"Nice terrain," Norwegian cross-country ski expert Hermod Bjork-es-tol declared Friday as he tramped through a muddy field in Wasatch Mountain State Park at the foothills of Mt. Timpanogos.
Bjorkestol was envisioning the weedy, waterlogged area, known as Soldier Hollow, as a possible site for the cross-country skiing and biathlon competitions during the 2002 Winter Games.As he and Janez Vodicar, a Slovenian biathlon expert, contemplated course designs, they could hear the Heber Creeper train whistle and see the Deer Creek reservoir shimmering in the warm afternoon sun.
A dozen sites are competing to host the events, but the search is focusing on this quiet section of the park near Midway, along with Squaw Peak in Provo Canyon, Sherwood Hills in Logan Canyon and North Fork Park near Ogden. Bjorkestol and John Aalberg, a former Olympic cross-country skier hired by the Salt Lake Organizing Committee to plan for the competitions, toured the four sites earlier this week before Vodicar arrived.
Friday, all three had visited Squaw Peak and Wasatch Mountain State Park by midafternoon. They were expected to stop at proposed sites at the Jordanelle Overlook and the East Canyon resort.
Those sites, along with the the Round Valley Golf Course in Morgan and property near Woodruff, Rich County, submitted formal proposals to the organizing committee for the $17 million project.
There are another four sites that asked to be considered but didn't fill out the paperwork, including the Snowbasin ski resort near Ogden, already the site of Olympic downhill ski races.
None of the sites have been eliminated, Aalberg and other organizers have said. But Aalberg said Friday he wasn't going to take the international experts to the Woodruff-area property.
Bjorkestol, representing the International Ski Federation, and Vodicar, representing the International Biathlon Union, are expected to recommend a site to Olympic organizers before they leave next Wednesday.
They noted Friday that all the sites will likely require separate housing for the athletes who'll compete there. The athletes village planned for the University of Utah is just too far away, both said.
Olympic organizers hope to choose a site for the cross-country and biathlon venue by September. During the Olympics, some 700 athletes will compete in 18 skiing and shooting events there over 16 days.
Organizers had planned to hold the events at the Mountain Dell Golf Course, but announced last year they wanted to move them into the nearby Little Dell canyons because the golf course didn't get enough snow.
Environmental problems with the canyons forced the organizing committee to start looking for yet another site. By the May 1 deadline for proposals, a dozen sites were in the running.