The Alf Engen Ski Museum was built to preserve the rich history of skiing in the Intermountain Region. This world-class museum highlights the history of all skiing disciplines through interactive tou
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ch screen displays, videos, virtual reality ski theater, games and topographical maps.
The museum proudly houses the Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame and the Professional Ski Instructors of America-Intermountain Region Hall of Fame and has a unique, working relationship with the University of Utah J. Willard Marriott Library Ski Archives.
Please visit www.engenmuseum.org to learn more.
Also, see these two great panoramic views of the museum -
here
and
here
The sliding track at Utah Olympic is a sporting and engineering marvel.
During the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, the track hosted 74,187 bobsleigh spectators, 14,860 skeleton spectators, and 64,10
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4 luge spectators.
Today the track still serves as a training center for Olympic and development level athletes, and hosts numerous local and international competitions.
For thrill-seeker, the track also operates the Comet Bobsled ride for the general public during the summer and winter seasons.
Track Design
The Utah Olympic Park's steep terrain presented unique challenges for its designers, who crafted the facility carefully to meet demanding competition requirements and limit impact to the land and its wildlife. The course follows the mountain's natural contours, allowing it to blend in with the landscape.
The length of the track is 5500 feet, a bit over one mile (note: confirm if we use full length or comp length). And with a vertical drop of 402 feet and 15 curves, the track at Utah Olympic Park is still regarded as one of the most challenging in the world.
Most of the curves along the track have been named, such as Sunny Corner (turn 4), Snowy Corner (turn 5), Albert's Alley (turns 6-10), Wasatch (turn 11), Olympic (turn 12) and Finish Curve (turn 14). The section between curves 14 and 15 is the fastest, leading into a long finish straight that is referred to as the "Graveyard" section because you could lose both time and speed if you hit the walls leading to that turn.
The track features five start houses, known as bobsled start, skeleton start, men's start, women's start and junior start. There is also a designated on-track tourist start for the Comet Bobsled public passenger ride program.
Interesting Track Facts
Construction of the track took 30 months to complete (June '94 - December '96) at a cost of about $25 million.
The very first run on the new track was by luger Jon Owen on January 10, 1997.
The track includes 297,000 watts of track lighting, 62 water hydrants, 24 cameras, 49 timing points and eight scoreboards.
A $1 million retractable shading system protects the course from sun and snow, reducing energy usage by 25 percent and eliminating the need to clear snow from the track.
The process to make ice on the track requires 18 days. A crew of Utah Olympic Park employees maintains a two-week, 24-hour effort to ice the track. The crews leap-frog each other down the track every 20 minutes, plugging into 62 hydrants and spraying the track with hundreds of layers of ice. An additional four-day period is necessary to shape and hone the ice.
The Refrigeration Plant is responsible for creating and monitoring the ice conditions on the track. It has the efficient capability to drop the temperature of the track to below freezing within two hours with outside air temperatures of 80 degrees (F).
The Utah Olympic Park hosted its first World Cup bobsled event in November 1998, and it continues to be a regular stop on the international World Cup tour in all three sliding sports.
A beautiful 1,200 sq foot room with two balconies offers great views of the Park's summer freestyle training pool, Nordic ski jumps and winter Terrain Park.
In the summertime enjoy lunch on
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the balconies as you watch athletes jump into the pool on skis.
The Day Lodge is also available for private events, providing a unique setting for retreats and conferences. The facility's two large rooms and decks offer great views of the Park's freestyle training pool and nordic ski jumps.
Click here for more information about hosting your next group event in the Day Lodge.
Located on the second floor of the Quinney Center, the Ecker Hill Café and Patio offers spectacular views of the Snyderville Basin, freestyle training jumps and the alpine small hills.
The café
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is the perfect place to watch your child participate in our youth programs.
Our Freestyle Splash Pool is the reason why Utah Olympic Park is known as a Freestyle Factory.
Five jumps - from the beginner mini to the mongo kicker - launch athletes into the 750,000
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gallon pool. An underwater air system creates a large bubble zone, providing soft landing areas. And right on the deck next to the pool are three trampolines where athletes work on their acrobatic moves.
During the summer months, the training pool is busy with everything from Intro Clinics and Fly Freestyle Camps for young kids to training for world-class Olympic aerialists.
The pool is also center stage for the Saturday Freestyle Show, a 30-minute freestyle aerial show on Saturdays afternoons.
If you're interested in doing more than watching other have fun in the pool and want to hit some jumps on your own, check out our freestyle + freeskiing programs!
Here's a cool panoramic view of the pool.
The George Eccles 2002 Olympic Winter Games Museum is located on the second floor of the Joe Quinney Winter Sports Center. Visitors can relive the glory of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games through a gal
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lery of visual highlights and artifacts from the 2002 games.
Detailed displays include equipment of athletes like Joe pack, Tristan Gale, Derek Parra, Bode Miller, Sara Hughes and many others used during the 2002 Olympics.
Click here for a great panoramic view of the museum, courtesy of our friends at Ski Utah.
For additional information, please visit www.engenmuseum.org or call 435.658.4240.
The three-story Joe Quinney Winter Sports Center is the home of the Alf Engen Ski Museum, Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame, George Eccles 2002 Winter Olympic Games Museum, Ecker Hill Cafe, retail gift
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shop, theater/auditorium and a conference room.
Prior to the 2002 Games, the $10 million sports center served as the media center for journalists covering the Olympic events at Utah Olympic Park.
The building is named after Joe Quinney, often referred to as the father of Utah's ski industry. Quinney was born in Logan, Utah and educated at the Utah Agricultural College, now Utah State University, and then Harvard Law School. Quinney died in 1983 at the age of 90.
In the Park's Olympic Legacy Plaza, two eight-foot bronze statutes of Joe Quinney and Alf Engen were unveiled in September 2002. The sculptures were created by Alpine artist Kraig Varner.
This space is available for private events. Click here for more information.
Perched at the top of the K120 Olympic Nordic ski jump, this intimate space provided a warming room during the 2002 Olympics for the Nordic ski jumpers as they prepared to fly through the air on the
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adjacent jump. Offering a breathtaking view of the Utah Olympic Park and Snyderville Basin, this space is unforgettable.
This space is available for group events. Click here for more information.
For an incredible, panoramic view from the K-120 Start House, click
here, courtesy of our friends at Ski Utah.
Situated at the top of the Utah Olympic Park and the start of the world renowned Bobsled, Luge, and Skeleton track, the Men's Start House offers breathtaking views of its surroundings. The facility i
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s nestled into the hillside amongst beautiful aspen groves, wooded pines and families of moose, elk and deer.
This is where the athletes from the 2002 Olympic Winter Games stood just minutes before their Olympic runs. The Men’s Start House is open to visitors who want to watch bobsled, skeleton, or luge training from a unique panoramic perspective.
This space is available for private events. Click here for more information.
This space is unique in its design and embodies the excellence that permeates the Utah Olympic Park. Located on the first floor of the Quinney Center, this space serves as a theater during the dayti
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me showcasing movies of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games and history of skiing in the intermountain west.
After hours, this flexible area transforms in to the perfect space for a variety of events. From a lecture to a gala event, the Museum Theatre is a space that adapts to suit your event needs.
Click here for more information about hosting your next event in the Museum Theater
Entering the Utah Olympic Park, the majestic Olympic K90 and K120 jumps greet visitors as they drive up the entry road. A total of six nordic jumps have been built at the Park with a K10, K20, K40, K
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64, K90 and K120. At 7,130 feet, the Park's K90 and K120 are the highest-altitude world-class jumps in the world.
The K90 and K120 do not refer to hill heights, but rather the average distance covered by jumpers; 90 meters and 120 meters, respectively, indicated by the K Point. For jumps shorter or longer than the K Point, points are subtracted or added during competitions.
The North-facing placement of the K90 and K120 ski jumps prevents prevailing winds from blowing directly uphill, ensuring adequate snow cover on the jumps and reducing reliance on snowmaking equipment. The ski jump ramps were built into the mountainside to eliminate the need to erect massive skier runway ramps that would have protruded from the ridgeline and reshaped the mountain face.
Plastic runways on the jumps and landing zones allow for summer jumping. Jumpers land on a synthetic surface that looks like green shingles. The in-run is designed with porcelain grooves that allow jumpers to shoot down the track even if the first snowflake is months away. Ski jumpers fly up to 55 miles per hour and cover distances as great as one and a half football fields.
A 2.3 kilometer cross-country track was built in the summer of 2002 where the temporary Olympic spectator stands had been located. The loop allows nordic combined athletes to participate in cross-country skiing as well as ski jumping while on the Utah Olympic Park grounds.
To learn more about our nordic skiing programs, click here.
Located on the third floor of the Joe Quinney Winter Sports Center, the Quinney Conference Room provides a spectacular setting. The room is surrounded on three sides by floor to ceiling windows that
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overlook the Snyderville Basin and the picturesque Uinta Mountain Range.
Click here for more information about hosting your next group event in the Quinney Conference Room.
If you are seeking a breathtaking mountain setting the Museum Summer Pavilion is the perfect space for your next private event
Situated between the freestyle and Nordic training hills and the J
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oe Quinney Winter Sports Center, the Pavilion provides ample space for your large group. The options for canopy style or full sides can tailor the space for your unique event.
The views from the back side of the tent look across the landing hill of the Nordic Jumps towards the bobsled track and on the front side, overlooking the freestyle training pool where your group can enjoy viewing athlete training or book a Flying Ace Big Air show. Tie in the museum patio or for an indoor/outdoor event experience.
Click here for more information about hosting your next group event in the Summer Pavilion
Located just down the hill from the Men's Start House and used as the starting point for women's luge and luge doubles, the Women's Start House provides a wonderful viewpoint of the track and the Was
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atch Front.
Nestled in the mountains of Park City this space offers an intimate setting with phenomenal surrounding views. It is perfect for receptions, dinners, and celebrations of all sorts.
For more information about booking your next private event in the Women's Start house click here.
The Utah Olympic Oval is comprised of two international size hockey rinks surrounded by a 12m x 400m Olympic oval. Each ice sheet is a separate monolithic (that means 'no joints') concrete pad. All t
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hree are individually controlled to provide optimum ice conditions for each ice sport.
The arena is a comfortable 63-65 degrees, providing the ultimate training environment for our high performance athletes and recreational athletes alike.
And public skating on the Olympic Oval is a unique and incredible experience for skaters of all abilities.
During the 2002 Games, 10 Olympic and 9 world records were set at the Oval, the largest number of world records ever set at one event, resulting in the title of "Fastest Ice on Earth".
Thanks to our friends at Ski Utah, we can share with you a great
panoramic view of the Oval.
At our concessions counter you will find fresh hot pizza, hot dogs, pretzels, chicken strips and waffle fries to satisfy any hungry skater’s appetite. Beverages include bottled water, sodas and tasty
Oval Gifts & Gear pro shop offers figure skating equipment, hockey equipment, Utah Olympic Oval logo apparel and Salt Lake 2002 Olympic memorabilia.
Oval Gifts & Gear is open to the publ
Just outside the The Fastest Ice on Earth sits what we hope will become the Fastest Indoor Track on Earth.
This beautiful 442-meter Mondo Super X track circles the oval with four lanes of the be
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st running surface under your feet possible. The front straightaway features an eight-lane, 110-meter sprint zone.
Regardless of the season, runners train in a climate-controlled environment, averaging 63-65 degrees year-round.
For information on our Oval running programs,
click here.
The Utah Olympic Oval facility consists of five acres under a clear span suspension roof. The facility houses a 400-meter speed skating oval, two international size ice sheets, indoor soccer field, a
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four-lane 442-meter state of the art running track, eight 110-meter sprint lanes, high performance weight room, spacious locker facilities and team rooms, World Record Lounge and meeting rooms, concession stands, Oval Gifts and Gear Pro Shop, skate rental and skate sharpening services.
History section: The Utah Olympic Oval was built with the purpose of hosting speed skating competitions during the 2002 Salt Lake Olympic Winter Games, but serves as a legacy to the State of Utah for all members of the community to enjoy. The Oval, as well as the Utah Olympic Park in Park City, is operated by the Utah Athletic Foundation. The Oval is part of a multi-purpose recreation complex that includes recreational gyms, weight facilities and swimming pools.
With an incredible 10 Olympic records and eight world records, the Utah Olympic Oval stands uncontested as the ""Fastest Ice on Earth"" following the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. As impressive as the record breaking performances were, it was the performance of the U.S. Olympic Speedskating Team during the Games that has generated a worldwide ""buzz"" surrounding the Utah Olympic Oval. The team relocated to Salt Lake City in January of 2001 to begin training in the Olympic venue 12 months before the rest of the world was expected to arrive. At the end of the 2002 Games, the U.S. Speedskating team had garnished an astonishing eight Olympic medals won by six individual team members. The depth and success of the U.S. team caused the rest of the world to take notice and attention quickly turned to the concept of home field advantage. The athletes were generous with their praise, identifying the training environment at the Utah Olympic Oval as a huge factor in helping them realize their full potential as Olympic athletes. The U.S. Speedskating team continues to use the UOO as its home training base for the men’s and ladies’ long track team because of the services the Oval provides and the friendly, experienced staff who works there.
The Utah Olympic Oval successfully hosted its first major international speed skating competition three weeks after the completion of the oval construction in February 2001. The success of the 2001 World Championships Speed Skating Single Distances event was overwhelming, bringing more than130 athletes from 20 countries to Salt Lake City for this prestigious competition. As a preview to the Olympics in 2002, an incredible five world records were broken in the Utah Olympic Oval’s debut competition. The format of the Single Distances Championships is very similar to that of the Olympic Games making this event a great test and learning tool for the staff, volunteers and facility.
