25th Anniversary Of Our New Year’s Eve Torchlight Ski Tradition

In 1999 we loaded the last chair to Midway at 10pm. 

My Dad, otherwise known as Boppa to his grandkids, wanted to bring back the old time New Year’s Eve spirit that the crazy Canadians started back in the original days of Schweitzer Mountain in Northern Idaho in the 1970’s and 80’s.  The Canucks would grab their flasks and head up to the top of Ridge, skiing down at midnight with flares in a single file line, snaking their way in perfect formation down the mountain.  

We’re not sure where the Canadians went, but at some point, they stopped coming down from the great white north.  This is where our story begins.  

At the turn of the millennia, chaos was looming, computers were crashing, and the clocks weren’t going to turn.  Everyone waited with held breaths while 11:59pm turned to 12:00am January 1, 2000.  Everyone except us.  

At the top of Schweitzer, after dropping off a six pack of beer to the ski patrol in the Midway hut and climbing the ridge, bindings clicked, and flares sizzled as they came to life.  

Hoots and hollers filled the night air as Boppa, our reigning Schweitzer ski king legend, began his signature wide, graceful turns down the mountain, everyone falling in a single file line behind him.  

I’ll never forget how I felt on that first NYE skiing behind my dad under that starry North Idaho sky – so free, so ALIVE.  If the world was ending, THIS was how I wanted it to end. 

Well, the world didn’t end, the computers turned, and all was business as usual.  But a tradition had begun, one that we would keep for twenty-five years running.  

So this year, on the 25^th ANNIVERSARY, we wear our red headbands with Boppa’s torchlight ski logo on it, and raise our flasks to the one who taught us about skiing, but who mostly taught us about family and tradition – what it means to build belonging and identity through experiences that mark moments and celebrate the gift of the present with those you love.