Saturday saw wacky costumes, weird weather and a whole lot of fun for racers in the 27th annual Schuss Boomer Downhill race on Hudson Bay Mountain.
The annual fun race was combined with a B.C. Northern Zone Alumni race, as well as after-race fun, auctions and contests, to raise money for the organizing Smithers Ski Club and the Alumni group.
First-time organizer Raeleen Maurer said she was happy with how well the day went, and that most reports she heard were positive.
“It was super good. Everyone had fun, and everyone said it went smoothly,” she said.
Gary Huxtable, who organized the last few years of the race, said the best part of the day is that the winners of the team competition aren’t necessarily the fastest ones down the hill. Teams take a trial run, and estimate what their competition time will be; the team with the estimate closest to their actual time wins.
“There is some competition in it, but it’s all about fun,” said Huxtable. “Everybody has a chance to win.”
Racers from Smithers, as well as about two dozen out of town skiers, took part in the day’s events, which also include a costume competition. Children as young as seven or eight years old compete with skiers in their sixties and seventies, in what seems to be a bit of a dying tradition in Canada. Although Vernon held a similar race this year, it was the last one for that community.
“Next year we will be the longest running Schuss Boomer in Canada,” said Maurer.
Putting that into perspective, there are no other major annual recreational races like this one left in the country.
“We will be the only ‘over the hill’ recreational race in Canada,” said Huxtable.
The overall winners were the 80s Ladies, made up of Shauna Peterson, Joni Parker and Julia Davies. The Best Costume award went to the Thingy Majiggers, consisting of Eric, Dylan and Brayden Parker, although they might be more easily recognized as Thingy 1, Thingy 2 and the Cat in the Hat.
For more competitive skiers, awards were handed out for fastest radar times and fastest overall run. The Johnny Lapadat Trophy for fastest radar time went to Scott Marko, who also had the fastest male ski time. Bailey Hinchliffe took fastest female ski radar time and run time. On the snowboarding side, Norma Stokes took the fastest radar time, and Katie Williams had fastest female run time. Jason Gagnier won the fastest male snowboarder run time.
Maurer said the event couldn’t have happened without the support of Hudson Bay Mountain, the Smithers Ski Club, Central Mountain Air, Skeena Cat Skiing and especially Table 100.