The burros are back in town: New Mexico Pack Burros win $10,000 at Adventure Pitch Fest

Fishes and llamas and burros, oh my!

That sequence pretty much describes the third, second and first place winners at this year’s Adventure Pitch Fest, an annual showcase of New Mexico’s outdoor recreation businesses.

Following an afternoon of food, music, wall climbing and networking, eight entrepreneurs from across the state went head-to-head on Thursday evening in a rapid pitch battle to win a combined $15,000 in cash awards, funded by a one-time disbursement from the Economic Development Administration’s American Rescue Plan Act funding.

The pitch fest comes as the New Mexico Economic Development Department’s Outdoor Recreation Division was expecting the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis to release 2024 data showing the economic impact of the outdoor recreation industry, but the federal shutdown is delaying that.

In 2023, the latest available data, New Mexico’s outdoor recreation industry produced 29,182 jobs and $3.2 billion in economic output, according to bureau data.

The pitch fest businesses were chosen as finalists for the battle following a selection process with ORD. The division partnered with ActivateNM to host the event. Adventure Pitch Fest has occurred in conjunction with the New Mexico Outdoor Economics Conference for the past three years; this year marks the event’s first as a stand-alone gathering.

In a series of three rounds, entrepreneurs had 60 seconds to deliver pitches about their businesses and subsequently answer questions from a panel of five judges.

Dehydrated backpacking meal manufacturer FishSki Provisions from Valdez earned $2,000 with a third-place finish; wilderness guide service provider Wild Earth Llama Adventures from Questa won $3,000 at second place; and burro race organizer New Mexico Pack Burros took first place, winning $10,000.

“It feels fantastic,” said New Mexico Pack Burros founder, CEO and pitcher Shane Weigand. “I’m excited. We’re going to use that money to help improve the spectator experience.”

For Weigand, attending the pitch battle was a bit of a miracle. He spent last week in a trauma unit after accidentally cutting an artery in his leg during a hunting trip in southern Colorado two weeks ago.

“I had my burros with me, was able to get the burros rescued and got myself rescued,” Weigand said. “So thankful.”

Weigand created New Mexico Pack Burros in 2016, organizing pack burro races across the state with the intention of reviving a familiar sport in New Mexican heritage and bringing needed traffic and dollars to New Mexico’s rural towns. Burro is a Spanish word for donkey.

“The sport has actually been around for the last 76 years, but just here in the last several years, we brought it back to New Mexico in towns like Silver City, Magdalena, Cerillos and then soon Ruidoso,” Weigand said. “Those races help Main Street businesses in rural New Mexico because when the burros come to Main Street, thousands of people come to see, and it’s really spectacular.”

The races usually feature between 50 and 100 teams, a mix of individual burro racers and burro rescues from across the country. New Mexico Pack Burros earns its revenue from merchandise, vendor sales and sponsorships, similar to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, Weigand said.

Weigand said he wants to make New Mexico known for balloons, chiles and burros — a tagline that he concluded his final pitch with during the third and final round against Wild Earth Llama Adventures.

“That was really, really tough,” Weigand said of the pitch battle. “You think you have it rehearsed and then you get up there.”

Stuart Wilde, who founded Wild Earth Llama Adventures in 1993, agreed.

“It’s a challenge. We’re all used to telling our story, but to put a timer on it — the hardest part was really editing everything down,” Wilde said. “It’s a lifetime. How do you share your lifetime in 60 seconds?”

Wilde’s business guiding people on outdoor trips, accompanied by llamas, was inspired by his own llama needs as a nature lover who became a single parent of an 18-month-old in his early 20s.

“I had a kid strapped to my back and I couldn’t carry all my stuff,” Wilde said. “I got my first two llamas just to carry my stuff around the wilderness, and then the phone started ringing with people that wanted me to take them out hiking and camping, and the business was born.”

Wild Earth Llama Adventures offers day hikes and multi-day excursions, exploring New Mexico’s natural history, ecology, geology and folklore while trekking areas like the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and Rio Grande Gorge.

Wilde said he will use the money to help feed the business’ 30 llamas at its rescue ranch north of Taos; expand with more trips; and launch an intern program for local students.

For FishSki Provisions founder and president Rob McCormack, the cash will serve as a down payment for a larger manufacturing space. The company currently manufactures its dehydrated Southwest comfort food — including a Hatch green and red chile mac and cheese and blue and yellow corn grits — at a leased space in Alcalde.

FishSki Provisions launched in 2016. Today, the company sells its products in more than 750 stores across all 50 states.

“There’s a lot of grit, tenacity and a lot of love for the outdoors,” said Karina Armijo, director of the state’s Outdoor Recreation Division and a judge for the event. “I think that’s what is really inspiring to see. It doesn’t matter what’s going on in the outside world; these people are going out there every day and continuing to do really good work.”