SNOWBASIN, UT.--This racer got style points for skiing through some gates switch, while those still making the steep, slippery climb to the start take a break to watch. There were 103 participants in the July 4th race.
THE BASIN'S FIRECRACKER A SLIPPERY SUCCESS
"Look out, look out! Incoming!" The call echoed around Middle Bowl Cirque.
The skier doing the slide-for-life on his back was laughing too hard to dig his boots into the snow to self-arrest. Snowbasin's second ever 4th of July "Firecracker" race was that kind of event. Hand timed, with ad hoc style points determined by the announcer, and hardly any recognition afterwards that the resort had pulled off something akin to a miracle.
The first racer down was the women's winner. Brittney Thomson was fifth overall in 15.63 seconds, despite running on a pollen stained, unglazed course. Oliver Zeh was the overall winner with 12.25, after many repeated climbs for course-memorizing reruns. The last-ranked racer came in at two minutes, 37 seconds.
The innaugural Firecracker, held two years ago, was a much easier race because so little climbing was required. That wasn't the case this year. But the near-vertical steepness and long, long climb to the start wasn't the hardest part, though most of the 103 skiers and snowboarders who made the climb were puffing. The start was more than a quarter mile up from the bottom.
"The snow was very slippery. It wasn't soft, more like a glacier. You had to kick in to get a foothold. I would say a good 20 racers slipped and fell, then they were surprised at how quickly they began sliding and how fast," said Stew Marsh, Snowbasin's race director.
One racer's ski came off, and he finished the nine-gate course on one ski.
Marsh, helped by his "right hand guy," Lance Roylance, had to hike the gates to the start because the Cirque is too steep for a snowmobile. The two set the course the day before the Friday race. Marsh admits that during the set, he fell twice, once self-arresting with the drill used to set the gates, which has a three-foot-long, one inch thick bit. "I probably slid about 100 feet. The worst part was that I realized I had to hike back up. We had our chuckles," Marsh said.
Though some climbed back to the start two, three or more times, most sat on the rocks at the bottom of the snow field, enjoying the cool breeze and friendly day.
Marsh, who like Roylance, is a Masters racer, said of the race, "I think the best part was when people told me it was their first time skiing the Cirque and first time in gates. I feel it was really a success."
The two had set the gates the day before the Friday race, an easy GS, set like a super-G. The bottom of the course was a short hike from the top of the Needles Gondola, and many sightseers wandered over to watch the action, amazed that there could be a ski and snowboard race on the 4th of July.
Later, on the plaza surrounding the base lodge, the winners were announced and as usual with any kind of Snowbasin races, prizes were awarded to participants whose names were drawn from a big jar. Prizes were a summer season pass and a gourmet dinner for two.