Gunga-Ga-Lunga!!

Photo Courtesy of Scott Hanley

Enter, the Snow Lodge Winter Olympics(aka Yellowstone Olympics, Rainier Olympics, Beer Games, etc).

Living at Old Faithful in the winter is an experience, to say the very least. There is one hotel open, the Old Faithful Snow Lodge(SLodge), operated by 125-150 employees who are basically snowed in for the winter because all of the interior park roads are closed to wheeled vehicles(aka cars) from December-April. So, you park your car 50 miles north in Mammoth Hot Springs, hop on a snowcoach and head in for the winter. Kind of like The Shining, just a bit more fun. In short, the perfect recipe for cabin fever run amok.

Sometime in the history of Snow Lodge(opened for the winter in the early 70s) someone came up with the idea of breaking everyone out of the funk with the Snow Lodge Olympics. The games, once "sponsored" by Rainier beer, are 10 days of ridiculous contests and antics, ending with the closing ceremonies on Yellowstone's birthday, March 1(Today! Happy Birthday Yellowstone!). It starts with the Opening Ceremonies....a hilarious parade complete with the Yellowstone Birkebeiners(Birkenbeiner History), funky music, and the baby Bombardier(a miniature version of a classic snowcoach used in Yellowstone) carrying the queen, usually clad in an outfit completely unsuitable for the weather(example...Virgia's coconut bra of 2004!). This used to take place in front of the hotel, but unfortunately the idea of discretion in antics and public drinking led management and the National Park Service to move the ceremonies to the dorm parking lot, located in a Government area 1/2 mile from the hotel(and well out of guest sight...). There are various games each day, culminating in the Closing Ceremonies and Medal Presentation....did I mention that the medals for the winners of each game are Rainier beer cans, full ones, painted Gold, Silver and Bronze?

The Olympics at a glance. Click on an activity to see a description and pictures, courtesy of Scott Hanley - a wonderful past SLodge employee, co-worker and friend who made this amazing website full of memories!


Opening Ceremonies
Rainier Cup
100-yard Dash
Beverage Ball
Buffalo Chip Toss
Chair Pull
Dart Biathlon
Disc Golf
Drag Race
Fern Appreciation
Football
Kick'n'Glide Classic
Luge
No-Talent Show
Obstacle Course
Pub Games
Pub-Pizza-Pub
Pub-Ol'Pubtender-Pub
Ski Jump
Slalom / Giant Slalom
Snow Pole Toss
Snowshoe Long Jump
Snowshoe Race
Snowshoe/Ski Race
Tandumb Ski
Three-Legged Race
Tug-O-War
Piñata!

View full site at: Yellowstone Winter Olympics

My Snow Lodge days are a thing of the past, let slip away by the need to grow up and have a big kid job(pish posh, I say!), but that doesn't stop my annual trek to one of my favorite events of the season, the No-Talent show. It's about 4 hours and 50 miles each way on a very bumpy old coach called the Prinoth, that always ends up causing a sore neck after the round trip, but worth every second to enjoy the night. While the skits and characters change every season, there are few things you can have every bit of faith in occurring...there will be men in dresses, something on someone will get shaved, sarcasm will run wild, against both the concessionaire(our employer) and the National Park Service, often with the subject of the commentary in the audience. Regardless of the specifics, it's always a good time. This year had a different kind of highlight as well. A longtime park employee, area resident and well-known local photographer, Jeff Henry, was recently diagnosed with bone cancer, and friends have planned a benefit for him this coming Friday in West Yellowstone, MT. In honor of this, the SLodge crew put together a great auction, raising over $3000 in just under 3 hours(complete with auctioning off the opportunity to shave the head and beard of our friend Patty, a man who has not seen his chin in about 10 years!). A personification of the family that becomes SLodge every season. I love you guys!

And now that I think about it, it's been quite some time since I donned anything from the costume box for the Olympics....guess it's time to start planning for next year.

Who has more fun than we do?? NOBODY!!

PS - I have no idea why Gunga Ga Lunga is the motto of the SLodge Olympics...maybe the answer to my question of when the Olympics started is sometime around the time "Caddyshack" met the world??