Ear to the ground

“When do we get to see the immature men of La Plata County calendar.”

- A local woman reacting to last Friday’s “unveiling” of the latest “Mature Men of La Plata County” calendar

The hot ticket

The mad rush has started. Orders for the much-coveted Snowdown Follies tickets are now being accepted in the annual mail-in drawing, in which about 560 lucky winners will be drawn from thousands of entries. But you better hustle. Ticket orders must be postmarked by today, Dec. 8 in order to qualify for the drawing. Ticket order forms are now available at north and south City Markets, Albertson’s, Durango Music, the Durango Chamber of Commerce office and online at www.snowdownfollies.org. 

Winners will be drawn at random for the popular comedy spoof, which features two simultaneous shows on the Friday and Saturday nights of Snowdown. Tickets for the Thursday Gala (Feb. 2, 2006) are already sold-out and there is a multi-year wait list.

Each year, 3,300 lucky locals get to see one of the 11 Snowdown Follies shows. Winners will be notified via mail by Dec. 16, and entries from the unlucky masses will be destroyed. For last year’s mail-in drawing, more than $200,000 in checks was shredded from unlucky ticket seekers.

Snowdown is scheduled for Feb. 1-5 of next year, and this year’s theme is “Disco Do It.” The 2006 edition of Snowdown is the 28th annual and the upcoming Follies is the 23rd annual show.

Free Silverton Mountain skiing

Silverton Mountain is offering free skiing to Durango locals .. well almost. Skiers and snowboarders can earn free skiing by volunteer boot-packing this weekend, Dec. 9-11. One day of packing earns a day of unguided skiing in April. Two days equates to one free day of guided skiing in December or April or two days of unguided skiing in April.

Bootpacking starts at 8:45 a.m. Participants ride the lift up, stomp the tops of avalanche zones then usually ski the lower sections of the ski runs. There’s no need to sign-up, just show up ready to ride, with an avalanche beacon, shovel, probe and a lunch. No experience is required aside from advanced to expert skiing abilities.

Silverton Mountain is upping the stakes this year and offering prizes for the best packers. If coughing up cash is a little more your speed, the lift at Silverton Mountain will be fired up for the start of the ski season on Dec. 15.