For all those who don’t want to grow up; who wish they could still dash around in the snow, hurling snowballs at their friends: Yukigassen’s the sport for you.
For the second year in a row, the Japanese snowball fighting competition is coming to Jasper. Nov. 23 and 24 the town will host a tournament that decides which team gets to represent Canada at the Yukigassen championship in Japan.
Yukigassen—the Japanese word for “snow battle”—is a sport a 10-year-old would create, except it’s played by geared-up men and women on a professional court.
Part dodgeball, part capture the flag and part snowball fight, it’s a surprisingly fast-paced and intense sport.
“It’s kind of hard to imagine it sometimes,” said Kymberley Hill of Tourism Jasper, but it’s essentially “just a mad dash of snowballs.”
Although it might just seem like an insane free-for-all of whizzing snowballs and a court full of dashing and diving players, the sport is actually guided by a strict set of rules.
Step across the wrong line and you’re out for the round; carry snowballs in your pockets or clothing and you’re out for the round; physically hit another player and you’re out for the round.
You can’t throw broken or crumbled snowballs, and your team gets exactly 90 regulation balls for each round. You can’t even make your own projectiles from loose snow; every snowball is made to regulation size with a special machine.
When the whistle blows, teams pelt snowballs at one another for three frantic, two-minute periods. The object is to eliminate as many of the opposing players as possible by hitting them with snowballs, or to get to their side of the court and pluck their flag out of its holder without getting hit.
Edmonton’s Mike Smith, captain of last year’s winning team, said anyone who goes in expecting a carefree snow fight is in for a surprise.
He and his team The Ball Fondlers are probably the closest thing Canada has to a pro Yukigassen team. They won last year’s competition, and represented Canada in the finals in Japan. They built their own Yukigassen court in Smith’s backyard and have been training for months in preparation for the tournament.
“I always have massive bruises,” Smith said, describing a 10-inch-long monster forming on his thigh after a practice session over the weekend, “it rocks you pretty hard when you get hit.”
While some walk away with bruises and an adrenaline rush, Hill said the great thing about the event is that absolutely anyone can join.
The sport is young enough in Canada that it’s an open tournament, so regardless of skill level, anyone who wants to whiff around some snowballs can have a good time. And who knows, you might even get the opportunity to face the pros in Japan.
Hill guessed about 30 teams will sign up for the tournament this year, and said the format welcomes all levels of competitors, from the bruised and battered with dreams of Japan, to the children at heart who just want to have a snowball fight.
To learn more about the Canadian Rockies Snow Battle, including how to register a team and how to sign up to become a ref, visit canadianrockiessnowbattle.ca.
Trevor Nichols
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