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Snowmass resurrects 'Banana Days' for 50th anniversary weekend

Claire Woodcock
/
Aspen Public Radio

Snowmass Ski Area celebrated its 50th anniversary this weekend. Saturday, Banana Days was resurrected. A town-wide scavenger hunt had visitors searching for 1,967 plastic bananas, each containing a prize.

The Reddy family rode the skittles Gondola from Base Village. Goutan and Chandra Reddy were taking their children Raj and Neela up to Snowmass Mall to redeem their bananas after a day on the slopes. They said finding the bananas was a family effort.

The family is on vacation from Dallas. It’s the kids first ski trip.

 

They picked it up very fast," said Goutan Reddy.

His daughter Neela added, “We started ice skating on the snow for some reason.”

 

Charles “The Banana” Meyers works for SkiCo at Buttermilk. He said there’s not a lot of snow, so his supervisor asked him to come to Snowmass Village Mall dressed as a banana.

 

“And, I was like I would love to. It’s a dream come true," said Meyers.

 

He affirms conditions on the slopes are icy.

 

“I’d hate to fall and be a bruised banana," he added.

 

Banana Days in Snowmass dates back to the 1980s. Longtime local Renee Fleisher, who helped collect prizes for the scavenger hunt recalls Banana Days back then.

 

“It’s really fun to reenact the Banana Days that we used to do," said Fleisher. "The only thing that’s missing is the people who used to jump naked into the pool.”

 

Meyers, the banana,  thinks it’s cool for the community to be bringing back Banana Days for new generations to experience.

 

“It’s so crazy, off the wall, it’s bananas," he said.