Skijoring coordinator Scott Ping said there’s more to the story surrounding the closure of the Whitefish Airport after damage occurred during last winter’s skijoring event there. He claims his organization was never given an opportunity to make repairs to the airport’s damaged turf.

“We’ve always been able to repair damage to the field,” Ping said. “This year, we were denied access to do that.”

The World Invitational Whitefish Ski Joring races were held at the airport in January in conjunction with the Whitefish Winter Carnival. During the annual event, skiers are pulled by a horse and rider around a slalom course through gates and hit jumps during the competition.

Horses running on the field put 6- to 8-inch holes in the turf, according to Cindi Martin, director of Glacier Park International Airport. She previously told the Whitefish Pilot that the damage caused the closure of the airport, which is normally open seasonally from June to October.

After news articles about the closure were published, Ping said he felt it was important for him to clarify issues surrounding the closure of the airport.

Martin’s office on Tuesday said she was unavailable to talk about the matter.

The Flathead Municipal Airport Authority owns and operates the Whitefish Airport and Glacier Park International Airport.

Ping acknowledged that thawing temperatures occurred close to the start of the skijoring event, but with athletes traveling to Whitefish from across the United States, it was impossible to cancel the event.

“It was too late,” he said. “But we’ve always repaired any damage. We’re good stewards of the land.”

Martin has said the damage cost about $23,000 to repair. Ping and other skijoring organizers maintain the cost of the damage was actually much less.

Following the event, Ping said, skijoring organizers hired a groomer that worked to level out the snow jumps and till the soil to get rid of any bare spots and holes in the turf. However, he said, before the job was finished the equipment broke.

“The groomer broke down and we were going to bring it back,” Ping said. “We would have also gone in and put seed down so the grass would have come up this spring, but we were not allowed to do that.”

Skijoring has taken place at the airport for 14 years, Ping said. Organizers planned to make three to four trips to the airport following the event to ensure that any possible damage was repaired including fixing fences and picking up garbage on the property.

“We always make sure it’s ready by June,” he said. “But we were denied the ability to do that again.”

In May the airport authority board voted to no longer permit skijoring to take place at the Whitefish Airport.

Ping said the races will relocate to 17 acres to the south of the airport on private property for next year’s event. Parking for horse trailers and competitors would likely occur on city property at Armory Park. Spectators would be bused to the event.

“We have the support of the community,” Ping said. “We want to keep making it better and better.”