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Megan and JD Wise were living in Scottsdale, Arizona, during the 2010 Winter Olympics when they saw a sport on TV that caught their eye.

“We started curling during the 2010 Olympic cycle. Like most folks, we were watching on TV and got really interested,” said JD Wise.

“We learned to curl there. Then when we moved to town in 2013, we felt like curling would be a really good fit in Telluride,” he added.

Curling is a game dating back to the 16th century in Scotland. Two teams compete to score points by sliding large stones down the ice toward a target.

“We found our first two sets of stones on a lease-to-own from the Denver Curling Club, and lo and behold, we were able to get the club started in 2015. We had two sheets and ran our first mini leagues and had a lot of interest and excitement in curling,” JD Wise said.

Ten years later, the Telluride Curling Club has grown to 80 league members. The club offers two adult leagues and a youth program. It has also sent teams to curling competitions, known as bonspiels.

This weekend, Telluride Curling is hosting a party in Mountain Village to celebrate its 10-year anniversary.

The rules of curling are relatively simple. Two teams compete on a lane of ice – called a sheet.

“Each team throws eight stones,” said Patty Jen Arndt, skip for the Sweeping Beauties (curling team name, Jersey Curl). She has been curling with the club since the beginning.

“You have a skip who is your head strategist, coach, coming up with how they want the team to play. They’re reading the ice, and they try to coach the team on where to place the stones. Everyone throws two stones, and the other two who aren’t throwing are sweeping,” Arndt explained.

The aim is to get your team’s stones into the house – essentially a bull’s-eye. The team with the closest stone to the center – or button – wins points. The winning team gets one point for each stone that is closer to the button than the other team’s closest stone.

While the rules are straightforward, JD and Megan Wise, the other co-founder of Telluride Curling, note there’s always the urge to keep going.

“There’s a tremendous amount of strategy that’s also part of the game. Curling is sometimes called chess on ice. There’s always another level you can take it,” JD Wise said.

“Throwing the stone is kind of this finesse. It’s kind of like golf, where if you get a good shot, you want to do it again. You’re hooked. It’s trying to get the speed of not throwing it too fast or too slow, too far or too light, getting it just right. When you get it, you want to keep coming back,” Megan Wise added.

But it’s not just the game itself that creates the curling culture. There’s an affinity for fun team names:

“The Sweeping Beauties, I Swept with Your Wife, The Telluride Stoners, The Jud Sweepies, Sweep Caroline, and many, many more. I could go on forever,” Megan Wise said.

There’s also camaraderie. Curling welcomes everyone. Logan Cormier is on the Gorronhoe’s. He’s new to curling this year and signed up with some of his friends.

“I’m from Louisiana, so we don’t have any of this stuff. Being from Louisiana, doing this, I never thought about doing it. We wanted to find a new activity besides skiing and snowboarding. So, we came along, started playing,” Cormier said.

“You always want to encourage your team and the other team. There’s very little heckling in curling. You cheer a good shot to your opponent, as well as your team. One of the most important rules is that the winning team buys drinks for the losing team. We also start and end the game with a wish of ‘good curling’ to the other team,” Cormier said.

The Telluride Curling Club 10th Anniversary Celebration will take place on Saturday, March 8, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the ice rink in Mountain Village. The celebration is free and open to all ages.