READY TO TAKE OFF UTAH IS PRIMED FOR THE OLYMPICS, AND COMPETITIVE RUNS AWAIT VISITORS.

Byline: Eric Noland Travel Editor

PARK CITY, Utah - Walter Mitty may have been on to something. There's certainly no harm in engaging in a little vicarious adventure.

And in Utah's mountain resorts this winter, inveterate dreamers will be able to spin fantasies of Olympian proportions. Perhaps with a ski-chattering turn on a slalom run. Or a teeth-rattling careen through a bobsled turn at 70 mph. Maybe something tamer - a furious sweeping action in front of a stone as it glides along the ice in a game of curling.

The Winter Olympic Games will be held in Utah in February, and in some cases early and late in the season, winter-sports enthusiasts will be able to strut their stuff on the very terrain that will be negotiated by the gold medalists.

Already, the state's ski officials are scurrying to enlighten the public as to the exact impact of the Games. They fear that many potential visitors have concluded the area will be inaccessible - or, at the very least, a considerable hassle - throughout the winter. In fact, the Olympics will take up only 17 days (Feb. 8-24), will affect less than 3 percent of Utah's ski terrain, and will be contested at only three of the Wasatch Range's 14 mountain resorts.

Those who venture into the region will find the prospects mixed for using the Olympic venues in the early part of the season, better once the Games (and the Paralympics in March) conclude. Those interested in the less-conventional sports - bobsledding, for example - will have to seize a small window of opportunity at the beginning of winter.

Any visitor to Utah, active or not, should stop by Utah Olympic Park in Park City. The facility was built precisely to lure the Olympics to the state, and it will feature competition in some of the Games' most exciting events. It costs $5 per vehicle to enter the park, and it's another $3 per person for a half-hour guided tour.

Depending on restrictions that result from various Olympic construction projects, tour guides might take you to the top or bottom (or both) of the 120-meter ski jump - which the athletes justifiably call ``the large hill.'' The elevation fall from the start houses to the landing areas is the equivalent of a 50-story building, and when you stand on a metal-mesh platform at the top and peer down the precipitous ramp, you wonder how anyone could be persuaded to plunge down this thing voluntarily.

Next winter, daring novices will be able to take their chances on some relatively tame, 20- and 40-meter practice jumps, but those features are currently shut down, the space having been claimed for TV production trailers and Olympic hospitality tents.

Utah Olympic Park also has a sled track, and it's here that bobsled, luge and skeleton-sled competition will take place. Beginning today, visitors can hop into a four-man bobsled that is commanded by a professional driver for a breathtaking ride through the track's 15 curves - including No. 14, which has been nicknamed ``Slingshot'' because of the frequency of flip-overs during competitions. Although the Olympic athletes will push the high 80-mph range, your driver will keep your speed in the mid-70s, but you'll still reach the bottom in less than a minute.

The price for this single ride is as steep as the track itself: $200. That's up from $175 last winter, which illustrates the ride's extraordinary popularity with tourists. Reservations are essential: [phone].

The rides will be shut down completely on Jan. 6, so that the track can be prepared for competition. After the Games, there will be no further rides, as the track ice will be allowed to melt, according to park spokeswoman Connie Nelson.

If you're going to be in Utah in the next couple of weeks, there's another daredevil option: a two- or three-hour coaching session on a skeleton sled ($150). The sessions will be held Dec. 15. Not familiar with this event? It's a bit like the luge, except the sled is much, much smaller - and you ride it head-first.

Utah Olympic Park will close to the public entirely - including tours - on Jan. 13. Similarly, competition ski runs will be off-limits come mid-January, as the Salt Lake Organizing Committee takes charge of all venues.

In the meantime, skiers and snowboarders who eagerly head for the Olympic runs this winter should be advised: These aren't the conditions you've come to expect in Utah.

It's one of the ironies of this event being held here. Utah's greatest winter-sports attribute is its powdery snow, which usually falls with abundance along the Wasatch Front. It's a quirk of nature, whereby storms rolling in off the California coast lose much of their moisture over the Nevada and Utah deserts, and when snow begins falling here it's usually as dry as dust.

The preponderance of powder is a boon to recreational skiers, but it's a nuisance to racers whose performances are based largely on how fast they can get down the mountain. Thus, Utah's natural blessing will be a curse during the Olympics. Snow on the competition runs will be manmade (so as to get more moisture in it) and groomed until it is about as forgiving as a sidewalk.

If the region begins to get its trademark powder dumps during the Games, the infernal stuff will actually be shoveled off the mountain slopes. The bobsled track, meanwhile, is covered by a shedlike roof in many places to keep the powder from defiling the ice.

Skiers who want to test the runs will probably want to have some edges on their skis and some experience, as well as some patience. Between now and the Olympics, competition sites will be alternately used for training and Gold Cup events (which essentially determine the members of the U.S. team). Sometimes they'll be shut down for grooming, or for security purposes - an issue that has intensified since Sept. 11.

Resort officials are advising visitors to be flexible in their planning and understanding in general. ``Yes, you can ski the runs, but you cannot count on it,'' said Kevin Stauffer of Snowbasin, where the downhill and super-G will be held. ``There are going to be windows - Christmas, early January, the end of March. We just have to qualify it.''

Stauffer noted, for example, that special grooming cats have to be used on the steep terrain of Snowbasin's runs. To prevent the equipment from skidding down a slope, they are attached to winch cables, which sometimes stretch along the surface of the snow, sometimes 70 feet above it, sometimes, uh, head high. ``Obviously,'' he said, ``when the 2,000-foot cable is out we can't have people out there.''

The women's downhill and super-G will be contested on Snowbasin's Wildflower Run. The men's races in the same events will be held on Grizzly.

Farther south, Deer Valley will host slalom races on Know You Don't, moguls competition on Champion and aerials on White Owl. Because of liability issues, the latter venue will be roped off and closed to the public.

Last March, the moguls hill didn't look to be anything special - from the bottom of the mountain. Once you got up to it, however, you discovered that the bumps rose to midthigh level, the kind of thing that could quickly shred novice knees. Park City publicist Shawn Stinson noted that ``most people come up here all excited, see how big they are, and it scares them away.'' Indeed, there was not a single taker on the hill in March.

Champion will be fair game for visitors for the next few weeks, but late this month officials will start shaping the moguls for competition, after which the U.S. team will begin to train on them. They'll be wide open after the Games - for anyone who gets the bug from watching the Olympic competition on TV.

Next door to Deer Valley, Park City Mountain Resort will be the site of giant slalom, snowboarding parallel giant slalom, and snowboarding half- pipe. All will be contested on or in the general vicinity of C.B.'s Run.

Come mid-January, a half-pipe will be constructed at the base of the run. It won't be available for public use, but the resort is building an exact replica of it a short distance away on PayDay; it is scheduled to open for visitor use on Dec. 15.

Once the Olympic half-pipe competition is completed, the pipe (most of which will be below grade) will be hurriedly filled in and the run will be restored for giant slalom competition. The giant slalom competitors will start up the mountain at King Con Ridge and then dive down C.B.'s.

Even in non-Olympic years, this run is commonly used for race training - local club teams, for example. In March, the University of Utah team was working out on the slope. The giant slalom gates are up on such occasions, but, because of liability concerns, they are taken down before the public can take a crack at them.

``I've lived here for eight years, and the run has rarely been open to the general public,'' said Park City resident Kurt Repanshek, author of Ulysses Press' ``Hidden'' guides to Utah. ``There's always somebody training on it. You might be able to sneak down one side or the other, but that's about it.''

Utah visitors might be frustrated by an inability to get on some of the actual Olympic runs this winter - particularly early in the season, and in the three weeks immediately preceding the Games - but there figure to be some prime opportunities for spectating. A number of trial events will be held at the venues, and there will be a lot of training going on, so there should be considerable opportunity to observe some of the world's elite winter athletes in action.

Those seeking a gentler diversion altogether might want to consider the sport of curling. Think of a very cold game of shuffleboard. The sport dates to the early 1500s in Scotland, when a large, smooth stone would be propelled across a frozen pond by bored farmers.

The Olympic competition will take place at the Ice Sheet in Ogden, 32 miles north of Salt Lake City. The Ogden Curling Club uses the facility for its competitive leagues on Tuesday nights, and if the club decides to conduct the leagues after the Games are over ``we'll have a lane open for instruction,'' said club president Ian Hueton.

Throughout the winter, however, the club intends to conduct clinics and open houses in Salt Lake City and Kearns. Information can be obtained at www.utahcurling.com or by sending an e-mail to ogdenrocks(at)yahoo.com.

``One thing about curling, anybody can do it,'' said Hueton, who was born in Scotland and grew up in Canada - but didn't take up curling until he got to Utah. ``You and I are not going to take up nordic ski jumping and go off a 90-meter jump - the agony of defeat and all that. But we'll give people the opportunity to ski during the day, then come down here and learn an Olympic event without breaking your neck.''

That might have particular appeal to the Walter Mittys among us.

IF YOU GO

Ski Utah, which markets winter sports in the state, can provide information at [phone]; www.skiutah.com.

Photo: (1) Members of a Scottish curling team sweep along in a pre-Olympic event at the Ice Sheet in Ogden, Utah. Visitors will have opportunities to learn the obscure sport at clinics this winter.

CAPTION(S):

6 photos, map

Photo:

(1 -- 3 -- color) Dizzy? this is the view down the 120-meter ski jump at Utah Olympic Park in Park City. Tours of the facility often afford visitors this exact perspective., which awaits competitors when Utah hosts the Olympic Games in February. Tourists can sample the actual competitive ski runs, above right, or even a harrowing bobsled ride, right.

(4) Members of a Scottish curling team sweep along in a pre-Olympic event at the Ice Sheet in Ogden, Utah. Visitors will have opportunities to learn the obscure sport at clinics this winter.

(5) Young visitors cavort on a bobsled at Utah Olympic Park, where a ride down the bobsled run costs $200 per person.

(6) It's a long way to the bottom of the 120-meter ski jump at Utah Olympic Park. Tours will offer visitors a look at the plunge.

Eric Noland/Travel Editor