all photos~ (embiggenable)
IT SEEMED APPROPRIATE AS I SAT WATCHING THE WINTER OLYMPIC opening ceremonies, that I could make a blog entry about my winter sport endeavors. Specifically, to name just one, my multi-year participation in a NE Regional luge league / competition held for a few years in Lake Placid on the Olympic / World Cup sliding track. The results of that endeavor–2 silver medals in 2 season ending tournaments–can be viewed above.
I took to the sport like a duck to water, or as the wife opined, a crazy man on a sled. One could also state, with a high degree of accuracy, that I became addicted to the adrenaline rush that hurdling down an ice covered track, feet first, on your back at 50 MPH+ induces. Gravity and lateral G-forces tend to do that to ones senses.
The league used a start gate just a bit below the women’s Olympic start so participants did not reach the 80-90MPH speeds of the real crazies. The written, I was very proficient on the sled; during a World Cup luge event in Lake Placid, I made a segment for my PBS tv program–I was the producer, writer, and on-air host–Adirondack Outdoors on luge competition during which, between a break in the competition, we duct taped a video camera to my thigh and recorded my run down the track. While in the media truck checking out the video, I became aware of someone looking over my shoulder at the screen. When the footage ended, that person put a hand on my shoulder and said, “Nice run.”–turned out that person was the Olympic USA Luge Team coach.
As an aside to the above, it also occurred to me, as I sat on the couch watching the Olympics all snug and warm, while the outside temp was hovering around -10ºF, that I could also throw in a mention of one of my other winter outdoor passions; 4-5 day, sub-zero backpacking trips into the Adirondack High Peaks. The lowest temp my hiking friend and I encountered while sleeping in a tent was -28ºF.
footnote: I dearly miss both of these activities but, as I am about to enter my 80th year on the planet, they ain’t in my game plan any longer.
above treeline ~ whiteout @ 5,000 ft.