Ski or Hike Your Way to These 6 Adventurous Treats - Atlas Obscura Lists

Ski or Hike Your Way to These 6 Adventurous Treats

Dry martinis are best served in the middle of a snowy forest.

Whether it’s a flaming goblet of booze or a Norwegian KitKat döppelganger candy bar, treats just taste better when you feel like you’ve earned them. Sure, you could grab a martini at any old bar, but it would somehow never be as refreshing as one poured into your mouth via a Spanish porrón on the slopes of Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico. For more than 60 years, skiers have slalomed between trees for the bracing taste of victory—and gin.

Members of HAMS, or the High Altitude Martini Skiers club, aren’t the only ones who enjoy working up a sweat for an edible or potable reward. Swedish skiers go through 50,000 liters of bilberry soup a year, while generations of Native Americans throughout the United States and Canada have fueled up for long journeys on berries that taste uncannily like peanut M&Ms. Meanwhile hikers in Chile toast the end of successful trek with a refreshing sip of mote con huesillos, a syrupy, peach-flavored elixir that tastes all the sweeter because of the extra mileage.