BY TONY HARRISON
The country's top 100 professional snowmobile teams are at Soldier Mountain near Fairfield today and Saturday as the Rocky Mountain Snowmobile Hillclimb Association kicks off its 2025 racing season.
It's the ski resort's first hill-climb race ever. According to the ski resort’s general manager David Alden, it’s also likely the biggest event in Soldier Mountain's 78-year history with upwards of 800 rider sand crew in attendance.
Snowmobilers will climb the run Canyon directly under Chair 1. Alden said it's the same area Soldier Mountain converted into a training camp for U.S. Ski & Snowboard's slopestyle teams for the Hydro Flask U.S. Snowboard Team and the Stifel U.S. Freeski Team last month. The ski resort used the snow left over from the training camp to create jumps for the snowmobilers.
The mountain, located at 1043 Soldier Creek Rd. about 11 miles north of Fairfield, will be open for skiing and snowboarding during the event, allowing guests riding the chairlift exciting views of the hill-climb racing action. People can watch the races for free from in the lodge or on the patio, as well as from a spectator area partway up the course at the top of the run Inspiration. That’s just a 5-minute walk from the base area. A variety of food and vendors will be on hand.
"It's a great time for both skiing and nonskiing families to watch something really exciting and unusual," Alden said. "Bring your lawn chairs and your friends and enjoy this rare opportunity to watch a race of this caliber up close here in your own backyard."
The RMSHA races run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. today—Friday, Jan. 24—and Saturday, Jan. 25, with Soldier Mountain's chairlifts operating for normal skiing operations from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Local snowmobile riders are invited to join the action and can sign up onsite at Soldier Mountain on Saturday for $100.
The Rocky Mountain States Hillclimb Association creates, operates, and manages snowmobile hill-climb racing events in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States. It is the largest and longest-running hill-climb association and the only sanctioned hill-climb organization in the U.S. Learn more at https://www.rmsha.net/.