Saturday’s warm weather and blue skies set the stage for 150 competitors to hit the slope at the base of Park City Mountain’s Eagle Lift.
Most of the costumed skiers and snowboarders did their best to make it across the nearly 100-foot pond — others just tried to make the biggest splash or just show off their costumes.
Zane Koeller said he’d been waiting 365 days to compete, having missed the event in 2024. He wore a beaded wedding dress complete with a short veil on his attempt to shoot across the pond.
Koeller said his husband, who wore a suit with a blow-up briefcase and phone, went down before him.
“He works really hard in the stock market, might have seen him with his briefcase, but we just wanted to celebrate,” Koeller said. “This is the happiest day of my life, and I'm so happy that all my friends, all 500 of them, could be here to join me.”
It was newlyweds Emma and Wil Armstrong’s third year in a row participating in the pond skim. The pair loves Star Wars, so Emma wore an R2-D2 costume and Wil was dressed as Anakin Skywalker, blue lightsaber in hand.
Emma Armstrong said her goal wasn’t to make it across the pond. She went for style points, doing a split off the jump.
“Just go as hard as you can. Yeah, send it on the jump. No point in making all the way across,” she said. What other time can you ski in the water?”
RJ Upton wasn’t aiming for distance either, deciding instead to make an “Epic” splash to draw “oohs” and “ahhs” from the crowd.
“Not a lot of people were making it across, and just kind of wanted to rile up the crowd a little bit,” he said.
James Sabatka, on the other hand, was hoping to get across but sank a few feet short. The shortened runway and his costume made the feat difficult; he wore an avalanche airbag backpack with the orange airbag inflated.
“I figured it was a good time to do my seasonal checkup. It does in fact work and it did in fact deploy,” Sabatka said.
Five participants were awarded for their pond skim prowess and flair. Adam Sadowski had the best skim, Shawn McClanna won best costume, David Chawaga received best splash and Alan Howell won best wave. The Judge’s Choice award went to group of skimmers who paid homage to singer Chappell Roan by dressing in blow-up unicorn outfits and hot pink “Pink Pony Club” signs.
Skiers and boarders have one more week to get in some spring turns in the Park City area: Deer Valley closes for the season on Easter Sunday, April 20, and Park City Mountain’s final day is April 21.
Park City Mountain is a financial supporter of KPCW. For a full list, click here.
