Nice photos, Jim. When did you take them?

The photo labeled "curve 13" is looking down infamous short straight
called The Hogpen for it's high oak walls. Those walls were there for a
reason! The 10 - 11 - 12 combination was just brutal; all 3 of the
bones I've broken happened in 12 or the Hogpen. In 15 years on the '80
track I think I could count the number of runs where I truly nailed
those turns on the fingers of 2 hands. If you screwed up in 10 you
would double - loop in 11 which caused a bad transition into 12 which
would cause you to drop off 12 either late or early. In either case you
were likely to hit the left wall in the Hogpen and bounce off into the
right. The Hogpen was so short that you had little time to correct
before you were into 13 in the wrong place or sideways.

I think I have some photos showing the upper part of the track, from
the original mens' start. I never slid above womens' start and frankly
I never wanted to go higher, I know the limits of my ability! Just
looking down from the original start was scary. It was the longest
straight on the track (there was very slight bend in the middle that
was called turn 1). Imagine a ski jump with a huge right turn at the
bottom and that's what it looked like. That right had an extremely
critical and narrow "window" on the exit. Somebody - world champion
Wendall Sukow maybe - told me once that if you were off by more than a
couple of inches at the exit of that right you were screwed and your
run was basically over. Unfortunately you still had another 13 turns to
go through!

If the '80 track wasn't hard enough as it was, at the '82 world
championships some lunatic decided to have the ice torched from top to
bottom. The weather was bitterly cold so the torching left the ice as
smooth and hard as glass and just as driveable. Miro said it was the
only time in his career that he was scared on the sled.

The new track is immeasurably better than the '80 track but I do sort
of miss the old widow - maker. I never felt like I owned the track, it
owned me. I made some runs on the track on its last day (I think Duncan
had the honor of making the very last run) and - wouldn't you know it! -
they were among the best I ever had. Just as I was finally starting to
get the hang of the place it was retired. Every time I walk by that
hunk of the old track near the bobsled house I swear I can hear it
laughing at me.


--- In adk-luge@yahoogroups.com, "Jim Murphy" <jim_murphy@...> wrote:
>
>
> I just uploaded about a dozen photos of the Old (1980 Olympic) Luge
> Track in Lake Placid.
>
> They are in an album in the Photos section of the ADK-Luge Yahoo!
Group.
>
> Jim Murphy
>