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Show 6 i j 4 I m 4 I I i ss 4 4 H WHAT WOULD you caU a skier who spends half his time in the air and would rather go through a mogul than over it? Nuts? You might be partially right as most people who do things differently are called nuts. But the proper term for such a skier is hotdog. Now if yo" called a foot3 ball or basketball player a n you hotdog might get J3 i i t J punched in the mouth, but to a skier it is a high form of priase. To be a hotdog on the slopes you have to be in good physical shape, pos sess excellent reflexes and have legs that are at least as durable as your skis. Being able to contort your body into positions that your family doctor says are impossible only makes it eascounts ier. Acrophobia against you. IF YOU have all these it doesnt qualifications, mean a thing unless you are fearless and have some imagination. Unlike a racer who competes in giant slalom, the hotdog competitor uses the whole hill and not a prescribed course. What the hotdog does and where he does it is up to him. In a conventional downhill race the tracks made by 30 racers may only be as wide as the tracks left by a single automobile tire. Very little is left to the racers imagination. It is simply a matter of the shortest distance between tw o points. The hotdog competitor is not judged by how quickly he finishes the race. For the hotdogger, it is not a schuss to the finish line, but an accumulation of fantastic turns on one leg, foreward and backward flips, and the number of demolished moguls left in his wake that counts. takes Unlike the conventional ski racing, where 50 competitors running the same course over and over can bore you to tears, the hotdog race is interesting from beginning to end. HERE THE skier is expected to take a jump on his skis. Now it's not enough to just take the jump. That won't put you in the money. Its what you do during your jump that counts. Some do flips and thats okay. But, to really impress he crowd, you have to pull off something like a double flip with a twnt At it tfEne last year's National Gelande at Alta, some jumpers went to great lengths to impress the crowd. One guy jumped pulling a toboggan. And if one guy doing a flip is what vould three guys doing a flip at the same time off the same jump do for you? laving in the state of Utah gives you a ringside seat to watch this unique form of freestyle skiing that is inherently American in origin. Park City, Park West, Brighton and Solitude all have had organized hotdog and gelande competitions and in late April, sDjps Utah hosts the granddaddy of them all with Altas National Annual Ninth Gelande. Last year the Little Cottonwood Canyon was closed by noon the final day of the contest because there was no more room at Alta and Snowbird for the cars. Even then there was a constant stream of buses shuttling people up the canyon to watch the acrobatics. on skiing is easy the conscience, too. lou don't subconsciously hope to for some poor skier make a spectacularis wipeout. The spectacular built into it. Hotdog |
