Down Home
When we walked into the Blue Moon Bar & Grill in Lava Hot Springs, Idaho, a palpable fog of stale nicotine smog hung in the air. My eyes burned as I strained to see in a room lit by strands of colored Christmas lights and neon bar signs. It was five o’clock on a weekday and our group of five had just doubled the patron count.
A slender woman in her 40s wearing a black tank top, her long blonde hair held back with a scrunchie, dealt us a hand of cocktail napkins and five pints of Blue Bitch Lager.
“It tastes like Bud Light, but sweet,” she said.
Photographer Tal Roberts, siblings McKenna, Axel, and Dylan Peterson from Sun Valley, and I were on a weeklong ski trip through southern Idaho. Despite being less than 30 miles from Pebble Creek Ski Area, there was no indication we were near anything skiable. This was not a ski town. In search of places to ski for less than $50 a day, we had ventured well off the beaten path.
The average lift ticket in North America cost $113 last winter. Vail set a record with its $189 day pass. Skiing, by any measurement, is more expensive than
