Tamarack Resort expects to get 25 inches of snow over the next three days and Brundage Mountain Resort has had its snowiest March in the last decade.
Normally this time of year ski resorts start winding down and the focus turns to spring skiing and some unique events to close out the ski season. This year skiers and snowboarders are getting the best of both worlds.
Tamarack will host the Idaho State Championship Pond Skim this Saturday from 1:00pm to 4:00pm. The event features 75 participants who will try to cruise across a 60-foot pond.
Tamarack started building the pond this past Sunday. It takes a good amount of work to build and make it safe, but the payoff is fun for everyone involved, including the spectators.
"It is super fun to watch, I mean people get so excited," said Mitch Vaughan of Tamarack. "We have people come every year. We have new people who have never tried it before so you never know what to expect."
Tamarack will give out prizes for the top overall style, best costume, and biggest crash. Last year a local rider won a new snowboard.
Brundage Mountain Resort hosts another ski culture classic with the Gelande Quaff. The event starts at 2:00pm and includes a relay race where people have to catch cups of beer being slid across a wooden table, and they have to wait until it slides off to grab it. Extra points are awarded for creative catches.
"This is definitely not an event that everyone wants to participate in, but it is super fun to watch," said April Whitney of Brundage. "At the core of skiing is a history of irreverence and inhibition."
Brundage will also feature a beer relay race down the mountain, as well as a root beer race for the kids, and the following Saturday they will host a cardboard box derby.
"The rule is you can only use cardboard, duct tape, and paint," said Whitney. "You can make whatever craft or vessel you want and the competition starts on the top of Easy Street and people see how close they can come to hitting a target at the bottom."
Ski resorts host these events towards the end of the day because drinking and skiing don't mix. I know from personal experience as I broke my collarbone being irresponsible in my early twenties. So be responsible!
It should be an epic weekend to enjoy the shenanigans or to ski and snowboard on another March powder day.
"Our normal March snowfall in the last decade has been about 33 inches," said Whitney of Brundage. "We are already up to 82 inches with a couple of days to go."
"It has been the best snow year in over a decade," said Vaughan of Tamarack. "It doesn't want to stop it has just been an insane season all the way around."
Both Tamarack and Brundage will be open for two more weekends with closing day for both resorts happening on Sunday, April 9.
