The Thrill of Sport!

Utah Olympic Park is hosting five "Thrill of Sport" receptions! It is so awesome to see these kids (and their parents) enjoying the thrill of winter sport. The "Get Out and Play" After School Program allows kids the opportunity to try several ski disciplines on age appropriate terrain: freeride; moguls; Nordic ski jumping; Alpine ski racing and a mini skier cross course. Come check it out! See more info about Utah Olympic Park here: http://www.facebook.com/olyparks

Yet another reason to move to Utah!

xoxo, 

 ski girl

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.