Yep, that IS a horse dragging a skier with a rope through the snow. Here in our little rural mountain paradise, it is one of the highlights of winter. Officially called skijoring, it is quite the trip to watch.
First you arrive about 30 minutes late. You find that all of the snow from part of a field has been scraped off to make some awesome jumps, and so you are mucking around in the mud (wait - I thought it was mud.) You find a great place in the middle so that you can see all of the action, and then you wait for about two hours while the officials realize that the wiring for the timer isn't working. You wander on down to the port a potties, and then later to the concessions stand for a pulled pork sandwich. Back to your observation point and about thirty minutes later, the action begins.
How to describe this sport? I like to think of waterskiing. Except the skier is on snow, going over big jumps, and catching rings on a stick - kind of like jousting...oh, and the skier is pulled by a horse. Snow, by the way, is much less forgiving than a lake - so there are always paramedics standing by to help with the dislocated shoulders and such.
To warm up, the skiers are whipped around, pulled by snowmobiles, and then after they ski, (or jor), they get dragged back to the starting place to do it again.
As a friend coined it - a cross between hardcore cowboys, and dead head ski junkies - the perfect mix!
I have to be honest - this is one of the funnest snow spectator sports I've ever seen - I love it! And our kids - well, they had fun sliding and jumping down the snowbank the entire time.
1 comment:
That is awesome! I wish they had been doing it when I lived there... or that we had known about it. It sounds hilarious yet exhilarating at the same time.
Post a Comment