Extreme sport lovers bid farewell to winter
Annual Slush Cup gives skiers and snowboarders one last crack at the hills before spring
The annual Slush Cup and Big Air Competition at Hidden Valley Ski Resort brought in 64 participants to test their ski skills on the small open pond and in the terrain park Saturday.
Many of the skiers and snowboarders took an instant nose dive off the jump, plunging into the icy water — while others carved their way through to the end, hopping out quickly to stay warm.
“We have the Slush Cup, which is pretty much try and get across the pond,” said Mike Ractliffe, Head of Visitor Services.
“It’s a traditional event that has been held here for many, many years and most ski resorts will have something similar to it. We do them all on the same day and try and finish off our season with a bit of fun and wet people.”
The age range was anywhere from 10 right up until adult and, “it’s one of those where people get dressed up , there’s a bit of a festive atmosphere,” said Ractliffe, “We’ve got music playing, prizes for everyone and it’s just a case of people getting down here and having fun.”
People have dressed up as ballerinas, in their onesies and retro ski gear in the past and there was a monkey hanging around during the day.
Sarah MacKenzie moved to Medicine Hat when she was five years old and first competed in the Slush Cup when she was 13. Her last Slush Cup was at 16 years old. Now 20 years on as a mother, she has been able to encourage her three kids, most notably her daughter Emily, age 9, to compete in it two years in a row.
“I think right now what is really exciting is that I get to bring my kids and my kids get to participate in an event that I participated in,” she said.
“I like to give them a hard time because at one point I was the Slush Cup champion. The first time I ever did it honestly, it was cold and I smacked my head on the side and it hurt. You’re like ‘oh man I can’t believe I did that but everyone is cheering you on, so you just feel like a champion.’”
Swift Current’s Darcy Selvig went with the traditional ball cap and T-shirt look on his snowboard.
“It was pretty awesome,” he said.
“Definitely a lot colder than I thought it was going to be. I didn’t know the speed. I was worried about the jump up top here. When I got close to it, I really realized I needed to be going a lot faster.”