St. Patrick's day on the hill

There are many great theme days on the mountain - Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentines Day, rock star day, one-piece day, 80's day, Australia Day. But the best one is definitely St. Patrick's day and last Saturday didn't disappoint.
I don't remember the last time I wasn't skiing on St. Patty's day so I have a number of good memories. Lots of people ski around in strange green apparel some wearing Irish flags and some trying new tricks thanks to a little liquid courage. The funny thing about these days is that the skiing doesn't really matter. A great outfit and bragging about hitting the bar early do.
Lift operators, mountain hosts and other guest services representatives can all be seen getting people in the mood by wearing all green and speaking in poor Irish accents.
The town of Snowmass has possibly the most organization of any ski town and even puts on a parade to celebrate among other events. The parade runs right through the centre of town where tourists can purchase cheap, green beer right on the street. This year the parade even featured the Colorado Youth Pipe Band. I remember not even being able to walk through the town during the afternoon because of the number of people. The preview article in the Aspen Times about this day even ended with a suggestion to check local bars for specials.
Was anyone on the hill? Lift lines don't exist on St. Patrick's Day, but by 2 p.m. it really seems like the lift operators are the only ones on the hill.
This year, I shifted festivities to Whistler where some rationalizing between friends turned a full day into seven runs and a trip to the bar at the top of the hill at noon. Some people didn't even have ski stuff on. They just rode the gondola to the top in their full Irish apparel. The town of Whistler doesn't seem to have the same organization, but the spirit was still there. It was almost raining at the top of the hill and groups of green-clad stumbling fools were lining up to have their pictures taken at the top of the hill. The bar was standing room only by noon. It was a good thing I had a long ski down to my car before driving home.