Returning this Friday and Saturday to Soldier Hollow is Utah Skijoring. The event combines Utah’s ski heritage with its cowboy roots.
Kira Solomon with the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association explains what skijoring is.
“It is a wild, obscure winter sport in the west where a horse and rider tows a skier down a course,” Solomon continued. “In this particular course the skier has to go over I think it’s three jumps and has to pick up rings. The rings are suspended on these stands, so the skier has to wing over to the side and put their arms through the rings. Then they are towed quickly down this path and the horse is just running all out. While the horse gets to go straight, the skier is winging over the right going over a jump and then winging over to the left and going over a jump. They have to cross the finish line on at least one ski to have a time that qualifies.”
Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association will have three teams competing in the event. One team in the novice category and two teams in the sports category. Skijoring Utah says they have 80 teams pre-registered and expect another 30 or so to register before the start of the event.
“There is a small group of us on the ski patrol who enjoy horses about as much as we enjoy skiing”, Solomon said. “We watched this event two years ago and though immediately we want to do this. We actually started putting together a team and practicing last year but it was a drought year and they had to cancel the event. So, when they announced the event dates for this year, we thought yeah let’s put this together. Let’s do this again. We’ve got good skiers on ski patrol. So we have these talented people who are willing to be towed behind a horse going very fast and go over jumps because they’re expert skiers they’re willing to do it. Then we took the patrollers who are really into the horses and we had one patroller who owns horses herself. She was willing to let us use her horses and so we put together teams”.
The competition begins at 10:00 am on Friday and Saturday starting with the novice category working up to the pro. Prizes include cash winnings and a belt buckle. Kristin Bollinger with Skijoring Utah explains how they select the winner of each division.
“They are competing for the fastest time between the two days,” Bollinger explained. “So it’s an overall average of the fastest time between the two days. Some teams will register to run twice, some teams will just run once it just kind of depends, but they do get one run per day.”
The horses can reach speeds of over 30 mph.
“Yeah, it’s pretty fast,” Solomon continued. “Now in the novice category, watching this event two years ago, there are horses that don’t go that fast. If they’re just starting out and trying it, they might start out at a trot and then go into a slow lope and maybe they’re doing 20-22 miles an hour. It doesn’t particularly feel that fast to a downhill skier someone who’s used to going fast on skis. In the pro division they’re probably 36 miles per hour something like that and this person is flying down the course.”
Solomon describes one of the hardest challenges of skijoring for skiers.
“The skiers have to manage the slack in the rope,” Solomon explained. “They’ll go up and over a jump and there will be slack in the rope and then they have to try to manage that so that it doesn’t just go tight and just yank them down the course. So it’s pretty fun to watch.”
Entrance fee is $15 for adults $10 for Seniors and kids 8-13 with kids 7 and under free. Friday evening also includes a fundraising dinner to benefit the Huntsman Cancer Institute, as well as a cowboy downhill tubing race.
“As Soldier Hollow grill,” Bollinger said. “Tickets are available for $25. We have a package deal right now where you can buy the dinner and the tubing at the Soldier Hollow tubing hill for $35 on our website. All the benefits go to the Huntsman Cancer Foundation. We’re going to do a silent auction and then we’ll have a live band and dinner and social. It should be a good time.”
The event will also have food trucks, vendors and booths from the Ski Patrol Association and Wasatch Backcountry Rescue. You can find more information about the eventhere.
