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The last splash

Shut down the lifts and let the parties begin

Catherine Lutz, Special to the News

Published March 14, 2006 at midnight

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The best parties - the ones continually rehashed at dinner tables and in bars - often seem to be the ones that are unplanned. They spontaneously happen around a reason to celebrate or start as a small gathering of friends but snowball into an all-out bash.

That goes for end-of-the-season parties at ski areas. By April, most of the tourists have gone away and the locals say goodbye to another winter in their own way. These days, virtually every ski resort hosts special events at the end of the season, although few have kept the spirit of the grassroots party that started it all.

The following are a few of the best closing day parties around - ones that started small and have become the fodder for tales all year round.

Alta, Utah

When the end of the season rolls around in late April, Alta locals, who tend to be diehard skiers, want to be the last ones on the mountain. Sometime in the 1970s or '80s, a small group of locals started gathering above the High Rustler run, atop a stone outcropping with a view of the base and the sunset, waiting until the mountain cleared to get the last run down.

"It was just a way to see all your friends and call it a season," lifetime local Dave Edlund said.

The word eventually got out and now what used to be one last memorable run turned into a party where, as 30-year local resident Mark Kimmig put it, "there's people that can't even ski down."

The High Boy party includes costumes (mostly vintage skiwear), musical instruments and getting pelted with snowballs when you ski down.

Last season's party drew more than 400 by some estimates. Someone flew kites and a few snowboarders showed up, thought Alta is a skiers-only mountain. The party grew to critical mass about 4:30 p.m., when the lifts closed, and many stayed well past dark.

Alta's lifts stop running regularly April 16, but the resort might open on weekends, weather permitting, beyond that date.

Aspen Highlands

A small, distinctive A-frame once sat at the base of Aspen Highlands, the "locals' favorite" in the four- mountain Aspen/Snowmass portfolio.

For a long time that A-frame housed the only bar at the ski area, known as the Highlands Bar, and was the site of many a locals' party, the biggest generally on closing day.

Warm spring days meant drinking beer on the expansive deck, cardboard derbies and locked-arm slaloms. The final season before the A-frame was torn down in the late 1990s - to make way for construction of a new base village - people partied on its roof and spilled over in every direction.

About five years ago, a new bar opened in the new base area and the closing day tradition at Highlands began its revival. In the past few years, it slowly has gathered steam.

People dress in costume and revelers are getting creative in their closing-day activities. Iguana's huge deck is made of a flexible material that allows hundreds of ski boots jumping in sync to turn it into a bouncing dance floor.

"It continued to happen but just took on a different feel," longtime local and Aspen/Snowmass communications manager Jeff Hanle said.

A couple years ago, a man climbed onto a high faux wooden beam dancing until he couldn't take being pelted with snowballs anymore.

Inclement weather doesn't faze anyone. One year, the slick deck made for a perfect human bowling venue - people sat in the large shovel used to clear lift mazes and were sent flying into folding aluminum chairs set up like bowling pins. As in the old days, ski patrollers set off a series of explosives, then ski down together amidst wild cheering.

"You still see a lot of the old crowd enjoying it as much as ever," said Tom Egan, a longtime closing-day party attendee. "And with Highland Bowl, Highlands maintains a cadre of diehard skiers. Two years ago the party rivaled any of the old days' parties."

Aspen Highlands closes April 2.

Copper Mountain

Now called Copper Sunsation and spanning three weekends in April, Copper's closing day party began 20 years ago with the Eenie Weenie Bikini Contest - scantily clad women and men skiing or snowboarding down Rosi's Run, judged on their style.

More flamboyant fun than just a contest, the Eenie Weenie is "a throwback to the informality of closing day parties," said Carlos Garcia, who is in Copper's public-relations department. "Sunsation is an example of taking it to the next level."

The party has become a draw for Front Range visitors and now includes three weekends of free live music, slopestyle exhibitions, contests and beer gardens.

"For some reason it just clicked really well," Garcia said.

Sunsation takes place April 1-2, 8-9 and 15-16.

Vail

It's only fitting that Vail, one of the biggest and most popular ski resorts in North America, should have more than one end-of-the-season tradition to draw from.

According to local lore, there used to be at least a couple parties - BB&B on the second Tuesday in April, and one week later, the Great Race, a relay race through town in ski boots.

"It was a lot of fun, really mellow, always just locals because it was the very bitter end of the season," said Kevin Spang, a 12-year Vail resident.

But the parties got bigger, eventually grew out of control and were canceled by the authorities. What replaced them was Spring Back to Vail, a series of concerts from national headliners, on-snow events, street parties and the World Pond Skimming Championships - perhaps the most elaborate of its kind, complete with a ramp, yardage markers and grandstands.

"The end of the season party is still fun," said Spang, but another locals' tradition has remained and is more popular as ever. When Chair 4 (Mountaintop Express) closes at 4 p.m. on the final day of the season, "4 at 4" happens - locals, many dressed in costume, have amassed at the top of the mountain. At the very moment when the chair stops, they pop champagne, cheer the ski patrol who have taken the final chair, stay a while and eventually ski down. As many as 5,000 people have gathered for this occasion.

Spring Back to Vail takes place April 3-16, but several lifts will stay open through April 23.

Winter Park

Perhaps one of the oldest official closing day celebrations in Colorado, Winter Park's Spring Splash originated in 1968 as Gelande- splash, timed obstacle course pond- skimming competition created by a local restaurateur who thought the area needed to attract media attention.

Attract attention it did, especially after the contest's name was changed to Spring Splash, a more digestible name than its half-German forebear. Now it's one of the biggest parties of its kind in Colorado.

Meanwhile, other closing day celebrations have grown around it: the Golden Bunny Easter Egg Hunt and Race, itself a 30-year tradition, and more recently, rail jams, free bump tips, live music, shopping specials and bar parties.

Closing weekend at Winter Park is April 15-16.

Party on, Vail

Skiing magazine's March/April issue ranks the top five spring parties at ski areas.

Leading the pack is Spring Back to Vail (April 3-16).

The mountains will be bumping with free concerts featuring national acts, on-snow events, street parties and the World Pond Skimming Championships.

Check out www.SpringBackToVail.com for more information.

Rounding out the top five are Tram Days at Jackson Hole (March 24 to April 2); Slush Cup at Sunshine Village, Alberta (May 22); Beach Party at Jay Peak, Vt. (March 25); and Kirkwood Closing Day at Kirkwood, Calif. (April 30).