The annual Winter Sports Carnival in Jackson Hole, WY began in 1932. This competition ran right down Broadway Avenue. Photo: Courtesy Jackson Hole Historical Society & Museum PART SKI RACING , part rodeo, skijoring is a fast-paced free-for-all—a horse and rider whipping across open ground as a skier drags from a rope behind, weaving through ob-stacles at breakneck speed. A ski-town spectacle that trades steep slopes for flat, groomed tracks (often right through the middle of town), this is a cowboy pond skim on steroids—the West’s wildest show on snow. Two days earlier, I took my place in line behind a bunch of gristly cowpokes at the Zermatt Hotel in Midway, UT. Their Stetsons weren’t the cowboy copies you see inside the chalet at Deer Valley. These had been in the mud a time or two. A buzz of nervous energy filled the room as we waited to pick up registration packets for the annual Skijoring Utah event. I’d never run a skijoring race in my life. Truthfully, I’d never even seen one. It’s possible that most of that energy was coming from me. I ran into my friend and the event’s master of ceremonies, Brian Tolbert, who, despite an Under Armour vest, looked and talked the part of an old-time horse broker. Adorned with a handlebar moustache and ten-gallon hat, he knew the speed of just about every horse—and skier—racing that weekend. With the pace of a stock show auctioneer, he hooked horseless skiers up with skier-less riders. This clearly wasn’t his first rodeo. But it was mine. When I asked for advice, he doled out tips without hesitation. They had nothing to do with strategy, or form, or even wax. Instead, they were all about gloves. “Get the knit ones,” he said. “Those sheet-metal gloves with the blue rubber-dipped palms.” The rope can be pretty tough to hang onto—especially at the start. Brian knows because, in addition to acting as emcee, he’s a longtime competitor. “Your horse, let them ease into it,” he said, hands out-stretched in demonstration. “They hit hard. The accelera-tion’s faster than a frickin’ snowmobile. It will shock you.” He paused to point out Dillon Flinders, the 19-year-old who had won the event two years running. A former highly ranked junior ski racer, Flinders nowadays competes on the Freeride World Qualifier series and a pro downhill mountain biking circuit. “He’s a freak,” Brian said. “The nicest kid you’ll ever meet, but he’s trounced us the last few years. He’s a beast.” Lanky and goggle-tanned, Dillon was top dog in the niche crowd crammed into the Zermatt. He doled out high fives and handshakes as he moseyed toward us wearing the big, broad smile of someone who knew he was the hands-down favorite to win. 064 The Ski Journal
The Ski Journal Volume 14, Issue 1: Page 64
