People who grow up in cities get accustomed to a bustling environment that includes bright artificial lighting from streetlights, traffic, and buildings. Anyone who grew up in the Adirondacks, on the other hand, will feel far more at home in a more peaceful, darker nighttime setting, one with minimal light and noise.  

At the Olympic Authority we are diligently striving to balance our longstanding mission and legislative mandate with the benefits of darker night skies. Created after the 1980 Olympics, our organization is charged with protecting Lake Placid’s valuable Olympic legacy while also creating economic and social benefits for our communities and our state by operating year-round, world class venues that provide recreational and athletic development opportunities and a wide array of programs and experiences for people of all ages and abilities.  

In recent years, major investments in a series of venue renewal projects have greatly boosted our ability to provide the powerful economic engine our communities need while also ensuring safe competitions and a range of athletic training opportunities in a great multitude of sports at all levels. With these major renovations, our team has built in vital and innovative measures that vastly increase the environmental sustainability of our operations, and advanced lighting technology that helps preserve Lake Placid’s dark skies are among them.  

Olympic Jumping Complex 

The revitalization of Olympic Jumping Complex included a well-planned, well-executed installation of a new precision system with controlled LED sports-specific lighting that is fully adjustable, highly efficient, and focuses lighting downward into the venue’s field of play. This is especially important because with the revitalization, the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup and other major competitions have returned to Lake Placid after being absent for more than three decades. These major events offer powerful economic benefits to the area, yet the majority of these high-level ski jumping competitions continue into the evening hours. Therefore, good lighting is vital not only for broadcasting images of Lake Placid around the world but also for ensuring fair competition and the safety for the athletes.

The new lighting systems achieve these objectives while also minimizing and controlling excess light. Greater control and pinpoint accuracy greatly diminish side-effects of nighttime light in the surrounding skies. This advanced new system provides for the best possible competitive environment while not casting light into the skies outside the venue. In addition to using the right systems, the lighting is highly controlled and only used at its brightest when it’s necessary for evening events.  

James C. Sheffield Speed Skating Oval 

This and every sports venue call for a lighting solution that balances the needs for dark sky preservation with the demands of high-level competition, athlete safety during competition, and when appropriate, evening recreation. The historic James C. Sheffield Speed Skating Oval, for example, located in downtown Lake Placid, though only rarely a site for evening competitions, is remarkably popular among both visitors and area residents for evening recreational ice skating and training. On any given winter evening, with gentle snow falling under the soft lighting of the oval, a great many visitors and families, including many locals, find joy and lifetime memories skating together. On other occasions, such as the massive annual Ironman Triathlon competition, the Oval is also lit during summer evening hours, again for the enjoyment of the huge crowds of spectators as well as for the safety and security of the athletes at the finish line.

There is an opportunity at this venue to evaluate and the current high-efficiency LED lighting to perform like the lighting system at the Olympic Jumping Complex. With higher poles and greater controls, the oval would continue providing the vital services and activities while also integrating lighting systems that would more effectively serve the preservation of dark skies, too.

Mt Van Hoevenberg Sliding Track 

Mt Van Hoevenberg is another venue where great progress has been made with lighting systems. After the new combined track was constructed and before 2010, the previously existing high pressure sodium lights were often illuminated simply to make the mountain more visible at night. Because these were remnants of an older lighting system on the 1980 track, they produced a substantial amount of spillage and glare into the night sky. By 2010, however, those lights were decommissioned and removed.  

Similarly, old pole mounted flood lights on the separate 1980 Luge Track were also demolished at the time of the construction of the new Combined Track. However, the combined track was not covered when originally built, and construction lights as well as groups of remote pole mounted floods were at that time used to light the track. 

The new track, today revered around the world as the most technically challenging track in the world, was covered, and permanent lighting was installed under tarps and shades. At the time, most other tracks in the world remained uncovered, and lighting installed under coverings was not typical. Nevertheless, in those early days, some floodlighting was mounted in clusters on poles outside the track coverings, and the covering of the new track still allowed some light to escape.  

Continual improvements changed that lighting situation. The original tarp coverings were replaced by opaque tin on both the roof and sides. The old metal halide lights were also replaced by higher-efficiency LED lighting, which effectively targeted the light downward onto the track surface and greatly improved the spillage into the night sky as well as any distant glow from the venue.

An athlete safety and performance problem remained, however. Lights were necessary during darker, overcast days, and sliders’ vision was impacted by the light sources. Additionally, the uniformity of light levels between track sections varied greatly, creating a less-than-ideal situation for both athletic performance and high-quality television.  

Other challenges remain, too. The track LED lights were cool white in color, necessary to support TV broadcast needs, whereas longer wavelength, warmer colors are optimal preserving dark skies compliance. Additionally, maintenance of the track was often required at night as athlete training and competition ran on daytime schedules. This after-hours and overnight maintenance required lighting over the entire track length as crews worked to prepare for quality, safe conditions during the day. Motion sensors were considered to activate lighting as needed, but the complexities and safety hazards outweighed the benefits.  

In this coming summer of 2025, new roofing and refrigeration upgrades provide an opportunity to install new, specially designed lighting to support the performance needs of athletes and provide for high-quality television production while also further improving the preservation of the night sky. All lighting will be operated remotely and fully dimmable and tunable white light, providing easily variable light levels for track maintenance, evening training or competition, and optimal broadcast environments. These advanced controls will also allow sections, such as start ramps, to be turned off when not needed, and the increased lighting controls mean track lighting will be left off when not required for sliding sessions, track maintenance, or tours.  

Other Upgrades and Site Controls 

In the past five years, fiber optic infrastructure and a new communication network were strategically connected to all major buildings and control stations at both the Olympic Jumping Complex and at Mt Van Hoevenberg. This critical infrastructure now extends facility management and automation controls to appropriate locations across the venues, and with additional new energy management systems installed, facility equipment, including lighting, is easily monitored, programmed, and controlled more efficiently than ever.  

In recent years, with dark sky preservation a priority, other exterior lighting upgrades at the Olympic Jumping Complex and Mt Van Hoevenberg were realized, including:  

    • Converted older standard wall, street, and area lighting to highly efficient, more controllable LED lighting with built in glare shields 
    • Installed light-sensing photocells, light timers, and motion sensors to greatly improve the control of light sources 
    • Reduced the brightness and fixture counts of lights, where possible (Example: Mt Van Hoevenberg parking lots were reduced to half the brightness and half the number of lights and other lights were removed altogether from the mountain coaster and zipline activities) 
    • All exterior lighting installed in the past five years is lower in brightness than was previously in operation and is dark sky compliant 
    • All older streetlights on the road up the Combined Track for bobsled, skeleton, and luge are newly converted to be able to be switched off in the summer 

Upgrades coming in 2025 to exterior road, area, pedestrian and building lighting at Mt Van Hoevenberg include: 

    • Dark sky approved fixtures 
    • Designed to be “adaptive dimming” where the fixtures automatically reduce brightness to 35% when occupancy or motion is not detected 
    • Can be automated or controlled by energy management system to turn on and off for activities at preset times 
    • Lights that are controlled remotely, enabling staff to appropriately adjust operating hours as needed 
    • Road, building, and site lighting used solely for sliding track operations and turned off completely whenever there are no nighttime operations 

With the right solutions and its strong commitment to balancing important venue lighting needs with the conservation of our nighttime skies, the Olympic Authority continues to work in the best interests of everyone in our communities.