Ready, Set, GO!

In a final ode to winter, Utah ski area Snowbasin is re-opening on July 4 for an unlikely ski race. OK, so chasing sticks isn’t what you’d normally do during the season, but there’s no doubt that jumping into the gates on the 4th is a bit crazy, and anything crazy has to be fun.

Details of the event are as follows:

Utah’s Snowbasin Resort will carry skiers on its Needles Gondola this Saturday to access The Firecracker 4th of July Ski/Board Race in Middle Bowl Cirque below Mt. Ogden. “This is not the Olympics, or even a World Cup, just a chance to have fun and say, ‘I skied at Snowbasin on July 4, 2008,'” says resort spokesperson Mary Rowland.

Race sign up takes place from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. this Saturday at the Ticket Window of Snowbasin’s Grizzly Center. Participants may also call 801-620-1000 and sign up over the telephone. A $25.00 entry fee includes a gondola ticket

and T-Shirt, and ticket to be entered in the 1:00 p.m. drawing on Earl’s Plaza for a summer season pass and dinner for two at The Around the World Chef Series.

The race itself gets underway at 10:00 a.m. There will be no official start list – it’s first come, first served. Snowbasin officials expect to offer a 10-gate modified NASTAR-type slalom course.