Log In


Reset Password
News Education Local News Nation & World New Mexico

A smorgasbord of Steampunk Snowdown

From canines to felines and balloons to broomballs

Durango is, without a doubt, a dog town.

So would it really be Snowdown without an event for the beloved animal? After the cats had a spot in the limelight in the McDonald’s parking lot, the dogs showed up in droves for the Canine Fashion Show. Some looked like their owners, dressed in Steampunk, some didn’t. There were four categories: funniest, most formal, best look-alike and best Snowdown theme.

Holli Timmerman, 10, entered the look-alike competition with her Miniature Australian Shepherd, Ryder.

“I did look-alike ’cause we both have the jetpacks, and we both have gears and stuff all over us. We like to dress up. I hope we did well,” Holli said after stepping off the stage.

Camden Ham, 7, and her sister, Wrigley Ham, 9, entered their dog, Molly.

“We just wanted Molly to have a little fun up there and stuff,” Camden said.

Mark Hayden

People voluntarily were stuffed into a port-a-potty Saturday.

For the last 15 years, Gazpacho’s has hosted the competition in its parking lot, and it continues to draw in the crowds.

Small people are favored in this – the smaller, the better.

Monica Devera, who moved here from Flemington, New Jersey, experienced her first Snowdown this year. She didn’t plan on entering the competition, but her future team, the Doodie Booty Butt Stuffers, was a team in need and noticed her small stature. At 5-foot-2, the Doodie Booty Butt Stuffers asked her to sign up.

They gave her the hole. Luckily for her, the port-a-potty was clean.

“It wasn’t bad once I realized I knew the person in there with me,” she said.

Another person on the Butt Stuffers, Jenn Bartlett, was pleased with the team’s performance. In the end, they fit 20, the most of the day. She said her team has been participating for eight years, and she’s proud of that fact.

“We started off with just one in the hole, and we went to two in the hole,” Bartlett said.

It was the winning strategy.

Mark Hayden

In some parts of the world, like Hawaii, it’s a delicacy; some people consider it the opposite.

SPAM was the highlight of the Durango Welcome Center’s Steampunk Snowdown event Saturday morning.

People checked their creativity into the Welcome Center with them to carve steampunk-related things out of one can of SPAM, literally, the can and the meat. Some people get pretty adventurous, such as the winner of the adult category, Sandra Vickerman, who carved an elaborate scorpion. Her daughter, Chelsey Smith, won the kids category for her take on steampunk goggles.

The teen-category winner was Veronica Petrillo, who also carved steampunk goggles, or “spoggles,” as she called them.

Snowdown is all about trying new things, right?

“I’ve never touched SPAM before. I’m expecting it to be mushy,” Cammie Christner said. She said the father of her friend, Nathan Willis, encouraged them to do it. “His (Willis) dad thought this sounded like a really cool event. He’s into interesting things,” she said.

Some even traveled long distances to make things out of processed meat.

“We’ve come down every year for Snowdown since ’92,” Ken Schultze of Denver said.

Mark Hayden

Children and parents kicked off their day at the Steampunk Snowdown Preschool Dance Party on Saturday morning at the Durango Public Library.

Linda and Neil Dolder, parents of Audrey and Kenzie, were happy to bring their children out to enjoy Durango’s winter festival.

“It’s nice to get the kids involved,” Neil Dolder said.

During the let-loose and heavy-imbibe weekend, parents were pleased to participate in a Snowdown family friendly event.

“It’s not in a bar, and there’s no alcohol,” said Kate Patty, mother of 3-year-old Ella and 1½-year-old Olivia.

The two-hour event consisted of dancing, music, snacks and top-hat making. The event drew a strong crowd.

“We’ve always had older-kid events, so this is an experiment. So far, it’s been very fun,” said Amadee Ricketts, youth services supervisor at the library.

There were other reasons to participate in the party, too.

“We came mostly to get out of the house,” said Amanda Holt, mother of Abigail.

Mark Hayden

It’s not exactly easy on the knees ... or elbows ... or pride.

Perhaps one of Snowdown’s most beloved acts of carnage, broomball tests body, mind and spirit. Think hockey on ice, but with tennis shoes instead of skates, taped up brooms instead of a stick, and a bouncing rubber ball instead of a puck.

The ice rink at Chapman Hill is a familiar scene of fierce competition, but this sport brings out a whole other animal: Snowdowning Broomballers.

Durango Parks and Recreation’s Matt Morrissey, who refereed the games on Saturday afternoon into evening, said, “It’s interesting watching a bunch of crazy people run around on the ice.”

Broomball player Joel Kraus, who fashioned more of a club than a broom he called Thor’s Hammer, said he gets a rush from the game.

“It’s the intensity, the butterflies, running,” he said. “It’s awesome.”

Brandon Mathis

One of Snowdown’s original events, the Feline Fashion Show has been taking the stage and letting hip cats strut their stuff for 37 years.

Kathy Bowser, who helps organize the event, something she’s done since the event’s inception, called the showcase a crowd pleaser. McDonald’s has remained the title sponsor of the show ever since it began.

Some cats had stage fright and had to be coaxed onto the catwalk with treats.

“We have four categories: the funniest, most formal, best look-alike and best Snowdown theme, and we have wonderful trophies,” she said. “I think it’s just something fun to put together.”

Kylie Cobb said she’s been dressing up her cats since she was a kid.

“I just wanted to see how he’d react and how he would do with it,” she said about her cat, Cash. “I thought it would be funny.”

Funny, and on the mark, too: Cash won the best Snowdown theme category.

Brandon Mathis

If you can’t see, you can’t fly.

From a frosted field in the Animas Valley, two hot air balloons rose from within a winter fog Saturday morning. Crowds circled the inflating giants as they swayed, bursts of flames swelling them slowly. The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad train stopped in its tracks so riders could gaze at the spectacle.

The balloons, however, remained grounded because of limited visibility, said Ken Tandolini, the RE/MAX hot air balloon pilot from Denver. But the show must go on, so Jennifer Greenwood, with her crew from Albuquerque, and Tandolini set up despite the weather.

Local balloon pilot Dough Lenberg helped coordinate this year’s Snowdown Balloon Rally and Mass Ascension and said there is something people enjoy about being around the mammoth aircraft.

“It’s just so nice to get the entire Durango community together,” he said.

Although there was no flying Saturday because of the weather, around 25 crews are hoping to take to the air Sunday.

“We have 25 pilots from four states,” Lenberg said. “This is all supporting Durango. It’s just so much fun to do.”

Brandon Mathis

2015 Steampunk Snowdown Schedule

For more information, visit www.snowdown.org.

All week

Snowdown Theme contest, through noon Sunday, Magpie’s Newsstand Cafe, 707 Main Ave., 382-0518.

Sunday

La Plata County Search & Rescue Breakfast, 7 a.m.-noon, La Plata County Fairgrounds Exhibit Hall, 560-8762, 946-4437.

Snowdown Balloon Rally, 8 a.m., Red Rock Ranch, 8 miles north of Durango next to Animas Valley Elementary School.

3-on-3 Basketball Tournament, 9 a.m., Durango Community Recreation Center, 2700 Main Ave.

Snowdown 8-Ball Tournament, 11 a.m., Pongas, 121 W. 8th St., 769-0059, 382-8554.

Snowdown Super Bowl Extravaganza, noon, Main Event Sports Bar, 42 East Animas Road (County Road 250), Suite 400, Ptarmigan Center, 764-4230, 382-1681.

Texas Hold-Em Poker Tournament, 12:30 p.m., Moe’s Lounge, 937 Main Ave., 749-7231.

Super Bowl Slowdown Snowdown Party, 2 p.m., Derailed Pour House, 725 Main Ave., 749-4748, 247-5440.

Karaoke Contest, 8 p.m., 8th Avenue Tavern, 509 East Eighth Ave.

Jan 31, 2015
Canines follow the felines onto Snowdown’s runway
Jan 31, 2015
How many were stuffed?
Jan 31, 2015
Making art out of SPAM
Jan 31, 2015
‘It’s awfully dangerous’
Jan 31, 2015
On the catwalk
Jan 31, 2015
Children shake a Steampunk Snowdown leg
Jan 31, 2015
Weather takes the air out of Snowdown’s balloons


Reader Comments