All About Apres

All About Après covers adventure travel, gear that earns its place in your bag, and the après scene that makes the trip worth it.

It’s all downhill from here.
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08/28/2026

Ski season is closer than it feels.

And Après All Day is heading into fall with something to say about what this brand is building toward.

We started as a simple idea. The mountain town lifestyle deserves to be covered the way the people who live it actually experience it. Not as a travel blog. Not as a gear catalog. As a culture worth documenting by someone who's actually in it.

That idea has grown into something real.

Destination features that mountain town locals recognize as accurate. Brewery spotlights that get reposted because they're written by someone who actually sat at the bar and ordered the right thing. Gear recommendations from someone who uses the gear and has opinions about it.

And this fall — brand partnerships coming into focus. More destinations. More brewery and distillery spotlights. More of the content that's been driving the growth and earning the right audience.

The ski season changes everything for this brand. The mountain goes from backdrop to centerpiece. The après moment goes from patio to base lodge. The culture we cover gets louder and more specific and more worth following.

We cover the mountains in every season because the people who love them don't stop when the calendar changes.

Summer built the foundation. Fall sharpens it. Winter is why we do all of it.

If you've been following along — thank you. You're part of what makes this worth building.

If you just found us — you're here at exactly the right time.

Follow if this is your world. Share if you know someone it belongs to.

08/26/2026

Vermont has no shortage of craft breweries worth stopping for. Long Trail is the one that earned its place at the top of that list before most of the others existed.

Founded in 1989 in an old mill on the banks of the Ottauquechee River in Bridgewater Corners, Long Trail was a trailblazer for craft beer in Vermont and the Northeast before craft beer was a category anyone was paying attention to.
Beer of the Month Club

The beer you order is the Double Bag. No debate.

A double amber ale — smooth and complex, roasted malt with caramel and chocolate underneath, bittering hops keeping it honest at 7.2%. It drinks like Vermont in the fall. Rich without being heavy. The kind of beer that makes sense after a long day on the trail or a morning skiing groomers before the crowds arrived.
Longtrail

The insider detail — Double Bag was originally only available in the taproom. A secret brew for the people who actually showed up. It won Malt Advocate's Beer of the Year in 2001 and earned every bit of it.
BeerAdvocate

The campus on the Ottauquechee is the kind of place you plan to stop at for one beer and leave two hours later having had three conversations with people who just came off a trail or a mountain.

That's the whole point.

Long Trail Brewing — still the standard after 35 years.

What's the Vermont brewery that became part of your mountain routine?

08/21/2026

Last week of August. School starts Monday.
Twenty-four years in and this week still feels the same way it always has. Part excitement, part taking stock of everything the summer built and everything that still needs work.

For the athletes in this community — this is the moment. The summer work either shows up in how you feel heading into the first week of practice or it doesn't. There's no more adding to it now. There's just executing what you've built.

I talked to another coach this week about what separates the teams that execute well late in close games from the ones that fall apart under pressure.

His answer was simple. When the body is tired and the game is tight — go back to what you know best. Pick the one thing you do better than anything else on both ends of the floor and own it. Don't try to be everything. Be the best version of your best thing.

That's the end of August in one idea.
You've done the work. You know what your best thing is. Lead with that heading into the school year.

For the parents sending athletes back this week — remind them that the summer they just had matters. Even if they can't see it yet. Even if the first week of practice feels harder than expected. The work is in there. It shows up when it counts.

Have a great first week back to everyone in the Elite Basketball Training community. We'll be right here all season long.

08/21/2026

The mountain doesn't care what season it is. ↓
It doesn't care that school starts Monday. It doesn't care about rosters or schedules or the administrative weight of a new season landing all at once.

It just asks the same question it always asks.
What did you actually build this summer — and are you ready to execute it when it counts?
I told another coach this week that the secret to performing under pressure at the end of a tight game is simplicity. When the body is tired and the brain is tired with it — don't reach for something new. Go back to the one thing you do better than anything else and own it completely.

August is that moment at the end of a game.
You've done the work. The summer is built. There's nothing left to add.

Lead with your best thing.

The mountain teaches this same lesson on every technical run, every long climb, every moment where the conditions stop cooperating and you have to execute on what you actually have — not what you wish you'd prepared better.

The outdoor season doesn't end because the calendar says August is over.

It shifts into a different kind of earning.
The skin track in December starts right here.
What did this summer build in you that shows up on the mountain this winter?

08/19/2026

Park City in summer is what happens when a world-class ski resort stops performing and just exists.

The lifts aren't spinning. The mountain is wide open. And the trails that spend all winter buried under Utah powder are suddenly yours alone on a Tuesday morning in August.

Finish with Holy Roller at Deer Valley. Four miles of pure cruising — flowing singletrack that doesn't demand everything you have, just enough to earn what comes after. It's the kind of trail that puts you in the right headspace. Comfortable enough to enjoy the scenery, engaging enough that you're present for every turn.

After — find a chair on the deck at Glitretind inside Stein Eriksen Lodge.

This is the insider detail that separates the people who've actually been there from everyone else. The Stein Burger on that deck with a cold beer and the Wasatch Range sitting right in front of you is one of the great post-trail moments in any mountain town anywhere. Not because it's fancy — because it's perfectly earned. The elevation, the view, the burger, the beer. Everything in its right place.

Deer Valley doesn't oversell itself. It doesn't have to.

Deer Valley Resort Stein Eriksen Lodge Deer Valley — summer on this mountain is as good as it gets.

What's the mountain town that surprised you most when the snow was gone?

08/14/2026

Three sports. One lesson the gym can't teach alone. ↓

CrossFit puts you under a barbell and teaches you what happens when your focus fractures mid-set. The weight doesn't care about your intention. It only responds to your ex*****on in that exact moment.

Basketball puts you on a court with a player who is managing more in a single day than most adults handle in a week. Job. Practice. Deadlines. Scholarship applications. Skill work. Training.

I told her — budget the time. Plan each day so the important things are protected before the urgent ones crowd them out.

Efficiency isn't doing more.

It's making sure the right things actually get done.

Skiing puts you on a technical pitch and shows you the same truth from the outside. The skiers who fall apart up there aren't usually lacking the physical skill.

Their focus fractured before the terrain got steep.

The mountain doesn't grade you on effort or intention.

It shows you exactly where you are — right now, on this run, with what you actually have today.

Three sports. Same lesson every time.

Control what you can control in the moment in front of you. The list handles itself when you handle the moment.

That's not a fitness philosophy. That's a life one.

What sport or discipline taught you the most about managing everything competing for your attention at once?

08/07/2026

August is short. The mountains are not. ↓

The summer that felt endless in June is suddenly almost over.

And the mountains are still right there — patient, indifferent to the calendar, ready for whoever shows up with the right attitude and enough left in the tank to earn the view.

I watched an athlete this week let one mistake compound into five. The errors weren't the problem. Her relationship with the errors was.
The mountain teaches this same lesson on every hard run, every technical section, every moment where the conditions stop cooperating.

You control two things up there.
Attitude and effort.

Everything else — the weather, the snow, the terrain — is just what the mountain gives you that day. The ones who have a great day regardless are the ones who stopped fighting what they can't control and started building on what's actually working.

In that same session her shot was the best of the summer. She walked right past it.

August is asking all of us the same question right now.

Are you building on what's working — or letting what isn't set the tone for everything else?
The ski season is closer than it feels. The mountains are already waiting.

Use August.

What are you building toward before the first lift ticket of the season?

08/05/2026

West Dover doesn't announce itself.

No marquee mountain town energy. No main street designed for Instagram. Just a small Vermont village at the base of Mount Snow that knows exactly what it is and doesn't need to explain it to anyone.

Snow Republic Brewing fits that perfectly.

This is the kind of place you end up after a day on the mountain and decide not to leave. The room feels like it was built for exactly that purpose — unhurried, unpretentious, full of people who just did something outside worth talking about.

The Ziggy Pilsner is what you order first. Clean, crisp, and balanced in a way that makes sense after a full day on the slopes or the trails. It doesn't fight you. It just works.

But here's the real order — and this is the insider detail that separates the people who've actually been there from everyone else.

The OG Chicken Sandwich.

I have eaten a lot of chicken sandwiches in a lot of mountain towns. This one is in a different category entirely. Order it without hesitation. Thank me later.

West Dover and Mount Snow get overshadowed by flashier Vermont destinations. That's exactly why it's worth going.

Snow Republic Brewery — you're doing everything right.

What's the mountain town spot that became your go-to the moment you walked in?

08/01/2026

Late July looks like this.

Trail dust on your boots before 8am. A lake that's still cold enough to matter. Summit views that remind you why you drove three hours to get here.

The mountain towns that were buried in snow six months ago are fully alive right now — patios open, local breweries packed with people who just came off something worth talking about, that particular end-of-day light that makes everything look like it was planned.
This is the window between the summer push and the first lift ticket.

The weeks where the outdoor season is at full volume before it starts shifting gears toward fall. Before the aspens turn. Before the ski reports start. Before the gear swap.

Right now it's hiking boots and paddle boards and cold beer on a patio with people who smell like sunscreen and trail mix.

This is the earned version of summer.
The mountain is still here. The water is still warm enough. The days are still long enough.
August is next. Use it.

Follow if this is your world. Share if you know someone it belongs to.

07/29/2026

Asheville gets a lot of attention as a beer town. Highland Brewing is the reason that reputation started.

Founded in 1994 — the first legal brewery in Asheville — Highland has been doing this long enough to know exactly who they are and confident enough not to chase trends to prove it. The campus sits on 40 acres east of downtown and feels less like a brewery and more like the place a mountain town builds when it finally has room to breathe.

The beer you want is the Daycation Crusher. A session IPA built for exactly the kind of day the name implies — bright, clean, hop-forward without demanding your full attention. The kind of beer that works at mile one of a trail conversation or mile eight when you've finally earned it. It disappears fast for good reason.

Here's what only people who've actually been there know — the disc golf course and sand volleyball courts on site aren't an afterthought. They're part of the culture. You don't just stop at Highland for a beer. You end up there. The kind of place where a two-hour afternoon becomes an evening without anyone suggesting it should.

That's the après spirit built into the physical space. Not a tap room you walk through. A destination you settle into.

Highland Brewing Company — still setting the standard after 30 years.

What's the brewery that turned into a full afternoon without you planning it that way?

Address

6557 Holiday Valley Rd
Ellicottville, NY
14731

Website

http://www.allaboutapresski.com/, https://all-about-apres.kit.com/628f9be164

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