I was. I spent 6 winters there, one of them living in the parking lot which is about as dirt bag as it gets. My first year was the fabled 96-97 season that shattered snowfall records, a year after the tram was built. We got there just before Thanksgiving and it snowed for 33 days straight. It wasn’t until after Christmas that it cleared enough to see the views. That was the year an avalanche took out the Shedhorn lift.
The party you were at may have been the underground dirt bag big air contest. If it was in the spring and people were dressed up that was probably it. It usually is in Dude Park in Shedhorn or Chuck’s Run near the Buddha Hut but it moves around and is usually somewhat hidden so as not to scare the guests and their children. Lots of drunken huckin’.
The dirt bag tradition is largely misunderstood by outsiders. It is an intricate part of the mountain culture. The first Dirt Bag Ball was started as a fundraiser for the ski patrol in the late seventies. The way the story goes, two patrollers who were originally from Stowe told of an award, which was a bag of dirt, given each year there to the person who did the dumbest thing. That combined with the description of the vagabond ski bum lifestyle launched the idea. The Dirt Bag Ball has been held every year since then. A powder 8 contest is held usually up in Cron’s Pocket above the tram. Everyone is dressed up and it’s a real shit show. Lots of libations, burning incense and perhaps some psychedelics. The king and queen sit on thrones made of snow and are the unofficial judges. Afterwards there is a downhill parade down Mr. K led by the royalty, but there was at least one year where the queen couldn’t make it and had to ride down in a toboggan. The ball is a big party at night usually at Bucks T4 in the Canyon. Patrol gets together privately and votes on the new king and queen. The honor is given to the best male and female ripper/partier combo. The person who rides everyday. They are usually at the bar at last call and are lined up for first chair the next day. Old kings and queens are forever considered royalty and it is customary to buy them drinks at the bar if you have the honor to meet one. The official Dirt Bag Ball is a big part of patrol tradition and is very much tolerated by Boyne. When John Kircher was owner he participated in the powder 8s and patrol’s end of the year private parties.
There are many offshoot festivities such as the underground dirtbag big air, shack tours and a full moon XC ski from the mountain village 6 miles down the “poop chute” to the meadow, which starts at one bar and ends at another.
Good times. Glad to have lived through it.
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