STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
Dollar Mountain bid adieu to the powderific winter of 2016-17 with a splash as nearly 300 skiers and boarders took part in the annual Dollar Dayz Pond Skim.
The event has become as much a part of the Sun Valley ski tradition in recent years as powder days and après ski on the Warm Springs Plaza.
Sun Valley employees dug a beautiful trench out of the bounty of snow that remains on Dollar Mountain Saturday as terrain park users tried in vain to conquer Boxzilla—a long line of box features lined up back to back.
On Sunday morning mountain workers lined pool with plastic and filled it with H2O.
A bumble bee, teenage mutant Ninja turtle, crocodile, Winnie the Pooh, and even a man dressed like a cow took the plunge, skiing down the slope above and skimming across the pond. Scads of spectators lined the slushy course, all reveling in a sunny spring-like day after a long snowy winter.
One man came dressed in a Speedo—there was less to wring out if he crashed and sank. But, ouch, if he had fallen on the snow on the way down!
Another dressed as a rock n’ roller holding a cardboard keyboard in his hand.
Skimmer tried a variety of techniques for staying upright from holding their arms out to the side as if they were an airplane to relying on flotation devices.
Sun Valley’s General Manager Tim Silva showed how it was done, cutting a straight kamikaze course down the mountain and across the pond, emerging with nary a drop of water on him.
Ski Patrol Director Mike Lloyd sat high above the action in a lifeguard chair. But when someone actually sank, he left it to other patrollers to jump into the chilly water.
A group of high school students from Boise made the trip to Sun Valley just for the event. They’d seen it last year and wanted to try it for themselves.
“It feels like powder skiing!” said one.
A few snowboarders put their boards on end making sure spectators got wetter than they.
Olivia Brown, a three-time Pond Skim veterans talked her Mom—Hailey artist Melissa Graves Brown—into accompanying her this year.
Olivia made it across handily, perhaps empowered by her Super Girl cape and outfit.
Mom sank.
“The secret is to lean back. Way back,” said Olivia.
Remember that, Mom!
NOTE: Dollar Dayz signaled the end of the season for Dollar Mountain. And Sun Valley Nordic Center closed on Sunday, as well.
But the fun continues at Bald Mountain where the snow has been starting to soften about 10 each morning. Sun Valley will bid adieu to the big mountain the weekend of April 21-23 with a number of fun Baldy Bash events and discounts.