RUMFORD – Youth and derring-do combined on Sunday afternoon to create a shivering-to-watch spectacle of skiers trying to glide across a pond of icy water at Black Mountain ski area.
After an adult and several youths plopped into the drink, 13-year-old Nate Papsadora of Rumford, flying low and fast, skimmed like a skipping stone across it and out the other side to wild cheers and applause.
The pond-skimming competition heralded the end of Black Mountain’s winter season.
“This was a shadow of what we’d normally expect,” spokesman Craig Zurhorst said of the lackluster winter.
“The weather was so unfavorable all year. We were down on skier visits, but those that did come had a good time,” he added.
Saturday and Sunday’s Family Fun Week-End, the season’s last gasp event, culminated in a series of zany ski races on wet, slushy snow under an overcast, breezy sky.
Saturday saw skiers and snowboarders competing backwards or carrying fire hoses. Sunday began with an Egg McMogul Race to win a free breakfast sandwich, balloon race, obstacle course race, tray race, and pond skim.
Operations manager Jeff Knight and his crew carved out the 12-foot-by-18-foot pond in snow at the base of Lower Androscoggin trail, lining it with a large blue tarp and filling it with water.
“Jeff built a tough pond to skim this year. He set it up so you had to work for it,” Zurhorst said.
Knight, dressed in a flowery shirt and short pants, stood at the water hole end while another employee stood at the front. Both carried long metal poles with which they fished out skis and skiers.
Rock music blared from outdoor speakers at the lodge.
Nick Woods of Rumford, wearing a neon green shirt, made it about halfway across, his mouth wide open in shock from the icy water splashing up to greet him.
“It’s so cold,” he said, shivering, scrambling to get out and reaching for a warm towel.
Kera Miller of Rumford almost made it across.
“It’s cold, freezing,” she said afterward.
Still shivering inside the lodge, Taryn Carlson of Dixfield said that despite the chill, “it was a very good experience, because it was fun and exciting, and I had to face my fears.”
Papsadora matter-of-factly explained the secret of his success with the cool aplomb of a veteran pond skimmer.
“You’ve got to lean back and get down low, which is what I did, so I would be more aerodynamic,” Papsadora said.
Still, he said he thought he was going to sink like the others, because of the “really quick transition going from snow to water.”
And that’s what this winter has mostly been, a few snowfalls and a lot of rain.
“At this point, an hour from closing, for what this could have been, it was a good season,” Zurhorst said, mentioning a host of volunteers and communities that helped.
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