It's hard to believe that this was my first year participating in the Ski for Women, but I never really thought about it before and then last year I bruised my ribs in Mexico and couldn't take part. Just four of us girls were able to do it this year, but for 2011 we plan on getting a big group together and donning costumes! We already have an idea picked out and everything.
The Ski for Women always takes place early on Superbowl Sunday and is a fundraiser for awareness of domestic abuse against women and children. There are different race categories, plus a "party wave" that is untimed and open for skiers of all levels. Since our little group didn't do costumes this year we were able to get to Kincaid a little later and then watch the start of the costume contest.
The butterfly costumes were all handmade. The fabric was stretched onto frames and then hand-painted. Somewhow they attached the frames to sturdy backpacks. After seeing the wings up close I'm not sure how they were able to ski in those heavy things! This group wins the overall costume contest every year -- this year was no exception.
I heard that over 1500 women turned out for the event. After trying to avoid collisions on hills and ski around people, I believe it! The trails at Kincaid are pretty wide but certainly were never meant to accomodate hundreds of skiers at one time. This was the starting area and it was about 10 times wider than the trails.
Us girls. Karen, Sara, me and Cindy. Sara just got engaged on Christmas and is getting married in October, so we've been able to talk weddings. We have the same sort of ideas and design aesthetic when it comes to our upcoming nuptuals, and it's been nice to bounce ideas off each other. She and Jay cooked the porcupine for us last Thursday -- it was surprisingly good.
More photos of the costumes tomorrow!
