What some call the odd couples of winter sports – cowboys and ski bums – travel from Ridgway to Craig to compete in rodeo on snow, otherwise known as skijoring: Norwegian for “snow driving.” Win or lose, crash-free or failure to finish, they form deep bonds on the snow-packed course.

Like a bucking bronc throwing off a rider in rodeo, a crash in San Juan Skijoring at the Ouray County Fairgrounds excites the spectators. If the skier loses his grip on the 50-foot rope that connects him to the speeding horse, and tumbles head over skis in the snow, the rodeo announcer will invite spectators to watch the big-screen replay – cheering for the day’s best crash.

The thrill of victory and agony of defeat play out all day long in Ridgway, a former railroad town with just over a thousand residents living under the shadow of Mount Sneffels, towering at 14,115 feet. The San Juan Mountains have the biggest purse in Colorado skijoring, so cowboy-ski-bum-horse teams make certain to put the January event into their calendars.

Most skijoring events in Colorado run on a straightaway track, and teams finish between 16 and 18 seconds, double the time of a rodeo bull ride at 8 seconds. The San Juan event is run on a longer course than most, 1,200 feet, and is shaped like a J.

Teams start at the bend of the J’s curve and end on its straightaway, the skiers and snowboarders swerving around 15 gates, each a foot high, at top speed of 40 miles per hour. Finishing times at Ridgway run 22-24 seconds.

Skijoring friendships take many forms at Ridgway: two Ouray County ranch hands, one a rider and the other a weekend snowboarder; a retired bull rider
and a veteran Telluride skier; and a Ridgway earth-moving company owner who started San Juan Skijoring, winning most years.

 

First-time San Juan Skijoring competitor, Josh Hunt, is a cowhand on a multigenerational cattle ranch west of Ridgway. A friend who works at the ranch next door, Brandon Mobley, is a weekender, after-chores snowboarder. Together with Hunt’s horse, Tiny, they formed a team called Pancho and Lefty. They didn’t crash for the cameras; they finished third in the San Juan’s Open Snowboard category, just under three seconds behind
the winner.

Hunt said he’s never seen anything like the San Juan event.

“You got some guys like me that are just kind of ranch cowboys, associating with the kind of people that you wouldn’t normally associate with – the hippie dippy snowboarder skiers and everything in between,” Hunt said, “but it’s a welcoming community and a melting pot between two worlds that don’t normally intersect.”

Another skijoring friendship involves a former rodeo competitor and a former competitive skier. Skijoring has extended their time on horses and in ski boots.

“Skijoring is a second life for me, finding something that I could dive into competitively,” said Jed Moore, who retired from professional bull riding in 2010 after 13 years. He’s now a rodeo coach at Colorado Northwestern Community College in Craig. “I’m a competitor and love putting in the work during the week. When the weekend comes, we’re ready to rock and roll.”

Moore teamed up at San Juan with Telluride veteran skier Kolby Ward. Ward won gold and $2,000 in the 2012 North Face Park and Pipe Open competition at Copper Mountain.

Moore said it’s an adjustment for both horse and rider to pull a skier by a rope.

“Some horses get nervous about the rope initially, but it’s all just something that they all get used to and, you know, after a few trips down the track, they get to where they really enjoy it,” Moore said.

Moore brought three of his quarter horses to Ridgway, and rode one, Dashes, to first place in the Sport Division category, pulling longtime professional skier Mike Gardner of Ridgway.

Moore appreciates the support he has received from the skijoring community. He broke his shoulder blade when his horse bucked him on a skijoring run. The injury reminded him of the broken ribs he experienced in bull riding. “There were so many people volunteering their time to help me, getting my horses ready for the next run, giving me a boost onto my horse,” Moore said. “They helped
pay medical bills.” The community support and devotion set skijoring apart from other sports.

 

The skijoring announcer in Ridgway for the past five years is Branden Edwards, of Grand Junction. He has narrated the action in other Colorado skijoring events in Meeker, Craig and Leadville. Rodeo announcing is his “bread and butter.”

Whether in the announcer’s booth for skijoring or rodeo, “our main job is to find the humor in the moment,” Edwards said. “That’s the stuff that’s genuine, that’s what people are drawn to.”

Skijoring is ripe for Edwards’ humor.

Skijoring is “old rednecks who have ranches and have a horse, and they think the horse is fast enough,” he said, “and a bunch of ski bums that are looking for a new thrill because they’re not going down slaloms anymore, and they’re not doing Olympic time trials.”

Edwards’ favorite skijoring moment came during the COVID pandemic.

For the January 2020 San Juan event, spectators weren’t allowed in Ouray County Fairgrounds. Spectators were locked out, but they didn’t give up.

“So many people lined both sides of the highway in their cars and had binoculars out to the point that the cops came in, asking people to move,” Edwards said. “They refused. Halfway through the day we turned our speakers around and pointed them out towards the highway.”

The ideA FOR San Juan Skijoring belongs to Richard Weber III, whose company, Weber Welding & Excavation, builds roads and lakes and, otherwise, moves a lot of earth. He also operates a cattle ranch of Black Angus. Preparations for San Juan Skijoring begins in the fall with leveling the fairgrounds, eliminating gopher and prairie dog holes. Ten days before the event, trucks bring in
the snow.

The snow is used to build up the track, 10 feet at its highest, with a gap for jumps that event officials measure. Parked in one gap is a Toyota Tacoma, the auto maker sponsoring the jump.

Just before the competition, a giant Jumbotron video screen is hoisted opposite the spectator stands. Everything on all three days is broadcast on Cowboy Channel Plus. Weber opens each day’s events by riding horseback around the track carrying an American flag, his horse’s speed lifting the flag on an otherwise windless day. Later he’ll compete. His primary competitor is his sister, Sarah Smedsrud. Two years apart, they’ve been “dog-eat-dog” adversaries since age 5 or 6, he said.

At San Juan, Sarah finished first in the Open Ski competition, ahead of Richard by 0.52 seconds. At an awards ceremony, she thumbed her nose at him; he responded by raising a certain finger.

Sibling rivalry aside, Sarah and Richard cheered all the winners, even those from out of state. They even cheered for Dennis Alverson from Montana, who took home a pot of Colorado’s money.

After the awards ceremony, at the historic Ouray Elks Lodge, Richard and Dennis and others played pool at Silver Eagle Saloon, a three-minute walk down Main Street, until 1:30 a.m. Richard’s feet had hurt, so he had taken off his boots. He learned later that Dennis had taken the boots, which were on their way to Montana in Dennis’ truck. Richard had only his socks on his feet, and it had snowed on Ouray’s sidewalks.

Richard rode piggyback to his parked truck and vowed revenge. He got it. Richard took Montana’s money, winning the Big Sky, Montana skijoring event. Sarah finished second. The rivalry continues.