You may have driven by Chapman Hill one evening recently and noticed some small, dark objects way up on the white, spotlit hill.

If you took a few moments to watch, you might have realized those spots were moving. Likely, those were people – young members of the Purgatory Alpine Team, doing what they can to hone their racing skills.

The snow hasn’t exactly piled up deep onto the local ski hill this season, but the youths have persevered. On Tuesday, several team members took advantage of the nearly melted-out snow to get some final runs in. The younger ones were preparing for this weekend’s U12 Rocky Division championships at Powderhorn Mountain Resort, about an hour’s drive from Grand Junction.

“I feel like, for an 11-year-old to go out and hike 15 runs in the middle of the night in the middle of a school week, they’re pretty tough,” said Leah LeSage, Purgatory Alpine director. “I don’t know many adults who would do that.”

There’s not much snow on the in-town slope, but there’s enough for the racers to set up a short course with race poles. That’s only because the snow has been pushed into that spot from elsewhere on the hill, said Matt Morrissey, Durango Parks and Recreation’s recreation supervisor at Chapman Hill.

And it’s been pushed there first by the city’s snow-grooming machine, and then, when that broke, the San Juan Sledders volunteered to come by and do some work.

For Morrissey, it’s been a trying season, too. First, he had to deal with warm temperatures that were not conducive to snowmaking, then with a lack of snow, then with a rope tow that became abraded by running along dirty snow, then the grooming-machine issue. He had to shut down the big rope tow a few weeks ago.

The warm weather and snowfall aren’t under his control, of course. A new rope for the long tow is here, but it wasn’t installed because they wouldn’t have been able to keep it clean; they wanted to protect it for the long run. The grooming machine will be fixed soon by a Grand Junction company, Morrissey said Wednesday.

“We’ve been hiking for three weeks now,” team coach Ivan Unkovskoy said Tuesday night as he oversaw the nighttime training session.

LeSage said the athletes are training hard thanks to the help of Parks and Recreation and the San Juan Sledders.

“It’s really been an amazing resource for us,” she said of Chapman Hill. “I want people to know what it’s doing for our local kids.”

For one, it’s allowed the team to train after school. Training times have been pushed later into the evening, starting at 7 or 8 p.m. because it’s been too slushy until then. The kids keep coming.

“We’re still trying to make use of the new snow that we got (a couple weeks ago), and we think it’s really a testament to their dedication to the sport,” LeSage said.

LeSage, who has been team director for nine seasons, said she’s watched the team grow from 18 athletes to close to 90. Many more Purgatory racers are qualifying for division championships now than a decade ago, she said.

Last weekend in Steamboat Springs, Lucas Robbins competed in the U16 championships. This week, there are three Purgatory racers – Maddie Jo Robbins, Nicholas Unkovskoy and Calvin Chase – at Winter Park for the U14 Rocky-Central Junior Championships, which brings together the top 180 racers from Colorado to Ohio.

This weekend the U12 skiers heading to Powerhorn are Isabelle Washburn, Toby Scarpella, Wiley Corra, Abby Shepard and Wes Jackson.

There is also one more regional race, the Southern Series finale at Purgatory Resort, which will include several New Mexico teams and all ages March 21-22.

johnp@durangoherald.com. Herald photographer Steve Lewis contributed to this report.

Weather update

Carry an umbrella just in case Friday and Saturday, but the odds are low you’ll actually need it.

While Durango has a small chance of some scattered rain and sleet showers Friday and Saturday, Purgatory Resort may get some fresh snow just in time to freshen up for the next round of spring breakers.

There is an 80 percent chance of snow in the mountains above 10,000 feet Friday and Friday night, with a 60 percent chance Saturday. Forecasters with the Grand Junction office of the National Weather Service are predicting from 4 to 8 inches at the ski area.

“At least there may be snow at the top of the mountain,” meteorologist Tom Renwick said. “And our models are showing that the possibilities are certainly there for quite a bit of precipitation coming up from the south Thursday and Friday.”