We were excited for our afternoon at Utah Olympic Park. This facility was home to the sliding sports, ski jumping & the Nordic combined in the 2002 winter Olympics. Unfortunately, many former Olympic facilities aren’t used effectively after the games, but that’s not the case here: this is still the training site for Olympic athletes. We visited the Park on a chilly Saturday afternoon, ready for some adventure.
Before our big adventure, sliding down the Olympic bobsled track, we headed over to the Adventure Center to check out the ropes course. Since I’m admittedly a huge wuss, B took one for the team & decided to tackle the adventure course. I’ll let him tell you about his experience:
Adventure Course
I walked up to the Adventure Center & the staff easily got me equipped with the harness & helmet. Ahead of the trip, I had looked at the pictures of the course & remembered “ropes courses” as a kid. The Canyon Adventure Course is billed as an intermediate-level course & is designed to test one’s abilities with log traverses, swinging elements, and problem-solving features. After a kind employee got me strapped in up, I quickly learned that this adventure course was harder than I expect it to be. The initial ropes section was fairly easy. The log traverse had me questioning how much “no fear” I should use when approaching the obstacle: I took my time crossing the log & after a few minutes, I made it. The third obstacle was challenging for me: it had a rope at the bottom, top, & ropes in the middle running vertically between them (kind of like a horizontal rope ladder). I started out on the rope leading with my left hand & foot on the ropes & quickly learned that the safety mechanism was designed for the right side of the obstacle so I had to untangle myself by going back to the beginning & starting over. It was at this point that I realized that I was getting warm/stressed/not having fun & running close on time to complete the zip line & drop tower. At Christina’s encouraging, I decided to reverse course & exit to get to the other activities.
Zip Line
I next headed off to the zip line. After a short line, I was buckled in for the 377-foot zip line. I got the green light & jumped off the platform. The line caught me & soon I was flying over the snow & evergreens. I zipped over to the other platform to jump 65’ down to the ground. The drop tower has two options to descend: a tension drop (more of a controlled drop under constant tension) & a quick drop (which allows for some free fall). Of course, I chose quick drop. I stepped off the platform & it was thrilling to have that moment of free fall before the cord slowed me down.
Bobsled
While B was braver than I was to do the ropes course, there was no way I was going to miss out the chance to bobsled on ice. After doing it last year during the summer in Calgary on their Olympic track in a retrofitted sled with wheels, we were both excited to try the real thing on ice. After checking in & a brief safety video, we loaded up into a van & drove up to the finish house, where we got outfitted with helmets. Then, in groups of three, we climbed into the back of a truck with our bobsled & driver & rode to the top of the mountain. The winter bobsled starts from the junior start, rather than the Olympic start, for safety reasons.
At the top of the track, we climbed into the sled. Me, behind our driver Robby (a former Olympic-level louger), with B & a third rider squished in behind me. At this point, my stomach was in knots, even though I knew the ride would be over in a flash. We were pushed off & started rumbling down the track. As we picked up speed, I was amazed at how much smoother the ride was than when we rode on the cement track. After hitting 65.0 mph (faster than the previous sled!), just 47 seconds after we started, we bounded around the last turn & into the finish. It was incredibly exhilarating & such an adrenaline rush!
Know before you go:
• The ropes course is in the infield area of the bobsled run. There is quite a bit of a walk to get to the course from the welcome center & the a walk up a pretty steep hill to get to the course.
• Allow yourself enough time to complete the activities – we only had about 45 minutes to do the entire ropes course, which wasn’t nearly enough time. The bobsled took about 90 minutes, largely because you’re waiting for other people to go before you.
• The bobsled is not cheap – $200 for a winter ride on ice – but it’s really worth every penny. If you happen to be there in the summer, you can still ride on the track in a wheeled sled for $75.
• Every afternoon, there’s a $10 tour of the park that leaves from the welcome center. You’ll visit the top of the ski jump, as well as the Olympic start of the sliding track.
• Make sure to leave some time to explore the Olympic museum. It was really well done & informative. One of my favorite parts was the an exhibit where you can lift an actual curling stone – they are not messing around!
Our visit to Utah Olympic Park was kindly provided by Visit Park City & Utah Olympic Park. All opinions, of course, are my own.
Leave a Reply