Big Bumps

Legend has it that Mary Jane was a local lady of pleasure — or, as Winter Park’s Jenn DeBerge likes to call her, “a woman who had a keen sense of supply and demand.” She acquired the land that would become the Mary Jane Trail — a sheep trail until Winter Park Resort turned it into a ski run in the 1970s — as payment for her favors from railroad workers and miners. Winter Park loved the story so much (not to mention the bumpy trail itself) that they named the whole mountain after Mary Jane.

This weekend, Winter Park is throwing its lovely lady a non-stop, weekend-long Mary Jane Birthday Bash, complete with a parade, fireworks, free demos, drink specials, live music, snow golf and a look-alike contest. Today, you can check out a resort-employee snow sculpture contest at 8 a.m., then pay $20 ($15 in advance) to benefit the Fraser Creative Learning Center for a 9 a.m. three-mile snowshoe trek that gets you a Mary Jane T-shirt. After that, head to the top of the Super Gauge Express lift to get free tips on your bump skiing and catch the end of the Mary Jane Look-A-Like Contest at the base before heading into town for the parade, fireworks and live music from Marc Ford & the Neptune Blues Club at Smokin’ Moe’s.

Or, if you don’t get what all the fuss is about, just try some skiing and find out why Mary Jane is, and was, so loved. For information, go to www.skiwinterpark.com.
Sat., Jan. 24; Sun., Jan. 25, 2009