If you missed it, check out this post to read the rules to the movie trivia game we’re playing this week in celebration of #OmniTeam5’s movie premiere on Friday. Whoever finds the most correct movie quotes/references in my posts this week will win some sweet Columbia schwag!
Our second {and final} day of OmniGames competition dawned blustery, snowy….and awfully windy. In fact, the wind gusts were so high that Columbia had to scramble to change the day’s events. Originally, five events were on tap for Friday, but Mother Nature removed the Leap of Faith. Apparently, traversing a 377-foot zip line and launching off a 65-foot platform was quasi-dangerous with ginormous booms of wind. Caleb and I were bummed, but we quickly got over it—we had some more games to play!
Bridge the Gap
Our motley crew of dirtbags headed over to the Utah Olympic Legacy facility to embark on what would be two different ropes courses of the day. Caleb and I decided to start with the “Bridge the Gap” event: an intermediate course that involved ropes, wires, ladders, and log crossings 25 feet in the air. Each teammate could earn 50 points, but if you fell, you completely lost those points. Kinda all or nothing, you know?
Truthfully, this course was pretty easy and he and I both thought it was a lot of fun. We were hooked up to the overhead wires via a harness and carabiner, so security was virtually guaranteed. Well, unless a carabiner broke while we were hauling our bodies across a gap…but that never happens, right?! Caleb and I hopped onto the platform, free of falls, and excitedly looked towards our next event….
Lookout Below
Yeah, buddy! More ropes courses!
Photo Credit: Dave Creech
This time, the course was significantly higher {~55 feet in the air} and required far more muscular endurance and balance to complete. It was taking other people a lot longer to conquer this course, and many were falling. Columbia had upped the ante on the high course, and it was worth 100 points per teammate if it was completed without any falls. 200 points were at stake! I spoke with one of the instructors and she told me that you should probably be able to do at least three pull-ups if you wanted to successfully complete the course, sans falls.
{Sidenote: Thank my lucky stars for CrossFit!}
In short, Caleb and I had plenty of time to hang out on the platform, wait, and watch our friends struggle. If I ever experienced an, “Oh shit!” moment during the OmniGames, this would be it. I don’t do the fear thing in the same way that many people do; however, I became more and more nervous that I would fall and completely let Caleb down. I can handle relying on myself but it was something new to realize that my teammate’s success was contingent upon my own. Can you tell I wasn’t big on team sports as a child?!
Photo Credit: Dave Creech
We continued to watch as female after female grappled with the vicious second obstacle. When I finally watched Beth cross the ropes without any problems, I knew I could do it too. Do you ever do that? See someone else complete a task and think to yourself, “If they can do it, so can I?”
I also realized that my dear friend Katie was hurting. Katie is an avid outdoorswoman and a beast CrossFitter (seriously, she qualified for Regionals!) but she is pretty darn scared of heights. I initially thought she was fine and ribbed her with some light teasing saying, “If you’re going to spew, spew into this” while handing her a small Dixie cup. But then, I realized she was serious. She and her partner were tackling the obstacle last, behind Caleb and me, and I could literally see the fear on her face.
Caleb hit up the high course first, completing each obstacle before shouting back helpful hints to me. I easily crossed the first wire, but knew it was time to conquer that beastly second rope:
Photo Credit: Dave Creech. See that quasi-diagonal being in blue that looks all sorts of awkward? That’s me!
You see, the ropes were spaced just far enough apart that you either needed to be a semi-tall female or have some legit muscular endurance. I’m not exactly a giant, so my muscles were gassed! I knew I needed to give my forearms some rest, so I was holding the two ropes together with my inner thighs. Let me tell you how glorious that has felt over the past few days!
Photo Credit: Katie Levy
Needless to say, I finally made it across the dreaded obstacle and the rest of the course was smooth sailing; we both completed the high course without any falls! Caleb was absolutely awesome and even hooked me up with a quick forearm massage when I felt like my muscles had somehow caught on fire. How’s that for a badass partner? And you know what else? Katie completed the entire course without falling too!! So proud of my friend!
Downhill Derby
We finally arrived at the {semi} last event of the OmniGames, and I have to admit that Caleb and I both breathed a sigh of relief: it was time to ski!
Each team was comprised of a summer/winter teammate under the assumption that the summer person wasn’t too comfortable on skis. Caleb is flipping fantastic on sticks and can do crazy stuff like double front flips. While I can’t hang with that, y’all know that I do like my skiing which worked out great for #OmniTeam5 since I was the summer member!
The challenge? All of us were released on Canyons Ski Resort with an RFID tracking chip in our pocket. We had 1.5 hours to rack up as many vertical feet as possible per team. In short? Ski like maniacs!
Photo Credit: Katie Levy
I set Caleb loose to go about his wild-man-speedster ways, and I spent my 90 minutes skiing with Katie. We settled on an easy blue run off the Orange Bubble Lift because it would be a quick way to rack up vertical feet, and let me tell you: I felt the need for speed! Granted, we did take a slight detour halfway through when we ventured into some powdery terrain. It was beckoning to us from the lift and we couldn’t help ourselves!
Of course, we were quickly reminded that this was a race: I was skiing in rentals with loose bindings and the powder immediately sucked my right ski off my boot, sending me launching into the snow. Katie hit a tree shortly thereafter and while laughing at her, I watched Patrick somersault down the mountain. Essentially, our mini-detour was short lived for the sake of competition, but it was a fantastic spectacle to watch!
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And this brings us to today. I’m back in Denver, missing my OmniFriends but truly enjoying sharing stories with you as Caleb creates what will be a fantastic movie. So where did we finish? As of now, #OmniTeam5 is sitting in third place, qualifying us for the trip to Jordan, but that can all change. Why? Because of the final challenge:
Charles Dickens
My friends, you’re looking at it! Columbia realized that everyone has various strengths—skiing, fire building, freaking archery, etc—and for many, their words are their most poignant weapon. So, for our final challenge, we were tasked with sharing the Games in whatever way we chose. Obviously, Caleb and I chose these blog posts with our movie premiere this Friday, and I truly hope you are enjoying them! We’re not done yet though—we’ve got to prepare for tomorrow’s red carpet before the big film reveal on Friday!
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Movie references? What did you find in this post? I dare say I was more tricky this time around!
How do you feel about ropes courses like the ones I described? Love ‘em or hate ‘em?