Day 17 - (09/01) Lake Placid, NY (Day 3)

Today we toured Lake Placid and the surrounding area.  We went to:

• Little Whiteface Mountain for a gondola ride
• Olympic Jumping Complex
• Olympic Sports Complex
• Olympic Center to see the 1932 & 1980 Winter Olympic Museum

Gondola Ride

The 15 minute gondola ride took us to the 3,678 ft. summit of Little Whiteface Mountain.  The ride was exhilarating and the views were awesome.

A great view at the end of the ride

We were up there (Whiteface Castle) yesterday.

10th Mountain Division Monument

It seems steeper when you're going down!

Wind damage from Irene

Jumping Complex

This training center was very interesting.  We took a chairlift alongside the jumping hills, took the 26-story elevator to the top of the K120 tower, and then watched jumpers perform at the freestyle pool.

90 and 120 meter ski jumps

120 meter tower
(the elevator goes up the back side)

Hmm, who's #1?

This is what a 120 meter jumper sees 

Here's how they do 90 meter jumps with no snow

Beginning of a 90 meter run

Ending of a 90 meter run

90 and 120 meter towers

Freestyle jumper going down backward

Jumper gets turned around in the air

Just in time for splash down

Sports Complex

Here we took a riding tour through the Mt. Van Hoevenberg Olympic Sports Complex.  It's the bobsled, luge and skeleton training and competition site.  They also have trails for biathlon and cross-country skiing.

Start of the run

This is the upper part of the run

We got to walk down the last 3/4 mile of the combination track.  The track is fully-covered, iced and in use for training and competition from October to April.  They use it from 9am to 10pm, seven days a week when operational.

Drivers try to put their runners on the
 blue lines in this turn

Carol just needs a driver ... and some ice

Olympic Museum

This site features an exhibit dedicated to the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team.  We watched a lot of the TV broadcast of the semi-final game with the Soviet Union ... and the U.S. won again by a 4-3 score.

Olympic Center

Jim Craig's goalie equipment

The speed skating track was set up at the Lake Placid High School football stadium.  The field was flooded to create a speed skating oval.

Eric Heiden won 5 gold medals here

End of Day

We ended the day with an excellent meal at R.F. McDougall's Family Pub.  Tomorrow we head further north to the St. Lawrence River at Massena.