...but we didn't know what to expect.
For starters, don't expect to take an escalator, elevator, or shuttle to the top of the mountain. No, sir. There's only one way up and one way down the mountain: hoofin' it! To make the climb more interesting, the terrain is steep, only lightly salted, and unforgiving. I decided to increase the complexity by wearing my work shoes. Risky business!
In one regard, bobsled fans bare a striking similarity to NASCAR fans: they love sitting around and watching for the next wreck. At Lake Placid, Turn 10 is the 'gotcha' turn. It even had a snack cart! We watched The first few sleds from here before heading up to starting area.
The starting area is where the real action exists. This is where the diehards gather to root on their teammates, friends, family, and country. The US and Canada had the most fans but Germany had the loudest woman. She was crazy. And shouting in German. It was like a scene out of SNL. We laughed to one another but were far too uncomfortable to laugh out loud or capture the hilarity on video. Ah, good times.
The first start that we saw was the British team. It turns out that things didn't go so well for them. They wrecked and caused a track shutdown while the crews cleaned up all of the broken plastic and fiberglass. Here's their start.
We watched the rest of the races from here including the American team who won gold in the 2-man! This was very cool. We felt like we stumbled into a once in a lifetime experience. Let's hear it for Lake Placid! Here's the video of the US team that finished 9th (Cunningham/Robinson).