The most popular spring event for snowmakers is the Guns n’ Hoses race, an insider event started by Gary Talcott, former director of the racing program who left Holiday Valley about seven years ago to become a guide on Mt. Ranier.  Billed as “the football game of ski resorts,” Guns n’ Hoses is a race in which teams of two, decked out in full snowmaking gear with helmet and mask, race on skis down a dual slalom course carrying a snowmaking hose between them.  After they’ve run the gates at the top of the course, they hook up the hose to a hydrant and free ski to the bottom.  Anyone can enter the race, but the contest is judged based on both time and how accurately the hose has been hooked up, giving snowmakers a natural advantage.