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Even if the mountains aren’t your thing, you’ve just got to love Leadville. Here’s one good reason: The highest incorporated city in North America (elevation: 10,152′) has been holding ski-joring competitions since 1949. Clearly a contender for the world’s weirdest sport, ski-joring involves a horse and rider or a dog pulling a skier down a snowpacked road; the skier must land jumps and spear rings in these timed events.
Ski-joring is back for another year in Leadville; this time around, the town is also holding its Crystal Carnival. While sports fans watch the teams compete in Open Class (for experienced ski-joring teams), Sport Class (for beginners) and Legends Class (for experienced teams getting a little long in the tooth for the Open Class), other activities — such as a children’s parade, building models of Leadville’s legendary Ice Palace, ice-sculpting demonstrations, snowshoe races for teens and broomball games for adults (another wacky sport, similar to hockey) — will also take place in downtown Leadville on Harrison Avenue. There will even be an opportunity for kids to try their hand at ski-joring behind a snowmobile for the reasonable price of $5 a ride.
Crystal Carnival events are all free; ski-joring and the carnival both begin today at 10 a.m. and continue tomorrow. For information, call 1-719-486-0739.
March 1-2, 2008
