{"id":41336,"date":"2022-04-04T05:50:28","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T11:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/some-make-it-others-dont-in-purgatory-resorts-annual-pond-skimming-ritual\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:00:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:00:38","slug":"some-make-it-others-dont-in-purgatory-resorts-annual-pond-skimming-ritual","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/some-make-it-others-dont-in-purgatory-resorts-annual-pond-skimming-ritual\/","title":{"rendered":"Some make it, others don\u2019t in Purgatory Resort\u2019s annual pond skimming ritual"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=e8d4c1dc-8963-5e17-a1c5-b8a74c1317c4&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" alt=\"Hundreds of people gathered Sunday at Purgatory Resort to watch pond skimming. (Nathan Van Arsdale\/Ballantine Communications, Durango Herald)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Hundreds of people gathered Sunday at Purgatory Resort to watch pond skimming. (Nathan Van Arsdale\/Ballantine Communications, Durango Herald)<\/span><span class=\"credit\">cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Hundreds gathered Sunday for Purgatory Resort\u2019s annual pond skim, which marks the last day of daily operations. Purgatory will remain open on weekends through April 17.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a good party, and it\u2019s mostly season pass holders,\u201d said Dave Rathburn, general manager at the ski area. \u201cIt\u2019s a fun way to bring these seven-day-a-week operations to an end. It\u2019s been a great season.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MoF9PHBTlL4\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Skiers and snowboarders participating in the event attempted to gain enough speed on a short slope to skim across a pool of icy cold water.<\/p>\n<p>Some made it to the other side completely dry. A few made it across with enough speed to pull off a quick trick. Others, such as Justin West, plunged into the ice cold waters of the pond.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe water is very cold. When I got up, I was gasping for air,\u201d West said. \u201cWhen you see the crowd cheering, that anxiety kicks in. But it\u2019s still like let\u2019s do it. Let\u2019s put on a show.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wearing nothing but American flag underpants, participant Kevin Wegrzyn made it across the pond, but wiped out on the landing. His revealing costume showed the point of impact.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love sending it, that\u2019s the best part,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a casualty getting a little scrape on the butt, but it\u2019s all worth it to have these people see you send it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A triumphant crossing and landing was pulled off by Kayla Binggeli who immediately after coming to a complete stop jumped and shouted, \u201cIt\u2019s my birthday!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was my first time doing the skim today, but it was surprisingly straightforward,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Pond skimming has been an end-of-season ritual at Purgatory since 2001.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe live here and we come here every year,\u201d said Geoff Owens. \u201cIt\u2019s great getting to see all your friends toward the end of the season. It feels like the entire town of Durango is here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- gallery:cd841ed6-e470-450a-9af1-cf4798fac191 --><\/p>\n<p>Dozens of others hung around the beach area at the base of the mountain, enjoying the afternoon. One group of friends brought a camp stove to cook hot dogs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI enjoy the people and the costumes,\u201d said Chris Jensen. \u201cThis is the first year that we\u2019ve set up to cook hot dogs, but we\u2019ve been coming to this every year since it started.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Durango becomes a larger tourist destination, residents such as Sarah Anthony said she\u2019s happy to see an event geared toward locals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s classic Durango, I love it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p><em id=\"emphasis-9647e18ee9d620210682ccba2d3552f3\"><a href=\"mailto:njohnson@durangoherald.com\">njohnson@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Costume clad skiers and snowboarders brave icy cold waters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[950,28,712],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-41336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-durango","tag-headlines","tag-purgatory"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84932,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41336\/revisions\/84932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41336"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=41336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}