This wacky sport is really picking up speed.
These daredevils took an unlikely mode of transportation down a New Mexico ski slope: Snow shovels.
Competitors each sat on the scoop of a standard aluminum snow shovel — with the handle between their legs — as they race down the slopes in Angel Fire, N.M., for the 39th Annual Angel Fire World Championship Shovel Races last weekend.
More than 100 competitors of all ages traveled from across the country to take part. They each had two shots at the Angel Fire ski mountain to clock the fastest time they could.
They reached some impressive speeds, with one winner traveling 64 mph.
"Shovel racing began as a simple contest here in the 1970s when our lift operators would ride their shovels down the mountain at the end of their shifts," Spencer Weimar, director of marketing at Angel Fire Resort, said in a statement.
"It has since grown into a crazy competition on the mountain that includes speed suits, costumes and radar guns! No year is ever the same, as competitors always try and out-do each other every season."
The winner of the men's category, Jeff Hamblin, of Austin, Texas, reached 61 mph, finishing the course in just 14.4 seconds, while Nadia Gonzales, from Black Lake, N.M., won the female category. She reached just over 64 mph, completing the course in 13.8 seconds.
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