In the dead of winter 1978, says Thrillist, “two drunk guys” at the Southfork Saloon in Martin City, Montana had an idea. One challenged the other to make it down the main drag “on a barstool on skis”. The only rule was that he had to cross the finish line “in the drinking position”. So one of the guys “screwed some skis to a barstool” and set off down the steep 750ft hill. Today their legend is honoured in the annual Barstool Ski Race, which last year attracted 8,000 entrants. Most competitors stick to the barstool-on-skis rubric, but there’s also an “open” category which allows “anything on skis”. It’s “usually something in a reclined position”, says event organiser Ben Shafer. “A 10-foot-long steel Budweiser bottle won a couple times.”
The Knowledge