1960s Slush Cups

Found this photo yesterday, modern day Slush Cup has a ways to go to catch up with the 1960s. This one is from Baker, I'm pretty sure there was one at Alpental in the 70s also? Waiting for the historian to report in....maybe there is already a Slush Cups section at alpenglow?

I am no ski historian, but I know that the "death" of Baker's slush cup had something to do with how "lively" it got in the '70s.

doesn't this belong in the censorship thread ??      I remember something about Alpental back then - but you know how the 70s were - hard to remember..

Hi Silas,

The page you posted is from "The Book of American Skiing" by Ezra Bowen, published in 1963. I have a partial photocopy from the Tacoma Public Library. Here's what the book says about the Mt Baker slush cup:

Wild Finale for a Wonderful Season

When the Heather Cup race brings the season on Mt Baker to its official end, a heavy crowd turns out -- but not for the Heather Cup. They come to watch, and to enter, the kookiest skiing event in the United States, a completely spontaneous mixture of snow, sun, glacier water, and frozen blue bodies called the Slush Cup. At the bottom of Austin Bowl there is a tiny puddle of water called Terminal Lake. By the Fourth of July the sun has melted the icecap over the lake, and a deep, round, green puddle of 33-degree water bubbles up. The game is to climb the side of the bowl and then schuss down onto the lake, hoping you have enough speed to make a dry, stand-up run to the other side. Nobody ever wins the game. The few who actually make it across are rewarded by loud boos. Equipment is optional. Most contestants use regular skis, but some have tried air mattresses, rubber boats, shortie skis, water skis, ski-runner bicycles, and even canoes. They come down singly, in pairs, in trebles, with others riding piggyback, and with screaming girls in their arms. Their costumes range from bathing suits to pajamas, shorts, lederhosen, cut-off jeans, tee shirts, cotton sweat shirts, floppy straw hats, long johns, and rubber wet suits. The greatest variety of all, however, is in the positions of the Slush Cuppers as, one after another, they gallantly fail to escape their icy dip.

(photos by Marshall Lockman)

In the 1970s, some of my brother's friends (Eric Lindahl, who occasionally posts here, was one) found a cliff at Alpental to the side of Chair 1 with a pool at the bottom of it. In spring they used to jump off the cliff and splash-land in the pool. Eric has movies of it. It wasn't the same as the slush cup, and it was very small, but memorable.

Here's an old thread that mentions the Alpental pool jump:

www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboardi...php?topic=4149.0;all

I thought I once posted memories about the Mt Baker slush cup (Eric Lindahl features prominently on one of the stories) but I didn't find them after a brief search.

Perhaps not THE slush cup, but the 1990's cult classic, The Revenge of the Telemarkers , featured some slush cup action from somewhere around Baker. Dickie Hall would undoubtedly know whether it was "Austin Bowl," or near the Railroad Grade, or what (I believe he has run "camps" up by the Easton). I think one or more associates of Silas and maybe Lowell appeared in the Mt Hood part of this video.

Total thread drift, but I have wondered if the narrator in that video was NPR's Martin Costi, who has a very similar vocal quality (but never quite curious enough to send Dickie email to ask)...

Hi Silas,

The page you posted is from "The Book of American Skiing" by Ezra Bowen, published in 1963. I have a partial photocopy from the Tacoma Public Library.

I have that book! Picked it up at Goodwill in Portland about ten years ago. I recognized the photo right away! Lowell, holler if you want to borrow it, and I can get it to you through Tom.

I haven't been to Alpental in decades, but I think I remember a pool on the bench just above the lodge - it may have been temporary and manmade for that late seasons entertainment there.  It was during the era of when Jeff Jobe was regularily flying his hanglider off of the cliff (ski launched), just below the top of the upper chair (had to duck the ropes).  I showed up one day to join in, but the lifties wouldn't load my glider, so I guess Jeff had a special deal going - probably just as well as I'm not sure I would have had the nerve - even as a twenty-something I knew the gear then wasn't all peaches and cream..

In the good old days at Crystal mtn. (Skiing into June in Green Valley) We use to do this small lake crossing at the bottom of the "Queen", it was skiers right from Lucky shot's 1st face. As a kid we would sit there and talk people into trying it.

Good times! Thanks for the post and memories!
D

Slush Cup was crazy in the 1960s. Warren Miller featured it in a few movies. I just had some 8mm film of it put on a DVD. If I can figure out out to put it up here (and some of that Alpental pool jump) I will some time. In the early 70s once Crystal opened on Oct 18, got fresh snow on July 2, and closed around July 21. Turns almost all year. Nice value for the season pass, too!