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On the Hill: Skiing with jerks

Carolyn Sackariason
The Aspen Times
Aspen CO, Colorado

ASPEN ” My ski buddies are jerks.

More specifically, they are members of the Jews Eating and Riding Klub (JERK) and they hit Aspen Mountain every Friday. Last week, I was the only gentile in a group of 12 Jews. Not that it matters, since religion has nothing to do with skiing, but I did feel a bit out of place with all that talk about Shabbat. It does, however, beat riding with snowboarders, despite the fact that some of them are my best friends.

The group started with just a few Jews, but before I knew it, they kept appearing and I started saying “shalom” every five minutes. There were the regulars that I ski with every week, and some mensches from New York who were visiting.



I don’t really care what your race, creed, color or religion is, as long as you can rip it up, have a good time on the mountain and appreciate a good lunch. For these jerks, they are all about skiing hard and working up an appetite.

After a few runs of crunch on crunch, we headed over to Bonnie’s for a session on the deck. Two unusual observations: the place was packed and the average age was about 65.




On Saturday, I celebrated Blitzenbanger at Highlands with four of the same jerks from Friday. Knowing I was a newspaper writer, the New Yorkers wanted some ink so they made up some story about how they were on the mountain, got their underpants soaked and had to go into town to buy new ones. With new undies, they went back up and a ski patroler gave them a wedgie and their undergarments ripped. You get the idea. A dumb story to be sure, especially after I told them no one would believe it since you can’t buy underwear in Aspen ” that’s a Glenwood trip.

Nice try, Dave, Brad and Andrew. Don’t know your last names, but I’m sure they end in some variation of “ein.” Thanks for coming out and spending some hard earned cash in A-town.

csack@aspentimes.com