You guys know how we do here with Cosplay.  It’s a wonderful thing is this world.  Somehow I think the word “costume” just wouldn’t play over well and yet just using cosplay somehow sounds a little more geeky thus it sticking out and making the genre popular.  In any event, Cosplay is extending beyond our reach into Switzerland, and with skiiers no less.

Every year, between January 10-16, over 1,500 people from Switzerland and other European countries gather at Belalp, for one of the wackiest downhill skiing races in the world. The Witches Downhill challenge has contestants dress up as witches and race down a snowy mountain.

The Belalp Hexe Ski Race began in 1983, inspired by a real witch that apparently lived nearby and terrorized locals. she actually flew around and everything.

So if you’re interested in Harry Potter esque witches and wackiness in a foreign country you might enjoy these pictures