{"id":42501,"date":"2022-01-27T21:12:13","date_gmt":"2022-01-27T21:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/silverton-skijoring-will-return-in-2022\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T09:07:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:07:40","slug":"silverton-skijoring-will-return-in-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/silverton-skijoring-will-return-in-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Silverton Skijoring will return in 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Skier
Skier Duffy Counsell rides behind Kimber Cook and her horse, Badger, on Blair Street for Silverton Skijoring on Saturday.<\/span>Bret Hauff\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Silverton Skijoring will return in 2022 after the pandemic disrupted last year\u2019s festivities.<\/p>\n

Skiers, riders and spectators will return to Silverton\u2019s Blair Street on Feb. 19 and Feb. 20 for the annual festival that draws crowds to the area for the extreme sport, with a few slight changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a really exciting event,\u201d said Karen Srebacic-Sites, president of Silverton Skijoring and director of the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been nicknamed Silverton\u2019s winter Fourth of July because it\u2019s so busy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In good years with beautiful weather, the two-day festivities draw about 5,000 spectators to the town about 50 miles north of Durango, she said.<\/p>\n

About 50 teams of skiers and riders participate every year.<\/p>\n

But in 2021, Silverton Skijoring had to cancel the event because of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was such a hard decision to not have the race, but it is so costly to put it on,\u201d Srebacic-Sites said.<\/p>\n

It costs about $30,000 to hold the winter ritual.<\/p>\n

With the event canceled, Silverton Skijoring instead brought in riders and skiers to make a film about the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started filming a documentary about Silverton Skijoring, which is not wrapped up yet,\u201d Srebacic-Sites said. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping to finalize that by April.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plan is for action shots from this year\u2019s event with spectators to round out the footage.<\/p>\n

After last year\u2019s cancellation, organizers expect a significant rebound.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am just anticipating a larger crowd and more teams than the previous years,\u201d Srebacic-Sites said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know we have different teams coming that have not come before, but you (also) have your loyal Silverton teams,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A sizable winner\u2019s purse will invigorate healthy competition among the participants and energize a booming crowd.<\/p>\n

In the past, teams have competed for about $10,000 in prize money.<\/p>\n

The 2022 races will feature a $15,000 purse, but Srebacic-Sites hopes to increase that total to $18,000 when the event rolls around in February.<\/p>\n

In addition to a growing purse, this year\u2019s Silverton Skijoring will see two major changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have vendors, which we haven\u2019t had before,\u201d Srebacic-Sites said.<\/p>\n

About 10 vendors who support the event will set up tents on 11th and 12th streets where they will provide information and sell goods.<\/p>\n

The \u201cParty Zone,\u201d which offers alcohol, will also return to 12th Street.<\/p>\n

But the biggest change is a slight tweak to the race rules of the open class, the most professional division.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur races in the past have always been match-draw,\u201d Srebacic-Sites said.<\/p>\n

Participants could register as a team, but a draw would randomly assign each skier to a horse and rider.<\/p>\n

Some draw races will remain in 2022, but now there will also be match-match races, in which predetermined teams of skiers and riders can compete together.<\/p>\n

The move is designed to enliven the competition and make it more sport-like, Srebacic-Sites said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a professional change for the organization,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

As always, opening ceremonies will begin at \u201chigh noon\u201d Feb. 19 and Feb. 20 on Blair Street.<\/p>\n

Skijoring will begin soon after and last until about 4 p.m.<\/p>\n

ahannon@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

a year hiatus, the event is back with rule changes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[568,510,1315,28,976,4409,1562,327,1299],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-42501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-events","tag-festive-event-including-carnival","tag-freestyle-skiing","tag-headlines","tag-outdoor-recreation","tag-outdoors-more-or-less","tag-san-juan-county-colorado","tag-silverton","tag-ski-jumping"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42501"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85361,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42501\/revisions\/85361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42501"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=42501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}