In Frisco, Jews gather at Backcountry Bayit

snow season arrives in Summit County, the sights, sounds and scents are unmistakable — the gentle schuss of skiers and snowboarders zooming down the slopes, the pines and spruces draped in white mantles, the happy sounds of après-ski socializing in taverns and eateries. For the last couple of years, there have also been new, and unmistakably Jewish, sensory elements on those alpine Friday nights — the aroma of baking challah and burning candle wax, the exotic accents of Hebrew and Yiddish, the distinct rhythms of klezmer music, the sound of Shabbat prayers. These things emanate from a house in Frisco, home to a program called the Backcountry Bayit, where youthful Jews — virtually all of them drawn to the mountains by the lure of Colorado’s […]