The Creation of the OmniGames Movie: Day #1

If you missed my post yesterday, check it out here for the movie game we’re all playing this week, starting with THIS POST. Remember, it can be quotes or references!

Per usual, Columbia maintained a veil of mystery to the absolute last minute, and it wasn’t until we were driving into the parking lot of a faded ranch that I realized we still had no idea what was going to happen. Day #1 of the OmniGames had arrived but save for a huge bag of new gear to wear, we knew nothing. Naturally that all changed when it was announced that each winter season participant would choose a name out of a hat. Lo and behold, Caleb Farro chose my name and we officially became #OmniTeam5!

Of course, that wasn’t all; we also learned what we would be competing for~

The top five teams (of 15) would win a trip to freaking Jordan!

After that, Caleb and I were on GAME TIME mode. After all, who doesn’t want to visit Jordan?! We headed into the first day of competition psyched and raring to go!

Snowmobile Drive-By

I quickly learned that our first comp of the day would involve two things that I suck at: archery and snowmobiling. Caleb assured me that he would not, in fact, leave me stranded in the middle of the woods, so I promised to try my best at archery. Y’all, the odds were not in my favor.

Photo Credit: Wes Shirey

While Caleb rocked with the arrows and hit the target every single time, I managed to do the exact opposite…and miss the target every single time.

Seriously. Who does that? The instructor even spent 10 minutes searching for one of my arrows because I shot so wide of the target! Needless to say, I left the first competition slightly disheartened. Was I truly going to suck at all of the events?

Our House

I cheered at the thought of our second event and Caleb and I both felt pretty confident: we had 20 minutes to build a shelter that could hold both of us, withstand 30 mph winds, and keep us warm overnight in single-digit temps. The catch? All we had to use was four pieces of string, two sticks, a tarp, and our surroundings!

Photo Credit: Dave Creech

Fortunately, Caleb and I both know a fair bit about winter survival and immediately set about making a solid shelter. We headed upslope to a solid tree grove that provided natural protection against the blizzard that was blowing into Park City. After tromping out an area with our snowshoes, we settled on creating a low-lying tent of sorts. While Caleb tied down the corners to secure the heat inside, I built a large snow wall to help protect the shelter from the wind gusts. We felt confident until we crawled inside and experienced a moment of panic: what was this, a center for ants?! Our shelter was so small! We managed to cocoon ourselves together for judging—with Caleb claiming the big spoon!—and it worked out in the end. The judge declared that it would withstand all types of weather, including the aforementioned wind gusts, so we felt good!

Hot Chocolate Run

After our successful shelter, we began the snowshoe trek uphill to the one challenge that was annihilating everyone all day: creating a fire, boiling some water, and making a toasty cup of hot cocoa!

Photo Credit: Dave Creech

From what we had heard from other teams, this was the toughest challenge of the day and most people weren’t having any luck. Each team was given some kindling, newspaper, a block of magnesium and a knife. Under normal circumstances, this would be plenty to get a raging fire but the snow and wind were throwing a wrench into the event. The newspaper was soaked, the kindling was totally wet, and the winds kept blowing the magnesium everywhere!

I’ve built fires in some wretched conditions, so Caleb and I sorted our a game plan: he began shaving magnesium strips into a paper cup while I searched for dry newspaper pieces to stick underneath my jacket. I hoped to keep the paper dry until we had some type of flame!

Photo Credit: Dave Creech

Unfortunately, the weather was NOT cooperating! We created smoke and burned holes in the newspaper, but were not having any lucky in achieving flame! Finally, Caleb had the brilliant idea to move our mini-work station underneath the BBQ pit to provide extra protection from the weather. Sure enough, he caught some magnesium on fire and I was able to slide the dry newspaper in there. We quickly moved it to the pit, placed the grate on top and began feeding our fire.

Y’all, I have never been so giddy to build a fire! Our flames began to catch, creating a roaring inferno! Caleb quickly put the pot of water on the grate while I ran around yelling, “Look what we have created! We have fire!” I was beyond ecstatic!

The downside? It took us so long to get the fire going that we didn’t quite reach boiling with our water. However, it was hot, so we got a large portion of the credit on an event where many others struggled. Yes!

Needle in an Avalanche

Riding a wave of euphoria from our fire-building event, #OmniTeam5 headed into the fourth event full of confidence. After all, we were both comfortable with backcountry beacons, so how hard could it be to find one while being timed?

Photo Credit: Dave Creech

The good side: it really wasn’t that hard.

The bad side: sometimes those beacons are finicky and will throw you for a loop! Straight out of the gates, Caleb and I locked on to our signal and the numbers immediately began to decrease, signifying that we were getting closer to our target. Then, out of nowhere, the numbers jumped up, indicating we were going in the wrong direction. We immediately changed course, walking in a brief circle before realizing that the beacon had just been acting fussy. We backtracked and found the beacon, but not without losing a precious 15-20 seconds. 60% of the time, they’ll work every time, I guess?

Dog Days of Winter

By far, I was the most excited for the final event of the day: we got to ride in dog sleds!

Photo Credit: Dave Creech

We met with our mushers who then took each team on a 10-ish minute ride with the dogs, all while peppering us with intricate details from the dog sledding world. Upon our return, we had to fill out a questionnaire to see how much of the information we retained. I was trying my hardest to listen to Racer, our musher, but I was so entranced by the dogs! I had always wondered if sled dogs loved the sport as much as owners always claimed they did, but watching these pups proved this to be true. I have never seen dogs so excited to run!

Photo Credit: Dave Creech

Our sled team was the last run of the day, so our dogs were feeling ornery and only listening to Racer some of the time. He kept commanding, “On by! On by!”, telling the dogs to pass by the smells, but the dogs kept sniffing everything anyway. I finally turned to Racer and said, “You keep on using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means!” Regardless, he managed to get our team to complete the lollipop loop and return us back to the ranch.

Fortunately for us, we positively knew all of the answers to the questions, so we were psyched to end the day on a good note! Even better? We learned that night that we were sitting in the fifth position while heading into the second day of competition. Jordan was within our grasp!

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s wrap-up of the OmniGames!

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Movie references—did you get them?! What did you find?

Of these first five events, which would be your favorite? Your least favorite? (Hello, archery!)