Why Every Ski Day Should Have a Menu, According To Two Ski Bums Turned Cooks

After becoming the first woman to land a backflip into Corbet’s Couloir and the professional skiing career that took off with it, Veronica Paulsen has recently shifted her focus to the stories of other athletes and folks in the ski industry.

Her web series, which is now in its third season, chronicles how others approach the mountains, skiing, and life, often narrated with a framework of a specific ski line. Paulsen has done everything from following Reine Barkered on his last FWT stop, tackling the formidable Central Couloir with Andrew Whiteford, going winter camping with Griffin Post, and skijoring in Bondurant, Wyoming.

Now, Paulsen’s series brings her back to one of skiing’s most basic skills: feeding yourself while skiing. In the latest episode, Paulsen teams up with POWDER‘s very own Gear Editor, Max Ritter, and his wife and Editor-in-Chief of the Ski Journal, Lily Krass Ritter, who are also the authors of two cookbooks, for a ski day that features a multi-course menu.

Fueled by recipes from Max & Lily’s latest book, Ski Snacks, the three of them bike eight miles from the Bradley Taggert parking lot along the closed Grand Teton National Park road, skin across a semi-frozen lake, and ski classic spring Teton line, Rockchuck Peak.

You can watch the full episode below and keep reading for more.

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Lily, who also works as a part-time ski guide, fears little more than the thought of eating frozen, packaged granola bars in the mountains. (In contrast, I’ve witnessed Max eat an entire bag of Gushers in under a minute.)

Whether they’re skiing at home in the Tetons or in some far-off mountain range, bringing good food into the mountains is a core value of both Max and Lily, and it doesn’t hurt that they’re both amazing chefs.

For their Rockchuck Peak bike-to-ski mission, Max and Lily started off the day by treating Paulsen to a “pre-breakfast” of banana nut muffins, a “first breakfast” of Espresso Energy Balls, and a lot of coffee.

With a backpack full of quiches, they climbed up to 2,500′ to enjoy a “second breakfast” of the Ski Snacks Sunrise Quiche and a mid-morning snack of bacon-wrapped dates with honey goat cheese. The summit of Rockchuck peak brought turkey, apple, brie, and jam sandwiches to fuel them for the ski down.

To top off the mission, Max and Lily broke out their cinnamon butter mochi cake (my personal favorite Ski Snacks recipe!) to fuel the bike ride back to their cars for après with homemade Radlers.

You can find the recipes for all these great snacks in Max and Lily’s cookbook and follow Paulsen and more of the folks who inspire on her YouTube channel.

Related: The 10 Ski Resorts With The Most Snow In The U.S. and Canada This Season