the skeleton

Yesterday me and Ty headed up to Park City to take in the Jr. World Championship Skeleton Competition. It was freaking freezing, so we weren't there for too long, but what we saw was rad. Those guys (and gals) are crazy. The average speed they headed down the luge was nearly 80mph, and their face was about two inches from the ice.

As an interesting aside, in stake conference today we had one of the men who helped plan the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics (Elder Fraser Bullock, Area Authority 70) speak to us. He told about how he had wanted to experience the olympics from the athletes perspective when he was helping plan them so he gave the skeleton a try. Three times that man went down the luge; the first time merely fighting for survival, holding on like a sack of potatoes to his sled and ricocheting off the sides of the track like a mad man, then the second and third times actually looking forward and steering with his body weight (much more successful, he said). He likened it unto actually making plans and participating in charting our courses in life rather than just being bombarded everyday with the stuff that comes our way. An excellent analogy and lesson in my opinion.

I thought the back-to-back days of skeleton exposure was noteworthy. A skeleton-filled weekend for sure. On another note, I really love living so close to rad places like Park City that host things like the world championships of this and that for free for anyone who wants to come watch. So rad.