Leg 12 (Samoa → United States of America)• Apia (Faleolo Airport) to Reno, Nevada, USA (Reno-Tahoe International Airport)
• South Lake Tahoe, California (Heavenly Ski Resort) (DETOUR – Linear or Parabolic)
• Incline Village, Nevada (Diamond Peak Ski Resort – Base Lodge)
• Olympic Valley, California (Squaw Valley Adventure Center)
• Olympic Valley (Squaw Valley Resort) (ROADBLOCK – Who can stay on course?)
• Truckee (Tahoe Donner Cross Country Ski Area)
• Tahoma (Vikingsholm) (FINISH LINE)
In this leg's Detour, teams chose between Linear and Parabolic. In Linear, teams traveled to the top of one of the ski slopes and, after learning the basics, skied downhill, aiming to complete the course within 1 minute of each other to receive their next clue. In Parabolic, teams traveled to a marked half pipe and, after learning the basics of snowboarding, tried to balance on a series of 6 spots (3 spots each) of the half pipe to receive their next clue. In the Roadblock of this leg, one team member, using the same method of transport they used in the Detour, to navigate a slalom course following a path of flags in the order that they visited the corresponding countries. If they were successful, they would receive their next clue however if not, they would have to wait for any queued racers to attempt the task before trying again.
Additional Tasks- At Diamond Peak's lodge, teams had to work as baristas for the lodge, taking and filling drink orders for the waiting guests. Once 50 people approved of their creations the barista supervisor would give them their next clue.
- After completing the task at the lodge, teams were instructed to find the site of the 1960 Winter Olympics, which they had to figure out was the Squaw Valley Resort
- At the Adventure Center, teams took part in a tandem indoor rock climb, with team members connected with a paper strip roughly 5 feet in length. Each team member would have to climb to the top to get half of their next clue however if they broke the paper strip, they would have to go back down to get a new one before starting again.
[li]At Tahoe Donner, teams received a (product placed) smartphone, taking photos of 8 animals (cutouts, like the 'Brains' Detour in 22) they encountered during the race in some capacity in order (frog, crocodile, ostrich via egg, camel, falcon, panda, lamb via hot pot, and turtle). If correct they would receive their final clue.
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...basically we've never had a full "wintry" final leg in the post-TAR 12 era as opposed to two overtly tropical legs (14, 20) and one wilderness leg that occurred in summer (23). A final leg Detour, two tasks that test teamwork and multiple memory tasks
. The flag task is fairly easy with respect to memorization - one can assume teams will be given flags throughout the season - since the trust test will be of coordination, plus it hides the actively daunting memory task with the animals.
This incidentally was not my planned entry for that final challenge for that DC that I played in that one time or anything buuuuuut if it was I'd feel good about placing third <3