The smell of fried turkey wafted through the cold air Sunday, Nov. 24, as skiers and riders at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area boarded the Black Mountain Express chairlift.

Still early in the winter season, High Noon — a steep blue trail — was the only run open, but skiers and boarders happily made turns down the slope, before coasting through the nonexistent liftline for another lap.

Not far from where the chairlift whirled, friends old and new gathered for a feast. It was the 5th annual A-Basin Friendsgiving — an unofficial event hosted by a group of friends that grows every year.

Several vehicles had backed into The Beach, A-Basin’s front row parking. Tailgates were open. Portable grills, two backyard turkey fryers, tables and cookware had been unloaded to create a “kitchen.” Nearby, people gathered in “the living room,” where a blow-up couch and lawn chairs had been set up around a fire. Drinks and conversation were flowing, smiles abundant.

As people chit-chatted, Silverthorne resident Dan O’Connell tended to one of the frying turkeys, which he said he had injected with herbs and seasoning and began basting a week earlier.

“It’s really just about all of us coming together,” O’Connell said of Friendsgiving. “They’ve been doing it for a handful of years now, and it’s been growing and growing. So, it’s just for us to get together, start the ski season off right and enjoy some laughs and some good food.”

Along with O’Connell, Golden resident Tim Bock and Silverthorne resident Bill Stube wore matching green aprons, indicating that they were part of the “core committee” that helped organize and plan the Friendsgiving.

Noting that he grew up snowboarding at A-Basin, Bock said that he can’t imagine a better place for Friendsgiving than “The Legend.” Tailgating at The Beach is always a special experience, he said, calling A-Basin the “locals’ mountain” and “a family place.”

Stube, who has helped with all five A-Basin Friendsgivings over the years, said he has left each celebration with new friends.

“You get to ski with a bunch of people,” Stube said. “Like, I skied today with a couple people I’d never skied with that were like friends of friends. It was like ‘Oh, we should go later in the year.’ Kinda extend that group.”

Denver resident Alexei Kissell, the mastermind behind the feast, said this was the fifth year of the Friendsgiving tradition, which began in 2019 but took a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Friendsgiving feast, Kissell said, started as nothing more than a crazy idea but has since become a can’t-miss tradition where friends become family.

“From the first time we had it, I was like ‘This is the best day ever. This is the most fun I’ve ever had,’ and everyone was saying the same thing,” Kissell told the Summit Daily News last year. “So, I was like ‘OK, same time, same place next year.'”

Summit Daily wrote about the Friendsgiving after the fact last year, but this year Kissell invited a reporter to join the festivities. She said Friendsgiving has an “open invite” policy for anyone who wants to join and make friends.

This year, Kissell said there were 45 people who signed up to attend the Friendsgiving but she estimated that at least 15 more people joined in the day of. With the event bigger than ever, the core committee arranged for two turkeys to be prepared this year and awarded prizes for the best homemade dishes.

A Penn State graduate, Kissell said she had fried a turkey or two during a parking lot tailgate at the big football school. So when the idea came to her to do a Friendsgiving at A-Basin, it wasn’t a question of feasibility. The only questions were: Would A-Basin allow it? And were her friends crazy enough to help her pull it off?

Turns out the answer to both questions was yes.

After reading the rules for The Beach spots at the base of the ski lifts at A-Basin, Kissell didn’t see anything that would prohibit deep frying a turkey in the parking lot. So, one by one, she started pitching the idea to her friends, who couldn’t be more excited to help spread the word.

Bock was one of the friends she first reached out to with the idea.

“It’s kind of been our motto from day one of meeting each other, where we always take whatever we’re doing and figure out ways to make it just a bit dumber,” Bock said. “It has worked quite well for us.”

Year by year, the event has grown. When friends invite their friends, friends of friends become friends, Kissell said. Sometimes, curious skiers or snowboarders will stop by to ask about the turkey being deep fried slopeside. Those people are invited to join too, she said. So are A-Basin staff and ski patrollers.

A-Basin communications manager Shayna Silverman said that the ski area is happy that this group of friends has chosen to host its tradition at A-Basin.

“This A-Basin Friendsgiving tradition is exactly what Summit County is about — coming together with your chosen family, enjoying good food and good snow,” A-Basin communications manager Shayna Silverman said in a statement. “We’re honored to be the home of it, and look forward to welcoming the group back for Friendsgivings to come.”

Around noon, O’Connell and Bock pulled the turkeys from the pots where they were frying and carved the birds on the tailgate of a pickup truck, occasionally popping bits of skin and meat into their mouths.

Soon, Kissell was calling everyone to grab food, and people were scooping heaps of mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes, stuffing, leek pudding, green bean casserole and other homemade dishes onto their plates. 

One of the things that makes this Friendsgiving special, Kissell said, is that everyone sits down to enjoy the meal together. Once everyone had food and was seated along the long line of picnic tables, Kissell rose to thank her friends for coming.

“This is my favorite day of the year,” Kissell said. “You all are my chosen family.”