Wisconsin Bar Stool Ski Races Raise Money for Local Snowmobile Club
OutdoorHub Reporters 02.21.13
In the small town of Drummond, Wisconsin, people are taking the stools out of the bar and hitting the slopes.
For the fourteenth year in a row Drummond Snojacks–a local smowmobile club–has been hosting bar stool ski racing to raise money for trail grooming, snowmobile safety classes, and other community projects.
According to event organizer Craig Manthey, it all started when he saw similar races while living in Montana.
Bar stool races involve two teams of a rider, a pusher, and a bar stool with skis strapped to it. When the signal is given to start the pusher launches the rider down the course; the first person to cross the finish line still on the stool wins.
“The key is reckless abandonment,” two-time Drummond Bar Stool Race winner Jared Peahler told Fox 21. “Really, that’s all it is. If he can push me off the hill first I’ll do everything to win.”
“You know, at the beginning it was just mainly us club members (SnoJacks Snowmobile Club) that were racing and now it’s turned into this huge event,” according to Manthey. People from all over Wisconsin now flock to Drummond to watch and participate in the races, flooding the small town of just over 500 people.
People just can’t get enough of Drummond’s unique tradition.
“I talked to a couple when I was registering them today and I said, ‘geeze you’re here for another year?'” Manthey recalled. “They said, ‘yeah, at least one more year.’ I don’t think they can give it up.”
