Well we were up early and off to the races. Thanks to our friends, we parked at some 6 million dollar home up the road from Beaver Creek but a good mile or more below the grandstands. Lori, Debra, Jagger and Ty decided to walk up the hill for exercise while Rik and I walked down a bit to catch one of the many buses that ferried fans up to the event. The course is known as the Birds of Prey and it’s a World famous downhill course. Most of the great downhill courses around the World have names to them.
Rik and I made our way through the gauntlet of fans and finally made our way onto a bus. About 3/4’s of the way up I looked out the window of the bus and saw Lori and Ty walking up in the snow. Jagger had gone ahead and beat everyone to the top. Debra made it up next while Lori and Ty arrived about 10 minutes after I got off the bus. Rik and Debra went off to the Silver Hospitality tent which cost $2000 per couple! I managed to talk the four of us into the grandstand level where we spent some time but the actual grandstands were full by 8am. This meant we had to hike up the actual ski slope and stand by a fence that runs along side the course to prevent racers and spectators from getting hurt in case one of them crashes. The difficult thing was that the slope was pretty darn steep. Once we found a spot where we could hang out and watch, we all had to use our feet to dig level spots in the steep slope so we could stand and not slide down the hill.
The slope was packed with fans from all over the World. The Norwegian fans were wearing viking helmets, the Swiss all waving Swiss flags, the French dressed like they were from the French Foreign Legion and blowing trumpets and on and on. While we were lamenting the hike up and not being down below in the grandstand, this turned out to be much more fun. A group of fans gave us 4 cowbells as the big thing in ski racing is to ring cowbells when the skiers go flying by. On top of this were fans blowing horns, trumpets and other noise makers. Right above us was a giant video screen where you could watch the racers from the time they took off at the starting gate all the way to the bottom. Right before the end of the 2 mile course they’d come flying over a ridge at about 80 miles and hour. As soon as they hit the snow again they’d fly over the final jump airborne before crossing the finish line. It was so amazing to see this in person. Ty now has decided he’s going to be a downhill racer! I had to lift him up when each racer came into view so he could see well.
There were 23 racers in all and after 20 we started to make our way down to the grandstands where we could watch the last few skiers on another giant video screen. Now if we thought hiking up was a chore, getting down off the steep slope was twice as hard. You’d slip and slide and lose you balance every few steps. I felt bad for the older people that were falling all around us. After the race was over we decided to walk down to our car instead of taking a bus. This too was a chore but good exercise. Finally 30 minutes or so later we were at the car and headed out. Next up was picking up some sandwiches and taking Mojo for a walk. After that we all decided to load up the car and head back to Denver to beat the traffic this morning. So, what an adventure. There were fans from all over, especially Europe as half of the people around you were speaking a foreign language. To Europeans this is as big as the Super Bowl and seeing it in person, we now know why. Ty used my phone to video some of the racers flying by and if we can figure out how to post them, we will.
Our French friends are in Denver next weekend spending the night before flying home to France so we might have dinner with them then. They almost medaled but were edged out and I think came in 5th and 7th.
Today is some cleaning and maybe going to see a house. Throw in a walk for Mojo and some laundry and I’m sure it’ll go fast. Hope you all are well, take care and God Bless.