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Park City, Utah
Plain old Jane told a story about a man who was too afraid to fly so he never did land
Of the two hills at Utah Olympic Park, this is the big one, the one where airborne athletes can reasonably expect to travel a horizontal distance of 120 meters from the start (counting the ramp) before landing in relative safety near the waiting, anxious, cowbell clanging crowd. The farthest jump I saw that day was 132 meters, a lone meter short of the hill record.
Still on the big hill, or, more accurately, above it. Jumpers are never that high above the ground, the hill mirrors the arc of their projected descent. Valiant skiers cheat gravity for several precious seconds, desperately trying not to be distracted by such glamorous things as evergreen hedge olympic rings.
The little (90m) hill on the first day of the Men's Nordic Combined. After completing their jumps, skiers are expected the next day to travel to Soldier Hollow and complete a grueling cross country race. Ski jumping is scored both by distance and style, these rankings are then somehow translated into seconds for the next day's staggered start. I'd be lying if I said I completely understood the intricacies of the scoring system, but that lack of understanding had no impact on my enjoyment of the competition.
For those familiar with life along the Wasatch front, Utah Olympic Park is technically located in Park City, miles away from downtown near an all too familiar Interstate 80. There is a Park and Walk lot at the base of the mountain, a lot which inevitably fills up when the venue is sold out, forcing cars to the (not too) nearby Canyons Resort. Once you've exited your car (or appropriate shuttle bus) you are faced with the typical security precautions, very similar to that at a competent North American airport. It is at that point you are faced with the option of a standing room only shuttle bus or walking the "Gold Medal Mile," an option I would have normally chosen even if I wasn't promised live entertainment, water, staggered breaks and a free, somewhat cheesy pin. This is from the two-thirds mark, the first real view of the hills. The building on the left (with the rings banner) was used for media, the stands on the right (behind the mammoth ski jumper) were centered at the base of the hill, general admission standing areas spilled in front and to the sides of the landing area. Besides being home to the ski jumping events, Utah Olympic Park was home to the bobsled/luge run, a good half mile farther around to the right and was without question my overall second favorite venue.
Of all the venues I attended there was only one I did not especially like, Snowbasin- a Sun Valley Resort, home to most of the skiing events. There was comparably little to do, it was difficult to get to, the shuttle bus system worked much worse than any venue, and, in reality, the most you can ever see is the bottom ten percent of the course. That said, this is the view from the general admission standing seats, where ideal conditions at the finish of the race weren't enough to prevent postponing the women's downhill.
I did not have tickets to the good snowboarding event, something that I will regret until I correct it at a future Winter Olympics. This is the other snowboarding event, the Parallel Slalom before it becomes parallel, as snowboarders race over the site of the recently leveled halfpipe within easy striking distance of Park City's wonderfully festive Main Street.
There were two courses at Snowbasin- a Sun Valley Resort. The tough, demanding Grizzly Course and the tough, demanding (though slightly shorter and certainly less fierce sounding) Wildflower Course. This is the typical view one could expect as a skier finally comes into view. For added realism, move your monitor to your kitchen, stand for a few hours in front of your freezer and ask friends and neighbors to enthusiastically cheer and clang cowbells, begin catchy chants like Sver-ge! Sver-ge! or Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oy! Oy! Oy!, and occasionally wave large flags while blowing into their Alpenhorns.
Did someone say Alpenhorns?
