Soldier Hollow, Utah - March 6th to 10th, 2024

We went on a one week trip to Utah to watch a biathlon competition. Keith has been a fan of the biathlon since he was a kid. He watches the IBU (International Biathlon Union) competitions on eurovisionsport.com. Most of the competitions are in Europe. There hasn’t been one in the United States since 2019. So when he heard there would be one in Soldier Hollow, Utah this year, he talked the rest of us into joining him.

The competition was held at the Soldier Hollow Nordic Center in Wasatch Mountain State Park near Heber City, Utah. We brought along our own cross country skies and snowshoes so we could ski and hike in Wasatch Mountain State Park when we weren’t watching the competition. We didn’t want to eat out the whole week, so we also brought along food for some of the breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. The motel we were staying at in Heber City did not serve breakfast. It didn’t have a kitchen, but it did have a fridge and microwave. Sandy prepared one meal ahead of time that we could reheat in the microwave. Ann did the same for another meal.

Wednesday morning, our friends Dave and Sandy came to pick us up in their truck. We managed to cram all of our gear and food into the truck, including a small Dometic fridge. There was a DC outlet in the back of the truck so we could keep the fridge plugged in during the drive. The fridge (paid link) was the one we started out using in our VanDoIt camper van (Red Tail Lodge One). We’re glad we hung on to it, as it was very useful for this trip.

Heber City is close enough to Denver that we could have driven there in one day, but none of us like to be in a vehicle that long. So we spent the first night in Green River. Thankfully, the roads were clear the whole way. We arrived at the hotel with plenty of time to get some exercise before heading out for dinner.

Just across the street was a restaurant called Tamarisk. Keith and Ann had eaten there before several years ago and remembered that it was pretty decent. There are not a whole lot of restaurants in Green River, so we walked over to Tamarisk. The restaurant is in a nice location, with views out the windows of the Green River. The food was as good as we remembered, but our fun conversations were even better.

Thursday, the roads were clear again, so we took the shorter route to Heber City, through Price and Provo. It was a very scenic drive. We reached Heber City in time for lunch. Right across the street from our motel was Chick’s Cafe. That sounded perfect. A scone came with the lunch special. However, the scone was not what we expected. These were Utah scones, not British scones. Instead of being baked, Utah scones are fried yeast dough, resembling fry bread or sopaipillas. Chick’s Cafe served them with a dollop of butter on top. They were delicious, but not anything like the scones we were used to. We love discovering local foods.

After lunch, we checked in to our motel, the Swiss Alps Inn. It was a very cute motel, decorated to match its name. We shared the two bedroom suite. One of the beds was in a separate room, but the other bed was in the main room with the entry door, bathroom, fridge, and microwave. It worked out fine for us, but there isn’t a lot of privacy. The table in the main room only had two chairs, but we were able to request two more chairs so all four of us could gather around the table. We had to have somewhere to play our Euchre card games!

In the afternoon, we decided to drive over to Wasatch Mountain State Park and Soldier Hollow to learn the lay of the land. Wasatch Mountain State Park surrounds the town of Midway on the west side. We went to the Visitor Center in the north section of the park first.

There are groomed cross-country ski trails covering the Wasatch Mountain Golf Course, leading right from the Visitor Center. There is a small fee to ski the groomed trails. Also leading from the Visitor Center are hiking trails that go up onto the neighboring hillside. There are no fees to hike or snowshoe the hiking trails. Since Ann no longer skies and would be snowshoeing, this arrangement sounded perfect. She could hike or snowshoe on the trails while everyone else skied.

After grabbing some trail maps, we drove down to the south section of the park, where the Soldier Hollow Nordic Center is located. The biathlon course was on part of the cross country ski trails, but there were still some trails open to the public, for a fee. However, the snow conditions were not great, so they were not allowing anyone on the snow shoe trails there. That was OK, because the snow looked a little better over at the Visitor Center in the north section of the park.

We walked over to the biathlon course from the Soldier Hollow Nordic Center. Athletes were finishing up their training and practice on the course for the day. The competition didn’t start until Friday, the following day. The six planned events were spread across three days. We were able to walk around a little bit and check out the different spectator areas. We had tickets for premium seating for Saturday. Our plan was to attend a second day of competition, watching from along the course in the free spectator areas.

The placement of the premium seating bleachers was a little disappointing. We imagined the seats would be in direct view of the shooting range, but they weren’t. There also weren’t very many seats, as biathlon is not a very popular sport in the United States. There were also places to stand up against the fence, right next to the track.

We climbed up to the top of a nearby building, with a great view of the shooting range. However, we knew we wouldn’t be allowed up there during the competition. It was reserved for VIP seating and the media. Dave struck up a conversation with a handful of young men who looked like they might be biathlon athletes. They turned out to be high schoolers on the Soldier Hollow team. They seemed excited that that would get a chance to see international biathlon athletes compete on their home turf. The 2002 Olympics biathlon was held at Soldier Hollow before these young men were born. The IBU World Cup had a competition in Soldier Hollow only once before since the Olympics, in 2019, five years ago. We should have gotten the young men’s names, as some of them will probably be international competitors for the United States someday. There are not many biathlon athletes in the U.S.

Since we were still pretty full from lunch, we just snacked for dinner. Ann wanted to get her steps in for the day, so Sandy and Keith went with her for a walk around Heber City. We quickly turned away from Main Street and heading down a neighborhood street. There was way too much traffic on Main Street and the noise from the vehicles made walking alongside Main Street very uncomfortable.

Since the snow was not very good and Friday was predicted to be the coldest day while we were in Utah, we decided to not go to the biathlon on the first day and go skiing and snowshoeing ourselves. Temperatures were going to be hovering around freezing. The highs for Saturday and Sunday were expected to be above freezing.

We headed over to the Wasatch Mountain Visitor Center. On the way, we saw quite a few biathlon athletes jogging along the paved paths in Midway. All of the athletes were staying in Midland, at either the Zermatt Resort and Spa or the Homestead Resort. We drove past both of those resorts. They looked like very nice accommodations.

Because the track conditions were so bad, the park did not charge anyone to go skiing. Keith stayed in the lower section with flatter trails. There was one short section where he had to take his skies off to cross. It was down to bare pavement there. Sandy and Dave are more experienced skiers than Keith, so they went up to the upper section of trails, where the snow was a little better.

In the meantime, Ann went hiking. She decided to leave her snowshoes at the truck since it didn’t look like she would need them on the hiking trails. However, the snow got a little better the higher she went. She could have strapped the snowshoes to her pack in case she needed them, but she didn’t feel like carrying them. Ann decided she would turn around if she started post-holing.

Ann’s goal was to make it to the Crow’s Nest, following a route on AllTrails. She took the Epperson and Spring Pond trails up to the Wild Turkey Trail. The first two trails were well-traveled and hard-packed, so the going was pretty easy. Less people had gone on the Wild Turkey Trail, so it was a little slower going as Ann started to sink a couple of inches with each step.

The Wild Turkey Trail dead-ends into the Crow’s Nest Trail, which is a loop. Turning right would have led over to the view at the Crow’s Nest. However, no one had gone that way recently. There were no tracks and it was not obvious where the trail was. Only one set of foot steps went to the left, and even those were covered with a layer of snow. The left fork cut over to the Middle Mountain Trail, which reduced the hike from 5.1 miles with an elevation gain of 1171 feet down to 3.7 miles and 774 feet of elevation gain. It was still a good workout, as Ann was sinking into the snow about six inches most of the time along the Crow’s Nest Trail. When she reached the Middle Mountain Trail, the trail conditions improved again. The Middle Mountain Trail brought her back to the Spring Pond Trail and eventually back to the Epperson Trail. She returned to the Visitor Center in just under three hours from when she started.

Keith, Dave, and Sandy finished skiing at about the same time. We all sat at a picnic table outside to enjoy a snack before leaving.

Dave and Sandy had skied past the historic Huber Apple Orchard and Farmhouse. We drove over there so Ann and Keith could enjoy the historic site as well.

Then we headed back to our hotel. For a late afternoon snack, we walked next door to the Dairy Keen for milkshakes. The place was cute inside, with a model train that ran on a track up near the ceiling. The milkshakes were more like soft serve ice cream instead of milkshakes. The milkshakes were so thick that they were not served with straws, only spoons.

The meals that we brought with us had not thawed yet, so we opted for Mexican carry-out for dinner. Taqueria Los Cuñados was just on the other side of Main Street from the hotel. We all ordered the Mole Dona Lila, the chicken mole house special. It had a wonderful flavor.

Ann spotted a bottle of non-alcoholic sangria in the cooler, so she had to try it. She was curious how a non-alcoholic drink could taste like sangria. A sangria is a Spanish punch made from red wine and chopped fruit. Ann can confirm that Señorial Sangria definitely tastes like a carbonated sangria, with a distinctive red wine taste. She’s not sure how they accomplished that.

In the evening, we watched IBU biathlon videos so Keith could educate us on how everything works. The Soldier Hollow IBU World Cup was hosting six different events. These consisted of men’s and women’s relays, men’s and women’s sprint, and men’s and women’s pursuit. The Men 4 x 7.5 km Relay along with the Women 7.5 km Sprint were held on Friday. We would be watching the Women 4 x 6 km Relay along with the Men 10 km Sprint on Saturday. Then the Women 10 km Pursuit and the Men 12.5 km Pursuit would be on Sunday.

For the relay events, each team member skies the loop course three times, with shooting at the range between each loop. The first shoot is from the prone (laying down) position while the second shoot is from the standing position. Each time at the range, they shoot at five targets. Each participant has a magazine of five bullets for each shooting session along with three spare bullets. If they miss any of the targets, they load the spare bullets manually, one at a time, to try to knock down the missed targets. If, after using all their spares, there are still standing targets that they missed, they have to ski a penalty loop for each of the remaining targets before continuing on to ski the next course loop.

The sprint events work a little differently. The sprint is an individual event instead of a team event. Instead of a mass start like the relay, the athletes start sequentially, at 30 second intervals and the winners were based solely on time. Again they went around the course three times with two shooting sessions at the range, one prone and one standing. However, they do not have spare bullets for the sprint. Therefore, they ski a penalty loop for each missed target.

The pursuit event is based on the sprint event. The staggered start is based on their times from the sprint. The winner of the sprint starts first, then the other participants start the same amount of time that they finished the sprint event after the leader. The winner of the pursuit is then the first person who crosses the finish line. The pursuit is five times around the course with four shooting sessions, two prone and two standing. Again, no spare bullets are used.

On Saturday, we arrived well before the start of the women’s relay. The athletes were warming up on the track and zeroing their rifles in the shooting range. Our premium seating tickets included a BBQ lunch along with a couple of drinks. We finished our lunch before the start of the race.

Even though there were bleachers, we left our daypacks on them, but didn’t really watch the race from the bleachers. Dave and Sandy found a spot on top of a snow pile on the other side of the track. There was a tunnel under the track to get over there. They both brought sit pads, so sitting on the snow was comfortable. Keith and Ann forgot to bring their stadium seats, so they stood along the fence alongside the track. We were surprised by how intimate the race felt. We could almost reach out and touch the athletes as they skied by. That’s the advantage of the sport not being very popular in this country.

There was a break between the women’s relay and the men’s sprint. We decided to change our view, so we climbed up a slushy and muddy hill to stand alongside a different section of the course. Since the hill was up pretty high, we could almost see the whole course from there. But the main attraction to the viewing spot was watching the skiers come up the hill right next to us. It was interesting to hear the coaches yelling at their athletes in different languages as they ran alongside the skiers for a short distance.

After the award ceremony for the men’s sprint, we drove back to the hotel. We heated up one of our meals in the microwave and spent the evening watching some more biathlon videos. Keith gave us quite the crash course on the biathlon during this trip.

Sunday, we went back to the biathlon to watch the Pursuit events. We didn’t have tickets this time, so we were limited to the free spectator areas. For the women’s Pursuit, we climbed up the hill towards the cabin. There was a pinch point in the competition course, where we could watch the skiers go up the hill on the one side and down the hill on the other side. It was a great point to watch from.

Quite a few spectators joined us, with their flags and crazy outfits. There were fans from Wisconsin, with one of them wearing a “cheese head”, as they cheered on the American women. A group of German fans were wearing Lederhosen and Bavarian hats. There was a festive atmosphere. Everyone seemed to be cheering all the participants on, whether they were on their favorite team or not. There were cowbells ringing every time a competitor skied by. We’ll have to get a cowbell before we go to another biathlon so we can join the fun.

There was about an hour in between the two events, so we went to the pizza food truck for lunch. The Umani Pizzeria was an interesting food truck, with a wood burning oven right inside the truck. Dave talked to the owner about the truck. The owner designed the truck himself.

For the men’s pursuit, we moved down next to the penalty loop. We could see a little bit of the shooting range from there, but not very well. In order to determine how many targets people missed, we just had to notice how many penalty loops they skied, if any. We could have brought up the live coverage on our cell phones, but it was more fun just to watch the action. The athletes positions can change drastically every time they enter the shooting range, based on how well everyone shoots. The penalty loop was also near the finish line, so we could watch the skiers sprinting at the end. The pursuit is definitely a more exciting event than the Sprint, since the finish is a head-to-head competition.

After the awards ceremony, we were still hungry. So we stopped at the food trucks again for a little more food and drinks. We sat at the end of the team areas, watching all the commotion. During the competition, each country was assigned two mobile units, one for the team to hang out in and one for waxing their skies. Now that the competition was over, they were loading up all of their gear into trucks.

On the way back to the hotel, we noticed the Open sign was lit at the Mexican bakery a few doors down from our hotel. We decided to walk over to grab some goodies for dessert for after dinner. However, we discovered it was closed. We’re not sure why the sign was still lit. Instead, we walked over to Chick’s Cafe and picked up some slices of raspberry cream pie. Instead of pie, Sandy bought an Utah scone. This time she had it with honey instead of butter. Both were delicious.

After dinner, we played Euchre. We kept the same teams as our Snow Mountain Ranch trip (Snow Mountain Ranch, Colorado - January 8th to 11th, 2024), the men against the women. The women won both games. The men want a rematch.

Even though there was a lack of snow and three of us were not really biathlon fans, we had a great time at Soldier Hollow. There are not too many top-level international sporting events where you can get so close and personal. What made it even more amazing, was that we could have gotten most of that same experience free of charge. There may be more biathlon spectating in our future, especially if Utah hosts the 2034 Olympics.

Check out our related video: Soldier Hollow, Utah

(Ann)