Pond hockey is an instant 'classic'

If you don’t know what pond hockey is yet, drive up to Foy’s Lake today, tomorrow or Sunday morning and prepare for an education that promises to be both entertaining and fun.

The Pond Hockey Classic, sponsored by the Kalispell Convention and Visitor Bureau, got underway last night with a welcome party, and the tournament games will be held today and Saturday from 8:30 a.m. till about 4:30 p.m. The playoffs will be held on Sunday morning, followed by the championship games at 1:30 Sunday afternoon.

Saturday, there will be a great celebration called Hockey Night in Montana at the Hilton Garden Inn from 6 to 10 p.m. where players and fans will all be able to enjoy great food, drink and the legendary Stanley Cup.

This is a great new event, and an innovative way to bring tourists to the Flathead in the winter. Well over half the teams participating are from out of the area, and they and their families will be spending money at local hotels, restaurants and stores in addition to getting a workout on the ice.

Even though this is the first year, the event has well earned the name “classic”!

If you want to avoid trouble in the trees when skiing or snowboarding, don’t go in there alone.

That’s simple advice that needs to be underscored given two recent deaths at Whitefish Mountain Resort. In eerily similar circumstances a month apart, two skiers died in tree wells on the back side of Big Mountain.

Each had been skiing with companions but became separated before going alone into the trees and suffocating in a tree well.

The buddy system — skiing with a partner — is one of the best ways to minimize the risk of such tragedies.

If you fall into a tree well, particularly head-first, the odds of surviving are low, especially if you are skiing or snowboarding alone. A pair of experiments conducted by snow-safety experts found that 90 percent of volunteers who were temporarily put in a tree well could not rescue themselves.