So for many years, decades actually, I have been gathering with friends from high school every summer for a long weekend. In the beginning, being youthful and poor, we camped in the woods. Now we rent houses with hot tubs. Every few years we break out of our usual visit to the wilds (and golf courses) of Eastern Washington and go further afield. This year we headed north to Canada to the year-round resort of Whistler, British Columbia. (Above is the view of our gondala ride to the top of Whistler Mountain).
This was the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics, and is still the site of world's fastest blobsled track (or "bobsleigh" as they say in Canada). Why is it the fastest bobsleigh track in the world? Because the French Canadians built it too steep, or so said our guide at the
Whistler Sliding Centre. We had arrived to try bobsleighing in the heat of summer, for the thrill, and also to support actual athletes who hurtle down this track in the winter. We started our tour with a walk of the track to understand just how steep it gets. You see above that it is basically vertical. Lest you fear for our safety, we didn't go down this part of the track.
No, we did the tourist version. Fitted with helmets and neck braces we slid into an extra large, fully padded sleigh on wheels. A professional driver sat in the back. We didn't even push the sleigh. Our job was to hang on and "lean into the curves." Down we wooshed, trying to "see" the curves as we moved at 87 kmh (roughly 54 mph). Total elapsed time to the end of the track: 53.54 seconds. Mostly it was a blur with a lot of whacking of my helmeted head side to side on the padded edges of the sleigh as I failed to lean into the curves. I don't need to repeat this experience. However, I will now watch bobsledding in future Olympics with proper respect and awe.
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