By David F. Rooney
The 22nd annual Revelstoke Glacier Challenge ended today with an over-all feeling that while it was generally successful the organizing committee will have to review some aspects of it for next year.
“In terms of the softball aspect it was really, really smooth,” Committee Chairman Alan Chell said a few hours before this event wound down.
“But we just didn’t see the turnout for the beer garden and the dances that we expected. There could be a variety of reasons for that but we think the weather was No. 1.”
The tournament was played in merciless heat that hovered in the mid-30° range. That left the ball fields dry and powdery and, despite the best efforts of Revelstoke’s firefighters who came out with their pumper truck every day to hose down the fields and players, left the 2,000 ball players who came here gasping at the end of the day. While there were lots of small parties in the campsites clustered around Centennial Park, the enclosed beer garden and concert area didn’t fill up with people as they had in years past. In fact, Rotarians said their beer sales were roughly half of what they should have been.
Chell said that while he didn’t yet have all the numbers he is certain “the committee will have to decide how to control expenses next year.”
There were no serious injuries during the four-day event and complaints from some campers that local youths were sneaking into the campground in the early morning hours to steal alcohol.
“There were a few altercations between campers and some Revelstoke youths,” Chell said, adding that the Mounties acted to forestall any attempt by angry campers to take “matters into their own hands.”
Other than that, the tournament was successful and by noon today 30 of the 140 teams that attended had already signed up and paid in full for next year, Chell said.
“People come here to have a good time and I think we provide that,” he said. “One thing of interest is that at 3 or 4 in the morning you’d see a couple of hundred people watching teams playing under the lights. This is softball and you don’t get a lot of chances to play under the lights at night. Something like that… that’s how you know everyone was having a good time.”
Here are a few last images of the 22nd Annual Revelstoke Glacier Challenge.
