{"id":21994,"date":"2017-10-31T16:06:23","date_gmt":"2017-10-31T23:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/?p=21994"},"modified":"2025-05-20T16:27:01","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T23:27:01","slug":"the-legend-of-the-twinkie-roast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/snowsports\/the-legend-of-the-twinkie-roast","title":{"rendered":"The Legend of the Twinkie Roast"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the snow gods are appeased by snack cakes burning<\/strong><\/p>\n

Humans have made sacrifices to the gods since the beginning of time as we remember it. As we learned to wander up mountains and find our way back down again, we slowly crafted snowsports and with them came the quest for the perfect snow. This type of perfection, we finally discovered, is a luxury that only the snow gods can bestow upon us.<\/p>\n

Thus the Twinkie\u2122 Roast began. Forty years ago, during a particularly lackluster opening of ski season, we sacrificed a golden sponge cake with creamy filling to the snow gods. They smiled down on us (perhaps their tears of laughter turning to frost as they fell to earth) in the form of the textbook powder day. An REI legend was born.<\/p>\n

(Please note that \u201cgods\u201d do not denote any particular denomination, as REI is an equal-opportunity outfitter and does not discriminate on gods\u2019 age, size, number or realm of oversight.)<\/em><\/p>\n

1976<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The legend began, as many do, with a rowdy group of ski techs at our store in Berkeley, California. To set up\u00a0your ski bindings, you have to drill holes into your skis.\u00a0Although our techs were quite good at their jobs, every now and then there would be an unfixable drill mistake, and the ski would have to be discarded.<\/p>\n

In the winter of 1976, the ski techs held a party at one of their homes (they noted: it was definitely not <\/em>at REI). At the culmination of the revelry, the discarded skis were gathered into a pile, doused in a bunch of fire starter and burned. One of the guys, Kevin Washington, ate Hostess fruit pies every single day, as there was a Hostess bakery outlet right behind the Berkeley REI store. As the flames rose into the California night sky, his friends stole his fruit pie and tossed it into the flames.<\/p>\n

It was a poor snow year.<\/p>\n

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A post shared by Betsy De Glopper (@betsydeglopper)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n