Downtown Rail Jam Celebrates It’s Third Year

Annual Rail Jam Event Continue To Grow

Marquette Down Town Show Down rail jam. (photo by Roweena Langin)

Marquette MI- The annual Downtown Showdown Rail Jam has become a hugely popular and beloved outdoor winter event in the city of Marquette. This year marked it’s 3rd year in a row on February 21, 2015.

A skier successfully land a rail jump at the Marquette rail jam. (photo by Rowena Langin)

The city of Marquette is well known for it’s outdoor sports and it’s architecture. Three years ago the city found a way to combine the beauty of the historic district of downtown Marquette and a much loved outdoor sport in the U.P., skiing and snowboarding. Once a year downtown Marquette streets are covered with snow for the Downtown Showdown Rail Jam.

Men and woman aged 6 years and over are welcome to participate in the open jam earlier in the day with cash prizes handed out to winners of the men’s and woman’s ski and snowboarding competitive jams at the end of the day. The Showdown is open to the public with easy viewing all around the course. A warm up tent is available for everyone to use. Raffles take place all day and local venders serving food and beverages can be found throughout the event.

On the Friday before the annual event the city of Marquette shuts down a designated street to begin building the course for the following day’s competition. The construction crew starts around 6am. Men and women spend all day trucking in countless loads of snow to make the course.

A skier flips in the air at the Marquette Rail Jam. (photo by Roweena Langin)

On Saturday the event kicks off with an Open Jam. For 2 hours skiers and snowboarders showed off their skills in a non-competitive environment. At the end of the jam an hour break was taken for course maintenance.

At 6 p.m. the competition opened with the first round of competitive jams. The skiers and snowboarders where each given their own rail jam. The competitors in each jam had an hour to accumulate points and try to make it to the finals.

The competitors who made it to the finals had an hour to show off their best tricks and try to accumulate the most points to win the final jam. The award ceremony was held inside the warm up tent.

This year the Downtown Showdown Rail Jam was dedicated to the memory of Cody Revord a local Marquette teen who died two days before the Rail Jam in a tragic snowboarding accident. A moment of silence was held before the snowboarding jam.

Snowboarder does a hand stand in the snow. (photo by Roweena Langin)

A skier slides off a jump. (photo by Roweena Langin)

by Roweena Langin

When I was a little girl my parents taught me how to use a camera. I spent my photographic childhood in 4-H taking photos so I could enter them into the yearly county fair and have them judged. I have a BFA in photography from Northern Michigan University. My favorite photographic subjects are sports and nature. My dream career is to be a sports photographer working for a big name team or media. I have been a volunteer photographer for the Beacon House in Marquette for some of their fundraising events. In May 2014 I became a contributor with marquettemagazine.com.

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