Event combining rodeo and snow sports expands to 3 days, adds novice competition
Competitors for this weekend’s San Juan Skijoring competition will come from as far away as Canada to race the course at the Ouray County Fairgrounds, vying for belt buckles, prize money and bragging rights.
The event, which combines rodeo and snow sports, involves riders on horseback pulling skiers and snowboarders around the oval track. The challenge is to not only stay upright while being pulled at top speeds, but also to follow the course through gates, make the jumps and the landings and finish the fastest.
Skijoring’s roots are in Scandinavia, where people have used animals to pull them on skis for centuries. But here in Ridgway, the event is a marriage of cowboy culture and those who chase fresh powder on the slopes.
This year’s competition is a three-day affair, starting with competitions for novices beginning at 10:30 a.m. Friday. Admission is free for spectators for this event. Tickets are required for the Saturday and Sunday competitions, and can be purchased online at sanjuanskijoring. com or at the event, which begins at 10:30 a.m. both days.
Sarah Smedsrud, one of the event organizers, said this year’s event has been extended due to popularity and limited hours of sun. She expects roughly 50 runs through the course on Friday and at least another 130 runs on Saturday and Sunday.
“We don’t have enough daylight for 180 teams,” she said.
Smedsrud’s husband, Tyler, designed the course again this year, which has been built with heavy equipment, moving, shaping and smoothing the man-made snow through the wee hours of the night for the past week. Organizers used snow guns to create man-made snow for the course again this year, ensuring they would have enough snow to build the course no matter what Mother Nature had in store.
The weather has cooperated with course builders this year – low temperatures at night help keep the snow from melting. But if they get too much natural snow once the course is built, they have to shovel it.
This year’s course design includes a new element – an island. Riders and skiers or snowboarders will encounter the island toward the finish line.
“They’ll be aiming right at it, and they’ll have to pick a side,” she said.
If you want to see the pros take on the biggest jumps – including the gap jump over a vehicle provided by Turner Toyota – plan on being there at 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Spectators will have several options for viewing this year’s races. They can sit outside on the bleachers for an arena-side view, or visit tents with heaters. They can also go inside the 4-H Center to thaw out and continue watching the event being live-streamed on TV screens inside.
“We have ways to stay warm,” Smedsrud said. There will also be a full bar and three different food vendors this year.
And if you’d like to watch from the comfort of your living room, the event is being live-streamed in only one location online – cowboychannelplus.com or its app, which require a subscription. The events on Saturday and Sunday will be live-streamed there.
Smedsrud cautioned against purchasing any other tickets to watch online. Several fake pages on social me- dia claim they’ll be streaming the event, and are selling tickets. These are scams.
The event also includes a dinner (limited to the first 100 attendees) with awards and an auction at 6 p.m. Saturday at the 4-H Event Center, followed by a concert with Jake Jacobson at 9 p.m. The skijoring weekend ends with an awards presentation at 6 p.m. Sunday at the Ouray Elks Lodge, where fans are welcome to watch the awards and help celebrate.
For a full schedule of events visit sanjuanskijoring.com.
