Families, racers, and crew members of the Vertical Challenge all look forward to one particular weekend of the year – the Finals! The 2023 Vertical Challenge Finals was held on Saturday, April 1st and it was a perfect end to another great season!
Throughout the week the crew members arrived and dedicated time to bannering and setting up all over the resort. We put in extra effort to make sure this event was all decked out. This means the Pumphouse, the International Room, and Alice’s Patio, were all ready for festivities. We wanted nothing but the best for all our qualified racers!
As Friday night rolled around, we welcomed our racers and families in the International Room. Our energetic crew greeted them with games for the kids, goodie bags of all our sponsors’ swag, and their registration materials. Everyone was full of excitement for the next day!
Per usual, the weather wanted to challenge our crew members during the early-morning setup. As we lugged all our supplies outside, Mother Nature decided it was time to dump buckets of rain on us. However, all the crew members threw on some ponchos and laughed it off. Finally, it was time for the fun and games! As the families rolled in, the rain perished and spirits were lifted. Sample Town was open from 9:00am-3:00pm and was filled with samples of our sponsors’ fantastic products. These included Olivia’s Organics juices, Starry’s lemon-lime soda, Dermatone’s lip balm, ALOHA’s plant-based protein bars, and Stonyfield’s yogurts. In addition, there were some amazing contests put on by Chevy and Xfinity, raffling off an all-inclusive stay at Smugglers Notch and a Solo Stove fire pit. This year, many of our sponsors even made a special appearance! It was so nice to meet and connect with them on what turned out to be a beautiful day. Our DJ, Zac, was hosting games every half hour with prizes to give away. We had plenty of participants in the egg-on-the-spoon race, skittle slurp, Starry stack, and freeze dance competition. Up on the racecourse, racers piled in for their final chance to race in the 2023 season with some of the best skiers and snowboarders from all over the Northeast. We had over 450+ racers come out for this event! As the event neared closing, the sun was shining down on everyone’s smiling faces.
As 3:00pm rolled around, all our racers and families were eager to hear the results of the race and the raffles. Everyone gathered round the stage for the Dewy/Chewy raffle and the Make-A-Wish Raffle. This year our crew and participants raised over $5,000 for Make-A-Wish! Special thanks to Pit Viper for offering a deal of $100 per pair of glasses and all proceeds went to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. After the awards, everyone retreated to their condos and hotel rooms to freshen up for the Ski Party being held in the International Room that night. Later on, everyone was able to sing their hearts away to celebrate another wonderful season in the books.
The 2023 Vertical Challenge season as a whole was chaotic and unpredictable, but we wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. We brought on many new crew members and they very quickly proved they understood the spirit of the Vertical Challenge. This crew was hard-working, efficient, supportive and caring. Everyone showed compassion to other crew members, as well as our racers. Our crew members were able to connect with families all over the Northeast, as well as build lasting friendships with each other. Thank you to everyone who came to any of our 2023 events, and to our sponsors for making it possible for us to operate. Special thanks to Chevrolet for providing us the vehicles to travel to each mountain. Finally, a huge thank you to Heather Clifford and the rest of the crew for making all of this possible.
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