Passion Takes HSBMC

(photos by David E. Carmazzi, www.egidio.com)

To no one's surprise, Jack Passion stole the hearts of the judges and took home the first prize of $500 at the High Sierra Beard and Moustache Championships held on July 3, 2006 at the Village at Squaw Valley. Jack styled his chest-length red beard into a tribute to (what else!?) passion, beating out Olympia, Washington's favorite son Burke Kenny to take the full beard division as well. Locals Steve Risko and Glenn Campbell tied for third in FB.

The next High Sierra Beard and Moustache Championships are slated for July 5, 2007, at the Village at Squaw Valley. Poor Man's Whiskey, which provided the musical entertainment, will be back as well. See www.poormanswhiskey.com.

Burke Kenny

Burke's spectacular octopus-on-the-face creation was good enough only to take second in the full beard division.

Kid's Division

In the most competitive division of all -- the kids' division, which had over 30 entrants -- brothers Connor Gill and Jacob Gill finished first and second, respectively, ahead of break dancer Henry Zehhner.

Other Division Winners

The best moustache at the recent HSBMC in the Village at Squaw belonged to Gary Hagen (pictured, center), who incidentally was the world champ in the Handlebar category at the 2003 worlds. Franco Emanuel (right), who came all the way from Torino, Italy to compete finished second and Davede Alexander Thompson (left) from Sacramento was third.

Current world champ in the sideburns division, Toot Joslin, one of the organizers of the event, took first in the partial beard division to the shouts of "Ringer!", ahead of band member Eli Jebidiah (second) and local favorite John Sproehnle (third). In the ladies division, it was a cat fight as expected, but in the end Seattle's Tina Hermans took top honors while Big Boob Betty and Pocatello Paula finished second and third.