Fun in the snow
Photo by ALYSSA SMITH/ Ben Dick, 26, of Butte, Mont., grinds the first rail on the SkiJor track during the 1 p.m. runs. Dick ended up walking away with the Best Snowboarder award and unique Pabst Blue Ribbon themed snowboard.
Courtesy photo One of the event’s younger competitors catches some air after going off the big jump on the track. The tracked-ATV that pulled riders cruised down the track at roughly 30 mph.
Courtesy photo A SkiJor participant goes horizontal during a flip off the big jump.
Courtesy photo Racers at the 4th annual SnowBeast Snowbike races in Mullan round a corner during one of the many exciting races this past weekend.
It was a wild weekend on the east end of the Silver Valley as both Wallace and Mullan played host to winter events that have quickly become seasonal favorites among locals and visitors alike.
In Wallace, organizers and competitors in the 3rd annual Wallace Big Air and Freestyle competition battled through some adverse weather conditions on Saturday to put on a show for roughly 3,500 spectators.
SkiJoring, a winter activity in which a skier or snowboarder is pulled by a vehicle or animal over snow very quickly, has quickly become a winter time favorite in the Silver Valley since the event began in 2017.
Ski Wallace board member Greg Bosen explained that while things could have been a bit better (snow conditions wise), the event was a huge success.
“The crowd was awesome this year,” he said, “there was a positive vibration.”
Unfavorable weather and insurance troubles put the SkiJor in jeopardy early in the week, but both were rectified in time.
The snow that was laid down on the SkiJor’s traditional home of Cedar Street was trucked in by Zanetti Brothers Inc. and stretched from City Hall to just before Harry Magnuson Way.
The 2020 SkiJor Competition differed from previous years in that winners were chosen based on a judge-assigned point system, not by ring collecting or time-trial. These changes slowed things down a bit for both organizers and participants to have more time to operate.
This year was a round-robin event where competitors were able to run as many times as they wanted to in either a snowboard or ski category. Competitors had the option of riding in both of the 1 p.m. or 5 p.m. events.
The goal this year was to win the judges favor by tearing it up on side-by-side “freestyle” and “big-air” courses. With the different types of tracks being next to each other, it allowed the skier or boarder to hit some rails, then go right over to a big jump.
The top three scores from each rider were then added up at the end of the event to determine the winners. Run scores were based on the reviews of four celebrity judges, each one having the ability to award up 25 points each. Points were awarded based on difficulty (10 points), execution (10 points) and crowd pleasing (5 points).
“So if they attempted something difficult, but fell in the process, they only got points for difficulty — not execution,” Bosen explained.
All participants were pulled by tracked-ATV, which allowed for better traction and was less-tough on the course compared to a wheeled ATV.
In addition to the spectators, the event’s contestants were from all over the region including one from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and another from Salt Lake City, Utah.
The event’s popularity was largely reflected by the heavy amount of customers in the town’s many small businesses.
Bosen said that many of the local bars had standing room only and Blackboard Cafe owner Luanne Wuerfel even said that they had to shut down around lunch time due to running out of lunch food items.
Shoshone County Fire District No. 1 personnel were on hand to treat possible injuries sustained by the participants. Fortunately, the only injury that had to be treated was a nasty fat-lip following a failed back flip.
With another event in the books, Bosen and the rest of the Ski Wallace group are already excited to take what they learned Saturday and apply it to next year’s event.
“Every year, it gets safer,” Bosen said. “Every year it gets better.”
The Wallace Big Air and Freestyle competition was recently added to SkiJor USA’s calendar and has even attracted the eyes of larger sponsors, such as Red Bull.
At the end of the day, the SkiJor could not have been put on without the 34 local businesses who sponsored the event.
Wallace Big Air and Freestyle competition 2020 winners are as follows. Information is organized by place, name, hometown, total points and prize:
1st Place — Danny Sabo, Spokane, Wash., 254 points, $100.
2nd Place — Connor Kinnune , Otis Orchards, Wash., 248 points, $40
3rd Place — Stu Strothers, Wallace, Idaho, 236 points, $20
Best Skier — Simon Rooney, Spokane Valley, Wash., 255 points, Pabst skiis and $15
Best Snowboarder — Ben Dick, Butte, Mont., Pabst snowboard
All winners also received large prize packages full of donations from 32 local businesses. Each prize package was valued at $300, not considering the cash awarded. All entry fees went back into the cash prize.
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Just east of Wallace, in Mullan, motorized winter sports enthusiasts had a full weekend of events to satiate their extreme appetites.
On Saturday, Big 4 Motorsports held the 4th annual SnowBeast Snowbike race.
The event went pretty well according to organizers, who were really happy with the exceptionally winter-y weather that showed up just in time for the races.
That good weather, paired with some of the area’s most talented riders, made for some terrific races.
“Snow conditions were perfect and spectators of all ages gathered to watch Snowbike racers battle it out,” said Celina McAlister with Big 4 Motorsports. “This weekend held several good battles in all classes including Jake Neill and Jeremy Deming in the Master 40+ class and Amaris Poole and Aleece McAlister in the Women class.”
On Sunday, it was all about the Vintage Snowmobile Races and the event simply continues to be a popular and highly anticipated one.
This year, over 60 snowmobiles from 1985 or earlier registered for the races.
The fun-filled event had races for all skill levels, which made the event open for almost anyone who had a sled and the will to compete.
“I think that the highlight of the event was local racer Joe Zanneti winning the main event in a close race passing the competition in the final corner,” said Mullan mayor and event organizer Don Kotschevar.
The races in Mullan are part of a larger circuit of races in the area, with the next stop on the circuit happening this weekend in Poulson, Montana, and then at the end of February in Priest Lake.
Kotschevar was pleased with how the event went and was thankful for all of the help he had in making sure that everything went off without a hitch.
“I would like to thank all the volunteers who helped put this event together,” he said. “Especially, the Zanneti Brothers for the parking and Kjell Truesdell and Preston Elliott for the track, as well as the Hendrickson Trust for the use of the property.”
For more information on the upcoming races, visit www.vintage
snowmobileracing
priestlake.com.