The 2014 Winter Olympics are getting underway in Sochi, Russia. You can feel like an Olympian at Lake Placid, New York, one the the three US locations which have hosted the Games, along with Salt Lake City and Squaw Valley. Lake Placid holds the distinction of having hosted twice, in 1932 and 1980, including the memorable “Miracle on Ice” hockey game between the USA and the Soviet Union.
Surrounded by thousands of acres of Adirondak forest, Whiteface Mountain has the longest vertical in the East, with a plenty of steep and challenging Alpine runs and a gentler side with old-fashioned winding trails sheltered from the wind by thick stands of tall evergreens, also open for glade skiing.
The resort averages 168 inches of snow per season, so there’s plenty of fluffy stuff to soften turns on the 1980 men’s downhill on Cloudspin and Upper and Lower Valley, and the women’s slalom on Mountain Run.
Check out the Winter Olympic Museum, with historic uniforms, videos and equipment, including from that historic hockey game. Or, take a few laps around the Olympic Speed Skating Oval, or the challenging bobsled run.
Read more about Lake Placid in an article ecoXplorer Evelyn Kanter wrote for FoxNews.com/travel.
See the Lake Placid website for information on activities, events, and lodging. Lake Placid is about a five hour drive from New York City.
Link to interesting BuzzFeed article on nine Olympic destinations then and now.
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