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Photo a day from Sochi: We're alive! Rejoicing!

The biathlon and cross-country courses at the Sochi Games are far removed from the coastal city on the Black Sea.
biathlon face paint
Russian fans have their faces painted at the Laura Cross-country and Biathlon Center in Krasnaya Polyana before the first medal event at the Olympic Winter Games Feb. 8, 2014.

 

The biathlon and cross-country courses at the Sochi Games are far removed from the coastal city on the Black Sea. 

Up roughly 90 kilometres inland, nestled in the North Caucuses at 1,500 metres elevation where we're teetering on crest of the Psekhako Ridge roughly 10 kilometres to the north-east of Krasnaya Polyana, the resort town that's seen massive development since the Olympic Winter Games were awarded to Sochi seven years ago. 

If you make the climb from Adler like I do every day, it'll take you three buses. Then a gondola. And then another bus -- if you don't decide to walk the final three kilometres.

If you made it, you're alive. Rejoicing! (Or in Russian: "We have done it and we are glad!)

laura sign

 

The walk up the hill is "tough."

laura sign

 

Along the way to the stands, you pass a cross-country training track.

sochiski

 

It's stunning. Definitely a reason to rejoice.