Colorado’s best bets include Fat Bike World Championships, Jewish films, ice climbing and fishing, and snow sculptures

By the Thirst Team

Get Out of Town is our roundup of the best events across Colorado for the next couple of weeks. Check out this roundup for the best January performing arts, and read on for festivals, sporting contests and other happenings. For more, check out our events calendar.

Still from “The Ring” (2024) | Photo courtesy of United King Film

Denver Jewish Film Festival opens Thursday

The 30th annual Denver Jewish Film Festival opens Thursday at the Mizel Arts and Culture Center in southeast Denver. This year’s edition includes 40 films written or directed by Jewish people or with a connection to Jewish culture, identity and history. There also are filmmaker Q&As, special events and community conversations.

Individual tickets and festival passes are on sale now.

Rio Frio Ice Fest in Alamosa Friday to Sunday

Alamosa’s biggest winter festival includes a 5K race on a frozen Rio Grande, live ice sculpting, the fire and ice bonfire, polar plunge and ice carousel. This year’s theme is Legends of the Ice, inspired by the upcoming Winter Olympics, celebrating champions and heroes of winter sports.

Ice fishing contest in Granby Friday to Sunday

The 38th annual Three Lakes Ice Fishing Contest, the longest-running ice fishing tournament west of the Mississippi, returns to Granby. Competitive ice fishing takes place on Lake Granby, Shadow Mountain Reservoir and Grand Lake. Winners get cash prizes, and there are daily giveaways for entrants, including a Can-Am ATV.

Fat Bike Worlds in Leadville Friday to Sunday

The 11th Fat Bike World Championship races are in Leadville for three days of wide-tire cycling. The Enduro Race and kickoff party open the event on Friday. On Saturday, the competition moves to the Timberline Trail System at Colorado Mountain College. Some race for the world title. Others dress up in costumes, wolf down bacon and bourbon and soak in the live music.

X Games in Aspen Friday to Sunday

Buttermilk Mountain hosts the 25th winter X Games, with three days of slopestyle, big air and superpipe snowboarding and skiing, as well as freestyle snowmobile racing. Music performers include Disco Lines, Alesso, Kendoll and Girlfriends.

Ouray Ice(less) Festival Friday to Monday

The Ouray Ice Park will once again host elite ice climbing competitions for its annual festival, which also includes live music, parties and vendor village. There will be a modified schedule of climbing clinics, but not on the ice wall, due to a warm winter and lack of ice.

Snowdown returns to Durango this weekend. | Photo provided

Snowdown in Durango opens Friday

The 47th annual Snowdown Durango will be less of a festival than a citywide party. The official website lists 47 pages of events. Highlights include a daytime ski parade, a nighttime light parade, the Snowdown Follies variety show and a miners’ luau. Attendees can also compete in joint rolling, drunken dictionary and blindfolded dancing, among many competitions.

Inclusive skiing mountain takeover Saturday

Breckenridge Ski Resort and the Breckenridge Outdoor Education Center (BOEC) will celebrate five decades of inclusive outdoor adventures with a mountain takeover, including a community first tracks experience, on-mountain giveaways and a party at the Maggie. The BOEC offers adaptive skiing, snowboarding and other sports for more than 2,000 annual participants.

Snow Sculpture competition starts Saturday

Breckenridge hosts the 35th annual International Snow Sculpture Championships this week.

This year, 10 of the 12 teams are traveling from outside the United States to compete, including teams from Ukraine, the Republic of Korea, Italy, Lithuania, Argentina, Germany, India, Finland, Malta and Mongolia. They will all compete with the Breckenridge home team and a Vermont crew.

Each team carves a 12-foot-tall, 25-ton block of snow into a larger-than-life work of art entirely by hand. Sculpting runs from Jan. 24 to 28. Finished works remain on free, public display for one week, with attendees voting for the People’s Choice Award.

COMING ATTRACTIONS

Ullrgrass Music Festival Jan. 30-Feb 1

UllrGrass (named for the Norse God of Winter) is a three-day festival of bluegrass music, beer, and Viking regalia in Parfet Park in downtown Golden. The music kicks off Friday, and the beer festival runs from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 31. Evening shows on Friday and Saturday night will be under heated tents. Sunday is family day at UllrGrass, with an UllrEgg hunt, costume parade, crafts and more.

Ski Town Olympic celebration on Jan 31

Steamboat Springs has produced and hosted more than its share of winter Olympians. In advance of the 2026 winter games, Steamboat Square hosts an Olympian Celebration, with a drone show, cauldron lighting, dance party and Olympian meet-and-greet.

Fruitcake toss Jan 31

Tons of (thoughtfully?) gifted fruitcakes are tossed in the trash each holiday season, so some folks in Manitou Springs decided to turn the tossing into a sport. Now that many of the dense desserts have become sufficiently stale, they are thrown and launched in competitions of distance and accuracy, as well as a fruitcake-balancing race and a fruitcake bakeoff.

Alley Loop Jan 31

The Alley Loop is a Nordic skiing marathon and a qualifier for the American Birkebeiner, North America’s largest cross-country ski race. Even so, it certainly does not take itself as seriously as all that. The Crested Butte Nordic Center has turned it into a moving costume party that winds through streets and alleyways in town, then onto the Nordic trail network. On Sunday, Feb. 1, the center also hosts an official collegiate race.

Bike rally and run in Lyons Feb 1

The Old Man Winter sufferfest returns to Lyons with chilly 23-mile, 40-mile, and 75-mile bike courses on gravel and paved roads, with some canyons and singletrack for the longest course. There are also 5K, 10K and half marathon runs. The afterparty includes live music, bonfires, hot food, cold beers and s'mores.

As always, please send us your events and announcements. We’re happy to share them. If they don’t fit in the Get Out of Town column, we will add them to our events calendar.