Saturday, January 14, 2012

The things Park City does for snow

OK, so this is a record dry year and the resorts are dying for some snow.  People have been praying for snow, dancing for snow, wearing their lucky skis, and not a damn bit of it has been working.  So far the nice people at Deer Valley have used 200 MILLION gallons of water making snow.  What's next?

Clearly it is time to bring in the experts. Today I went over to Park City Mountain Resort to see Indians from the Northern Ute tribe do a real snow dance.  First I wandered over to check the snow conditions.  This little kid said it all:  not looking too good.
So crank up the Indians.  Apparently this same tribe stopped by the 2002 Winter Olympics to help out. The first guy gave a snow prayer in English.  His clenched fists seem to be saying to the snow Gods "don't make us come up there and kick some butt."  That was my thought anyway.
The next guy did a similar set of prayers, but in his native dialect.  He tossed some snow and burned some incense to help.
Then the real dancing started.  I loved this guys hat.  It looked like a turkey feather duster.
This was one of the younger dancers.  Very colorful and very energetic.
Of course it's the youngest kids that look the best.
And when the young boy got out to dance, he was ripping it up.
As much as it seems funny that we are looking for some help with the snow, the dancing was impressive and the crowd loved it.  There were hundreds of people watching and everyone enjoyed the show and hope it works.

1 comment:

Emily J. said...

Wish I could have seen that! Actually, that last little kid looks like one I saw dancing a couple of years ago, but I don't remember where--Arizona, probably. It was very interesting to watch. May have actually been in southern Utah while on that E-hostel.