A three-year wait for a celebration of all things skijor comes to an end this weekend.
Skijordue, dubbed the greatest show on snow, makes its triumphant return to the Calgary Polo Club in DeWinton on Feb. 25 with the spectator experience for the unique amalgam of skijoring, fondue and après-ski culture turned up to 11.
"Our focus this year is really production and customer experience,” said organizer and Skijordue founder Sam Mitchell. “We’re really focusing on customer ingress and egress and how do we get people in and out easily and smoothly.
“Basically, I want everyone there to have the best time they’ve ever had and everyone who isn’t there to regret it for the rest of the year.”
On the Skijor Canada circuit, organizers are fresh off a successful return to downtown Banff as part of the SnowDays Festival last month with over 7,000 in attendance.
The Skijordue event was last held in 2020 at the Millarville Racetrack where upwards of 4,000 spectators took in the show featuring 150 competitors from Canada, the U.S. and Ireland.
“It’s just kept building itself and the enthusiasm has just kept growing despite the fact that we were basically dormant on social because I didn’t want to get people excited about something that wasn’t happening,” said Mitchell. “People are ready to party, they’re keen.”
Back at the polo club grounds, the host site for its first three years from 2017-19, Skijordue 2023 has the capacity to host 5,500 and will feature roughly 100 competitors on Saturday.
On site, festival-goers can expect to see an apres-ski party, maker’s marketplace, chalet photo booth, sponsors lounge, wood fires, newfangled fondue, bratwurst, poutine, food trucks, craft beers and spirits, spectator style awards, a DJ and race commentary along with an instant replay video wall.
There are four competitor classes at Skijordue: circuit, relay, sprint and jump.
“I think everything is working because we build our attendance every year,” Mitchell said. “The big deal this year is we’re running RFID timing on the sliders, so what that does is enable us to have really accurate timing, especially in our heats where we’re running multiple horses abreast and it generates a real-time leaderboard which shows up on our big screen.
“We’ve got two big screens so we can show slow-mo instant replay and a website with the live-feed of the scores. That’s a huge touch in terms of production and cost, but I think it really makes the level of competition so legitimate.”
Skijordue is a fundraiser for Prairie Sky Equine Assisted Therapy and has raised over $20,000 for the cause since its full-fledged debut in 2017. Additionally, Skijordue 2020 raised $4,000 for the Millarville Arena Rebuild Project.
For Mitchell, the sense of community fostered at the event is a major source of pride.
“It is so much work, but the crew, the volunteers and the community that support this are just phenomenal,” she said. “They just show up and grab shovels and cube bread, grill sausages and whatever needs doing, they’re doing it.
“For me, the joy of this thing is the people that it brings together and the way that it showcases this community in terms of the excellence of work ethic and just the product we’re creating.”
The event runs from noon to 6 p.m. Tickets are available at skijorcanada.com and cost $25 online or $30 at the gate, though organizers are encouraging folks to purchase tickets online due to a limited capacity.
For more information, visit skijorcanada.com/event/skijordue-2023/
