#Breckenridge #Colorado
Every year, Drew Goldsmith, Peter Drummond and Shawn Hazer build one of the most crowd-pleasing floats of the Ullr Fest parade: the Ullr After Schooler. Drummond and Goldsmith said they started building a ski jump float for the parade 20 years ago, packing snow into the back of a pickup truck to make a jump from the truck bed to a trailer.
Back then, the men performed the jump themselves. Now their children, who ski for Team Breckenridge Sports Club and Team Summit Colorado, do the ski jump in the parade.
“It’s kind of like a handing of the torch,” Goldsmith said about his children now performing the ski jump.
The jump is constructed on the bed of a 1951 Chevy truck. The men put plywood forms around where they want the jump to go and then fill the space in with snow. The snow is then packed down and formed into a wave shape. The kids land on the trailer that is pulled behind the truck, and one of the men stand in the “eagle’s nest” of the truck, or the space above the jump.
The kids who will be jumping from the truck bed to the trailer are Cope Goldsmith, Jackson Hazer, Maddie Hazer, Thomas Drummond and Elizabeth Drummond.
Cope Goldsmith is 11 years old and skis for Team Breckenridge Sports Club. Cope said this will be his fourth year skiing in the parade and that he has been skiing since he was young. He said that while he and his friends are working on 360-degree jumps, they aren’t quite there yet and are focusing on grabs for now.
“The first year was (scary), and then once you do it, it’s just super fun,” Cope said. “My favorite part is going by the judges and everyone rushing to get back to the top to do their best trick in front of the judges.”
Although Cope is performing tricks in the parade, he said he prefers big-mountain skiing.
“I do big-mountain skiing, which is like Peak 6 and those runs that have cliffs,” Cope said. “I’m just looking forward to having fun.”
Goldsmith and Drummond said they want only skilled skiers to perform the jump.
“We’re here to put on a show, and our kids have what it takes,” Drummond said.
Drummond said Robin Theobald, who sponsors the float, once told him, “There are two kinds of people: people who like to be in parades and people who like to watch parades. You need both people to have a good parade.”
Goldsmith and Drummond reminisced about the annual tradition they’ve shared over the past 20 years, including some now comical mishaps.
“We’ve been through a lot together,” Drummond said. “The back of the truck broke off once a mile in.”
Goldsmith attributed this to his subpar welding job on the bumper of the car. Despite the problem, Goldsmith attested that no child has been hurt ski jumping on the float.
The Ullr Fest parade starts at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 12, on Main Street in Breckenridge. As of Wednesday afternoon, 26 floats were registered to be in the parade.
Courtesy of the Summit Daily.
