Break Out Your Speed Suit, It’s Time For the NASTAR National Championships

Time to break out the speed suits, the NASTAR National Championships are back at Aspen Snowmass next month, for the third consecutive year.

The Nationals run from April 3-8, 2023, and feature a packed schedule of adult and junior races, live music, awards, and the coveted swag bag for registered racers. Online registration ends today, March 31. One Outside+ membership per family is required to enter the race. (NASTAR is owned by Outside Inc., the company that also owns SKI.)

Snowmass’s Spider Sabich Race Arena will be a familiar venue for returning racers, having hosted the Nationals four times previously before it returned to the resort in 2021. It was also the site of the inaugural race when it switched to its current format back in 1998.

New this year, the National Pacesetting Trials is on the docket next week, which will allow resort pacesetters to race NASTAR’s national pacesetters to see how they stack up. The designated national pacesetters for the week are U.S. Ski Teamers Wiley Maple, Eric Ardvisson, and Kyle Negomir.

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If you’re not familiar with NASTAR, here’s a fun fact: SKI Magazine established NASTAR Racing—which stands for National STAndard Race—in 1968 to create a recreational racing option for skiers of all ages and capabilities. More than 120 resorts across the U.S. host NASTAR courses.

While there are other programs similar to NASTAR, none have as broad an athlete base, with more than 165,000 racer days recorded throughout the season at 115 resorts. NASTAR racers can track progress and check out their rankings at the resort, in their state of residence, and nationally. Racers can win platinum, gold, silver, or bronze medals through their resort, and can qualify for events like next week’s National Championships. Each racer has the opportunity to be as competitive (or have as much fun) as they’d like.

As for the racing itself, skiers are grouped by ability division, age, and gender. Each participant will take a minimum of two runs to record the lowest handicap in their group, and the 32 male and 32 female racers that score the most Team Points during their divisional race will be invited to compete in the final, Race of Champions—the dual, head-to-head, single-elimination round with prize money awarded to the winners. Qualified racers carry their winning handicap into the race to level the playing field so that young and veteran racers have an equal opportunity to win and become an overall NASTAR National Champion.

The event kicks off with the NASTAR Slalom Championship on April  3, a warm-up race for the National Championships. Racers can include this in their registration, or, for a $25 entry fee, they can compete in a two-run stubby gate slalom race where their best handicap will be used to place them. Participants are placed in either the Platinum/Gold division or the Silver/Bronze division based on the best handicap earned during the race. Participants will be placed in their division based on the best handicap earned during the two-race runs.

The rest of the races run in this order:

• Tuesday: Bronze Division, and adaptive racers
• Wednesday: Silver Division, and Bronze Division Finals
• Thursday: Gold Division, and Silver Division Finals
• Friday: Platinum Division, and Gold Division Finals
• Platinum Division Finals

There are discounted lift tickets available daily for racers and their guests, which can be picked up in the main ticket office at Snowmass. With an incredible snow year—21 inches have fallen over the last week—and a 98-inch depth at the base, Snowmass is still going off this spring. Closing day is April 16. 

You can find the comprehensive Nationals schedule here. Follow NASTAR on Facebook and Instagram for updates.