Leadville Race Series gets green light for final 4 summer events as Willow Fire nears 40% containment

With the Willow Fire currently holding steady at roughly 6,800 acres and nearly 40% containment, the Leadville Race Series announced Wednesday plans to move forward with its final four events of the summer, including the Leadville Trail 100 MTB and Run.

“The smoke is lifting and the hundreds of personnel on the Willow Fire are bringing containment more into reach every day,” race director Tamira Jenlink stated in an event update letter. “We thank all of our first responders who have spent countless hours over the last 16-plus days reducing the impact and ensuring the safety of our community.”

The remaining events in the Life Time-sponsored series are the mountain bike stage race July 24-26, the Leadville Trail 100 MTB on Aug. 15, the Leadville 10K run on Aug. 16 and the Leadville Trail 100 Run on Aug. 22.

In a call with the Vail Daily on Thursday, Jenlink outlined a decision-making process that started soon after the fire ignited near the Leadville National Fish Hatchery on June 28. She said the green light was given after a “collaborative and collective discussion” between the U.S. Forest Service, Office of Emergency Management and the local sheriff.

“Many layers, many voices,” she said. “We sometimes miss that — how many agencies are involved and how many OKs have to happen.”

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The Willow Fire forced Leadville to cancel its Fourth of July parade. On July 3, organizers also canceled the Silver Rush 50 trail run and mountain bike races originally scheduled for July 11 and 12.

“We had all of our resources stretched so thin at that point and obviously still under sizable threat, that there was no way it made sense to have an event,” Jenlink said. “And it’s tricky because we’re desperately in need of footsteps and tourism and folks in our town.”

The Silver Rush 50, which also includes 15-mile and 5K rides and runs, draws almost 2,000 athletes to Leadville, not including crews and families who often extend their holiday stays.

“As things compile, those impacts accumulate. Silver Rush not happening was huge,” she Jenlink said. “So, super-tough decisions, but really collective.”

Coming off a challenging winter, local business are struggling through a second-straight low-tourism season. Of the 1.1 million annual visitors to Lake County, about 750,000 arrive in the summer, according to Adam Ducharme, the Leadville/Twin Lakes tourism and economic development director.

Ducharme told the Herald Democrat that between June 27 and July 7, Lake County visitation decreased 26.5% year over year. June sales tax for the county was also down 30%. Additionally, more than 300 developed campsites and over 250 miles of trails within the Leadville Ranger District remain closed.

“The Willow Fire has been incredibly difficult for our community,” Ducharme told the Herald Democrat. “We’ve seen impacts to our residents, our businesses, our visitors and the places we all love, but if there’s one thing Lake County has always demonstrated, it’s resilience.”

What will the Leadville 100 route look like?

Currently, Jenlink and her team are finalizing reroute design and securing necessary permits. The Leadville Race Series requires more than 65 permits per summer, the race director said.

“You can imagine we’re needing to revisit and redo all of those right now,” she stated. “And we have to be really careful because the fire is not out. We’re getting closer, we’re getting in a better place — enough for the stage race. Because it is a smaller event, everybody is feeling solid about the pathway forward for that event to happen.”

The three-day stage race takes cyclists across the entire Leadville 100 course. Jenlink hopes to post the official course reroute by the middle of next week, pending approval. With monsoon season ramping up, organizers are hopeful fire crews’ efforts will continue trending in a positive direction ahead of the Leadville Trail 100 MTB a few weeks later. But Jenlink recognized some of her neighbors remain on edge.

“I think you’re looking at a community that has been under a lot of duress in the last three weeks. That’s real,” she said. “There’s that ‘We’re not quite out of the fear zone piece’ and a little bit of uncertainty that’s now flipping to ‘Are we sure we’re ready to have events?'”

When the announcement to move forward with races was made, Jenlink said her phone “blew up” with positive reactions. Business owners looking for economic relief joined a generally positive social media chorus. But even as some questioned the decision, Jenlink welcomes different views and strives to be “fluid and flexible” in finding a way forward.

“I value that in some ways — the diversity of opinions,” she explained. “I’m in touch with those folks and trying to be in front of that, as is our whole team, and really have those conversations.”

The fire’s location means both Sugarloaf and Powerline sections will be off-limits for an extended time, Jenlink said. Everything in the Turquoise Lake area likely will be bypassed as well. Jenlink said the optimal reroute will find “a middle ground that works for everybody, utilizing spaces that are not going to create further burdens.”

“But at the same time, the fire could shift, the fire could change, resources could get stretched,” she added. “And things could still change.”

While Jenlink hopes to maintain the historic century-ride status, this year’s logistical hurdles highlight an even more foundational element to the event’s heritage.

“The purpose of the race series was always built around economic development,” she said. Ken Chlouber and Merilee Maupin launched the Leadville 100 in 1983 to revive the town following the Climax Mine closure; 45 runners toed the inaugural starting line. These days, the series ushers in about 9,000 participants every summer.

“What’s interesting is to watch how our community has ebbed and flowed with this,” Jenlink said.

“We’re definitely recognizing collectively, not just the race series, but (that) events are one of our pieces of sustainable income. And they’re really critical,” she continued. “And to do them well and to do them thoughtfully and in partnership with our whole community is really critical.”

Managing growth — while simultaneously maintaining community values and fostering environmental and economic stewardship — has been the focus of the One Community Project, an initiative aimed at creating a shared vision and joint comprehensive plan for Leadville and Lake County.

“We just completed that work and that draft would have come out already if the fire had not happened,” Jenlink noted. Thanks to more than a year and a half of regular small- and large-group discussions, Jenlink believes local leaders are better aligned on community values than ever before.

“Everybody is working together in tandem based off of the last 18 months. So no decisions are getting made willy-nilly,” she said.

If anything, it seems recent challenges have strengthened Leadville’s local partnerships and collective vision. Jenlink’s sense of purpose has also been refined by the fire.

“Then you have a moment like this where it’s like, this is why. Like, how quickly can you get messaging out that says, ‘We’re open, please come’?” she continued. “And I think for all of us, it continues to be a conversation of how we do it well. And well means thoughtfully, in partnership, collectively — all those pieces.”