Walking up Blue Mountain on Sunday morning, one guest called it "modern-day sledding."

While that may be true, the speed and high-banked turns of the luge track certainly provide more thrills, not to mention bumps and bruises, than your average neighborhood hill.The public had the rare opportunity to test their skills on a 400-foot luge track Saturday and Sunday as part of Blue Mountain Ski Area's 2015 Winter Festival.Those daring enough to take a run also had the chance to be discovered by members of the United States Luge Association and Olympic team, who manned the track."We have been coming to Blue Mountain for about six years," said Gordon Sheer, United States Luge Association marketing director and 1998 Olympic silver medalist. "It's an opportunity for people to experience the sport and allows people to get to know some of our athletes. We have a chance to look out for some kids who may have the talent to go further with this."Morgan Bell, spokeswoman for Blue Mountain, said Saturday was a busy one for the Luge Challenge."There were a few kids who did really well," Sheer said. "We actually have gotten an Olympian out of this program, and that was Summer Britcher, who was from just outside of Gettysburg."Britcher, 20, competed in Sochi, Russia, in 2014.Reaching speeds around 25 mph, many people who went down the track Sunday enjoyed the experience."It was our first time ever doing anything like that, and we thought it was really great," said Michael Bauer of Bangor, who, along with his son Austin, attempted a run.Cindy Miklos of Hereford also said she was interested in learning more about luge techniques."I don't think I had the perfect form, but I'm going to keep working at it," she said. "It's definitely an energy rush."An Olympic luge track is 1 mile, Sheer said, and finish times are around 50 seconds.Someone tamed the 400-foot track at Blue Mountain in just over eight seconds on Saturday.Sheer hopes promotional events, like the one at the Winter Festival, continue to increase the popularity of the sport."I think it's catching on," he said. "The interest definitely peaks around the time of the Olympics, but the more we can get out and get people excited about it, the better we'll be."The sport certainly paid dividends for Sheer, who was in Lake Placid, New York, with his parents when he saw the phone number for the U.S. luge team on the side of a van."I was 11 or 12," he said. "I called it and I was on the ice a few weeks later."Sheer won the silver medal in the men's doubles event at Nagano in 1998."It was the culmination of 16 years of hard work," he said. "I watched the Olympics when I was 4 years old and I wanted to be a part of it since then."The Luge Challenge wasn't the Winter Festival's only draw.Altoona native Tim Klock put his championship wood carving skills on display.Klock started the hobby 12 years ago after he broke his foot."I was so bored that I had to do something," he said. "I started carving and it just went from there. I enjoy the zone that it puts you in."Now Klock is among the most recognized carvers in the world."After three years, I competed in the national championship in Wisconsin," he said. "They only take eight carvers. It was a wake-up call. All the books I ever read about different techniques, I was now competing against the people who wrote them."He will also be competing for the fifth time in the English Open outside of Manchester, England. The event features the best 35 carvers in the world. Only six come from North America.His favorite piece was a 20-foot female dragon."She was breathtaking," he said. "The look on her face was solemn. That was a piece to replace on a merry-go-round I had done a few years before."Members of Sculpted Ice Works of Lakeville made several ice displays for the Winter Festival including a picture frame positioned near Blue Mountain's Slopeside Pub and Grill to provide one of the resort's best views.Other ice sculptures included a snowman, fish, shark, bear and even an ice slide.The festival also featured snowshoe demonstrations with Eastern Mountain Sports and tele-skiing demonstrations.A fireworks display concluded Saturday's activities.