The Haines fairgrounds hosted annual winter festivities this weekend.
Winterfest has been an evolving tradition in Haines over the last 25 years. On Saturday over a hundred people and dozens of dogs gathered at the fairgrounds. Many visitors who had come for the basketball tournament joined the lively crowd. The schedule is packed. There is a mini biathlon, some snowshoe races, a two by four race, where lumber is used as ski, with four people to a pair of ski. There is a dog race, and a disc golf tournament, in the dark. Amanda Randles helped organize the event, she points to its highlights.
Randles: “The 2×4 races this year, where we had a lot of adults sort of having to hold children up who were having trouble staying upright. But it was working. The biathlon, we had Liam Cassidy, sort of brought it to a new level, and it was so much closer to being like a real ski race rather than the slightly goofy stuff we normally do, and lots of kids on skis going around the fairground is a really fun thing to see, I really enjoy that.”
There is chicken curling.
It’s curling, with a frozen chicken. Lizy Wirak is on the ice, helping to direct the youthful energy of the participants. She points out the rules of the sport are an evolving tradition.
Wirak: “So. Give it a nice good push, the chicken, wow, that was right into the target. And then you use these really awesome swiffers to heat up the ice, and then you try to make a nice path trying to get it into the target. We’ve kind of got to the point where maybe the swiffers help actually push the chicken in , and that seems to be working pretty well. So that’s about how it’s working.”
Across the parking lot, Thom Morphet uses a bullhorn to announce the winners of the chili cooking contest
Morphet: “Ok the winner of the competition for the chili is Patrick [inaudible] number one and Debra Schnabel is second in the chili making competition. Debra you can come up and get your medal.”
The medals are cookies wrapped in tinfoil, with a string so the winners can wear them proudly. Given the number of medals in the bowl, it seems everyone is a winner here.
We move on to the tea making contest. Participants are given kindling and firewood, and try to be the first to boil a can of water, for tea.
KHNS interviewed Oliver, a member of the winning team, the Wild Wolverines
Oliver: “We were the wild wolverines.
What’s you name?
Oliver
What did it take to win this competition?
It took a lot of burning. We used some cardboard and it was [inaudible]”
Festivities continued on Sunday. A great ski race was organized at the 25 mile flats.
Sources told KHNS most racers were playing on a big snowy gravel pile, and didn’t find much time for racing.
