Humans are weather obsessed at the best of times but add an Olympic Games and minus fifteen degrees Celsius before the wind chill and, well, you have PyeongChang.
Now, I’ve been cold in my life. I have skied in interior British Columbia in Canada in January (rookie error) and I’ve felt the chill of Japan at peak season. Hell, I spend my winters in Utah so I know what minus ten, even minus 12, feels like.
But I have never been as bone chilling cold as I have been in Korea. True to style, I thought I knew better than those folks who constantly spoke of the cold in Seoul and the mountains. It can’t be that cold, I said.
Well, yes it can. Thanks to Siberia that blows a cold cruel winter across the waters.
It’s so cold that it was the main point of discussion at a press conference meant for discussing moguls today with Australia’s elite athletes.
Instead, the media constantly asked questions about how they intended to deal with the cold while competing? Would the Australian team be taking precautions against the cold during the Opening Ceremony? How cold is too cold? Why are they daring to step outside? Why are they not building fires on the mogul track to keep you warm?
The cold is a constant source of conversation. One person on the phone today simply said “have to go can’t feel fingers” – no need for a goodbye, everyone understands, it’s cold.
Even the organizers are gearing up for the freezing conditions of the Opening Ceremony with a special bag to be distributed to attendees with hot packs, seatwarmers, a blanket, a hat and a wind-breaker.
I ventured out to moguls training tonight to check out the Aussies go through their training motions. I wore merino and bamboo thermals, two pairs of thermal merino bamboo socks, a pair of boots guaranteed to withstand minus thirty degree conditions, a pair of trousers, a base layer, a top and the thickest toastiest warm jacket in all the land of jackets plus not one but two pairs of gloves. Oh, and a scarf. And some earrings and maybe a splash of perfume for good measure.
Yet my fingers began to burn from the cold, my feet started to pulsate shortly before losing feeling and nausea infested my guts. The trick, they say, is to keep moving, hard to do when standing still watching athletes who are the ones moving.
The other trick is to cover all exposed areas of skin, use toe warmers, hand warmers, heated jackets, crawl inside the hide of a sheep, stay inside, build a fire, have a hot bath, do not leave home.
So, if you’re coming to watch the Australians in the freestyle events at Phoenix Snow Park in Bokwang, bring a heater, marry a bear, hug a hot water bottle under your coat, bathe in deep heat or tiger balm or stick toe warmers to your chest like I did. If you can’t get any of that then anti freeze face tape, yes, that’s a real thing.
Trust me, it will be worth the precautions when you sit toasty warm in the stands cheering on your favorite athletes who will be so fueled on adrenaline they won’t notice the minus a gazillion degrees. And when they win the excitement will be like a giant oil heater thawing our frozen hearts and moving the stadium to hot fiery tears.
