Ski Jumping!

Last time we checked in, it was Saturday evening and we were in Twin Falls, Idaho for an overnight stop on our way to Utah.  The rest of the drive went well on Sunday.  It took us through southeastern Idaho and into northern Utah where it is very flat until you get to the Salt Lake City area.

Just a bit north of Salt Lake City, we turned west into the Wasatch Mountains where we drove through a beautiful canyon on I-84 to I-80, then down into the Heber Valley past Park City, Deer Valley, and eventually into Heber City.

In Heber City, we got set up at the Mountain Valley RV Park just south of town.  It is a relatively new park with huge spaces and nice facilities.  Our site is nice…we are located in the adults-only section of the park, near the big fenced dog run.

Dotty and Sammy have already been out exploring and enjoying the beautiful scenery.

Monday was our usual day of chores, although we took a lunch break to take the trike up to Deer Valley for lunch with a couple of Dotty’s golf friends, Helga and Sydney from the desert.  As always, it was good to catch up with friends.  We had a great lunch and then a very scenic drive back to the RV over Guardsman Pass.

 

Tuesday was a golf day and we played at the Soldier Hollow Golf Course – Gold Course.  If that name sounds a bit familiar, Soldier Hollow was one of the venues for the Winter Olympics when it was held in this area.  Soldier Hollow was where they held the Nordic events (cross-country skiing, biathlon, etc).  Following the Olympics, two golf courses were built on the site, but a lot of the facilities are still in place.  Soldier Hollow Golf Course is a ‘links’ style course.  That means not many trees or water, but lots of bunkers and tall grasses.  It was a fun course with beautiful scenery, although Dotty was suffering from one of those ‘getting old’ injuries to her right wrist.  Doesn’t know what she did….it just started hurting.  We would definitely return and play here again.

Today is Wednesday and we decided to do something different than our usual golf and trike rides.  We went to the Utah Olympic Park which is another venue from the 2002 Winter Olympics.  The park is built at the site of the ski jumping hills, the bobsled and luge tracks.  Since the Olympics, they have expanded it into a huge winter sports training facility with pools for the ski/board aerialist to jump into, as well as many tourist activities.  Access to the park and the museum are free.  Before 11 AM, you can watch Olympic athletes training on the ski jumps and the ski/board jumps into the pool.  You can also buy tickets to participate in several activities.  We did everything except the bobsled ride (it wasn’t running today).  As you can tell from the pictures, it was a gray and overcast kind of day with a few sprinkles of rain.  That was actually good news because it kept the crowds away and it wasn’t too hot.

The first thing we did was a couple of ziplines that parallel the ski jumps.

Then we moved on to an activity that was a lot of fun – Extreme Tubing.  There are still multiple ski jumps here and they are used every morning for training by Olympic athletes.  There is a plastic liner in the jump that simulates the ice they normally slide down.  The runout area is where they land and it is covered by a thick mat of stuff that is kind of like outdoor carpet that is wet.  We talked with a jumper from Norway while waiting for the chairlift and he said it is very realistic.  In the pic below, the jump on the left is the 64-meter hill, the one in the middle is the 90-meter hill, and the one on the far right is the 120-meter hill.  The height is how tall the jump itself is.  The runout areas are correspondingly steeper and longer to account for the great speed and distance for the jumps.  It was fun watching these guys jump!

So…in Extreme Tubing, you ride a chairlift to the top and hike down to the start of the runout area.  That is right at the end of the jump structure itself.  You put your helmet on, plunk your butt in an inner tube, and they shove you over the edge.  It’s quite a rush.  On the 90 meter hill, you reach speeds approaching 60 mph!  They require you to do the 64-meter first, then you can give it a go on the 90-meter (significantly steeper and faster).  We posted a video of Dotty’s first run down the 64-meter on Bill’s Facebook page.    You can find it if you’re friends with either of us.

We went back up to do the 90-meter, but Dotty decided to just do the 64 a second time.  Bill couldn’t resist the 90.  There’s no video, but Dotty grabbed some pics of them shoving Bill over the edge. Here are a few other pics of the experience.

After a brief break for lunch, we then moved on to the Zip Line Experience.  For this activity, you start at the top of the mountain and descend on 7 separate zip lines ranging in length from 1,400 to 600 feet, while descending a couple of thousand feet.  No filming is allowed since they want you to concentrate on what you’re doing.  Let’s just say that it was exhilarating….and strenuous….especially the stop when you arrive at the end of the run and get to the tower.  We enjoyed it, but we were done when it was over!  Funny story….when we were trying to figure out how to get to the top, Dotty went up to a guy wearing a ski patrol uniform to ask for directions.  He told us how to get there on foot (a looooong way) and then he offered to give us a ride to the top in his SUV.  Of course, he and Dotty shared ski patrol stories the whole way up, while Bill listened quietly (while occasionally rolling his eyes).

What a great day!  We highly recommend this park, although you do have to be capable of doing a fair amount of walking and hiking, as well as able to engage in strenuous activities for the rides.

Assuming we’re still able to more tomorrow, we’ve got lots more activities planned.  As you can tell, we are enjoying our time in this beautiful area.

Thanks for following along….