Ski and snowboard season started early this year in Central Oregon, but the unofficial kickoff event to the winter sports season at Mt. Bachelor is set for this weekend.

The 17th edition of the Dirksen Derby rally race is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday near the Rainbow chairlift.

The snowboarding and sit-skiing event features hand-crafted parallel banked slalom race courses, which have been built at a different location on the lower mountain of Mt. Bachelor every year since the Dirksen Derby’s inception in 2007. This weekend the derby courses will be located in Family Cross at the bottom of Lower Flying Dutchman’s run.

The Dirksen Derby was founded by Josh Dirksen, a pro snowboarder from Bend. In 2007, Dirksen was simply trying to raise money for a fellow snowboarder who was paralyzed in a snowboarding accident. The first event included 58 riders. This weekend’s derby will be capped at about 500 snowboarders and sit-skiers.

Various age groups (5 to 70-plus) and divisions of snowboarders, and a few sit-skiers, are timed on their runs along the courses. Friday includes check-in and an organized practice, followed by one run on Saturday and one run on Sunday for a two-run combined time.

The event was originally intended as a fundraiser and a way to support Tyler Eklund, a Bend snowboarder who was paralyzed as a teenager after a fall at a competition in California in April 2007. Eklund, now 32, has taken part in the Dirksen Derby on a sit-ski in many of the years since, and he is often joined by a number of other sit-ski competitors.

During the last few years, the Dirksen Derby has expanded to raise funds for many other causes and nonprofits, including Oregon Adaptive Sports, which enables Eklund and others with disabilities to ride the mountain.

The Derby also raises funds for Protect Our Winters, a nonprofit led by winter sports athletes that seeks solutions to climate change, as well as the Central Oregon Avalanche Association.

The event has raised more than $300,000 since it started in 2007, according to Dirksen.

Dirksen, 48, and other organizers and snowboarders have been digging and shaping the courses by hand over the past week. Nearly 3 feet of snow has fallen at Bachelor in the last week, and the base depth was 69 inches as of Thursday, according to mtbachelor.com.

For more information and to sign up, visit dirksenderby.com. Registration is $60 and is available through Friday at 9 p.m. As of Thursday, many of the 26 race divisions were already full, but spots for female racers remain. A valid Mt. Bachelor pass product is required to participate, and discounted lift tickets will be available for registered racers.