Day off today!! After 8 straight days I was happy to to get a break! I slept until 7:00 AM, will do laundry, watch the Men's Super G on TV (have seen little or no TV coverage so far), go to the the village to look around and get down to the Weasel House for some post race festivities (the Men race Super G today)! Really looking forward to it!
Thursday was the Ladies Super Combined. Our crew was scheduled to go up the Gondola at 4:00 AM! I was up a little after 2:00 and arrived in the village to catch my bus at 2:45 AM. The fun thing was all the people that had just left the bars and were making their way home as we were going to work! At 4:00 AM it is very dark on the mountain - we use headlamps and there are a few lights to guide us. Not many people can say that they have skied on Whistler mountain at 4 in the morning! Our first task was to bring equipment from the top of the Ladies Downhill course down to the new Dispatch at the top of the Ladies Super G course. As the races progress they move Dispatch down the mountain until the Slalom on Friday where it will just be on the lower portion of the mountain. It took a couple of runs to get the equipment moved, then we were assigned the task of checking all the safety netting from the top to the bottom of the course (just skier's right) to ensure that the netting was all sitting right on the snow. It is important that if a racer was to fall and hit the netting that they don't go underneath. We had to reset a portion of the net close to the bottom of the course as it wasn't tight enough.
During the Downhill portion of the Super Combined our crew was assigned to do fertilizer on the jump Hot Air (same as we did the day before for the Downhill). Again we were able to stand at the jump and see the girls fly through the air! After the Downhill they made the jump smaller as it was a bit too dangerous! We could also see the stadium and hear some of the announcing so we knew what was going on. The Downhill portion of the Super Combined had no injuries and no big crashes.
The Slalom portion of the Super Combined was held in the afternoon. Along with myself, 4 of our crew were assigned to gates on the course (Tracy, Gord, Bob and Mike). Our job was to keep the area around our gate smooth by using rakes and shovels. As a racer skies through the course they leave a mark in he snow - these marks can add up and leave large ruts and holes. It is important that after each racer the marks are cleared away so each athlete has a clean track. It was very exciting standing beside the course and watching the athletes up close! We all wore crampons on our boots to walk on the very icy hill - without them we would have been sliding all around! Our gates were very close to the bottom - the stadium was just below so were able to see the racers finish and hear the roar of the crowd as they enter the finish area! WOW - it was truly amazing! It was a very easy race to course crew - there were only 31 athletes in the race, after each racer 2 slippers passes through and there was about a minute between racers - lots of time to get in and do what needed to be done. Compare this to a local FIS race - about 150 athletes, only a couple of slippers every 15 racers or so and only 30 seconds between racers - the Olympics was REALLY EASY!
Our day on the hill ended at about 3:00 PM - 11 hours in ski boots! Tonight our crew was getting together for dinner. I went to Tracy's condo to change. While we were there Loyd Piercy, crew chief on the Ladies Course, came by with a bottle of his wine that he produces at his winery in Oregon. His farm is located beside the Columbia River and is quite arid. The wine we tasted was a Pinot Noir and was amazing! His wines are getting rave reviews. He supplied the wine to Morgan Freeman's "Invictus" party, has sent bottles to Brad Pitt, Mathew McConechy and other movie stars! Check out his website - the pictures are beautiful!
http://www.piercyfamilyvineyards.com/Sno-Road-Wines_c5.htm
We had a fun crew dinner at a local BBQ chicken and rib place at Creekside. We were all very tired and headed for home about 7:30 PM. A long day but one I will remember for many years to come!
Thursday was the Ladies Super Combined. Our crew was scheduled to go up the Gondola at 4:00 AM! I was up a little after 2:00 and arrived in the village to catch my bus at 2:45 AM. The fun thing was all the people that had just left the bars and were making their way home as we were going to work! At 4:00 AM it is very dark on the mountain - we use headlamps and there are a few lights to guide us. Not many people can say that they have skied on Whistler mountain at 4 in the morning! Our first task was to bring equipment from the top of the Ladies Downhill course down to the new Dispatch at the top of the Ladies Super G course. As the races progress they move Dispatch down the mountain until the Slalom on Friday where it will just be on the lower portion of the mountain. It took a couple of runs to get the equipment moved, then we were assigned the task of checking all the safety netting from the top to the bottom of the course (just skier's right) to ensure that the netting was all sitting right on the snow. It is important that if a racer was to fall and hit the netting that they don't go underneath. We had to reset a portion of the net close to the bottom of the course as it wasn't tight enough.
During the Downhill portion of the Super Combined our crew was assigned to do fertilizer on the jump Hot Air (same as we did the day before for the Downhill). Again we were able to stand at the jump and see the girls fly through the air! After the Downhill they made the jump smaller as it was a bit too dangerous! We could also see the stadium and hear some of the announcing so we knew what was going on. The Downhill portion of the Super Combined had no injuries and no big crashes.
The Slalom portion of the Super Combined was held in the afternoon. Along with myself, 4 of our crew were assigned to gates on the course (Tracy, Gord, Bob and Mike). Our job was to keep the area around our gate smooth by using rakes and shovels. As a racer skies through the course they leave a mark in he snow - these marks can add up and leave large ruts and holes. It is important that after each racer the marks are cleared away so each athlete has a clean track. It was very exciting standing beside the course and watching the athletes up close! We all wore crampons on our boots to walk on the very icy hill - without them we would have been sliding all around! Our gates were very close to the bottom - the stadium was just below so were able to see the racers finish and hear the roar of the crowd as they enter the finish area! WOW - it was truly amazing! It was a very easy race to course crew - there were only 31 athletes in the race, after each racer 2 slippers passes through and there was about a minute between racers - lots of time to get in and do what needed to be done. Compare this to a local FIS race - about 150 athletes, only a couple of slippers every 15 racers or so and only 30 seconds between racers - the Olympics was REALLY EASY!
Our day on the hill ended at about 3:00 PM - 11 hours in ski boots! Tonight our crew was getting together for dinner. I went to Tracy's condo to change. While we were there Loyd Piercy, crew chief on the Ladies Course, came by with a bottle of his wine that he produces at his winery in Oregon. His farm is located beside the Columbia River and is quite arid. The wine we tasted was a Pinot Noir and was amazing! His wines are getting rave reviews. He supplied the wine to Morgan Freeman's "Invictus" party, has sent bottles to Brad Pitt, Mathew McConechy and other movie stars! Check out his website - the pictures are beautiful!
http://www.piercyfamilyvineyards.com/Sno-Road-Wines_c5.htm
We had a fun crew dinner at a local BBQ chicken and rib place at Creekside. We were all very tired and headed for home about 7:30 PM. A long day but one I will remember for many years to come!
Saturday is a 4:30 AM load up Gondola - setting my clock for 2:45! It is the Ladies Super G
- our crew will be at the jump again!
- our crew will be at the jump again!
Have added captions to the last 2 sets of pictures on Picassa:
http://picasaweb.google.ca/janeluv2ski/JaneSOlympicAdventure6?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.ca/janeluv2ski/JaneSOlympicAdventure7?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.ca/janeluv2ski/JaneSOlympicAdventure8?feat=directlink
Here are Richard Chmiel's (on my crew) pictures from the last week:
http://picasaweb.google.ca/janeluv2ski/RichardSOlympicAdventure?feat=directlink
No comments:
Post a Comment