Summary
To up the costume quotient, Burke Mountain's Pond Skimming always has a theme. Suggesting theY wish it was the beginning of the ski season, this year's event in late March went with "Halloween." But marketing coordinator Hannah Collins still fondly recalls last year's '80s party: Imagine several Darth Vaders, a Richard Simmons and a Rubik's Cube attempting to slide across the pond at the base of Warren's Way Trail. "Richard Simmons looked really funny, with his sopping-wet wig and tight tank top and shorts," says Collins. Burke awards season passes to the "king and queen of the pond."
For Olympic-level competitors - or watchers - nothing beats Stowe's Sugar Slalom. The 65th annual event is scheduled for April 8 and 9. The race draws 300 to 400 of New England's fastest skiers; Torino veterans Jimmy Cochran and Chip Knight, both of the U.S. Ski Team, are expected to compete this weekend. Traditionally held on the super-steep Nosedive run, it's been moved to Exhibition Hill, so spectators can more easily take in the races, along with sugar-on-snow treats from Maple Grove Farms. "It's gonna be a pretty good carnival," says Paul Lawson, a Sugar Slalom course official, who has watched racers fly by in tutus, clown costumes and Elvis regalia. "It's the last race of the season, so everybody's ready to let loose."The loosest spring skiers of all might be participants in Mount Snow's Dummy Downhill, happening this Sunday as part of the resort's Reggaefest. The event's name comes not from the act of zooming down a slippery incline with waxed planks on one's feet, but from "racers" that are actual dummies. Constructed of such materials as wood, Styrofoam and plastic, the artificial athletes weigh 100 to 300 pounds, and fly off a 5- or 6-foot jump before crash-landing into pieces. "The event has seen everything from Saddam with his head in a toilet to Spongebob Square-pants, the Energizer Bunny and ski patrollers," says Matthew Zogby of Mount Snow. "The only rule is that the dummy not have any type of explosive device."See the full content of this document
Extract
Slush Fun
Maybe Vermont had a so-so season for flurries. But furries had their day - during Bolton Valley's Mascot Madness on March 25. The first-ever ski and snowboard race pitted Bolton's own Moose mascot and a half-dozen other colossal critters from northern Vermont sports teams, businesses and colleges against junior racers on the Beac...
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