10 zany winter festivals around the world
— -- When the winter doldrums start to set in, nothing jump-starts your adrenaline like a frozen T-shirt contest, a snow bath, or an outhouse race in a blizzard. We give you 10 over-the-top winter festivals in North America and frozen tundras abroad where you can unleash your inner Jack Frost and get in on some wild and woolly fun.
Fur Rendezvous (Anchorage, Alaska)
February 24 to March 4, 2012
What began in 1935 as a small gathering of area miners and trappers has evolved into an internationally known 10-day festival of weird and wild proportions. The Fur Rondy transforms softball into a winter sport with snowshoes. Outhouses become ski-borne dragsters powered across the finish line by humans. And snowball fights are organized into officially sanctioned Yukigassen tournaments. In downtown Anchorage the streets that have been cleared all winter are filled with snow for the Open World Championship Sled Dog Races and the Running of the Reindeer, a mad Pamplona-style dash with live reindeer at the racers' heels. Putting the fur in Fur Rondy are the fast-talking auctioneers selling furs caught by local modern-day trappers. Insider tip: Stick around for the second weekend of the festival and you'll get to see the start of the Iditarod.
For discounted accommodations and Anchorage-area tours, check the specials at the Anchorage Convention & Visitors Bureau. Alaska Airlines also posts online deals.
Belalp Hexe (Belalp, Valais, Switzerland)
January 7 to 14, 2012
As the legend goes, an old witch who lived in Belalp murdered her husband and was burned at the stake. Every January hundreds of skiers come to town in his honor—or is it hers?—with pointy hats, crooked noses, and wispy broomsticks for Belalp Hexe (Belalp Witch) week and the downhill Witches' Descent race. Though the costumes draw plenty of cackles, the skiing is pretty serious: The challenging 7.5-mile race drops 5,905 feet in altitude from start to finish. It's one of the top races on Switzerland's amateur downhill circuit. The cauldron bubbles late into the evening the last two nights of the festival, Witches' Nights, with live music blaring in venues throughout the city. It's one of the area's largest apres-ski events each winter.
Switzerland Tourism features lodging deals and tips for affordable trips. Search winter vacation packages on Belalp's website.
Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous (Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada)
February 23 to 26, 2012
A throwback to Yukon's Klondike Gold Rush days, the Sourdough Rendezvous celebrates the brawny strength it took to survive here in the early 1900s … and the extra hair required to keep warm at -40 degrees. Things get woolly when a good chunk of the local population puts away razors months in advance to prepare for the beard-growing contest and the women's hairy-leg competition. Watch shaggy guys face off in the axe-throwing contest, the chainsaw chuck, the Swede saw, the log toss, and the flour-packing contest. On stage, the Snow Shoe Shufflers lift their crinolines to reveal long underwear and lightning-fast snowshoe steps. Throughout town, high-kicking can-can dancers swirl their ruffles like their Gold Rush predecessors.
Air Canada and Air North service Whitehorse with direct flights daily from Vancouver. Find hotels, restaurants, and more trip-planning info on the city's website.
Cedarburg Winter Festival (Cedarburg, Wisconsin)
