Competitors at a previous Tough Mudder event attempt to cross a pond while balancing on narrow beams. A similar obstacle will be included at the Mount Snow event, part of the eight-mile obstacle course.
Mount Snow Marketing and Events Director Greg Fisher said the event will bring in thousands of competitors, family members, and spectators. More than 14,000 participants are expected, and Fisher said each competitor could bring an average of two other people to the event. “This is already the biggest one-day event in Vermont,” Fisher said. “It’s the seventh largest in the country.”
Competitors will set out on the course in waves of 500 people, every 20 minutes.
Fisher said the community can profit from the influx of people by welcoming them in to town with banners and signs in the Tough Mudder colors of orange and black. “This is going to bring some money into the valley,” Fisher said. “They’re going to be looking for places to eat.”
Fisher said Mount Snow would be coordinating with local communities to allow some temporary signs. “We’re talking to Wilmington about flying a “Welcome, Mudders” banner across Route 9,” he added.
But Fisher warned owners of lodging properties to be prepared for dirt and mud. The competition will bring participants through snowmaking ponds and pools of mud – all during the height of mud season. “Should you be concerned about your rooms? Yes,” Fisher joked. “I would sit out front with a hose.”
Fisher said Mount Snow’s course includes 19 “military style” obstacles, some that have been used at other Tough Mudder events, including an “electrocution” obstacle that shocks participants with 10,000 volts of electricity. He said competitors running through the hanging electric “tentacles” get shocked, fall into the mud, and have to get up only to be shocked again. He also promised a special “surprise” obstacle unique to Mount Snow, but he didn’t offer any hints regarding the design.
Mount Snow is also putting out a call for volunteers to help staff the event. Unlike some of the less-intense Mount Snow events, Fisher said the resort is looking for a full-day commitment from volunteers. Mount Snow is seeking volunteers to help with registration, to serve as course marshals and event runners, and to perform other duties. “Tough Mudder asked for about 60 volunteers,” Fisher said. “We’re looking for 100 per day.” Volunteers will receive a Tough Mudder T-shirt, lunch, a swag bag, a Mount Snow lift ticket, and a chance to see the Tough Mudder competition up close. Anyone interested in volunteering for the event should contact Donna Brown at (802) 464-4022 or dbrown@mountsnow.com.
The Tough Mudder series was started by two British men, one a member of the British Special Forces and the other a Harvard Business School graduate who created the competition as a business model. “His professors told him they’d be lucky to get 500 people at their first event,” Fisher said. “They got 4,500.”
The competition raises money for The Wounded Warrior Project, a nonprofit organization that provides programs and services to severely injured service members.
Enough with rumor's, research and find the truth. I doubt the human resource guy only has a high school diploma but if he did something should be said.
Go figure!
That be sweet, then the mountain can electrocute me for being a good sport! I love you mount snow and will always, there is more to me then the typing you see here!