ski girl ponders, "When is a hill really a mountain?"

Today was supposed to be a long run. I also decided that today was going to be my hill run. If I was in Portland this would have been a 15 miler. Due the elevation here in Park City and the fact that I'm on vacation I thought that dropping it down a bit would be a nice thing to do for myself. My intended route was from The Canyons to the Utah Olympic Park and back. Just 9 miles or so.

Along the way there were some slight elevation changes. But the "hill" part of the run was the mile and a half up Olympic Drive to the Utah Olympic Park and back down. On the way down from the park I noticed a sign. 7-9% grade! Doesn't that mean the "hill" I just ran up was really a mountain? According to WikiAnswers, my new favorite source for useful and useless info,

"A mountain is a hill over 2000 feet (609.8m) in height. Anything under that is considered a hill."

Before I even started up the hill I was at 6300 elevation. Then I climbed and climbed and climbed... to around 7500+. So I'm calling my hill run a mountain run. What do you think?

The highlight of my "mountain run" was my brief stop at the Utah Olympic Park. The Olympic Park was awesome. I'm going back with a camera on Saturday to watch the Flying Aces. I'll post pictures.

While "resting" briefly, (aka desperately searching for water), at the Olympic Museum. I spotted Olympic silver medalist,mogul skier, Shannon Bahrke, she's been on the US Freestyle team for 10 years. She posed for a few photos by her life size advertisement for Silver Beans. And was super sweet and friendly. Silver Beans is a coffee company she's started complete with athlete blends and ski themes for her coffees inspired after a day of skiing.

• Blue Bird Espresso Blend
• Experts Only Blend
• Last Chair Decaf Blend
• Powder Blend
• Sunrise Blend
• Velvety Groomer Blend

Another cool thing about Shannon was her partially pink hair. I love it! Hope to see her at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. I read this in an interview with Shannon on SkiNet.

Is there any circumstance under which you would dye your whole head pink?
"Oh - if I won a gold medal at World Championships or at the Olympics I would dye my whole head pink."

ski girl will be cheering for you Shannon. Can't wait to see the full head of pink hair!

While recovery from the grueling climb I also got to check out some of the up and coming Freestyle skiers practicing their tricks landing in the Splash Pool. It was inspiring. I just wanted to strap on some skis and jump in.

And for $95, I can!
There is an Intro group lesson; learn basic freestyle skills and a few tricks by jumping into the Utah Olympic Park Splash Pool – the same training site used by the US Ski Team and Olympic athletes!!!!

Check this out you too can fly like an Olympian! FLY Freestyle

Or for $200 I can have 3 hours of private coaching. Private Lessons are coached by some of the top freestyle skiers in the country. All ability levels are welcome in these three-hour lessons. Learn freestyle and Freeride tricks while ramping into the Olympic Park Splash Pool. You name it they can coach it! You know I want to.

After all the excitement what I really wanted to do was ski but I had to run back down the "hill"/mountain and make my way back to The Canyons. Tomorrow it's a day of mountain biking. I love Park City! Oh yeah, if you feel like running any hills or mountains let me know. I'm up for it.

xoxo
-ski girl
p.s. You know I'm going to end up in that Splash Pool.