Effective April 1 - 30, 2003 the Forest Service will be implementing and enforcing a Supervisor's Closure on Vail Mountain, which will prohibit unauthorized access to the Minnie's Deck area where the end-of-season BB&B event has occurred. The Forest Service issued a directive to Vail Resorts under the terms of their special use permit to shut down the BB&B event on Vail Mountain. Historically the BB&B event has taken place at Minnie's Deck and the event had evolved into a gathering of as many as 2,000 people. The behavior of participants posed serious risks to public health and safety as well as caused resource damage. The Supervisor's Closure will be in effect to ensure protection of public health and safety.
So, with a stroke of the pen, the US Forest Service ended the infamous end-of-season party on Vail Mountain, ending a 22 year tradition. Know by many variations, Boobs, Boomers and Beers; Buns, Boobs, and Beers; Boobs, Booze and Brews, etc, (BB&B) was held on the second Tuesday in April as a way for Vail valley residents and employees to blow off some steam at the end of the season. The event started in 1980 as a small end-of-season birthday party on Minnie's deck. BB&B devolved into an orgy of drinking, snowball fights and raucous behavior. During the last several years, partiers spent days before BB&B building large snow forts, stashing large quantities of alcoholic beverages, and, too often, hauling up more illicit substances.
Historically, the end of season party probably started much earlier with the Great Race. This season-ender was usually held in Lionshead and People would dress up in all kinds of wild costumes. A photo of Vail local hooligan Packy Walker standing on the winner’s podium wearing nothing but a fig leaf and his gold medal made the front page of the Vail Trail newspaper. After Vail executives and lawyers killed that event people continued to get costumed up and party at Minnie's Deck. In those days it was called the mountain formal. Costumes included top hats and suits as well as high school prom dresses, horrible powder-blue tuxedoes and ballerina tutus. The event grew and was combined with Warren Miller’s Mad Mountain Marathon and the Rubber Legs Slalom. The race involved 150 or more slalom gates at the bottom of Vail Mountain and the event raised money for local charities.
When I was there in the spring of 2002, my brother Travis, his wife Michelle, Mayela and I went to the BB&B. We all carried backpacks loaded with beers, booze and buds. When we arrived at Minnie's deck the atmosphere was relaxed and people were lounging on the deck in the sun enjoying the event. We set up camp on the deck and in one of the nearby snow forts crafted by a group of Beaver Creek's happyshack community. We took some runs and explored the other various snow forts in the woods. It was amazing the elaborate complex of forts and the adornments within. Some had full Ice sculpture bars complete with barstools carved from compacted snow. Others were complete igloos with only a small portal in the roof for ventilation. Another was an elaborate maze to thwart cops and security spies.
As the day continued, there were jam sessions on the numerous rails that had been created in the woods. One was a 50 foot long triple wave that dumped out into the main area opening. Eventually the traditional snowball fight erupted with the main focus from the snow forts surrounding the opening at Minnie's deck. Some forts were equipped with water balloon launchers. A couple of times I snuck out through the woods with my snowboard to take runs down born free. After riding the gondola back up to the top, I'd come rolling into the woods with my pants down and flipping the crowd off in my black afro. The trick was to ride fast and get to the fort as quickly as possible. Poor unfortunate souls that tried to follow in the wake turbulence of my entry would get blasted into oblivion. I would stand on the wall and yell out obscenities to the enemy forts. The response was a furious barage of snowballs. People were getting pissed because we were getting bombed with snow. One time, standing on the wall, I took a water balloon launcher shot to the chest that blasted me flat on my back. Heffe came right up like a medic with the Jaegermeister bottle to nurse me back to insanity.
In the evening when security starts to herd everybody out of there is a Chinese downhill of sorts. This race to the pub progresses down the mountain. There is one particularly steep pitch where people who are so f*cked up that they just take their skis off and hurl themselves bodily down the face, laughing their drunken asses off. I came up to the edge and launched the hand bag I was carrying as high in the air as I could--only to find out Mayela had her camera in it. We all ended up at the bars in Vail village till the weee hours of the morning. It was amazing. I'm glad I got to experience the greatest party on earth before it was over. Good times
As kind of a sick footnote to all of this, the event has been commercialized in a couple of different forms. Never shy about making a buck off the sweat and toil of the locals Vail Resorts promptly christened Siebert's Mad Mountain Marathon and Beaver creek Blues, Brews, and Bar-B-Que. There is no limit to the depth of slime with Vail Management.
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