Sports

It’s 50 degrees in February, but soon snowboarders will compete on the steps of the Capitol

A person wheelies their bicycle outside the Capitol
Russell Lien wheelies his bicycle on the steps of the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul on Thursday.
Ben Hovland | MPR News

Crowds of spectators will soon be at the Capitol building to watch snowboarders glide down rails for the Red Bull Heavy Metal snowboarding contest on Saturday.

But on a rainy Thursday afternoon, there were just about ten people getting ready. Despite the rain and temperatures in the 50s, the event plans to have 18 inches of snow.

Snow piled outside the Capitol
Snow is piled up on the Capitol steps on Thursday preparation for the Red Bull Heavy Metal snowboard competition taking place outside the Minnesota State Capitol on Saturday.
Ben Hovland | MPR News

To accomplish this, organizers haul green garbage bins full of artificial snow to the top of the Capitol steps.

“They’re very heavy, honestly, it takes like four of us to take a trash can all the way up the stairs,” said Myles Grote, the terrain park manager at Buck Hill in Burnsville.

He’s helping build the course, which includes making 400 cubic yards of snow for trucks to haul to St. Paul between midnight and 6:30 a.m.

But he’s not sweating it.

Workers construct a rail
Workers construct a rail feature in preparation for the Red Bull Heavy Metal snowboard competition on the steps of the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul on Thursday.
Ben Hovland | MPR News

“Really it’s just aesthetically that this winter is providing a difficult time, because it would be nice to see everything blanketed in snow. We would shovel off the stairs anyway because that's kinda how street snowing is anyway, so it really adds no extra danger to the athletes,” he said.

Over 30 snowboarders will compete.

If you go

The Red Bull Heavy Metal snowboarding contest takes place Saturday from 2-6 p.m. at the Capitol building in St. Paul. The event is free and open to the public.