Leadville’s Crystal Carnival weekend celebrates life at altitude
This article was originally published on Leap Day, in CMC Leadville student Becky Aurora’s blog, Life at 10,200 feet
Happy Leap Day!
This morning Leadville work up to a blanket of snow on the ground. I’m not sure of the exact inches in Leadville, but Copper Mountain received 12 inches overnight and Ski Cooper and Vail both received 8 inches. We were lucky enough to have this blanket of snow arrive right in time for the Crystal Carnival that took place last weekend. Below is a great video from Plum TV on Leadville Ski Joring weekend several years ago:
The headlining event of the Crystal Carnival is skijoring- in fact you’re more likely to hear this weekend referred to as skijoring weekend than the Crystal Carnival. ”Ski Joring is a competition where a horse and rider pull a skier at a fast pace through a course that has gates, jumps and rings. The skier is timed through the course, and penalties are assessed by missing gates or jumps, and by missing or dropping any of the rings. … The Leadville Ski Joring event has been going on in Leadville since 1949…
The weekend kicks off Friday night with 400-meter Nordic sprints on Harrison Avenue and live music from a local band later on that evening at one of the bars in town.
Saturday is jam-packed with a pancake breakfast at the Elks Lodge, 6th Annual Mt Massive Mush (sled dog race), children’s events (parade, contests, skijoring with a snowmobile), skijoring, Shelter Dog Shuffle (Participants ski, snowshoe, run or walk with their own dogs in this one-mile race at Mount Massive Golf Course), and Mineral Belt Mayhem (11-mile winter mountain bike race on the Mineral Belt trail). For those willing to venture out-of-town, at Ski Cooper there will be a paintball biathlon.
Sunday is similar with another pancake breakfast, more skijoring, and another mush race. Do not fret though- there are two broomball games! In the morning, it’s Law Enforcement vs firefighters, followed by Safeway and Alco.
For more information, visit the Leadville website or Ski Cooper’s blog.
Don’t forget about the CMC Rail Jam in Leadville on March 24th!!