As if the first fortnight of North Melbourne's high-altitude traning camp hadn't already been tough enough, the Kangaroos' players seem to face new and challenging tasks every day.

The Utah Olympic Park was the competition venue for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games and is just across the road from North's hotel.

But as many guessed, there was not going to be a tour of the world-class facility.

Looming large in the background are the park's Nordic Ski Jumps - a place where athletes fly at high speed through the air and cover distances as great as one and a half NFL football fields. At 7,130 feet, the Park's K90 and K120 ramps make for the highest-altitude world-class jumps on the planet.

As the players suspected, they were going to have to get to the top and while the chairlift up the mountain face looked attractive, Director of Sports Science Peter Mulkearns had other ideas - the stairs.

Each group had to carry three footballs up 800 steps to the top where senior assistant coach Darren Crocker was waiting and watching to ensure there were no shortcuts.

Hard for most to conquer just once, the task was to get the footballs to the top and back as many times as possible in half an hour.

Ice provided a slippery hurdle, while heavy legs from the early morning training session in temperatures below 0 meant the players felt each and every step.