Adventures in Utah

Waterfalls on a hike up Mt. Timpanogos

Earlier this summer, as I was slaving away ;) in Williamstown doing statistics, my mom moved to Park City, UT. Luckily, I got some time to visit her for part of July and August and was joined by Robby Cuthbert ('11). If it weren't for the start of school soon, I don't think I would have ever left. Not only is it constantly sunny and not humid there, the surrounding mountains make for some of the best training I've ever encountered. It seems like I did a different running trail every day, and still hadn't fully explored every trail the mountains had to offer. Not only are the trails endless, the views are spectacular. Here is the view from a run to the top of Deer Valley resort.

It is no wonder that this is where the USSA built the Center of Excellence, a brand new training facility for US ski and snowboard team members, including CO native, Noah Hoffman who now lives and trains in Park City. He was nice enough to give me a tour of the facility, which is closed to the public, and even let me jump on the trampoline into the foam pit. Another perk of being in Park City was getting to do some training with a UNH skier Elizabeth Guiney. It was especially great to have company during part of an intensity block. Notable workouts include bounding up Park City Mountain Resort,

Classic 30-30's up Little Cottonwood Canyon (road up to Alta/Snowbird ski areas from Salt Lake City),

and Skating 4x4's at Soldier Hollow.

While I was there I managed to have a lot of fun outside of training as well. Park City is home to the Utah Olympic Park where the ski jumping, bobsled, luge, and skeleton took place during the 2002 Olympics. During the summer, ski jumpers can still go off the K90 and K120 jumps in their ski gear on this sort of plastic material that gets watered down with sprinklers. The olympic park has two ziplines going over these jumps to experience how it feels to fly through the air on such large jumps. The aerialists also practice at the olympic park in the summer, skiing off jumps and doing aerials into a pool. Every saturday they put on a show for the public. Here's a picture of some aerialists about to start a synchronized jump.

Maybe the best part of the olympic park is that bobsled racers give rides to the public, driving them down the full bobsled track at 70 mph in a bobsled that has been outfitted with wheels for the summer. I took a trip to the Utah Olympic park with my brother and Robby to ride the zipline and bobsled.

If anyone is looking for a place to spend a summer between school years, I would highly recommend Park City. While I was sad to leave, I'm so excite to see y'all soon!!

Hannah H.