We started our day a little later than we had planned…it was so nice to sleep in a bit though so we weren’t too sad about it!! We woke up and had a quick breakfast before making our way to Walmart! It wasn’t the most exciting thing we’ve done but we wanted to stock up before heading out to the national parks. We got back to the Swain’s and unpacked before hopping in the car and heading to Park City. As we got on the highway we realized that we had forgotten the camera so we turned around and headed back to the apartment. We finally got on the road about an hour behind our planned time so it wasn’t TOO bad.
Our first stop was at Utah’s Olympic Park. Here they have the Ski Museum, the Salt Lake City Olympics Museum, and the sight of the bobsled, luge, skeleton, and Nordic ski jumping events from the 2002 Olympics. We knew that they offered tours and so we wanted to get one…well we were informed that the bus driver didn’t show and that they only had enough room for nine people per tour instead of the normal twenty-four. This meant that we wouldn’t be able to get a tour until 4:00pm. We signed up and headed into Park City to see what it’s all about. We made our way to Main Street and parked the car. It is CRAZY to me because there is a chair lift that literally takes off one block from the street. It was nuts to see people skiing everywhere we looked.
We wandered up and down Main Street stopping to grab some lunch and poke in the stores. Ben had never heard of the Canadian clothing company Roots so we made a stop in there. During the Olympics Roots outfitted the US team and getting a piece of their apparel was quite challenging. According to the information on Main Street people waited three to four hours just to get into the store. Park City is a bit more geared toward the wealthy but it has some neat shops and restaurants. As we walked Ben had a moment of remembering a scene in Entourage of the guys at Sundance. Yes, this is where they were!! It is a neat town and I would really like to come back and stay here if we visit again!
After looking around we made our way back to Olympic Park and got on our tour. We started at the base of the Nordic Ski Jump sight. To say it’s high is an understatement. There are two jumps, one at 90 meters and one at 120 meters. We were standing where the crowd was during the Olympics. The only thing missing were the GIANT bleachers that they had to build to hold the fans. Olympic Park is not that big and so to accommodate the fans they built bleachers TEN STORIES HIGH! The bleachers reached as high as the top of the jump so when people were at the top they were at eye level of the Olympians. We learned a lot about the training for this event. To our SURPRISE we learned that athletes start on this event at the age of five years old. They start on the 10 meter jump, progress to the 20 meter, move to the 40 meter and then to the 90 and 120. I figured that they must make it to the 90 around fifteen or so…NOPE the AVERAGE age of a jumper on the 120-meter is NINE!! The course record is held by and ELEVEN-YEAR-OLD! There are two reasons they start so early. First they are fearless and second they are light. We were told that if you aren’t on the 120 by age 10 you aren’t going to the Olympics.
From here we headed up to the bobsled, luge, and skeleton track. This is the second fastest track in the world only behind the new Vancouver track. We learned that it is hard to compare because no two tracks are alike. To be an international track all it has to have are fourteen corner, a labyrinth (tight switchbacks), and ends going up (so they slow down). Other than that it’s up to the designer. This track has seventeen turns but is not as long as Vancouver’s. The length gives them the advantage! We did learn that in all the events at Olympic Park there is no such thing as a world record only course records. Due to the fact that there are no real course similarities it is impossible to compare times. Unfortunately because of all the recent snow (85 inches in six days) the top of the course was buried in snow. The athletes stop training here around March 20th because they shut off the refrigeration system that keeps the tracks iced. They return once the track is free of ice for training. Standing at the top of these events gave me a whole new respect for these athletes. It is scary just looking at the track let alone actually going down. These athletes travel at speeds of over ninety miles per hour and with the skeleton and luge have nothing but a helmet for protection. It’s NUTS.
After viewing the luge/bobsled/skeleton track we made our way to the top of the Nordic Ski Jump. Even Ben was taken aback at this sight. You can’t even see where you are going to land it’s so steep. I still can’t even imagine the thought of skiing down one of these….let alone letting my little kid try it out! We got to see and hold a Nordic Ski…they’re much lighter and longer than I anticipated. The length should be one and a half times your height. We learned that for some of the men who are over six feet tall, their skis don’t even fit underneath the building standing straight up! We also got to see the “meany.” This is the surface that the athletes train on in the summer. It’s kind of like a grass skirt but harder and weaved. They call it meany because it hurts so much to fall on when you miss your landing.
Interesting Facts:
- The refrigeration cost on a COLD day is $5,000 - $7,000. Yes that’s PER DAY. It costs even more on warmer days.
- There is over 60 miles of piping underneath the luge/bobsled/skeleton track.
- Athletes train here in both winter and summer. In the summer they just use different equipment and surfaces.
- The cost of a new Olympic quality bobsled is over $100,000. A used sled can cost anywhere between $20,000 and $30,000.
We made our way back to the lobby and as we did we got a funny story. About four months before the Olympics they had an “athlete” attempt to qualify. As employees looked on via a security camera a DEER got a little to close to the top of the bobsled track and slipped. The deer traveled the length of the course coming to rest just before crossing the finish line. The workers and EMT’s made their way as quickly as possible to help the deer. He couldn’t get his footing on the ice so he was stuck. They laid a piece of carpet in the track and he made his way out unharmed. Well, apparently he like the trip because when workers got to work the next morning they found the deer at the bottom of the track AGAIN! This time they got a picture. They laid the carpet again and he made his way out never to be seen again! The picture is pretty funny…he’s just lying on the ice calmly waiting for help!
We made our way through the Ski Museum playing with some of the interactive features and learning about Utah’s unique snow. Due to the location of Salt Lake and way the storms come through the desert, the mountains in this area get POWDER and lots of it! There was a neat exhibit, which showed that in Lake Tahoe, and inch of rain equals ten to twelve inches of snow whereas in Alta (where Ben skied on Monday) an inch of snow equals twenty-five to thirty inches of powder. We played some games before making our way upstairs to the Olympic Museum. Here they have costumes and props from the opening ceremonies, uniforms worn by the Olympians, a REAL curling stone (it’s HEAVY), and samples of the medals handed out to the athletes. Each medal was hand made and so it slightly unique. They had twelve or so on display. They are beautiful. They also had the Para-Olympic medals and the volunteer medals as well.
The attire was neat to look at as the Olympians signed most of it. They had a jersey from both the men's and women's hockey teams, the costume worn by figure skater Timothy Goeble, Bode Miller’s racing outfit and many more. They also had a neat sample of the Olympic trading pins. We learned when on Main Street in Park City that people waited in lines for hours to trade pins. There were over 6,000 pins made just for the Salt Lake City Games.
Once we made our way out of the museum we took a few more photos before heading back to Jon and Larissa’s. Once there I got working on dinner while Ben made a trip to the Laundromat and to do some returns. I made two lasagnas, one for us and one for the Swains. We put in it in the freezer with some dessert for when they get home to help Jon’s healing! We had planned to head over to Roy and Jen’s to hang out but Roy got out of work later than anticipated so we decided to meet in the morning. Instead we cleaned up the apartment and got ourselves organized so that we could make a quick departure in the morning!
No comments:
Post a Comment