Latest / The Scene Projects / Ryan Thompson on Whiskey, Community, and Honoring the 10th Mountain Division

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Ryan Thompson on Whiskey, Community, and Honoring the 10th Mountain Division · The Scene Projects

• 0:12
  Welcome into this exciting episode of Real Biz.
• 0:15
  I am your host, Bubba Starts, and with me today from tenth Mountain Whiskey, Ryan Thompson.
• 0:20
  Ryan, welcome to the show.
• 0:21
  Hey, Bubba.
• 0:22
  Thanks for having me, man.
• 0:22
  Excited to be here with you.
• 0:25
  Absolute pleasure, sir.
• 0:27
  I I wish we were able to do this in person there into the distillery, but we're gonna get
• 0:31
  to that later.
• 0:32
  I know you guys got a beautiful spot up there in the mountains in Colorado, where I will be,
• 0:37
  later this year anyway.
• 0:39
  So it just happens to work out.
• 0:40
  But before we get to that and before we get to everything that you guys are doing, not just in
• 0:45
  the whiskey world, but for our veteran community, wanted to get a little bit of your
• 0:49
  backstory and, how you got to this point.
• 0:52
  Yeah.
• 0:52
  Sure, Bobby.
• 0:53
  You got it.
• 0:53
  It's, you don't have to be a a ninth generation distiller to get into the distillery business.
• 1:00
  I tell you that much.
• 1:01
  There's there's a lot of that going on.
• 1:02
  There's a lot of family heritage going on within the industry, which is all well and
• 1:06
  great.
• 1:07
  And there's some very cool lineage there from Europeans coming over and then starting it and
• 1:13
  then putting pieces together and and keeping their family fed and and saving the corn from
• 1:18
  that year's crop, etcetera, and turning it into whiskey.
• 1:21
  I'd have none none of that fun story.
• 1:23
  Right?
• 1:23
  My story started in 1998 when I first moved to Vail, and I bartended around town and lived the
• 1:29
  ski bum lifestyle, for a couple years, skiing a hundred days a year, bartending a night, having
• 1:35
  a great time.
• 1:36
  And then in 2002, I had a had a chance to, start a restaurant.
• 1:41
  And me and a couple friends, took the leap.
• 1:44
  I was 25 years old at the time, took the leap and started a restaurant, that I still have my
• 1:48
  thumb on the day today with my same two original business partners.
• 1:51
  Called the Westside Cafe in Westvale.
• 1:53
  And last, through that, last twenty four years with that business and those two business
• 1:59
  partners, we bought and sold a couple other, restaurants as well.
• 2:03
  In 02/2012, I was watching what the craft distillery movement was doing.
• 2:09
  I was a a big home brewer just for fun, though.
• 2:11
  Five gallon batches just for friends and family.
• 2:14
  So, I understood the brewing side of things.
• 2:16
  And then distillation is the next step after that.
• 2:20
  There were some, leading distilleries within the state of Colorado and then in a couple
• 2:23
  other states and a couple other mountain towns as well that were, making, great spirits and
• 2:28
  and and leading the way and doing great things.
• 2:30
  And I thought to myself, I'm like, well, someone in the someone in the Vail Valley is
• 2:33
  gonna make whiskey sooner or later.
• 2:35
  I'm like, you know what?
• 2:36
  It might as well be me.
• 2:37
  Right?
• 2:38
  Sure.
• 2:38
  I'm I'm bartender.
• 2:39
  I've owned a restaurant.
• 2:40
  I homebrew.
• 2:42
  Distillation's the next step.
• 2:43
  I I can figure that out.
• 2:45
  About the same time, I came across an, ad in a whiskey magazine for Moonshine University, of
• 2:51
  all things in in in a town called Louisville, Kentucky.
• 2:54
  I'm sure you've heard of it.
• 2:56
  Capital, whiskey capital, bourbon capital of the world at least.
• 2:59
  And so, it was the first class that Moonshine University ever held.
• 3:03
  I went out there's a week long course.
• 3:05
  It's obviously not accredited university by any means, but, extensive knowledge from a to z
• 3:10
  about how to run a distillery, how to take care of the equipment, the science, the chemistry,
• 3:15
  the marketing, the legal, all all the raw material suppliers, everything from a to z
• 3:20
  about how to run a distillery was covered in that week.
• 3:23
  Came back and, wrote a business plan and begged, borrowed, and stole as much money as I
• 3:27
  could put together for the next year and, got the brand off the ground and got this thing off
• 3:31
  the ground.
• 3:32
  Started distilling with a 13 gallon still, a little small thing, certainly compared to our
• 3:37
  still these days, which is a 500 gallon still.
• 3:40
  And then just slowly started putting one foot in front of the other, and that was twelve
• 3:43
  years ago.
• 3:44
  And, man, it feels like it started from yesterday still.
• 3:46
  So
• 3:47
  I love the natural progression.
• 3:49
  Right?
• 3:50
  Ski bum, bartender, restaurant owner, home brewer, distiller.
• 3:56
  That's
• 3:56
  exactly right.
• 3:57
  It makes sense, doesn't it?
• 3:58
  It makes sense.
• 3:59
  To me, anyway.
• 4:00
  Right?
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  I grew up in a mountain town in South Dakota.
• 4:04
  I have experienced quite a few other ones.
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  I haven't been up to Vail yet, but got to ski in Breckenridge before, and I've been up, you
• 4:10
  know, Teton Village.
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  And just there's something about those mountains that lends itself to a good time, not
• 4:15
  only on the mountain, but back down in the villages afterwards.
• 4:19
  And it it it feels very natural, I'm sure, for you to to be in this position, you know, thirty
• 4:25
  years after kinda coming to the mountain.
• 4:27
  And, these places are hard to leave.
• 4:30
  Right?
• 4:30
  There's some kind of a vortex, I'm sure, around Vale as there is, around so many other mountain
• 4:35
  towns.
• 4:35
  Yeah.
• 4:36
  Bo, that's interesting you say that.
• 4:37
  You nailed it.
• 4:38
  And there were a couple times throughout that story where I almost left.
• 4:43
  I was It would have pulled
• 4:44
  you back, Ryan.
• 4:45
  Don't worry.
• 4:46
  Yeah.
• 4:47
  Right.
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  Exactly.
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  And a lot of people that do leave end up coming back, but I've never left.
• 4:51
  I've been here for twenty seven years straight, but I certainly took a hard look at grad
• 4:55
  school, MBA, and JD degrees and was applying for those when the restaurant opportunity came
• 5:00
  up.
• 5:01
  A couple years into the restaurant business, we weren't doing that well, and certainly just
• 5:05
  just scraping by and paying the bills, and then a job opportunity landed in my lap back in in
• 5:09
  Texas where I'm I'm originally from, in Houston, in the commercial real estate
• 5:14
  business, which I was really interested in at the time.
• 5:17
  It was a kind of a dream job for me, and and, man, I I accepted that job.
• 5:22
  And then when it came time to move, the day I was supposed to be moving, I'm like, I can't
• 5:26
  leave.
• 5:26
  I can't leave my two buddies at the restaurant.
• 5:28
  I'm staying.
• 5:29
  I gotta I gotta put my nose back down and grind this thing out.
• 5:31
  And sure enough, man, a couple years later, we started started making a couple dollars and
• 5:35
  making a living.
• 5:37
  People think twenty four years in the restaurant business, you might be a smooth
• 5:40
  sailing at this point, but that's anything.
• 5:42
  But we're we're still in the business on a on a daily basis.
• 5:44
  And and but at least we're able to to make a living and pay the bills.
• 5:48
  And so there were certainly a couple times that I was tempted to leave, but I'm very thankful I
• 5:53
  did not.
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  So
• 5:54
  I I just get flashbacks to the Wolf of Wall Street scene where he's supposed to leave the
• 5:58
  company and he I'm a fuck.
• 6:00
  Yeah.
• 6:01
  Yeah.
• 6:01
  Exactly right.
• 6:02
  It's exactly right.
• 6:03
  Yeah.
• 6:04
  So, you know, mom and dad were were excited to get me back in the hometown where I grew up
• 6:08
  where they still resided.
• 6:09
  And, but in the end, I had to make those phone calls and be like, I'm I'm staying put.
• 6:13
  So
• 6:14
  Yeah.
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  I you know?
• 6:15
  And I'm glad you did.
• 6:16
  And often in business, it is in those moments where the real, where the kinda trigger is for
• 6:25
  the success.
• 6:26
  Right?
• 6:26
  The times are dark, and I'm sure that, like you said, scraping by with the restaurant business
• 6:30
  and and asking yourself nightly, you know, what what are we doing?
• 6:34
  Like, it just seems like it's so far away, but it's in that moment that you recommit to it.
• 6:39
  Right?
• 6:40
  That that you kinda leave that other offer and you decide to stay, that often those are when
• 6:44
  you threw the old, you know, darkest before the dawn, you know, kinda moniker that we we push
• 6:51
  it through.
• 6:51
  Right?
• 6:52
  I'm an entrepreneur myself.
• 6:53
  I've grown up.
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  You know, my dad was a business owner, still owns his own landscaping company now.
• 6:59
  Moved it from Chicago, Suburban Chicago where he was doing very well.
• 7:02
  New construction.
• 7:04
  Things are good.
• 7:04
  Got a big crew out to South Dakota where he had to work for someone else for a few years to
• 7:09
  establish himself.
• 7:10
  Turns out it was mostly just to, get the logs for his log home.
• 7:13
  But as soon as he could and he had the opportunity, he was more than willing to to
• 7:18
  sacrifice and make the sacrifices to rebuild his own business and to be his own boss again
• 7:23
  and still does.
• 7:23
  I mean, waking up at 02:00 in the morning to go plow snow in Deadwood, South Dakota and
• 7:29
  everything, you know, like, he's still committed to that.
• 7:31
  And I think in a lot of ways, that inspires me, right, to keep pushing through my own dark
• 7:36
  times.
• 7:36
  Right?
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  I mean, podcasting, I don't know if you know this, Ryan.
• 7:40
  There's not a lot of money in it.
• 7:41
  If, you know, you're trying to run on a model of, you know, cost per thousand views or
• 7:46
  whatever that a lot of these people are, everyone's out here trying to get famous.
• 7:49
  Right?
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  And to try and draw in these views, And I think they kinda miss what it is.
• 7:53
  A podcast is a community.
• 7:55
  And and when you have so many like I do, you have several communities.
• 7:59
  And it's how do you put a a dome on top of all of that and to build an ecosystem.
• 8:04
  It's really an ecosystem of support that you're looking to build, and you're not just trying to
• 8:08
  get famous.
• 8:09
  Ryan, I live in a town of a thousand people.
• 8:11
  I'm about as famous as I could be.
• 8:12
  I'm sure you feel the same way in Vail.
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  It's not a very large community at the end of the day.
• 8:17
  Yeah.
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  And, Bubba, it's interesting.
• 8:18
  It's, I think it depends on how you you measure that success with your podcast.
• 8:23
  Right?
• 8:23
  If it is getting famous and if it is making a a million dollars for the year or a million
• 8:28
  dollars for the month or whatever, 500,000, whatever number you wanna put on it, if that's
• 8:32
  your metric, then that's gonna be might be a hard metric to reach.
• 8:35
  But if your metric is growing your community, and and reaching people that you otherwise
• 8:40
  would never have reached, hell, you and I both is a great example.
• 8:43
  Right?
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  Then it's successful too.
• 8:46
  Right?
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  So certainly wanna keep the lights on and pay the bills and and and and make sure things are
• 8:51
  operating.
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  But in the end, if if you don't become famous and if you don't become that that Instagram
• 8:57
  millionaire, then it's okay still.
• 8:59
  Right?
• 9:00
  It's okay.
• 9:00
  Oh my man.
• 9:01
  Just the conversations I've had in the last forty eight hours have been absolutely
• 9:05
  incredible.
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  I spent most of yesterday talking to people in The Middle East, because I I just kinda and now
• 9:12
  because I'm such a connector in what I do, I connect with communities, right, not just our
• 9:16
  veteran community, and we're gonna talk more about your connection to the veteran community
• 9:19
  as well, but with a another community of podcasters and pod people that wanna be podcast
• 9:26
  guests.
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  There's people out there com building communities of people that just wanna guest on
• 9:30
  podcast.
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  I was able to go plug into that.
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  I'm like, woah.
• 9:33
  Wait.
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  I don't know.
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  I'm talking to, you know, tech startups and people that are working.
• 9:37
  You know, a lot of them residing in Israel, but I started my day off talking to someone who's
• 9:42
  working on the Macabre cube project for the crown prince of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh.
• 9:46
  Right?
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  Looking at it.
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  I'm I'm living in the middle of South Dakota in a tiny little farm town.
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  This shouldn't happen.
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  But yet, with the power of the Internet and these beautiful platforms like a LinkedIn or
• 9:58
  any of these other groups that I'm in, that I have the, the extreme honor and privilege to
• 10:05
  have these conversations and to support so many big, big causes in the world.
• 10:10
  And it it's real it's an honor.
• 10:11
  It's absolutely an honor.
• 10:13
  And if there's any money at the end of the day, then so be it.
• 10:17
  I said that when, the podcast got me so I got to interview Bill Payne of Little Feet.
• 10:22
  It was one of, like, my tenth interview on the podcast.
• 10:25
  Right?
• 10:25
  Guy that has literally played with everyone in the music business.
• 10:29
  And, not only was the conversation, extremely gratifying, you know, a man like that being
• 10:34
  like, Bubba, you're one of us.
• 10:35
  Right?
• 10:35
  Like, you're a musician.
• 10:36
  We're all in this together.
• 10:37
  Right?
• 10:37
  And in a lot of ways, he's still kind of an independent struggling musician.
• 10:41
  Right?
• 10:42
  Obviously, he's had a lot of success in his career, but, he got my mom free tickets on her
• 10:47
  birthday to go sit right next to his wife in the VIP section right up front to watch him
• 10:51
  watch Little Fiend and Abbott Brothers at Red Rocks.
• 10:54
  That's incredible, dude.
• 10:55
  To bring it full circle back to Colorado.
• 10:57
  Right?
• 10:58
  Yeah.
• 10:58
  I'm very blessed to I said after that day, I got to be the good son for the first time in a
• 11:03
  long time.
• 11:04
  This podcast can do nothing else from here, and I'm good.
• 11:08
  We talked a little bit about, you know, the veteran community, obviously, with us in
• 11:12
  operation combating veteran suicide, everything that we're doing to support our veterans.
• 11:17
  10th Mountain is an ode to the military.
• 11:21
  I'd love for you to share a little bit of that story.
• 11:23
  Yeah.
• 11:23
  Exactly.
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  Thanks, Bob.
• 11:24
  Appreciate that.
• 11:25
  So we're named in honor of the tenth Mountain Army Division, and it's one of the most
• 11:28
  historic military divisions out there, in The United States Military.
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  And they originated, the the 10th Mountain was originated in our area, just a few miles south
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  of Vail in a place called Camp Hale in the nineteen forties to be a mountain warfare
• 11:42
  specific army division.
• 11:45
  There was a a group of people that had recognized that we were getting into World War
• 11:49
  two, and there was a real good chance we were gonna have to fight in the mountains in a cold
• 11:54
  environment.
• 11:55
  And those challenges present a whole another layer of of different obstacles to overcome,
• 12:02
  not only when you're fighting the enemy, but you're fighting nature as well.
• 12:05
  You're you're you're fighting the mountains.
• 12:07
  You're you're you're living in zero degree weather.
• 12:09
  Your equipment operates differently.
• 12:11
  And so a group of individuals, a guy named Minnie Dole, who was in charge was the
• 12:15
  president of the National Ski Patrol at the time, recognized that, the the Finnish, army
• 12:22
  kicked the Russians ass out of Finland, because they were so skilled at mountain warfare.
• 12:27
  And so he convinced the United States government after multiple tries.
• 12:31
  The government was not convinced after the first couple tries that we needed a mountain
• 12:35
  warfare army division.
• 12:36
  And and after many those persistence, they finally said, yes.
• 12:39
  We do and recognized it.
• 12:41
  Looked at a number of different spots around the country and ended up at, the ideal spot,
• 12:45
  quote, at a train stop, just a little bit south of Camp Hale in a place called the Pando
• 12:50
  Valley.
• 12:51
  And it's, now now Camp Hale.
• 12:53
  It's a it's a national it's a monument as well.
• 12:56
  But the the the it was 15,000 soldiers.
• 13:01
  There are about 250 women there doing supporting work.
• 13:04
  I'm not being feminist, but they were the nurses.
• 13:07
  They were the the seamstresses.
• 13:08
  They were the cooks.
• 13:09
  And so there was a lot of that going on.
• 13:12
  But they they built a city in at at Pando Train Station, and they trained there for about two
• 13:19
  and a half years.
• 13:20
  And for a long time, the soldiers were were not even think they were gonna gonna see battle,
• 13:26
  get into combat, and they were getting a little bit depressed about it.
• 13:30
  They ended up getting shipped down to Camp Swift, Texas where there's not a lot of
• 13:35
  mountains.
• 13:36
  And they're like, why the hell are we going to Camp Swift?
• 13:39
  What is going on with our division?
• 13:40
  Some of the guys started getting out and going to different divisions, different areas because
• 13:45
  they never thought they were gonna get into war.
• 13:47
  And, finally, they ended up going out to Virginia after just a a few short six six weeks
• 13:51
  in in Camp Swift out to Virginia and then from Virginia out to, Italy.
• 13:57
  And then in Italy, they ended up marching up to Northern Italy to the Apennine Mountains.
• 14:01
  There are a couple different tries to, break through the Gothic Line, of the Germans in the
• 14:07
  Apennine Mountains, some strongholds that the Germans had there, and some other divisions and
• 14:11
  some other countries were not able to do that.
• 14:14
  The tenth mountain comes in and kicks their ass and, pushes the Germans back.
• 14:18
  This was, February 1945.
• 14:21
  The next three months, they saw some significant battles.
• 14:24
  They lost just right at about a thousand men and another 4,000 wounded of the the 10,000
• 14:31
  soldiers that were 15,000 10 to 50,000 soldiers that were there.
• 14:36
  When the the Nazis surrendered, they requested to surrender to the general of the 10th
• 14:41
  Mountain because that was their their most respected opponent, which is a cool feather in
• 14:47
  the cap of the 10th Mountain.
• 14:48
  So they surrendered to that 05/05/1945.
• 14:52
  And then when the the the soldiers came back from the war, they wanted to share the sport of
• 14:57
  skiing with their friends and family and the outdoor lifestyle and and, and the mountains
• 15:02
  and and everything that came with it.
• 15:04
  And so they ended up starting the modern day ski industry as we know, started over 60
• 15:08
  different ski resorts across the country, a number in the Northeast, a number here in
• 15:11
  Colorado, and a number in, North Lake Tahoe area as well.
• 15:15
  They started a number of other different businesses, the National Outdoor Leadership
• 15:20
  School, Outward Bound.
• 15:23
  Let's see.
• 15:24
  A shoe company named Nike was started by a tenth Mountain vet.
• 15:27
  So everybody, of course, knows Nike.
• 15:29
  Phil Knight's business partner was a guy named Bill Bowerman.
• 15:31
  That whole story of Bill Bowerman was a track coach at University of Oregon.
• 15:35
  But before then, he was in the tenth mountain.
• 15:38
  Pletzl climbing gear.
• 15:40
  So you name it.
• 15:40
  These guys were were entrepreneurs.
• 15:42
  But then at the end of the day, they also enjoyed to relax, and and and we're we're we're
• 15:46
  not weren't afraid of having a drink or two either.
• 15:48
  And so there are plenty of stories out there, those guys having a good time and enjoying some
• 15:52
  whiskey or some wine or or a pint of beer or something as well.
• 15:55
  So they're they're speaking my language.
• 15:58
  I'm an entrepreneur.
• 15:59
  I work my ass off, but then at the end of the day, I'm not afraid of, having a glass of
• 16:02
  whiskey either.
• 16:03
  So we were starting the distillery, twelve years ago.
• 16:08
  And, given all the history and and Vail Mountain was one of the mountains started by a
• 16:12
  tenth mountain vet.
• 16:12
  So, we recognize that without these soldiers, we, one, wouldn't be living a free life that we
• 16:17
  are today.
• 16:18
  Two, Vail Mountain probably would not have been founded, let alone the modern day ski industry.
• 16:23
  So, there were 700 distilleries roughly in, 2013 when we were starting.
• 16:29
  And at that point, I thought there were plenty of distilleries.
• 16:32
  It peaked at about 3,200.
• 16:34
  It's back down to about 2,500 distilleries right now.
• 16:37
  But even at 700, I'm like, man, the The United States we don't need another distillery.
• 16:41
  There's plenty of great whiskey out there.
• 16:42
  There's plenty of great spirits.
• 16:44
  I don't wanna just be another me too brand out there.
• 16:46
  I'm like, we if we if we do it, which I'm interested in doing it for a number of
• 16:50
  different reasons, but we need a bigger, reason to do it, a bigger reason why, and, recognize
• 16:56
  the influence of the 10th Mountain.
• 16:57
  Like, well, let's name it and honor the 10th Mountain.
• 16:59
  Let's use it as a platform to support a number of different military nonprofits, and that's
• 17:04
  been the goal since day one, and here we are twelve years later.
• 17:06
  So
• 17:07
  Absolutely incredible.
• 17:08
  What a great story, about the tenth Mountain division, the these men, these women who did
• 17:15
  it.
• 17:15
  If anyone would love to hear, you know, what some of these things that they went through,
• 17:21
  I'm sure there's a number of books and historical accounts of that, but Ernest
• 17:24
  Hemingway wrote a a incredible book talking about some of these battles in particular and
• 17:29
  what that life was like.
• 17:30
  I was very fortunate to read one of those as a young man.
• 17:33
  If you're a visual learner and you kinda need something, I mean, there's some popular movies
• 17:37
  that Steven Spielberg did, Raiders of the Lost Ark.
• 17:40
  Might give you a little taste of what that, you know, what it looked like, in those areas.
• 17:46
  So incredible stuff, man.
• 17:48
  Absolutely love the dedication to your roots.
• 17:52
  Right?
• 17:53
  The roots of Veil and understanding the history and the the stories and continuing on that
• 17:59
  tradition.
• 18:00
  And now tenth Mountain Whiskey gets to carry on those traditions and to carry those stories
• 18:06
  with it and everything that you do while supporting the future of our veteran
• 18:10
  communities as well.
• 18:10
  I just think it's absolutely brilliant.
• 18:12
  Yeah.
• 18:12
  Thanks, bud.
• 18:13
  I appreciate that.
• 18:14
  Yeah.
• 18:14
  It's a it's a really fun it's a fun platform to use to support these military nonprofits and
• 18:19
  and the active soldiers and, and the retired veterans as well.
• 18:24
  They were so the the tenth deactivated when they got back from World War two for a couple
• 18:28
  decades, and then they were reactivated in 1985 as a light infantry division, based in Upstate
• 18:34
  New York.
• 18:34
  And they've been in a they're they're the most active division over the last thirty years.
• 18:38
  So so they're headquartered in Upstate New York now.
• 18:41
  They also have post in in Fort Polk, Louisiana as a cavalry division of all things.
• 18:47
  They still wear the mountain tab, and they are getting back to their mountain roots with some
• 18:53
  some units that are focused on mountain warfare again.
• 18:56
  So so they they were deactivated for a while, but they're they're they're back at it now.
• 19:00
  So I certainly a a movie that you might have had in the back of your mind was black hawk
• 19:06
  down.
• 19:07
  There was, obviously, that was battle Mogadishu.
• 19:10
  You can see some tenth mountain patches in the movie.
• 19:12
  10th Mountain wasn't a big focus of the movie, but they were certainly a significant part of
• 19:15
  that battle, and then over the last thirty years as well.
• 19:18
  So
• 19:20
  Incredible stuff.
• 19:21
  So, I mean, obviously, you're selling whiskey.
• 19:23
  You got the distillery there.
• 19:25
  I know you guys have a tasting room, there in Vail.
• 19:28
  What else are you guys doing?
• 19:29
  Are there some, you know, events that you guys are doing in the town of Vail outside of it
• 19:34
  that you're doing and kinda carrying the message out there?
• 19:37
  Yeah.
• 19:37
  Well, it's incredible timing.
• 19:39
  We are recording this, what, on February 24, I think it is.
• 19:42
  Right?
• 19:43
  Yes, sir.
• 19:44
  And, so in two days, the legacy weekend starts tenth Mountain legacy weekend starts in Vail
• 19:50
  Village, or the town of Vail and at Ski Cooper, which is a smaller ski hill, but it's the ski
• 19:56
  hill that the 10th Mountain learned to ski on in the nineteen forties.
• 19:59
  And Legacy Weekend is a huge celebration of of the arm of the Tenth Mountain Armor Division.
• 20:04
  So a number of us, our whole team will be participating in one aspect or another, with
• 20:09
  the different, ski downs and serpentine skis and a lot of flags flying.
• 20:14
  There's, some fireworks and a a parade on Saturday going through Vail Village.
• 20:18
  It goes right by our tasting room.
• 20:21
  We've become well, over the last this has been done over the last six six years or so, and
• 20:26
  we're the unofficial headquarters.
• 20:28
  This year, our tasting room is the official headquarters of the 10 of of of the deal.
• 20:31
  So, it's gonna be a lot of fun.
• 20:33
  There's, a number of generals come in for it.
• 20:36
  The current, commanding general of 10th Mountain will be in town for it, along with his
• 20:42
  sergeant major and, about 50 I think there's about 50 other soldiers coming in from
• 20:47
  Drumford.
• 20:49
  A lot of this tenth mountain descendants, a lot of tenth mountain veterans, will be in town.
• 20:53
  And so it's just that that there's a local organization a local military organization
• 20:58
  called HATS.
• 20:59
  It's an acronym for a high altitude aviation training site.
• 21:02
  It's five minutes away from the distillery.
• 21:04
  It's thirty minutes west of Vail, but they get one of their black hawks, fly it in, land it on
• 21:08
  top of Vail Mountain for a photo op for a couple hours.
• 21:12
  Kids get to climb all over the helicopter.
• 21:14
  They've got their avalanche dogs out there.
• 21:16
  It's it's an amazing thing to see.
• 21:18
  And so, that's one of the events to carry on the tenth mountain legacy happening just here
• 21:23
  in a couple days, and we're all super excited and gearing up for it.
• 21:26
  So
• 21:27
  Yeah.
• 21:27
  Well, unfortunately, this episode won't air, before that.
• 21:30
  But, is it always the same time, the last weekend in February?
• 21:34
  Yeah.
• 21:34
  Sure is.
• 21:35
  That's typically yes.
• 21:38
  You know, it's out of my hands.
• 21:39
  It's a town of Vail and Vail Resorts, lead the way with it, and we kinda follow in the wake.
• 21:45
  But it's typically this this last, weekend of February, early March.
• 21:49
  So
• 21:50
  Well, I'm already circling it on my 2027 calendar.
• 21:53
  Now I don't ski, but I do snowboard.
• 21:55
  And I hope that I'll come up and be up there.
• 21:58
  We'll bring the podcast and maybe some of our crew along and be there to experience
• 22:02
  everything.
• 22:03
  Obviously, operation combating veteran suicide would love to have a presence there for this
• 22:07
  event.
• 22:08
  And that's what's so great about the podcasting that we do is the connection with the
• 22:13
  communities and reaching out and, being able to find events like this.
• 22:17
  Otherwise, we might never know.
• 22:19
  With so much going on in the world, how do you cut through the noise?
• 22:22
  Right?
• 22:22
  How do you find your people?
• 22:24
  And I think that 10th Mountain has become a beacon for for people to kind of flock to.
• 22:31
  Right?
• 22:31
  The people who veterans, but also enjoy the extreme sports and winter culture and and and
• 22:38
  among other things.
• 22:38
  Right?
• 22:39
  Rock climbing and and all of these things that are doing, but also the veteran community as
• 22:43
  well.
• 22:44
  And I think that's so cool that, you know, not only do you have the whiskey, but you have the
• 22:48
  still in the tasting room and you have this beacon in town and with what you've built, I'm
• 22:53
  sure with the Westside Grill as well, right, that that these places are a place where
• 22:58
  community happens.
• 22:59
  Community isn't something that just kind of comes out of nowhere.
• 23:03
  It takes time to build, and I absolutely love everything you guys are about.
• 23:07
  Ryan, before I let you go, plug everything.
• 23:10
  Obviously, we got the the website scrolling along the bottom here for those watching.
• 23:14
  But for those just listening, go ahead plug everywhere that they can get tenth Mountain
• 23:17
  Whiskey, found out more about you and the foundations that you're serving.
• 23:21
  Yeah.
• 23:21
  Certainly, you can find us across all socials at tenth m t n whiskey.
• 23:25
  We're even on TikTok.
• 23:26
  We're not dancing, but we're on TikTok.
• 23:28
  And to your point, Bubba, and and we have a newsletter, we lead with value, certainly in
• 23:33
  our newsletter, about what's going on within the the military community, active soldiers,
• 23:38
  veterans, different military nonprofits, and what they're doing.
• 23:41
  And so that's our focus with our our consumer facing newsletter.
• 23:45
  Certainly like to bring value across our socials as well.
• 23:48
  Yes.
• 23:49
  Of course, we promote a cocktail here and there and what we're doing internally as a company.
• 23:54
  But, obviously, we wanna lead with value, that's super important to us.
• 23:58
  Let's see.
• 23:59
  Our tasting room is in Vail Village right by the covered bridge.
• 24:02
  If you're ever walking in Vail Village, you can't miss it.
• 24:04
  You're gonna walk by us at least twice, once coming into the village, once leaving.
• 24:07
  Our distillery is in Gypsum, so about thirty minutes west of Vail proper.
• 24:11
  We do distillery tours.
• 24:12
  We have a taste room there.
• 24:13
  We do events.
• 24:14
  One event coming up, a little more in the future is, over Memorial Day weekend.
• 24:19
  We've been working on a flag to remember, which is a a flag three by five flag with 250 fallen
• 24:26
  soldiers on it, and then we're gonna have an event around that and the unveiling of the
• 24:30
  flag, free for people to come hang at.
• 24:33
  We put all the names on it already.
• 24:35
  Well, it's being they're it's being made and sewn right now, but, certainly, if the friends
• 24:39
  and family of the fallen soldiers that have names on it are gonna be there.
• 24:43
  So let's call the flag to remember, and we're gonna be doing that across memorial memorial
• 24:46
  day weekend.
• 24:48
  Let's see.
• 24:48
  Our website is tenthwhiskey.com.
• 24:50
  That's one zero t h whiskey with an e.
• 24:54
  Incredible, Ryan.
• 24:55
  I'm so grateful to have met you and to get to share this moment on the podcast and
• 25:00
  everything.
• 25:01
  We're gonna shoot to get this out before Memorial Day to make sure that we promote that
• 25:05
  that event that you guys have going on.
• 25:07
  I think that's incredible what you're doing, not just for the broader veteran community, but
• 25:11
  really digging into the personal stories and the and the people.
• 25:15
  Right?
• 25:16
  And I think we often forget about the families of not just our fallen soldiers, but the ones
• 25:20
  that are still here with us and that veteran community at large.
• 25:24
  So appreciate everything that you're doing, for our vets and for the veteran community at
• 25:29
  large.
• 25:30
  And, just absolutely a pleasure to know you, and I can't wait to come up and see you this
• 25:34
  summer in Vail Village.
• 25:36
  Get to check out the distillery and share a whiskey with you in the tasting room.
• 25:41
  Man, that'll be great, bub.
• 25:42
  I'd love to show you around.
• 25:43
  I look forward to it.
• 25:43
  Thank you
• 25:44
  for having me on pod tonight.
• 25:45
  Awesome.
• 25:45
  Well, thanks for spending some time with me today, and thank you for being part of the
• 25:49
  scene.
• 25:49
  Yes, sir.
• 25:50
  Keep up the good work.
• 25:51
  See you, bud.
• 25:55
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