What’s the winter like?

The Buckwheat Ski Classic

The Buckwheat Ski Classic is the greatest Skagway ski race in Canada!

Lot’s of tourists that come to Skagway on cruise ships want to know what the winter is like. They imagine lots of burly men dressed in flannel building igloos and hunting bear with nothing more than a pocket knife. While this assumption is certainly not wrong, we actually do lots of other things in the wintertime that are just downright fun.

The Buckwheat Ski Classic is a ski race

When it snows during the winter months, Skagway folks like to go cross country skiing. Most of these trips revolve around tasty snacks and adult beverages, but there is sometimes actual skiing involved. The reason why people ski is to prepare for the Buckwheat Ski Classic, which is an annual ski race held in March. The only way to truly prepare for this race is to make sure you have a good costume and love of strong hooch.

There are also serious ski people

The Buckwheat Ski Classic is popular with serious ski people and amateurs alike. You can spot the serious ski people because they are dressed in spandex and go very fast. Good for them! For the rest of us, the Buckwheat is a chance to see friends, eat various grilled meats, and admit that skiing is kind of boring unless you have some good whiskey.

The Aid Station is where it’s at

To truly immerse yourself in the Buckwheat Ski Classic experience, you need to plan on spending some time at the Aid Station. In theory, the aid station is where the good skiers get some Gatorade or high-calorie snack so that they can push it to the limit. For normal people, it’s the place to go and socialize and have fun.

The aid station and race always have a theme. One year the theme was Game of Thrones, so they made the aid station look like a castle. At least I think that happened. Sometimes I have trouble remembering the race. There are few things in Skagway more fun than the aid station at the Buckwheat Ski Classic, but if you’re a cruise ship tourist you will never know those joys. Too bad for you.

Why did they start the Buckwheat Ski Classic?

Back in the old days, Skagway men were lonely and there weren’t a lot of women around. That’s a bummer, so some randy men decided to host a ski race in Canada to meet women wearing spandex. Meet them they did and the race became an annual event because life in the north can get lonely.

This contraption was invented to help women escape the men.

The race is a Skagway event but it’s in Canada

The Buckwheat Ski Classic is held in British Columbia Canada because our neighbors to the north had more female residents. Today, people from different countries still sometimes find unexpected love but the race appeals to everyone, even if they are married or too young to care. After the race, there is a big banquet in Skagway and then everyone goes out to dance and get lit. That’s the way we do things in Skagway because we are awesome and like to party.