krakauer, and say, “It’s enough just to have seen him.”

Though we missed a year or two, by 2015 we had rendezvoused on 15 different trips, extending our range from Red Rocks to Skaha in British Columbia and Estes Park in Colorado, as well as the Dolomites of Italy and the Calanques in France. Sometimes we camped, sometimes we rented hotels or condos. Gradually, we added a few more members. Meanwhile, there was an ongoing debate that actually threatened to become contentious. 

Some of us, including me, believed our outings should remain all-male; others thought such a stricture was juvenile. The half-spoken worry was that the presence of nonclimbing wives and girlfriends would sabotage our precious brotherhood. Complicating things, back at our home crags, several of us had found female climbing partners who were accomplished enough to join us on these trips. 

Fueled by beer and wine, the debate came to a head in 2009, around a bonfire at 10,000 feet in the Uintas of northern Utah. At one point, Chris Reveley, a veteran of Longs Peak and the Diamond, decided to settle it. “The answer is,” he proclaimed, pausing for effect, “women yes, spouses no!” Our laughter confirmed a unanimous vote.

The first recruit was Anne-Laure Treny, an engineer from France whom Ed had befriended at his local gym. Anne-Laure’s balletic grace on rock put us to shame, and she brought a teasing wit that helped civilize us. By 2013, our team contained almost as many women as men, but we still set the bar against wives. We weren’t able to imagine yet that, eventually, our reunions might not only tolerate but benefit from the ad­dition of spouses and kids. If we had, the more reactionary of us might have choked on our sexism.

Forty feet up the 5.6, I was panting to catch my breath, and my mouth was so dry I couldn’t swallow. I had clipped a water bottle to my harness; now I managed to balance on small footholds, retrieve the thing, and take three or four gulps. The only climbing I had done in more than a year was in a gym two miles from my house, and the longest route I’d managed to do topped out at 45 feet. 

The crag, called Area 13, lay in a dry canyon near the California-Nevada state line. Around me, my friends were cavorting on 5.9 and 5.10 routes, but I thought that if I could reach an anchor 30 feet above, the 5.6 pitch I’d completed would amount to a minor triumph. In fact, it seemed as important to me as any climb I’d ever done.

Little more than a year before, in May of 2016, I had decided that some of my strength and stamina was at last returning. On a trip to Utah, I hiked as many as four miles at a stretch. But in June, driving home from a short visit to Montreal, I collapsed and had to be hauled to an emergency room in ­Hanover, New Hampshire. Only a month before, the doctors at Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute had certified that the cancer was gone from my throat and neck. Now I learned that it had metastasized to my lungs. Once cancer metastasizes, it’s incurable. My best hope was to keep it in check with doses of a radical new form of immunotherapy. 

The wasted summer of 2016 passed in a blur of hospital crises and exhausted furloughs. But by January of 2017, I had stayed out of the sick ward for five months. I called Ed. “What the hell,” I said. “Let’s get the gang together for another reunion. Even if I can’t climb, it’d be great just to hang out with you guys.”

On June 17, we gathered in Mammoth Lakes, California, where four years earlier we’d spent a week assaulting five different local crags. One of Mammoth’s draws was the Snowcreek Resort condominiums, where we had basked in swanky lodging right next to a golf course. By this time, we had dropped the no-wives thing. Among the 18 people in our group, ten were women, including three wives, a teenager, and a sixth-grader. We ranged in age from 12 to my graybeard 74, and five of the original six—all but Krakauer—showed up. One of the wives was mine: Sharon Roberts, who in recent years had started climbing at the Watertown gym after a break of decades since our vagabond twenties. On Area 13, I’d reached the anchor and lowered off. She proceeded to solve the route. If I was proud of my first outdoor pitch in 15 months, she was equally thrilled by her first climb on real rock in 35 years.

To my delight, we climbed every day. At Benton Crossing, a granite massif out on the plains, I started a 115-foot route (5.6 again) that I knew would challenge my endurance. Halfway up, a sudden wave of nausea engulfed me. All at once I was vomiting my meager breakfast, spattering the small ledge around my feet. A hush fell. Sharon urged me to come down, but I took a swig of my water and headed shakily on up. I heard Greg Child say, “To one-up Roberts now, I’m gonna have to take a crap on the route.”

The best climb of our eight-day trip happened on June 20, when Sarah Keyes and Emmett Lyman—the most ambitious partners in our group, both in their late thirties—teamed with Greg and his 12-year-old daughter, Ari, to attempt a stern 550-foot, four-pitch 5.10 called Cardinal Pinnacle. During the past year and a half, Ari had blossomed under Greg’s tutelage, taking the lead on well-bolted sport routes. But she had never tried a semi-alpine challenge like this one, which requires a descent of three long rappels.

The grown-ups swapped leads. Ari calmly followed. On the crux traverse, Greg belayed her, out of sight around the corner, as she moved slowly but steadily. Pulling in the rope, Greg nervously pondered the fiasco that might ensue if she “came off” and hung dangling over the void. A small hand appeared. Ari pivoted around the corner and clipped in to Greg’s anchor.

“Was that scary?” he asked.

“A bit,” she admitted.

Ari became the élan vital of our gathering. She brought along a 26-inch aluminum bat and a hard yellow softball, as well as a slightly underinflated football. Late one afternoon, after the golfers had gone home, she lured us onto the grass near the eighth tee to throw and catch and bat. I lobbed slow pitches that she sent screaming past my head. Finding a lost golf ball in the rough, I surprised her by pitching it, too. On her third swing, she clobbered it into the fescue fringing the seventh green. She filled the lulls in our games by turning cartwheels on the grass. 

During the first eight months of my cancer treatment in 2015 and 2016, I spent only one night anywhere other than home or a hospital. Just a decade before, as a magazine writer and author, I had traveled up to 200 days a year, often to other continents. My new confinement seemed to strangle my spirit, and depression often sat at my elbow.

Beginning in March of 2016, with a cautious four-day trip to North Carolina, I fled Watertown five times. The longest such trip was a two-week ramble in the Anasazi canyons of southeast Utah. Each trip felt like a risky bargain, a dare flung out against the mindless cancer cells that were roaming through my body.

We’d usually been lucky—no big medical dramas—and it seemed like we were getting away with it again at Mammoth Lakes. But on the next to last morning, I woke at 4 A.M. shivering uncontrollably, my hands and feet spasming, trying desperately to catch my breath as I heard a gurgling rattle in my lungs. Sharon’s face looked stricken as she whispered, “We have to call 911.”

“No!” I pleaded. I had my heart set on the day’s plan for another new crag. Then I threw up, the vomit laced with blood.

EMTs carried me to an ambulance; an oxygen mask was clapped over my nose and mouth. In the ER, doctors and nurses hooked me up to IV fluids and monitors. Within hours, I was moved to the ICU, then to the Mammoth hospital. The doctors diagnosed “community acquired” bacterial pneumonia. Immobilized in a sterile, windowless room, I wept as Sharon held my hand.

“Tell the others to go ahead and climb,” I begged her, but instead they showed up in twos and threes, masks strapped on their faces. Their solemn looks seemed to mirror my own dismay, but there was no mistaking how much they had invested in my recovery. Ed later told me, “Everybody sort of needed a rest day anyway.” Sarah Keyes said, “There were many conversations at the house in which folks were brainstorming how they and we could all work together to take care of you both.”

Metastasized cancer is not an automatic death sentence. No doctor has told me I should expect to live for only x months or years, and immunotherapy is in such infancy that almost anything could happen. But one thing seems clear: I will never regain more than a fraction of the strength or stamina I used to take for granted.

In Mammoth, I was released after 30 hours. Back at the condo, my friends greeted me like a prodigal son, but the joy of our last evening was subdued. I wondered how many of them were thinking: Is this the last time we’ll meet together to climb?

When we first launched our rendezvous in the 1990s, the male camaraderie disguised an urge to hang on to the intensity of our younger years. All six of our original group, as well as Greg, had started climbing in their late teens or soon after. By our early twenties, all of us would have said that climbing was the most important thing in life—a pursuit so glorious that it was worth the risk of death. On the expeditions we orga­nized to the great ranges, the game was always played for keeps. We despaired of ever landing meaningful jobs, happy to embrace the bohemian squalor of the dirtbag life.

Our friends who rounded out the Mammoth crew, except for the two teenagers—Ari and Emma, Anne-Laure’s 18-year-old daughter—had come to climbing later in life, with well-established careers. None of them, not even Sarah and Emmett, would have sworn that climbing was worth all the rest of life put together.

By 2017, the diehard core of seven had moved in the same direction, at last accepting our diminished powers. We could admit, with Tennyson’s Ulysses, that “We are not now that strength which in old days / Moved earth and heaven.” By dropping our silly rules about membership, we had opened our hearts to the subtler glory of fine times on the crags, shared across generations. In passing on to his daughter a sliver of the vision he had won on K2 and Gasherbrum IV, Greg had affirmed that continuum. But if Ari had turned her back on climbing and flung herself into skateboarding or piano ­instead, that would have been fine with him. The spark was hers.

I never wanted to have children myself. But in Ari, especially after cancer struck me down, I rediscovered hope. At the age of one month, in 2004, she shared her first camp­out with me, as Greg and I crossed a highway during an 18-day traverse of the Comb Ridge in Arizona and Utah. At eight, along with Greg and Sharon and me, she backpacked for three days into a remote canyon where, decades earlier, I had discovered a pristine 1,500-year-old Anasazi basket tucked inside an obscure alcove by its owner. 

It was I who’d taught Ari how to throw a football and hit a softball, Greg not being particularly adept at those mainstream American games. During the Mammoth Lakes trip, in the forest below a climbing area called Horseshoe Slabs, she stripped the twigs off a fallen branch to craft a backwoods bat. As I pitched pine cones to her, she yelped with delight every time she con­nected. And at Area 13, I stood in awe beneath the cliff as she deftly led pitches on which I knew I could barely get off the ground. 

Often I think about Ari, gliding like a sylph toward her limitless future. I picture her at 25, having fulfilled some of her dreams—dreams I like to think I had a part in shaping. By then, alas, in all likelihood I won’t be around to share her joy. But I shared it in Mammoth Lakes, with all our old-new gang, for whom each night the dwindling of our energies only presaged a new adventure on the coming day.

David Roberts has written for șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű since 1980. His books include , , and . Camilla Perkins is an °żłÜłÙČőŸ±»ć±đÌęcontributing artist.

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By design, vacations are supposed to help you relax and keep you happy. And if you prefer getaways that are focused on being outside in beautiful places, you're in luck. In recent years, studies have shown that engaging in nature—and feeling awestruck by its beauty—can reduce stress, improve your mood, change your perspective, and boost your creativity. One of the best places to get your fix? Mammoth Lakes’ jagged peaks, sprawling valleys, and cascading falls. The alpine playground is especially awe-inspiring in the fall, when empty trails and vibrant colors make it the perfect spot to relax, reset, and recharge.

1. Tap Into Your Joy

 on glassy Convict Lake—gliding over crystal-clear alpine water and moving through reflections of colorful Sevehah Cliff and Laurel Mountain—isn't just a good workout in a stunning setting. It’s good for your spirit, too. A 2015 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that people who spent time outdoors had fewer negative feelings about themselves afterwards. Another study in 2013 found that spending time outdoors near “blue spaces,” which include lakes, rivers, and oceans, improved overall happiness. Rent a board at and soak up the good vibes. 

2. Experience Solitude

In a truly shocking series of 11 experiments in 2014, researchers from the University of Virginia and Harvard found that for most participants, being left alone with no phone, fidget spinner, or companion for just 6 to 15 minutes was truly agonizing. But a few hours in solitude can clear the head, focus the mind, and allow room for new ideas to blossom. The lightly traveled , which begins at the popular Rock Creek Lake trailhead, is the perfect trek for solo hikers. The 9.8-mile round-trip hike offers incredible views of the peaks surrounding Little Lakes Valley, meanders through meadows, and climbs steeply up switchbacks before dropping you at an alpine lake backed with jagged ridgeline. If the views don't inspire you, then the serenity is sure to give you enough time to mull over your aspirations. 

3. Boost Your Focus 

Numerous studies suggest that spending time outdoors boosts your ability to concentrate, and at least one shows that getting kids outside more could be a natural treatment for ADHD. A good place to work on your focus is the 5.5-mile and the 5-mile out-and-back  Both highly scenic trails include moderately technical singletrack, panoramic views, and a few exposed sections. The latter passes below the iconic Mammoth Rock, a 250-million-year-old limestone and marble formation. 

4. Feel the Power of Awe

John Muir, cofounder of the Sierra Club and high prophet of the wilderness, spent his life trying to explain in words the majesty of the Sierra to those who might never have a chance to see it. The world may be a different place than it was when he first explored and surrounding Sierra Nevada mountains, but his descriptions still ring true: “[It] is full of charming company, full of God’s thoughts, a place of peace and safety amid the most exalted grandeur and eager enthusiastic action, a new song, a place of beginnings abounding in first lessons on life, mountain-building, eternal, invincible, unbreakable order; with sermons in stones, storms, trees, flowers, and animals brimful of humanity.” Even better, a 2012 study suggests feeling the type of awe that Muir expressed is great for the soul, making people more altruistic, more satisfied, and more in tune with the moment.

5. Decrease Stress

The Japanese term “forest bathing” might sound funny to our American ears, but anyone who likes to take leisurely walks in the woods will agree with the conclusion of a 2010 study on the topic: that hanging out in the forest promotes “lower concentrations of cortisol [a stress hormone], lower pulse rate, lower blood pressure
 than do city environments.” One of the best places to feel the stress melt away is , a 7-mile loop starting at the Mosquito Flat Trailhead full of craggy peaks and peaceful mountain ponds including Heart Lake and Box Lake. In the fall there’s a bonus: The groves of aspens and grassy meadows light up with soothing fall colors.

6. Stay Smart

Theis perfect for runners, a nice 4.4-mile paved, off-road, gradual uphill climb that will get your heart pumping as you move out of town and into the open vistas of the Mammoth Crest. That run will linger in your mind longer than you imagine. According to a 2012 study in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, pounding the pavement or engaging in other aerobic exercise keeps people sharper as they age than their non-exercising peers. Which is great, because you’ll want to remember the view from Twin Lakes Vista along the trail for a long time.  

7. Feel Better 

Everyone knows that eating well makes you feel better, but a study released by the British Medical Journal Open in March showed that people who ate three to seven servings of vegetables per day had lower stress than people who ate zero to one serving. While in Mammoth Lakes, you can get your five-a-day pretty easily at places like the , whose The Good Life’s Favorite vegetarian sandwich includes avocado, tomato, and sprouts. At night, take it upscale at , an intimate Norse-themed restaurant with a Scandinavian-influenced menu that includes crepes with mushrooms and Jarlsberg cheese and pork belly confit and roast spiced tenderloin of pork. 

8. Connect with Friends

Golf can be stressful, especially after a couple of flubbed tee shots. But it’s also a great chance to hang out with friends, and studies confirm what we all feel: Deep friendships make life better. In fact, a 2010 study showed that people with strong social relationships decreased their odds of dying early by 50 percent, which is even better than quitting smoking. is built for high-alpine bonding. The 18-hole, par-70 course is located at 8,050 feet and ringed by pine forests and the Sherwin Range—the greatest hazard is getting distracted by the view. 

9. Reset Your Internal Clock

It’s easy to let all the artificial light from binging on Netflix and checking email in bed wreck your sleep patterns. It’s hard getting back to normal. But a 2013 study in Current Biology suggests a great solution: Leaving the screens behind and camping in the wild for as little as one weekend (though a week is better) can reset your circadian rhythms. A great place to get yourself back in sync with nature’s cycle? , a century-old campground in the middle of Mammoth Lakes. Dust off your tent and spend a screen-free weekend hiking, reading, playing ping-pong, and sitting around the stone fireplace in the historic day lodge. But don’t stay up too late—you’ll want a full dose of sunrise to get yourself back on a natural schedule.

10. Boost Your Creativity

Trying to finish (or start?) the great American novel or come up with a killer new app? Take a . A 2012 University of Utah study showed that a four-day backpacking trip boosted subjects’ scores 50 percent on a creativity test. The researchers aren’t sure if it’s the time under the stars or away from Facebook that led to the change, but we’ll take it either way. A good place to boost your creative spirit is the , a 22-mile roundtrip through the Ansel Adams Wilderness. Start at the Agnew Meadows trailhead for a long stretch on the Pacific Crest Trail before setting up camp near the lake, one of the largest in the Sierra. Cast a line for rare golden trout as you get a Technicolor recreation of Adams’ famous photo of a sunset at 12,936-foot Banner Peak, one of the pinnacles of creativity. 

Mammoth Lakes is an epic adventureland full of majestic, natural beauty and truly unbelievable moments—and fall is the season of awe. From the radiant transforming colors and the sprawling green valleys to the cascading falls and sun-soaked lakes, the unbelievable side of autumn is just a few steps, pedals or paddles away.  For more information about adventuring in Mammoth Lakes, please head over to .

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Snowboarder Kimmy Fasani and skier Chris Benchetler met at a Mammoth Lakes ice cream parlor as teens—Benchetler working behind the counter and Fasani stopping in regularly for scoops. The parlor closed in 2008, but the two are now married, and one of the coolest couples in snow sports. (Fasani was the first woman to ever  in a snowboarding competition and is a leading advocate for women in the sport. Benchetler spends most of his time skiing deep powder in those  we watch enviously from our cubicles.) In a happy plot twist, they’re also behind the new sweet destination where the Mammoth community can gather—this time over salted caramel cold brew coffee cream pie or hot cocoa with house-made marshmallows. 

, which sells cakes, marshmallows, ice cream, cookies (duh), and basically anything else you could possibly crave after a day of shredding, is named for , a competitive snowboarder-turned-cookie-pusher. Council left the sport in her early 20's to work at Roxy, but started pondering an exit strategy as the company laid off more and more employees. A lifelong baker, she knew her real dream job was opening a sweet shop. In 2011, she mentioned the idea in passing to Fasani. “Immediately, Kimmy was like, ‘we’re in,’” she says. They opened the Cookie Bar in September of that year.

Originally Fasani and Benchetler were only going to provide financial muscle, but the two quickly got involved in recipe advising, product testing, and even front-of-house duties. If the bakery is short-staffed and Fasani is in town, you can often find her behind the counter filling orders. “She has a lot of fun ringing people up, getting people their cakes and pies,” says Council. And Benchetler is the bakery’s top cookie tester—as a skier, climber, surfer, and mountain biker, he vacillates constantly between being ravenous and super ravenous.   

Fasani and Benchetler have also been responsible for a few of the bakery’s key nutritional decisions. At their first official business meeting, the couple suggested Council offer vegan, gluten-free, and paleo options, “things we’d experimented with as athletes and thought others might want,” says Fasani. Even now, if Benchetler or Fasani are trying to focus on a specific nutritional strategy for training, Council will add cookies that fit that dietary profile to the . Recently that’s meant swapping in coconut sugar for regular as the two have been trying to keep their sugar intakes in check.  

Having two pro athletes on board helps bring in a certain kind of clientele: the fast kind. Council says pro runner Deena Kastor is a regular, and Meb Keflezighi even stops by occasionally. Last time Sage Kotsenburg came to Mammoth to compete, he grabbed cookies at the friendly shop too. Council says Kostenburg ordered a variety of cookies, but Kastor, who is a regular, has to have her coconut fix. She loves to order the shop’s signature Dad’s Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies and Coconut Sweet Cream Pie. 

While having famous faces in their store is fun, Fasani says opening the shop was more about creating something for the community. “There wasn’t anything like this here, not even ice cream,” says Benchetler. “We really wanted to build something that families and the community could enjoy.” They seem to have tapped into a sweet tooth at a time when a strong community is as important as ever for the ski town. According to Fasani, the bakery opened right after Mammoth’s last good winter—in 2012, the town , citing lack of snow for some of their money troubles—and the past four winters have been a total bust for the local ski industry. But Mimi’s Cookie Bar is growing so much that it may be looking for new real estate soon.

While Benchetler and Fasani have big plans for filming this winter, they’ll return to Mammoth between shoots and continue their reign as two of Mammoth Lakes’ biggest cookie moguls. Fasani equates these past few years in business to skiing down a 2,000-foot vertical face of powder. “It’s such a wild ride, but you want to go back for another.” In other words, it’s a rush—a sugar rush that she and Benchetler can’t seem to get enough of. 

Trail Mix Cookies

Packed with peanuts, cranberries, and chocolate, these are one of Mimi Council’s favorite mid-session treats. Council is publishing a cookbook of her most popular recipes from the Cookie Bar, due out before the holidays.

Makes 30-36 cookies

For Cookies

• 1 stick organic butter, softened 
• 1 cup organic sugar
• 1 cup organic dark brown sugar
• 1 tsp organic vanilla extract
• 2 organic eggs
• 3/4 cup organic flour
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 cup organic semi sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup all natural chocolate drops
• 1/4 cup dried organic cranberries
• 1/4 cup organic roasted & salted peanuts

For Topping

• 1 tablespoon organic sugar
• 1 tablespoon sea salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

1. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, add butter, sugar, dark brown sugar, and vanilla extract. Mix on low until all ingredients are combined. 
2. Add in the eggs, mix on low until combined, scrape the sides of bowl and mix again until combined.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and sea salt. Then add to butter mixture and mix on low until combined.
4. Add the chocolate chips, chocolate drops, cranberries, and peanuts. Mix just until combined.
5. On a cookie sheet with parchment paper, start forming your cookie dough balls. When “balling” the cookies, you want your cookie dough balls to be about 2-2.5” in diameter and look like a round disk. Space them at least 1” apart, they will spread a little when baking.
6. Bake cookies at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.
7. Mix the sugar and sea salt together in a small bowl, set aside.
8. When cookies come out of oven, sprinkle them with the sugar and sea salt mixture.
9. Eat cookies!
10. Store in an airtight container.  

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If you’re sick of that tedious drive to the mountains and persevering through long lift lines, then check out the LEIF . Born in New York City, this thing looks like an electric skateboard, but acts like a snowboard, sliding past the standard skate turns and into powerslides as if you were putting your snowboard on edge.

The eSnowboard was built by snowboarders for snowboarders, which means it’s not your typical motorized skateboard. It cruises at 20 miles per hour and can ride sideways, forwards, backwards, or in any direction you pivot your feet. To stop, twist to your toe or heel and the wheels slow the board down just like metal edges do on the slopes. 

With Lithium-Ion batteries that take 60 minutes to charge and provide a range of eight miles, it’s a solid candidate for you to shred to work and show up for your first meeting with one hand shaking the Shaka.

Preorder for $1,299,

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Most CrossFit affiliates across the country welcome out-of-towners who want to take part in the workout of the day—or WOD—making any vacation into a possible CrossFit vacation. But if you’re looking for a trip that specifically caters to people who like to spend their free time doing burpees, snatches, ring dips, and handstand pushups, here are your best options.

WOD Tours

This is co-owned by kickboxing champion Andrew Berridge and a former police officer. It organizes CrossFit workout vacations around the world—provided that you arrange your own airfare to the destination. WOD Tours offers three trips in 2014. Its seven-day offering to Southern California in late July includes workouts at CrossFit Long Beach, coaching sessions with Olympic athletes, tickets to the CrossFit Games, and hotel accommodations ($2,350). The other two sessions are in Israel and Brussels, Belgium.

Destino Retreats

The , San Francisco–based Destino Retreats offers trips for groups of 10 to 12 people to four destinations: Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; Maui, Hawaii; Mammoth, California; and Scottsdale, Arizona. Its vacations include skills sessions, competitions among group members, a “throwdown” with the host affiliate, two workouts per day, and Paleo meals. Prices start at $1,700 (airfare not included).

WODcation

WODcation is a five- or seven-day vacation in Santa Cruz, California, offered three times a year and organized by the local box, . You’ll stay in a beach house—complete with surfboard and wetsuit racks outside—about a 10-minute walk from the gym. The trip begins with a private training session with gym owner Greg Amundson and includes workouts at different affiliates in the city, as well as a running workout on the UC Santa Cruz track, an SUP lesson on the city’s harbor, and coffee at one of the local CrossFit hangouts. The cost is $2,000 for a group of two (plane tickets not included).

StayFit Travel

New Jersey–based offers a fitness tour that centers around the CrossFit Games, held in Southern California at the end of July. The trip includes private training sessions for the group with coaches from the top affiliates in Los Angeles, private surf lessons, hotel accommodations, and tickets to the games ($2,000).

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