Have You Heard About “Snow Rodeo” in Montana?
If you've spent anytime in Montana, you know about the rodeo. You know about team ropin', you know about bull riding, you know about barrel racing. You know rodeo. But have you ever heard of snow rodeo? And no, we're not talking about skijoring.
I have GOT to see this event when it takes place in September. So on Tuesday morning, I was hosting our statewide radio show LIVE from the Montana Association of County Road Supervisors (MACR) Convention in Great Falls.
Andy Dean is the bridge foreman for the road crews in Yellowstone County and is the president of MACRS. He was telling me about snow rodeo, which is a big competition that takes place every year here amongst the road crews across the state. These are the guys that maintain and plow the thousands and thousands of county miles all across the state.
Later in the morning, I asked Todd Young out of Valley County about how the road crews have their own rodeo.
So what is snow rodeo? And where do they host it?
Todd Young: It used to just be either in Great Falls, and they've been doing it in Helena, and this last year we split it up and I had one in Sidney in Richland County.
So for snow rodeo they have all the heavy equipment there, they got an obstacle course, and they have timed event competitions for the crews to compete over.
Todd Young: And it's nice to see people come out and compete. And it shows our skills. I mean, when you actually watch all these different operators come in and do it- and they don't get enough credit- and they come out and they're taking a backhoe with a spoon on it and picking up a tennis ball and going and setting it on another object and how people can move that equipment and be so gentle with it- on a machine that moves so much Earth is impressive to watch.
Check out the full audio of our conversations at the MACR Convention in Great Falls on the below podcast audio:
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