COVID-19 CAUSES POSTPONEMENT OF ANNUAL SKIDOLA
Telluride’s Winter Uphill Race Benefit’s Telluride Mountain Club’s PI Fund for Avalanche Education
TELLURIDE, Colo. – (February 9, 2021) – The Telluride Foundation announced today the need to postpone the second annual Skidola, due to Covid-19. The Skidola is an uphill race benefitting the Peter Inglis Avalanche Education Fund. Open to anyone who wants to take on the physical challenge— snowshoe, ski, or slog–, the Skidola follows the same Rundola course, starting from the base of the gondola in Telluride, finishing at the top of the ridge that parallels the gondola. Runners gain 1,810 feet of elevation whatever way they can, on snow. Organizers plan to hold the Skidola again in March of 2022.
“With a heavy heart, we have realized we must postpone the 2021 Skidola,” said race organizer and Telluride Foundation’s Events Director, Katie Singer. “Safety of our community and our participants are always number one. Due to the Covid-19, logistics for the Skidola prevented us from providing a safe and quality experience for racers. I have received many calls and there is a big appetite for this winter uphill race. We look forward to hosting this great community event with the Peter Inglis Avalanche Education Fund again in 2022.”
The Skidola is organized and hosted by the Telluride Foundation in partnership with the Peter Inglis Avalanche Education Fund, a subsidiary of the Telluride Mountain Club. The 2020 event generated $2,400, which was donated to the Peter Inglis Avalanche Education Fund to further opportunities for avalanche education and backcountry user awareness in the Telluride community. Since this year’s event is postponed, organizers hope participants and mountain enthusiasts will consider a donation to the PI Avalanche Education Fund to help make up for the lost revenue. To donate or learn more about the Fund go to: www.telluridemountainclub.org/pifund.
PI Avalanche Education Fund
The mission of the Peter Inglis Avalanche Education Fund (PI Fund) is to create opportunities for avalanche education and backcountry user awareness. The PI Fund was created in memory of Peter Inglis. Peter “PI” Inglis was one of the original founders of the Telluride Mountain Club in 1986, a Telluride ski patroller for over 20 years and a longtime San Miguel County Search and Rescue volunteer. Inglis also was a huge supporter of avalanche education in Telluride and organized forums and taught classes to help keep others safe and aware. PI was tragically killed on 4/1/15 when a cornice collapsed while ski guiding in Alaska’s St. Elias Range.
The PI Fund helps fund free avalanche education forums (Telluride Backcountry Chats), backcountry awareness events, scholarship assistance for individual avalanche education courses, avalanche education for kids in the community, Telluride’s backcountry radio program, and other avenues that positively contribute to and influence avalanche education and user awareness in the Telluride region.
The Telluride Foundation
The Telluride Foundation exists to create a stronger Telluride and regional community through the promotion and support of philanthropy. 2021 marks 20 years of making more possible through the Telluride Foundation’s commitment to enrich the quality of life of the residents, visitors and workforce of the Telluride region. The Telluride Foundation is a nonprofit, apolitical community foundation that makes grants to nonprofits, owns and operates programs that meet emerging and unmet community needs, and makes investments. The Foundation approaches this work through the lens of its core values of inclusion, self-reliance, and innovation. Its work is funded through the generous support of individual donors as well as grants from state and national foundations. The Foundation hopes the community will join it in celebrating its 20th anniversary as it honors the nonprofits, donors, and community members who have all partnered together to achieve a significant positive impact on the region. For more information click on www.telluridefoundation.org.
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