The mysterious production of blizzards

[icymist]

The rituals,
superstitions and
talismans Telluriders swear bring the snow
By BEN FORNELL
Staff Writer
Published: Friday, January 22, 2010 12:26 PM CST
Maybe it all paid off. As the town looked anxiously to the horizon like a dog panting at the door for its owner, many started dancing, rubbing, stashing, and turning to the traditions of paganism to bring a dump to Telluride.

A town where the Weather Channel is treated with as much skepticism as a palm reader has little choice but to turn to superstition and charms. And the rituals surrounding the summoning of snow in this town are as eclectic as the residents themselves: some have been here for decades, others are as itinerant as the summer-phobes who bring them each season, and there are a few that — through their sheer insanity — lay bare a naked enthusiasm for these mountains.

Some lifties have taken a technique from voodoo and stuck trail maps in their freezers, hoping that the forces they apply to those replicas will follow for the mountain.

“I think it worked, because the day after I put it in there, it started snowing,” said Maggie Hurt, a lift operator who said her colleagues put a little peer pressure on her. “We were hanging out at someone’s house and they were like, ‘What? What’s wrong with you? You’re the reason it’s not snowing.’”
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