Since mid-January, Jackie Nadel has been making the trek across Utah, Montana and Idaho to ski as fast as possible on a snow course while being yanked by a rope drawn from a horse — a fusion of cowboy and skiing culture known as skijoring. 

Nadel was one of dozens of competitors who committed to the first-ever Pro Skijor tour, which began in Heber City in January and ended in Kamas over the weekend. The competition involves a skier, pulled by a horse and its rider, weaving through gates and grabbing a ring while flying down the track and across a 15-foot-long jump as quickly as possible. 

“It was absolutely exhausting trying to balance skijoring and work,” Nadel said. “It was a lot of leaving late after bartending Thursday, Friday nights and coming back Saturday night at one, 2 in the morning, and then working the next day.”

But Nadel’s dedication paid off. Along with rider Kylee Nielson and a horse named Moose, her team, called “Babes of Glory,” won first place in Pro Skijor’s women’s division, narrowly beating out the “Stall Muckers” team composed of rider Nielson and skier Magnolia Neu.

“You become pretty good friends with everyone that you’re competing with,” Nadel said. “Even when I was neck-and-neck with Magnolia Neu … (or) she would beat me, I couldn’t be upset because I just love being able to watch my friends thrive and win.”

The competitors with the best times across the overall tour were invited to the finals on Sunday at High Star Ranch, where the winners were awarded prize money totaling $75,000 across five divisions: pro, sport (the division right behind pro in terms of skill level), women’s, snowboard and all-around, in which competitors must be able to ski and ride a horse, switching places with their teammate between competitions. 

But the most sought-after prizes, according to Pro Skijor co-founder Brian Gardner, were shiny belt buckles nearly the size of dinner platters, awarded to the first-place winners in each category.

Gardner founded Skijoring Utah, the predecessor to Pro Skijor, in 2017. The annual competition began at Soldier Hollow Nordic Center before being moved to venues in Heber City, such as the Wasatch County Events Complex. 

Gardner and co-founder Joe Loveridge both came from ranching families and were ski patrolmen for a decade at Sundance Mountain Resort. When they first learned about skijoring, they knew they had to bring it to Utah. 

“Utah has such a rich history in agriculture and farming and ranching,” Gardner said. “This sport draws two communities together that don’t always come together. … Maybe those people don’t normally hang out on a regular basis, but now, they’ve become best friends and teammates.”

With the help of media industry veteran Greg Lipstone, Gardner and Loveridge expanded the annual competition to a nationwide tour this year. The co-founders’ hopes are high. Over time, they’d like to add more tour stops and, eventually, circuits ranging from the East Coast to South America and Europe. 

“What we’re trying to do could be equated to UFC. I know that sounds big, but UFC, at one point, started here, a small, niche sport, and then they organized it and took it to the world,” Gardner said. 

Gardner, Loveridge and Lipstone aren’t the only people hoping to take advantage of skijoring’s growth. Entrepreneur Manjari Prakash traveled to the event from New York to take notes about the competition’s logistics: equipment, safety, insurance and so forth. She hopes to launch her own skijoring competition in Long Island. 

“Our horses are indoors, doing nothing all winter,” she said. “This is fabulous because a skier meets a rider and a horse. You’re not alone, (whereas) you ski alone. You ride a little bit alone.”

While Prakash thinks Long Island has the snow for skijoring — she “shoveled all last week” — the warmer climate in Utah was a challenge for the Pro Skijor organizers this year. Gardner’s never seen such high winter temperatures, which hovered around 50 to 60 degrees in Kamas on Sunday.

“The challenge this year hasn’t been snow. We can make snow. But it’s having the temperatures cold enough to make the snow,” Gardner said. 

That resulted in logistical difficulties. While the competition usually involves both horse and skier riding on snow, several of the competitions were changed so the horse would be running alongside the skier on a dirt path, so as to preserve the little snow on the course. 

While the finals competition on Sunday was supposed to be held at the Utah State Fairpark in Salt Lake City, it was moved to Kamas for the cooler temperatures at a higher elevation. 

“I reached out to the owner of High Star Ranch. … And they said, ‘We’re game.’ And in three weeks, we put this all together,” Lipstone said.

Despite the venue change, Pro Skijor garnered around 5,000 to 6,000 attendees over the two-day event. 

Lifelong friends Chase Vance, from Park City, and Ian Hoaglin, from Ogden, came to ski in practice runs between the finals competitions. 

Hoaglin crashed in what he described as a cartwheel as he came off the 4-foot-tall jump.

“I’m used to taking bodies. … This actually was a lot more pleasant than coming down a park jump,” he said. “I’ve got to find somebody who has a horse so I could be like, ‘Hey, let’s go practice,’ rather than just having to come (do this) baptism by fire every time we’re here.”

Hoaglin and Vance agreed that the most exhilarating part of the sport is being pulled by a horse. 

“I classify myself as a good skier. I’m pretty comfortable in all conditions. But there’s a lot to think about because you’re thinking about the horse, the rope, the gates, having enough rope behind you, enough rope in front of you. I don’t think I’ve ever been on more mental overdrive in anything,” Vance said. “If there’s anyone else who wants to try this for the first time, get as much information as you can from other riders. Just get the tips of what they suggest. But at the same time, if you have a good skiing background, trust your instincts and trust the physics.”

While Park City local Erica Hill has been skiing and horse riding for decades, she watched the competition from the sidelines rather than competing herself.

She came with her friend, Liana Mandryka. While moving the competition from Salt Lake City to Kamas may have been a pain for the organizers, the pair are glad the finals were held at High Star Ranch. 

“This feels like what it used to feel like at events in Park City where you could just rock up, park easily, hang out (and have) family-friendly fun,” Hill said. 

Mandryka said, “It definitely brought the homey, local vibe to it that might have been missing. If the location was Salt Lake City, it would not be the same.”

The post Pro Skijor gallops through Kamas appeared first on Park Record.

The new owners of the DeJoria Center are working with the Kamas City Council to potentially create a new property tax to fund projects and improvements on the High Star Ranch property.

The proposal centers on establishing a public infrastructure district that would act similarly to a municipal government. Developers can borrow money by selling bonds to investors, while property owners in the district pay an extra property tax. The funds generated by the tax are used to pay off the bond over a period of up to 30 years. The money can only be used to build and improve infrastructure within the district.

The creation of a public infrastructure district would only apply to taxpayers living within the district. The new owners said they plan for the tax to only apply to new residents, not anyone who has already purchased a home and is already living on the property.

The money is also held in a trust, meaning developers cannot personally profit from the tax and must fill out an application with their bank to withdraw funds.

George Wright, one of the four developers, said the public infrastructure district would let his development team build quickly while maintaining a quality product. He added that their goal isn’t to change the development agreement already established with the Kamas City Council and the previous High Star Ranch owner, but to ensure the vision outlined in the document can become a reality.

The DeJoria Center closed late last year, and the four developers purchased 16 acres of the High Star Ranch property, including the event center, over the summer.

The development agreement includes a 150-room hotel associated with the DeJoria Center, an underground parking garage, 17 single-family residential homes and a water tank. The public infrastructure district does not give the owners the ability to change zoning, approve developments without oversight from the City Council or modify the development agreement.

“On the financing side, the city’s benefit is infrastructure without city debt,” explained owner Shane Starr. “We have to put in public infrastructure. The challenge on the financing side, of course, is there is an oversight responsibility, so the city must still review, approve and monitor the development that is taking place.”

The maximum amount of funding the developers plan to pursue through the tax is around $56 million, but the number may ultimately decrease as blueprints, amenities and timelines are solidified. 

Starr said the community would benefit economically as the hotel and other amenities create jobs, as well as strengthening property values and creating retail spaces in the Kamas Valley. There is an additional opportunity to provide benefits to Kamas residents by offering them discounted hotel rooms and giving them access to amenities on the property, he said.

“The biggest cost of this will be appropriated to the hotel and its tenants and the commercial side of it and all of the retail that goes with it, so in reality, that’s where most of the levy will be placed,” added Mitch Burton, another one of the owners.

If the tax revenues fail to meet expectations and cannot fully pay off the debt, the burden and risk fall back on the bondholders, not the city or residents. The bondholders participating in public infrastructure districts tend to be larger investment firms, such as Goldman Sachs, according to Starr.

Moreover, the city’s involvement in the public infrastructure district ends once it is operational. The district is then considered an independent entity and is governed by a board charged with making district-related decisions.

Currently, the four owners hold 16 acres of the overall High Star Ranch property, but a deal to close on 400 more acres is in progress and should be completed by early December. The developers requested the City Council approve an annexation clause as part of the proposal, which would then let them implement the tax on surrounding properties they acquire in the future without needing to return to the City Council.

The annexation is not traditional, as in land becoming incorporated into a municipality, and the High Star Ranch property is already within city limits. Instead, annexation in this case refers to expanding the borders of the public infrastructure district and encompassing more properties willing to pay the tax.

The City Council was initially worried about the annexation clause, expressing a hesitation to give developers the freedom to impose the tax at will as properties are acquired. However, Wright, Starr and Burton clarified that property owners outside of the district boundaries would need to consent to annexation, meaning the tax is, essentially, voluntary.

There’s also a full disclosure requirement, so any potential home buyers looking to purchase property within the district boundaries would be given information about the additional tax up front.

Kamas City Mayor Matt McCormick said his biggest concern with the development is water usage, pointing out the developers’ plans to build 180 units total between the hotel rooms, single-family residences and workforce housing. The property is currently only equipped to handle around 150 units.

McCormick suggested the developers provide a written document detailing the plans for installing the water tank outlined in the development agreement before trying to obtain permits for further construction.

The City Council deferred the decision about the district for a second time, opting to hold a work session with the developers instead. The four men said they hope to have the public infrastructure district established by the end of December to give them time to solidify their plans, obtain permits and start construction in the spring.

Further discussion on the proposed district is slated for mid-November.

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The 7th annual festival featured local food and drink, activities for kids, wagon rides, live music, local crafts, and more at the High Star Ranch in Kamas Saturday afternoon, Oct. 1, 2016. The event was free and open to the public. (Nan Chalat-Noaker/Park Record)

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