The Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — It was clear, in the three minutes or so leading up to four Steamboat Pilot & Today staffers jumping into a pool of 28-degree water at Lake Catamount Ranch and Club, that we were not adequately prepared for this.

The much larger, much better costumed group that had just struggled through the water — which, incidentally, still was having ice shaved from its surface minutes before the fifth annual Penguin Plunge got going — had strength in numbers, elaborate superhero outfits, a handy skit and theme music.

We had plaid shirts, cowboy hats and — gumption?

Part of the appeal of Penguin Plunge as a fundraiser is its natural fit with Steamboat Springs. It takes a certain kind of person to jump into limb-numbing water for a cause. Of course, it also takes a certain kind of town to host Winter Carnival, a certain kind of person to dedicate their free time to sailing down a mountain.

Those are the people who put on the most ridiculous outfit they can find, crank up the show tunes and hop into a swimming pool that, until a few days prior, had been masked with a couple of feet of solid ice.

And it’s probably good to give those people a beneficial outlet for that disposition. If you would probably do Penguin Plunge anyway, it can’t hurt that in its current incarnation, that insanity benefits emergency care at Yampa Valley Medical Center.

In case you’re curious, the water is cold. Jumping in the Yampa River at Strawberry Park Hot Springs, growing up swimming in the ocean off of Maine, and attempting to shower with a broken water heater in Steamboat in early March weren’t much of a primer to the temperatures in the Penguin Plunge pool.

It’s probably a good thing tv18’s video coverage of the event didn’t feature audio from any of the Plungers. Icy shock makes you say interesting things.

But like all the other events that would be difficult to imagine organizing outside of Steamboat, Penguin Plunge is oddly addictive, inspiring recently thawed jumpers to dive into the pool for a second go. And the Pilot crew — revamping our “Hidden Valley Ranch Hands” theme for something, you know, better — will be back next year.