Snow, skis and sunshine: Rails & Ales returns to downtown Wenatchee

WENATCHEE — For one weekend each winter, Orondo Avenue stops being a downtown street and turns into a ski slope.

Snow trucked down from Mission Ridge Ski & Board Resort blanketed the block east of Wenatchee Avenue on Saturday, March 7, transforming the pavement into a temporary terrain park for the city’s annual Rails & Ales festival.

This year’s event came with an added wrinkle: springlike weather. Under bright sunshine and temperatures climbing into the upper 60s, competitors and organizers alike watched the snow conditions closely throughout the afternoon. Crews from Mission Ridge worked steadily with grooming equipment to keep the course in shape as skiers and snowboarders took their turns on the rails and ramps.

By midday Saturday, the improvised slope was already drawing a steady crowd as riders warmed up on the features built along the closed street. Spectators packed the sidewalks and barricades lining Orondo, while others watched from a large video screen set up near Centennial Park just a block south.

The festival blends winter sports with downtown street-fair energy, pairing freestyle competition with food vendors, local music and regional craft beer.

Preparation began the night before. Mission Ridge crews worked late Friday packing snow onto a small sledding hill at Centennial Park for younger visitors while others built rails and ramps along Orondo under the glow of streetlights.

By Saturday afternoon, the area had filled with festivalgoers moving between the snow course, vendor booths and beer gardens spread across the downtown closure.

Food vendors included Sammies and Hammies, R-Shack BBQ, Mountain Berry Bowls and Ariana’s Tacos. Three breweries — Pinnacle Beerworks, Hellbent Brewing and Timberline Brewing — served craft beer to festival attendees.

At the corner of Orondo Avenue and Wenatchee Avenue, a tall cylindrical climbing tower drew curious climbers throughout the afternoon, including younger participants carefully working their way down the wall after reaching the top.

Along Wenatchee Avenue, artist Ron Evans revived one of his longtime creative projects with a pop-up Radar Station Living Room Lounge, a relaxed seating area filled with retro, space-age furniture under a gazebo-style tent. Evans originally created Radar Station years ago as a Wenatchee maker space, art gallery and performance venue known for its eclectic, 1970s-inspired aesthetic. The pop-up lounge offered a place for festivalgoers to sit down, enjoy their food and take a break from the crowds.

Meanwhile, the stage at Centennial Park hosted a lineup of local music throughout the afternoon, beginning with Wenatchee band 23rd Street, followed by the Chumlilies and headlined by Buzz Brümp.

Rails & Ales 2026 was presented by Numerica Credit Union and supported by sponsors including Craft, Visit Chelan County, Thriving Together NCW, Wenatchee Valley Medical Group, PSOMAS, Weinstein Beverage/Pepsi and Native Network.

Organizers also partnered with Sustainable NCW and Wenatchee Valley Rotary to operate the festival as a zero-waste event, with volunteers guiding attendees through compost, recycling and trash sorting at designated stations. Compostable service supplies and food waste were processed through Winton MFG Compost Works as part of Visit Wenatchee’s “Show Love For This Place” sustainability initiative.

As the competition wrapped up later in the evening, riders from across the region claimed top honors in four freestyle categories, with each first-place finisher taking home a $1,000 prize.

Men’s snowboard

1. Shane Keller
2. Matt Ruterbusch
3. Nicolas Strother

Women’s snowboard

1. Adel Talyspayeva
2. Lillith Ellis
3. Cierra Janes

Men’s ski

1. Evan Attaway
2. Milo Nicolson
3. Drew Clintworth

Women’s ski

1. Dasha Agafonova
2. Catherine Descisciolo
3. Kimber Navarrette

For a day at least, downtown Wenatchee looked less like a city street and more like a mountain run — complete with rails, cheering crowds and the sound of skis and snowboards sliding over packed snow.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media