Seven years ago, local Joe Urankar and friends started Park City’s first Queerski as a way to come together safely with the queer/gay community to connect and share a love of winter
“The queer community and the gay community has a kind of a long history of these destination events where, when it wasn't safe to be yourself, in your own community, it was safer to go somewhere else to be somewhere where the stakes were lower, Urankar said.
While Utah isn’t a place known for its acceptance of the gay community, he notes that at one time, the majority of the Salt Lake City Council had a majority of queer members. And Park City he says is much more welcoming than some of the other parts of Utah.
“Park City is a different place. I like to tell people we have a hippie heritage here; it has more of a heart and a character to it. And so, I think as people burst that bubble, and kind of take that leap of faith to come hang out with us at these events, they discover that we have more here, we are more welcoming here.”
A welcome dinner is set for Wednesday evening. Tickets are $250 and available online. Tickets for Thursday’s First Tracks have sold out. A basecamp for participants will be set up at Mid-Mountain Lodge on Wednesday and then moves to the Tombstone BBQ area Friday and Saturday with aprés ski and DJs all three days. On Saturday, a pride parade of sorts will take off from the Lookout Cabin located at mid-mountain off the Orange Bubble Express lift at 1 p.m.
“It will start at Lookout Cabin that it will travel down Doc’s Run,” he said. “The term parade is a little misleading. It's just a big group skiing. We encourage people to dress up and pull those vintage onesies out of the closet. And we'll do a lap together. And then that will finish into a tea dance at the Umbrella Bar, which we've got a big sound system and one of the bigger DJs and we're just going to have a fun party at Canyons Village.
Here is the link to purchase tickets to the dinner and make reservations for the free ski and board clinics.
