Green Snow and Green Beer: St. Patrick's Day at Brodie Mountain
3/17/98
by John Stouffer

What do green snow and green beer have in common? Their color and not much else, but you’ll see a lot of both at Brodie Mountain in New Ashford, Massachusetts on St. Patrick’s Day.

The resort, owned by the Kelly family since 1964, celebrates the day each year with its Annual Irish Olympics. The two-week event features lots of bagpipers, tray, cardboard, and tube races, tug-o-wars, the chug slalom, and the ever-popular slush jump (a pond skimming contest where you don’t skim, just splash down). All of this is viewable from the large deck on the lodge at the bottom of the resort, where a lively crowd of green-wearing, green-beer-drinking people cheered for huge splashes and badly contorted twisting attempts.

Under sunny, warm skies and slushy snow, the resort once again outdid itself with more than 50 people lining up for the slush jump, with some pulling back flips and one snowboarder even pulling a double back.

It was another snowboarder, Eddie Preece of Burlington, Connecticut, who won the chug slalom where you have to ride around four gates on the course, but at each gate you have to stop and chug a cup of green beer. Yum.

So next time you’re in the Northeast around St. Patrick’s Day, wander up to Brodie Mountain in Northwestern Massachusetts, order a green beer, listen to some bagpipe music, and sit back and watch the leprechauns ride on by.