A 'miracle' in 13 days: Silverton comes together to keep skijoring alive

SILVERTON, Colo. — Silverton is hosting its 15th annual skijoring race over Presidents Day weekend.

This year, it almost didn’t happen.

During one of the driest winters locals can remember, the town has seen very little natural snow. This week, hillsides in the surrounding mountains were brown. Daytime temperatures climbed into the 50s. Blair Street — the heart of the skijoring racecourse — was mostly bare dirt road.

For the first time in the event’s history, Silverton had to make its own snow.

Across the West, at least nine skijoring events — in which horses pull people on skis across a course with different ramps — were canceled because of poor snow conditions. Silverton came close to doing the same. But John Zarkis, the town’s public works director, pushed to keep the race alive, rallying communities to make snow and build a course.

“It’s a damn miracle we did this in 13 days,” said Jim Harper, president of Silverton Skijoring and the town’s mayor pro tem.

Snow guns sprayed water into the cold night air for seven nights. Pumps pulled water from the river. Trucks hauled and stacked snow downtown.

Crews moved about 200 truckloads of snow onto Blair Street, building jumps and creating a race track stretching three blocks, with two additional blocks for runoff. Silverton and Leadville are the only two Colorado towns that turn public roads into a race track.

The effort relied on borrowed equipment, rerouted public works budgets and volunteer labor. Ranchers brought snow guns. Nearby ski areas shared pumps. Public workers showed up to shovel, stack and shape the course.

“Everyone came together,” Harper said. “I can’t say that enough. Everybody came together.”

After the race, the town will reuse the snow at its small ski hill for youth races and other community events.

The winter economy in Silverton is slow. Many shops close or reduce hours until summer. However, during skijoring weekend, hotels sell out, restaurants fill and stores reopen just for the crowds.

The event usually brings 8,000 to 12,000 visitors to a town of 700 full-time residents. Eighty-nine teams signed up to compete this year.

“It is the biggest economic shot in the arm over a winter weekend that Silverton has,” said DeAnne Gallegos, executive director of the Silverton Chamber of Commerce. “We call it the Fourth of July of the winter.”

The skijoring race has about $25,000 in fixed costs and depends heavily on donations and volunteers. Fifty businesses across the Four Corners region, most of them small, sponsored the event. About 30 volunteers will staff the course, from judging to safety and cleanup.

After weeks of worrying about a dry winter and a fragile economy, the race means more than competition: “Hope,” Gallegos said.