Early Game Plan
The proactive Seattleite’s guide to enjoying a super-sliding, high-flying, great-dining time at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
By Kathryn Robinson and James Ross Gardner
The Whistler Sliding Centre
Massive Sled Games
Canadians are mighty proud of their brand new sliding center, and rightly so. Pitched high above Blackcomb ski area, the spot for 2010’s sledding action is the steepest, fastest track on the planet. Four-person bobsled teams—or “bobsleigh” to our Northerly friends—reach speeds of 75 miles per hour. The track itself looks like a giant spaghetti noodle—a pretty sedate image, until you realize that the lugers blast down that tube faster than your Prius in the diamond lane, with little more than what looks like ice-skate blades sutured to their backbones. In skeleton it’s the same thing, except racers do it headfirst! Due to its close proximity to Whistler Square (it’s just a short drive up the hill) and speed-demon draw, expect tickets to the sliding center events to disappear faster than an IOC official confronted with a doping scandal.
Washingtonian to cheer
Luger Christian Niccum (Woodinville)
Where you’ll eat
You’ll need comfort food after watching perfectly decent humans turn themselves into torpedoes. Luckily La Rúa (Le Chamois Whistler Hotel, 4557 Blackcomb Way, Upper Village, 604-932-5011; www.larua-restaurante.com) features decidedly Old World seafood and lamb and duck and pasta preparations in intimate rooms bedecked in Mediterranean terra cotta and wrought iron. For a more casual bite, the Dubh Linn Gate Old Irish Pub (Pan Pacific Whistler Mountainside Hotel, 4320 Sundial Crescent, Ste 170, Whistler Village, 604-905-4047; www.dubhlinngate.com) offers brews from across the Commonwealth, and, with fare like shepherd’s pie and Irish stew, is a blessed respite from the relentlessly Continental drift of the rest of the menus across the village.
Published: September 2008
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