Wail in Vail: High-flying Ravinos celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on Vail Mountain
Chapter president instructs new recruits to wear the patch with pride and always remember to "keep it classy"
Carly Finke / finketank.com
The Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Ravinos celebrated St. Patrick’s Day on Vail Mountain Sunday in an annual backflipping tradition that dates back more than 50 years.
The Ravinos are an extreme lifestyle club that started in the Midwest in the early ’70s before moving to the Rocky Mountains in the 1972-73 season.
The group became known for getting together on St. Patrick’s Day, doing inverted tricks in the First Steps area of Vail Mountain and awarding patches to new prospects who landed backflips off the cliffs.
The group adopted the term “wail” as an expression of excitement over their antics, and the St. Patrick’s Day party became known as the Wail in Vail.
The Ravinos expanded in the 1980s, growing in numbers and chapter locations.
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“There’s an East Coast, a West Coast, and a Rocky Mountain chapter now, with about 300 members around the country,” the Vail Trail wrote in 1982.
While the Ravinos started as a spoof on the motorcycle clubs who wore similar patches, a ban on inverted aerials and the dismantling of the Wail in Vail led the Rocky Mountain chapter to take on genuine outlaw status in the 1980s.
In 1978, Vail Mountain banned inverted aerials “following the lead of the National Ski Areas Association, which cites the danger and liability risks as major reasons,” the Vail Trail reported in 1985.
“In 1981, Vail Associates finally banned (the Wail in Vail) from the mountain and the next year found the Ravinos on Forest Service land at Meadow Mountain,” the Trail continued. “Although the group parodies the outlaw look of motorcycle clubs, they still enjoy the notoriety.”
The club saw a resurgence during the 2009-2010 season and began patching in prospects once again. Since then, scores of new members have been initiated.
On Sunday, several new members earned patches, including Adam Nicks, Kyle Jones, Chase Leslie, Ricky Bates, Dillon Mailand, Zach Booth, Cam Shaw, Anthony Munoz and Nicholas Hall.
Chapter President Rob Bak instructed the new recruits to wear the patch with pride, respect the history of the group and always remember to “keep it classy.”
