This story was originally published in The Sylva Herald Feb. 9.
Ski Sapphire Valley’s 15th Outhouse Race is back after skipping 2021 because of the pandemic.
The popular race is set for 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 19, though the event is somewhat fluid.
“The way it usually works is, the race is on the bunny hill, so the bunny hill will be closed probably about 1:30 p.m., and then it will reopen again at around 4 p.m. when the race is over and be open until 8 p.m.,” Director of Marketing Linda Foxworth said.
The tubing hill is usually closed as well, she said.
Outhouse registration begins at 1:30 p.m., and those designed by the competitors are judged prior to the races. Each outhouse is given a Mason jar, and spectators can vote on their favorite design by putting money in its jar.
A parade kicks off the races.
“The static parade is at 2 p.m.,” Foxworth said. “All of the outhouses are picked and are brought up to the bunny hill or up to the place that we race on the main slope. I think this year they will probably just do it on the bunny hill, but they parade the outhouses single file up the hill.”
Music and other entertainment starts at 10 a.m.
Outhouse racing involves people bringing their own hand-built outhouse or renting one from the ski resort, which are then placed on skis and launched down a hill.
“The outhouses are built to certain specifications, and then they are taken up to the top of the bunny hill and they are raced down,” Foxworth said. “You have to have two pushers for each outhouse, and someone to ride inside of the outhouse.”
The track is 120 feet long. The pushers accelerate the outhouse for the first 30 feet and then it must go 90 feet on its own. Two teams race at the same time.
Boredom inspired the races.
“Several years ago the only people who were left up here were the people who lived here year-round,” Foxworth said. “There weren’t that many of them, as all the summer people had gone home and people were looking for something they could do to get together because everybody kind of got cabin crazy, cabin fever, so this is how the outhouse races came to be.”
The race has grown in popularity since.
“Now we have people coming from Alabama,” she said. “They’re coming from everywhere. Some of them build their own outhouses, some of them rent our outhouses, and some of them don’t even know about it, but they are here for the weekend and they find out about it on the day of the race and that’s when they rent an outhouse, they just decide, ‘Hey that looks like fun. We’re going to do that,’ and they sign up to rent an outhouse.”
The entry fee to race an outhouse is $100, rentals from the resort cost $125. Each year, the money collected from the event is given to a charity in the community.
This year’s charity will be Fishes and Loaves, Cashiers’ food pantry. According to their website, in 2020 they helped feed 7,752 people in Jackson County.
Over 1,000 people came to see about 20 teams compete in 2020, Foxworth said. Organizers will not know how many teams will compete until on-site registration. Admission is free.
“It’s just hilarious, it really is, and it’s a lot of fun, that’s what it’s all about,” Foxworth said. “Just having fun on a cold winter’s day.”
Related story: Outhouse races return to Sapphire
