PYEONGCHANG COUNTY, South Korea -- I’m peering over the edge of the Olympic ski-jump platform here, hundreds of feet above ground, shuddering at the track’s suicidal 45-degree descent. It’s the end of summer, and the tower affords a commanding view of the area known as Keunteo, or the Big Land Valley, with its lushly green fir and pine trees and neatly rowed potato fields framed by several distant mountain peaks.

On this warm afternoon, the coming winter seems a lifetime away, and certainly the 2018 Winter Olympics, to be held at various venues across Pyeongchang County, seem further still.

Indeed, South Korea’s first Olympic party since the Seoul summer games of 1988 is still very much a work in progress. Many of the venues, such as the bobsled course, have yet to be carved out of the surrounding hillsides. The site of the future media village mostly remains a vacant weed-strewn field.

Still, one has to wonder if the Koreans can do it: Can they turn a newly built resort, set amid a middling winter wonderland terrain that wouldn’t look out of place in New York State’s Catskill Mountains, into a legitimate Olympic venue? At this point it seems nothing short of an Olympian task.

After all, this ain’t the Alps. The region’s highest mountain peak is less than 6,000 feet above sea level, not much higher than the Denver skyline. Pyeongchang lost out in its first two attempts to host the winter Olympics. Now officials want to show the International Olympic Committee that they didn’t make a mistake in finally giving Pyeongchang its chance, that the third time is the charm.

The heart and soul of the games will be the Alpensia resort, finished in 2009, which will serve as the Olympic Village. The landing area for the ski jump, with 30,000 spectator seats, will be the site of the opening and closing ceremonies.

Alpensia, which features Intercontinental and Holiday Inn resort hotels, was based on facilities at Whistler and will offer four-star accommodations for the visiting Olympic athletes, officials say. In all, the area offers 10,000 rooms for all budgets. Along with 1,000 at Alpensia and 3,500 at the nearby Yongpyong resort, the site of the alpine downhill and slalom events, there is a good selection of nearby condominiums, budget rooms and youth hostels.

Alpensia seems somehow manufactured. In the summer, at least, with tourist families careening around the resort grounds in rented pedal-powered scooters, Alpensia seems about as authentic as a city dude in cowboy boots. Other than a chain coffee shop and souvenir stalls, there are no restaurants outside the hotels.

But the South Korean winter games will offer something previous sites haven’t: a compact environment. A high-speed train, to begin service in 2017, will whisk visitors from Seoul in 50 minutes. Most of the snow and sliding venues will be within a 10-minute bus ride from Alpensia. Curling, skating and ice hockey competitions will take place a 20-minute drive away in the coastal city of Gangneung.

The Big Land Valley region was the site of South Korea’s first ski resort in 1972 and is known throughout the nation for its mystical natural charm, the misty mountain views and rolling forests. The summer season features hang gliding and balloon rides.

But as he walks down the steps of the Alpensia’s welcome center, French national Etienne Dorival shakes his head when asked if the resort can pull off the Olympics.