Top, one of seven feats of strength is the SSAAA-sanctioned heavy
athletics weight throw. The children’s kilted race takes place Sunday.
Opposite, the caber toss.
g r and f a ther mountain
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highland79QV
games ŮŮ
july 12-15
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Experiencing the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games for the first time? Festival leaders shared a few bits of need-to-know info.
7:;=6,)A
Sunday is also less crowded
than Saturday and features
numerous activities for chil-dren.
After noon on Sunday,
attendees may enter for a
reduced ticket price.
/776.:1,)A
If you only have one day
to visit, avoid the Saturday
crowds and enjoy a full day
of cultural activities, athletics
and the Celtic Jam, featuring
all musical acts at the festival.
8):3-):4A
Use the festival’s offsite
park-and-ride shuttle to the
festival or arrive at the fes-tival
gate before 8 a.m., as
onsite parking is first come,
first served.
22
WBM july 2012
*:16/);?-)<;01:<
This is not a typo. It may
be mid-July, but because
of Grandfather Mountain’s
high elevation, temperatures
can be quite cool in the
evenings.
“IN ANCIENT TIMES, there were seven major events that
Scottish heavyweights performed, as well as track and field
events,” Vance explains. The Grandfather Mountain Highland
Games continues this time-honored series of fierce competi-tion
each year, drawing athletes and spectators from all over the
globe.
One of the most jaw-dropping displays is the caber toss, or
turning the caber, which requires athletes to flip a telephone
pole-sized tree trunk, striking the ground at a vertical position.
Tossing the sheaf requires competitors to heave a bundle of
straw, wrapped in a burlap bag, over a raised bar.
Weight throw participants sling a heavy metal
disk as far as they are able.
In the Scottish hammer throw, competi-tors
swing a four-foot shaft with a metal ball
affixed to the end around their heads before
releasing it. Because the centrifugal force is so
strong, the athletes risk soaring through the air
along with the hammer — that’s why many wear special shoes to
remain planted on the ground.
The games have four weight classes of highland wrestling
competition, and all participants must wear a kilt. On Sunday,
clan members lean, grunt and strain as they compete for brag-ging
rights in the tug-o-war.
The 26.2-mile Grandfather Mountain Marathon beckons
runners from across the country and world to take a turn on
the challenging course, which begins in Boone and ends on the
track at Grandfather Mountain’s MacRae Meadows, the final
13 miles of which is uphill. Don’t think you can run that far?
There’s a five-mile footrace, too, but it’s no less brutal. Aptly
named The Bear, the race climbs 1,568 feet in elevation from
the town of Linville to the summit of Grandfather. Eight hun-dred
runners attempt it each July.
Children’s field games for ages 12 and under take place on
Sunday, including children’s tug-o-war, kilted races and many
other activities.
“Sunday, to me, for the little children, is the most fun,”
Vance says.
JAMES SHAFFER
HELEN MOSS DAVIS