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SNOWBIRD - How does one dress to ski or board on the Fourth of July?

Any way you want, obviously, based on the fashion evidence on display Monday at Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort. It lived up to its name with an Independence Day celebration of the longest season in Utah history - Nov. 5, 2004, to July 4, 2005.

And with thousands turning out to relish the infrequent opportunity to do some resort skiing on the Fourth of July, the Tram was packed throughout the morning with garb that reflected the day's jubilant mix of summer and winter.

There was plenty of traditional ski apparel: helmets and goggles and shells. But Hawaiian shirts? They were abundant as well. Tank tops and T-shirts, too. And shorts? Why not. The temperature was perfectly comfortable from early on - and headed toward hot, even high in Little Cottonwood Canyon east of Salt Lake City. So long as revelers didn't fall on slopes that froze slightly overnight, shorts worked just fine.

"The snow's harder now," said Thomas Healy, 37, of Park City, who took a tumble on a choppy stretch of Little Cloud Bowl. Fortunately, he was not wearing shorts, just a flamboyant green tie-dye shirt.

Hank Kesler, 58, of Holladay, admitted his wife snickered when he left home early Monday wearing a Hawaiian shirt sporting a bright red floral arrangement, but he knew it was appropriate attire for a day of summer skiing.

"The juxtaposition of skiing on the Fourth of July and it being close to 100 degrees in the [Salt Lake] valley is just too good," said the commercial real-estate financier, savoring the conditions. "It's like skiing a glacier. What's the line? 'The worst snow I ever skied is great.' ''

Thinking along those lines persuaded Mike Verdi to fly in for the weekend from the Reno, Nev., area and Carol Workman to make a similar pilgrimage from Marina del Rey, Calif.

"It's a tradition," said Workman, who has skied previously on the Fourth of July, but never before with the assistance of a lift. "You have to get the last day in."

A native New Yorker, 23-year-old Ryan Adler usually spends the holiday at the beach with his family. They're there this year again, but he's a Westerner now - lured by the skiing, naturally. And so when "my family takes a picture with their [cell] phone and sends it to me, I'll do the same - with these mountains all around."

For blind skier Bill Watters, making turns Monday at Snowbird gave him some bragging rights over his guide, Bob Lemley. Watters is from Salt Lake and is perpetually trying to convince the Durango-based Lemley that Utah is better than Colorado, at least when it comes to snow.

"He does win this time," acknowledged Lemley, taking solace in the fact that he is just "one of those people in the world who strive to ski wherever there's snow."

Sandy resident Ron Cram is part of that crowd. He has been trying for 13 years to persuade Snowbird to let him ride the Tram during the summer, and then to set off from Hidden Peak in search of skiable snow fields. Since the resort consented recently, he dressed Monday in a coat and tie.

"I came for a celebration," he said.

Skiing the Fourth left Carlos Braceras, 47, of Salt Lake City celebrating the fact "I only have to wait four months to ski again."

And it was an invigorating start of the day for two Salt Lake Valley youngsters, Jessica Sterrett, 8, and Nelson Lloyd, 10. Each had separate plans to ski, take in the evening's Real Salt Lake soccer game and then watch fireworks.

"There's a few more people than I expected," said Jessica's mom, Carolyn, as she stood in a 10-minute line at Little Cloud Lift, just before 10 a.m. "But it's just so beautiful. And it's pretty cool to ski in the morning and go to fireworks at night."