This past weekend, we welcomed alumni to campus for our first HMI Alumni Trip of 2026, Ski Joring & Touring!
Since restarting our Alumni Trips in 2025, we’ve had a great time reconnecting with alumni of all ages and in all walks of life. Our participants from Semester 18, Semester 42, and a Summer Term 2023 parent started off the trip on Friday with a chilly (and rare!) powder day at Ski Cooper, Leadville’s local ski mountain. HMI staff members joined us to teach a Telemark ski lesson and to enjoy the fresh snow that continued to fall as we skied.
After a few hours of perfecting tele turns (and a few toe-warmers), we headed to downtown Leadville to visit the Melanzana store and Galena (run by HMI’s Justin Talbot!) before the Ski Joring crowds cleaned them out, and found Harrison Avenue covered in a foot of snow and 5 ft jumps ahead of the first day of Ski Joring.
Sam Critchlow, the HMI Head of School, invited us to the Head of School House for a characteristically fantastic he cooked himself. Our alumns and staff swapped stories of rock climbing misadventures, search and rescue missions, and winter exped memories from their time as students at HMI; one alum even found out they got accepted into grad school at Harvard halfway through dinner. Later on, Sam gave a quick rundown of how to use a beacon, and went over our plan for the backcountry tour.
On Saturday morning (after consuming half a bag of espresso grounds), we grabbed our HMI Telemark skis and drove to Mayflower Gulch for a 5 mile backcountry tour, summiting the ridge at 11,500 ft!
This was the first backcountry ski tour for some of our alums (aside from their winter expeds), and it was a blast with a perfect bluebird day and the best snow of the season up here in Leadville.
A huge kudos to Sam for being our backcountry guide and sharing stories that made the uphill elevation gain seem easier.
After lunch in the backcountry, we arrived at Harrison Ave to watch Leadville’s 78th annual Ski Joring Competition with over 100 competitors. Horses pulled skiers that reached a whopping 43 miles per hour while flying off ski jumps, collecting rings, and competing for the shortest time.
Around 25,000 spectators flooded into downtown Leadville, dressed to the nines with chaps, cowboy hats, and full western regalia getups (we’ve been told Ski Joring is also an unofficial fashion competition).
As a new member of HMI’s staff, I had such a wonderful time getting to know Cori, Christian and Lucia-Rae, and hearing each of their stories of how HMI impacted their lives. I hope they can make it to a future alumni trip (maybe a Ski Joring 2027 Reunion!), or can stop by campus to say hi next time they find themselves in Leadville!