Mother Nature provided a fresh blanket of fluffy white powder throughout the day Saturday for the inaugural Skijor event on the Estes Park Fairgrounds and Event Center campus. Temps dipped into the single digits as spectators dressed in parkas, winter boots, western hats, fur coats, and tried to keep warm while watching skiers, snowboarders, horses, and riders compete in the extreme sport known as skijoring.
According to Running Wild Events organizer Kevin Benes, 9,000 people–including spectators, participants, staff, volunteers, and sponsors–braved the elements to be part of the new two-day event which offered competition tiers for participants in junior, novice, and professional categories.
To add even more color to the extraordinary event, Estes Park’s own Rooftop Rodeo Royalty Lily Finch participated in riding sponsor flags in the competition zone for an authentic Western flare.
Billed as the closest skijoring event to Colorado’s Front Range, athletes raced in 250 runs for more than $25,000 in prize money, a chance to wear an official Skijor jacket, and bragging rights. Official race results are posted on the organization’s website.
Both mornings started off with the novice category that saw 26 competitors give the racecourse a shot. For many of those contestants, it was their first time ever competing or even trying out the event.
Estes Park local Bryan Kaepplinger, the “chief expeditionary” for KEP Expeditions, was one of those brave adventurers that clipped into his skis and picked up the towline.
“I got a text that said, hey, we’ve got a cowboy and a horse. Do you want in?” Kaepplinger said. “So I threw my hat in the ring, and I’m glad I did.”
Kaepplinger started the race off strong. He was going through race gates and hit the first of three jumps, landing it. Then he started to pick up speed and went over the second jump a bit too fast, and lost control midair, which proved to be fatal to the rest of his run. He crashed out right as he got to the final jump, ending his run.
While the ending wasn’t what he hoped for, he still had the time of his life during the run and was glad his wipe out at least gave the crowd some good entertainment.
“It did sound like a good roar of the crowd when I ate it, so I’m proud of that,” said Kaepplinger.
Sean Jurgens, owner of the Quality Inn of Estes Park and chair of Visit Estes Park, was a first time skijorer. Jurgens, who competed on Saturday, said the experience was a lot like “water skiing,” only a lot colder.
Estes Park Mountain Shop Warming Hut Expo
The Estes Park Mountain Shop Warming Hut Expo provided a place to not only warm up frozen noses, toes and fingers, but to also shop for Western and winter wear along with ski equipment and other merch.
Two dozen vendors joined in the indoor market offering handcrafted leather purses by Estes Park leather artisan Mark Owen of Owen Saddlery, warm candied nuts from Rocky Mountain Majesty, boutique soaps and lotions, and mountain themed quilt kits from Peak to Peak Stitching as musician Michael Rock performed a backdrop of Americana, folk, and country covers from the 70s, 80s and 90s throughout the weekend. And Space Coyote Tattoo set up a pop-up shop and provided a selection of tatts with a Skijor motif.
Spectators who wanted to sit down could buy a slice of Mangia Mangia pizza, some Wes-Tex barbecue, a gyros, a Village Bagel hot bagel, or other fare from one of several food trucks and vendors and sit inside the Estes Park Event Center building in front of an enormous jumbo screen to watch the races while their extremities defrosted.
The Estes Park Education Foundation sponsored a fundraiser kids’ zone with a mini-indoor golf course, a trike course, and an oversize bowling area courtesy of the Bull Pin.
Superintendent Ruby Bode was on hand Saturday to catch little ones as they slid down the exits of a giant inflatable castle and physical therapist and former Estes Park Trustee Patrick Martchink drove a kiddie train around the indoor event space as part of the festivities.
An opportunity for a midwinter economic boost
Last summer, Visit Estes Park’s board unanimously approved using $279,000 in contingency funds over the next three years along with the strength of their marketing support to establish Skijor as a new flagship event for Estes Park in order to build economic activity for the community in the second-lowest tourism generating month of the year.
Friends and families piled into cars driving from Boulder, Fort Collins, and Denver to see the event. Brooke Bloker, drove up after hearing about the event from a Facebook post.
“This is my first event of this kind, I just moved to Colorado last January,” Bloker said. “This is awesome.”
Sponsors of the event included the local marketing district Visit Estes Park, the Estes Park Western Heritage Foundation, and more than a dozen other businesses including the Estes Park Mountain Shop, the Quality Inn of Estes Park, the Country Market of Estes Park, Village Bagels, the Tavern at the Legion, Backbone Adventures, Estes Valley Vacation Rentals, the Bank of Colorado, Mark Purdy of Edward Jones, Colorado Hats Company, Kinley Built, EP News, Expedition Lodge, NAPA Auto Parts, and Laredo Whiskey.
“This is awesome that Estes Park has an event like this. Silverton has a sweet event like this, and Leadville has a sweet event like this, and to bring it to our hometown is pretty sweet,” Estes Park resident John Grotenhuis said.
The Estes Valley Voice would like to thank Gretchen Troop of Gretchen Troop Photography for the use of her Skijor 2025 images. gretchen@gretchentroop.com;
https://boulderweddingphoto.com; https://gretchentroop.com/ Gretchen Troop will be exhibiting at the Estes Park Wedding Show, Sun. Feb. 2 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at The Stanley Hotel.
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This was an awesome event, especially for its first time in Estes Park. I’m excited to see the future for it and I hope it grows.