Excerpt from Outside Magazine's 1/4/12 article by Greg Melville:
Durango, Colorado
Snowdown, Durango’s annual February party, is proof positive that the long Rocky Mountain winter isn’t very kind to the psyche of the town’s stir crazy locals. It takes the mind of a very creative shut-in to think up events like the Polar beer plunge (picture an outdoor pool of beer), beard growing competition, burp-off championship, donut eat-off, kayak pool slalom contest, ski softball game, arm wrestling competition, winter triathlon (the events are skiing/snowboarding, snowshoeing, and snow tubing), and the contest to see who can stuff the most people into an outhouse at one time. Put all that together, and Snowdown may be the only winter carnival in the country that scares more people away from a town than it attracts. And that’s why you shouldn’t miss it. This year's carnival runs February 1 to 5.
