Closing Crystal Mountain

A lot of people wait anxiously every year for the opening of ski season. Their gear is polished, their seasons pass is bought, and the only thing they have to wait for is enough of the fluffy white stuff to hit the ground that it's considered skiing and not falling down a hill. It's usually around December sometime that everything gets up and running. After that a certain number of people disappear each year, not to be seen again for the next three months. 

We treat ski season a little differently. While our general plan is to avoid skiing at all costs, there is one day each year that we make an exception to our plan. While everybody else waits for opening day, the one day a year that we really enjoy being up on a ski mountain is closing day. Why closing day? Well let's just say that the attitude on the mountain is a little different on that day...

Closing day at Crystal Mountain, the closest ski hill to Kelowna, was last Sunday, and as usual they finished with a Family Fun Day. For most people, that meant a chance to compete in the annual Slush Cup...

...but for our family, who has some common sense, it was a chance to try out some non-skiing related events. In fact, the main draw of the day for me was the chance to compete against the rest of my family in a snowshoe race, something that none of us had ever had the chance to try before. 

The kids got to go first, and while youngest opted out, my older two decided that was definitely some rivalry that could be settled on the snowshoe course. The trash talking reached a fever pitch just before race time...

Remember the good old days when trash talking was verbal and not via text?

...but once the race got underway, it wasn't really all that close. 

Talon managed to win the race, and through grit, determination, and the disqualification of another competitor, Neve held on to grab third place - which was important as the prize for third was a gift certificate to Cupcasions!

That just left Lori and I to do battle, and I have to admit that, at the beginning, it really didn't seem such a wise decision to challenge my wife. Some people look fabulous on snowshoes...

...while some of us...not so much...

What happens in the starting gate however, stays in the starting gate, and once the race began it was a whole different story. Sure I was behind to start, but in the home stretch, when it counts, is when I made my move...

...and despite my better judgement, I finished just ahead of my wife, taking another third place Cupcasions gift certificate which my wife promptly confiscated. Apparently you can have the thrill of victory, but to the wife go the spoils.

Speaking of spoils, everybody at the mountain got to try some Sugarbush Taffy. This is taffy that is brought to a boil and then laid out in lines in a bed of snow. 

After it's had a couple of seconds to cool, you can wind it up around a stick and it makes a really great treat, assuming you can get your kids to share it with you.

Yes...that is Elvis in the background...

Family Fun Day is definitely my favorite day of the ski season, and unlike all the skiing fanatics who are counting down the days until the slopes open next December, I can't wait until the next closing day of ski season. Next time though, I think I'm going to challenge my kids to the Cardboard and Duct Tape race. 

I mean, nothing could go wrong doing that could it?

Written by Steve Pratt