Breckenridge’s Ullr Fest has celebrated the Norse god of snow since 1963, but it wasn’t until 2013 that two locals, Kristian Slaugh and Litch Polich, added a giant shot ski to the party. “We ended up collecting 60 skis,” says Polich, a partner at Breckenridge Distillery. “We bolted them together, glued plastic cups on them, and got 192 people to take a shot. We felt like we climbed Everest.” That unofficial world record (according to Polich, Guinness won’t sanction what it considers binge drinking) soon caught the attention of Park City, Utah. The ski town has organized its own mass toast every October since 2015, including a record-setting 1,340 shot-takers in 2022. It didn’t keep the title for long: Because Ullr Fest takes place later in the winter than Park City’s party, its organizers always know the number they need to regain the record and managed to top their rivals by 10 tipplers in 2022. So, after a decade of dominance, Polich is sure Breck can top the 1,363-person-strong challenge the Utah upstarts mounted this year. “I mean we’re the OG,” he says. “We have to keep taking it back.”

Ullr Fest December 7 to 9; shot ski December 7, $15.

5280 December 2023
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