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SALT LAKE CITY — Crowds pressed against the barriers lining a closed-off city block in downtown Salt Lake City, to witness horses and their riders pulling skiers along a street lined with 60 truckloads of snow on Saturday.
Kaitlin Eskelson, president and CEO of Visit Salt Lake, said her team started planning this exhibition less than a month ago, as part of an inaugural winter festival. "We believe it to be probably the most metropolitan destination that skijoring has ever been run in," Eskelson said. "We love the juxtaposition of it being this iconic Western experience paired with the urban environment."
She hopes the festival, including food trucks, curling, line dancing and a mechanical bull will become a yearly event to keep downtown "vibrant."
A crew from Skijoring Utah began grooming an entire street block on West Temple at 6:30 a.m. Saturday.
Joe Loveridge, who cofounded Skijoring Utah officially in 2017, said that while he's been doing this since he was a kid, the sport of skijoring has been growing in popularity, with races happening regularly across Utah, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Colorado. He said the competitions are a good way for skiers and riders to win some cash. The group's Heber City competition next weekend is paying $25,000 in prizes for the top two divisions.
The biggest concern in bringing the event into a dense urban environment, Loveridge says, is safety.
It took 60 truckloads of snow from Solitude Mountain Resort, brought in by the construction company Staker Parsons, to create a safe surface on top of the asphalt. His crew was out at early grooming and prepping the run.
The event brought members of the Salt Lake County Council out, trying their skill on the course. Councilwoman Laurie Stringham said while she's not an avid skier, she couldn't turn down the chance at being pulled by a horse down the road.
"I'd love to see this as an exhibition in the Winter Olympics," Stringham said. "Skijoring is pretty unique to Utah and the surrounding areas."
The Winter Roundup also included live musical performances, dance lessons, mechanical bull-riding, as well as curling lanes set up between Salt Lake's Visitor Center, 170 S. West Temple, and the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, "for those looking to test their stone-sliding ability throughout the month of February and beyond," Visit Salt Lake said.
For more information, see visitsaltlake.com/event/rooftop-curling/55376/.
