Are you the best in your family at building a campfire?
You can test your skills against those of your neighbors at the 2016 Haines Winter(ish) Olympics, the Southeast Alaska State Fair’s tongue-in-cheek tribute to cold-weather sports, starting 10 a.m. Saturday at the fairgrounds.
There are no entry fees and competitors vie for foil-wrapped cookies resembling medals.
In the tea-making contest, participants get a hatchet, a log and some cardboard and compete to see who first can bring a coffee can full of water to a boil. “It feels like it takes forever, because you’re watching water boil,” said Jessica Edwards, fair executive director.
Launched during a particularly cold and snowy winter about 20 years ago, the Haines Olympics has adapted, including to warming weather. The snowshoe race and turkey bowling on ice are history.
Besides adding a conditional “ish” to the event’s name, organizers have changed a cross-country ski race and BB-gun biathlon to a mountain bike and shooting event.
“We tested the snow yesterday and it was hard as shellack,” Edwards said.
A “sled” dog event, once featuring mutts pulling children on sleds, is now a dog-calling contest. “It won’t be a pull because we don’t have any snow, but they’re adding a twist this year, so it will be especially challenging,” Edwards said.
New this year will be an Arctic survival gear relay race, 2-by-4 races and an avalanche beacon rescue in which teams race to locate and dig up an avalanche beacon. If temperatures dip far enough, Edwards said organizers would try to make ice for a hockey game to close the event.
The event includes a chili cook-off, with judging starting at 11:30 a.m. Submitted chilis will be served as lunch at 1:15 p.m. Cornbread and hot cocoa also will be served.
The event opens with an “opening ceremonies,” with athletes bearing flags of U.S. states setting ablaze an “Olympic cauldron” fueled with firewood.
The times of competitions include: opening ceremonies, 10 a.m.; BB gun biathlon, 10:15 a.m.; beacon rescue, 10:45 a.m.; dog-calling rodeo, 11:15 a.m.; survival gear relay race, 11:45 a.m.; 2-by-4 race, 12:15 p.m.; tea-making contest, 12:45 p.m.; ice hockey or broomball, 1:30 p.m.