{"id":797992,"date":"2019-07-25T17:14:08","date_gmt":"2019-07-25T23:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=369188"},"modified":"2019-07-26T08:06:57","modified_gmt":"2019-07-26T14:06:57","slug":"fairplay-world-championship-pack-burro-race-wont-reach-mosquito-pass-for-first-time-ever-due-to-snow-drifts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/fairplay-world-championship-pack-burro-race-wont-reach-mosquito-pass-for-first-time-ever-due-to-snow-drifts\/","title":{"rendered":"Fairplay World Championship Pack Burro Race won\u2019t reach Mosquito Pass for first time ever due to snow drifts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Kirt Courkamp, of Pine, leads his donkey Mary Margaret toward the summit of Mosquito Pass as they take part in the 70th annual World Championship Pack Burro Race last July in Fairplay. Courkamp and Margaret won the race for the third year in a row before they eventually won subsequent races in Leadville and Buena Vista for the Western Pack Burro Ass-ociation’s triple crown.<\/strong>
Helen H. Richardson \/ Denver Post<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Days away from August, this winter and spring\u2019s snowfall is still affecting outdoors events here in the High Country. Sunday\u2019s 71st annual World Championship Pack Burro Race will not reach Mosquito Pass for the first time since the race, which pairs a human with a donkey, has run its course from historic South Park in Fairplay up to the 13,185-foot Mosquito Pass, and back.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe snow is still too deep,\u201d town of Fairplay special events coordinator Julie Bullock said Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n

Bullock said snow drifts up near the top of the pass, near 13,000 feet, remained as high as 13 feet late last week. Bullock explained that the town of Fairplay worked diligently, with the help of volunteers, in recent weeks and months to clear out the copious avalanche debris that remained on and near the traditional 29-mile course over rugged terrain. Though the crew was successful in removing the avalanche debris, Bullock said there\u2019s a roughly 2-mile stretch leading up to the pass on a narrow mountain road that has proven too difficult to clear well enough to safely put human racers, and especially donkey racers, out on any cleared stretch in the snow.<\/p>\n

Though the race has been hosted since 1949, Bullock said this specific route up to the pass has been used since 1973.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is actually the first time ever that we\u2019ve not been able to get to the top of the pass,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had to shovel to get to the top of the pass before, but it wasn\u2019t that high.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bullock said the route change effectively means racers and their donkeys, or burros, will go directly up Mosquito Pass instead of being able to take the usual route up Forest Road 696 through terrain known as American Flats, an area near the top of Mosquito Pass. Once traversing across American Flats, Bullock said the race traditionally follows a narrow, single-track road known as The Shelf Road, which takes racers up to the top of Mosquito Pass.<\/p>\n

The alternate route will shorten the long course race by roughly 4 miles, but the 15-mile short course race will be unaffected.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was thought we might be able to get to as far as we could into the drift,\u201d Bullock said, \u201cbut it\u2019s a single-track road, and we just can\u2019t get all the burros out. Burros are used to running together with their stall mates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bullock said this year\u2019s turnaround point will be at just over 12,000 feet, shortening the long course race\u2019s elevation gain by about 1,000 feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest drifts seem to be right before they would cross American Flats,\u201d Bullock said. \u201cAnd they can\u2019t get onto it, near the South London Mine. It\u2019s just too much to be able to deal with \u2014 even bulldozers. It\u2019s just too much, too heavy. It is melting every day, but we are getting a lot of moisture over here, and it seems like the rain is making it worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

The long course course change aside, Bullock said this weekend\u2019s Burro Days celebration will be much the same as previous years, featuring 150 vendors including arts and crafts and food, as well as an airstream open house following Sunday\u2019s 11:30 a.m. parade.<\/p>\n

The weekend\u2019s races will include an 11 a.m. llama race on Sunday as well as short and long course burro races on Front Street commencing at 10:30 a.m. The annual outhouse races will begin at 1 p.m., also on Front Street.<\/p>\n

New this year will be a Bayou Salado Rendevous, which will run 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday through Sunday across the river at 200 Platte Drive. The Rendevous, which used to be part of the Burro Days weekend years ago, will feature a pre-1840 primitive camp paying homage to Fairplay and the High Country\u2019s mining and mountain history.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody is in costume,\u201d Bullock said, \u201cin camps, a black powder chute, the ladies fry pan toss.\u201d<\/p>\n

This weekend will also be the second consecutive year the event will host its Burro Days Museum on the Courthouse Lawn at Main and 5th streets.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year we are trying to gather more and more items,\u201d Bullock said. \u201cWe received a grant from the South Park National Heritage area to preserve and protect some of the pieces in the museum, and we will continue to do it every year, to build on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The annual Burro Days races are hosted in conjunction with the Western Pack Burro Ass-ociation, the organization that puts the rules and regulations together for several burro races each summer in the High County. Those races include the annual \u201cTriple Crown of Burro Racing,\u201d three consecutive weekends of races in Fairplay, Leadville and Buena Vista. The Triple Crown will continue in August with the 71st annual Boom Days Pack Burro Race, a 21-mile race, hosted in Leadville on Sunday, Aug. 4 followed by the 46th annual Buena Vista Gold Rush Days Pack Burro Race, a 13-mile race, on Sunday, Aug. 11.<\/p>\n

Last year, Kirk Courkamp of Pine and his burro Mary Margaret won the Triple Crown by winning all three races in the series.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kirt Courkamp, of Pine, leads his donkey Mary Margaret toward the summit of Mosquito Pass as they take part in the 70th annual World Championship Pack Burro Race last July in Fairplay. Courkamp and Margaret won the race for the third year in a row before they eventually won subsequent races in Leadville and Buena […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-797992","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 10:30:24","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797992"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":798011,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797992\/revisions\/798011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}