Volley Day 20 - Feb 25 - Shoveling a big driveway!

Anyone need their driveway shoveled? Today we shoveled the biggest driveway I have ever done, i.e. the entire men's slalom hill. Lots of heavy wet snow from last night had to be removed from track as impossible to pack it down and have it stick to underlying hard surface, especially with warm weather. The snow was the slushiest heaviest snow you could imagine. Any wetter and it would have been water. As per pics below, hundreds of us at work for about 6 hours or more just shoveling heavy snow into rows, getting snow blowers to remove and then we came in to shovel down to hard surface, have that blown away, and continue until all new snow was off the hill. A job that only an "army" of us could have done.

Tomorrow women are using men's track for their slalom, and forecast is for more snow maybe even overnight, so there are crews on standby for 3 AM upload (ugghh), then a second group to come on at 2 PM, after the women's slalom, to get track ready for men's slalom on Saturday .. and then home ... can't believe I have been here for 3 and a half weeks working my whatever off, but having a blast.

The snow was so wet that this coach from Turkey thought he could bring his Kayak and do some paddling!

A common scene today the entire length of the men's slalom hill. Shovels to move snow, then scrape down to hard undersurface, also a few rakes (snow-side surface is flat) to scape off last bits. Two fences over, the 2d run of ladies GS was being run, in only a bit less fog than previous day's first run.

Note burms of snow and snowblower trying to blow snow off track, but snow so heavy that discharged snow did not go far.

Better view of heaps of heavy snow piled up, being blown off the track. Bluish color is residual from dye put down from speed events and GS. It was our way to know we were down to hard undersurface.

No Work Today ! (Feb 24)

As promised to us two days ago, entire men's course crew was off today. So I had a great day skiing with Jonah and Roanne. A small amount (5+ cm) of new snow, combined with fog, wind, etc made for a great Whistler ski day. We skied Couloir Extreme and West Bowl, bringing back great memories when we last skied with Jonah 9 years ago!

As you may have heard, women's GS was "postponed" after first run due to fog (believe me, having skied through it, there was no safe way to have run it. FIS rules state that "whenever possible, the two runs of GS should be on same day". Needless to say, coaches of racers who did well want tomorrow to just be the second run, whereas others want the entire race rerun. Final decision pending.

Tomorrow's upload is at 7:30 AM, not sure I can sleep in that late, will try. I suspect we will be rolling B-Net, and cleaning up the track everywhere above the slalom start. Hopefully the weather will be OK for Saturday's final alpine event, the men's slalom.

Hopefully more news tomorrow. Don't forget to keep eyes on Shauna, Britt, Marie Michelle, and Marie-Pierre in women's second run. All threree made the top 30 so will have good start positions for 2d run.

February 23 - Men's GS (Giant Slalom)

Well, back to usual hours: 5:30 breakfast, 6:15 Section and Crew Chief meeting, 6:30 upload. Work much less complicated as track down to half initial length as only events remaining are GS and slalom. What I missed yesterday was a day of tear down of B-Nets, A-nets, etc. on upper sections no longer being used. Today was usual pre-race prep: making sure we had 2 people looking after each gate, ensuring all equipment was at hand (drills, gate keys, wedges, hammers, extra gate poles and banners).

For those not familiar, gate pole is installed by drilling hole in icy snow. The gate pole has at its base (bottom) a large screw, attached by a flexible spring to rest of pole. Bottom tip of screw is inserted into hole. A special "key: fits around the gate pole, is lowerd to top of "screw" and inserts into notches of screw. Handles of key are then used to screw gate into snow. When racer hits gate pole, it flexes at spring, screw maintains secure insertion in snow.

During the race, screw can come loose, so we always run out between racers to enbsure screw is tight. If thread is stripped, we have wood wedges to bang into the space between the screw and edge of hole to resecure gate pole. If gate pole can no longer be secured where it was, we are allowed to move it down the hill by no more than 4 inches, a distance unlikely to change the racer's line.

Additional work includes shaving the edges of ruts formed by racers' ski edge, raking away accumulating loose snow, repositioning gate banners when they are knocked off gate when skier hits it. Best racers (top 30) are run at long intervals, but from 31 on, only 40 second intervals so anything that needs to get done must be done quickly. We always keep counting to ourselves as we do our work, making sure to get out of track and "spill zone" well before racer comes. The spill zone is not where racer skis, but where he may end up if he falls.

Giant slalom truly reflects the Olympics philosophy of participation by as many countries as possible. There were 103 racers, huge for a world class ski race. Many of later racers came from countries one would not associate with snow, skiing, or racing. The racers were clealry not in the same class as top racers, but their participation truly showed what the Olympics are supposed to be about. The reality of course is thatother racers fromcountries such as Canada are much better than some of racers in Olympics, but each country is limited to 4 competitors.

We ran 2 runs of GS without a single "stop-start", term used when scheduled racer start is delayed due to reapirs needed on course or an athlete who falls and cannot get out of track in time. Thus a pretty amazing accomplishment, and due to great work by all those caring for gates.

Although I am supposed to work tomorrow, entire men's crew given day off. Only one more race to get off for men, the slalom on Saturday Feb 27, so no major work that cannot be started on Feb 25. So I will get to ski with onah and Roanne, all day, and it is snowing out, so it is bedtime for early (well, not as early for me!) start to a dsay of fun.

No Volley Day Today (Feb 22)

Although date shows Feb 24, actually written Feb 23, seems Blogger works on eastern time, now after 9 PM here.

Yes, finally a day off. It felt strange not to be up before 5 AM, and not to be in ski boots for 10-12 hours, but it was a good break. Drove to Vancouver after being offered use of car by Ken and Tannis Hall, friends from Tremblant. Jonah and I saw both women's semi-final hockey games, neither very competitive but still lots of fun. Wandered around Olympic pavilions, etc. in between. Seemed strange havingf a winter olympics whne the temperature was so balmy, grass growing, no snow to be seen, etc. But as each day goes by I realize more and more, that the Olympics, as great an idea as they are, are a media event, so not having "winter" in host city is not crucial.

Roanne got best event as she was at ice dance free skate and saw Virtue and Moir win gold, get medal, stood for Oh Canada. Jonah and I were wating for her so stood at the back of a bar (Jonah is underage) watcing large screen TV of their perfomance, all very exciting.

Late night drive back to Whistler for early AM start for men's Giant Slalom tomorrow (Feb 23).

Volunteer Day 18 - Feb 21 - Organized Mayhem but a great race

The Men's Super Combined was today. One run of downhill, followed by one run of slalom, best combined time wins. This makes for an incredibly busy day for course workers, as running a speed and technical event on same day requires onsiderable co-ordination and timing. Superimposed on this was the fact that since this event had been rescheduled for today, the timing of each run had to be precisely planned so as not to overlap with other events scheduled to be broadcast live. Put simply, we had a narrow window within which to get the slalom portion strated, or else it would have had to be delayed until 3 PM, an extraordinary delay for both racers and workers.

Basically all downhill workers had to be prepared to ski down immediately (i.e. seconds) after last racer in downhill, with all equipment (shovels, rakes, crampons, drills, gate keys), down to slalom start, on the downhill track tat was quite icy. Slalom course had been set the day before, gate positions had been marked, gates removed for downhill, then reinstalled after downhill. Yesterday we (section chiefs, of which I became one today) were canvassed for names of workers with experience looking after slalom gates during a race. Six names. But every few hours or so, things changed in terms of the plan. In the end, we had 16 people to look after 7 gates. For those who have worked slaloms before, back home, if we get one person for every 4 gates we are doing well. It worked out well as some less experienced workers learned by watching/helping others. We raked, shoveled, cut off sharp edges of ruts and rails after every single racer. I had never seen world class men ski slalom live before. It was quite incredible how fast they can ski despite all the ruts. Bode continued his great Olympics by winning the event. He was 3rd in the slalom, but for the gates he skied where we were, he has to have been the fastest. When he skied a flush (3 gates in  a vertical lline), it seemed his skis went straight yet managed to get around all 3 gates. And his line was much tighter (closer to inside pole of each gate) than most others.

After download of all equipment to recycle for next day, and the usual "Please go up to midstation and wait to see if there are any jobs to do before the end of the day", we got to download at a reasonable time, having been on the mountain for a mere 9-10 hours. Some workers were kept behind as there was another major water bar injection program to harden up the Giant slalom hill. Nobody on our crews volunteered, nor were we asked. After doing it for 2 days in a row, I was glad not to be involved with this one.

Tomorrow is my first day off since getting here. Jonah, Roanne, and I are off to Vancouver for 2 semi-fianl hockey games and the finals of the ice dance (Canada is number 1 going into the free skate portion!). Not many pics today, too busy working!

Exhausted, hot and sweaty, after the slalom portion of combined, but time for a quick bite on the side of the hill before our next jobs.

Volly Day 17 - Feb 20 - More and more prep.

Again one day late in reporting. Seems time flies at end of day, and it is harder to stay awake long enough to write anything. No complaints, just reality. But as opposed to being home, nil to do after a day of work so evenings very relaxing. There was another downhill training run today, mainly because with all the delays, so much time had elapsed since the last downhill training that it was felt necessary to give racers in the Super Combined another training run on the downhill course. Not compulsory this time, but conditions had changed enough that this is done for safety, etc. In case you had not noticed, the primary issue in putting on an alpine ski race, especially a speed event, is racer, worker, and spectator safety. The other 2 major issues are (1) making tings as fair as possible for all racers, and (2) ensuring each athlete has an accurate time.

Not much prep prior to training run. Women were running Super G race so men's training did not go the whole length of the course. And how about that women's super G: everyone (or almost) had almost conceded it to Lindsay Vonn (Kelly vanderBeek, injured Canadian team member, correctly predicted the winner), and Jonah and Roanne had seats in the stands to see one racer after the other displace the first place skier. At least until Fischbacher cleaned up.

Major work after the training run as lots of loose snow had built up. The track itself was hard as concrete, so  much so that many crew workers had difficulty getting down the pitches, even sideslipping. The loose snow was outside the racer's line, but had to be removed as it could predispose to injuries if racer goes off line into built up piles of soft snow. See pic below re: the approach to this issue.

I am the only member of my crew staying on after today, so entire crew goty together for beer and pizza at night. Roanne was welcomed as a "crew member", while Jonah got a last minute invitation to see the 2-man bobsleigh heats one and two. He says watching live gives a whole different perspective to the speed involved.

Early day (5:45 AM upload) tomorrow, and I am section chief again, so lots of organization also, hopefully 5-6 hours sleep and I will be fine.

Skis, feet, shovels, rakes on pitch of Toilet Bowl to get all loose snow off the track. I counted about 70-80 workers on the picth at same time. Similar numbers elsewhere on track. 

Nothing like a bit of R and R at end of a day of hard work, just waiting to make sure there are no more items in the job jar before we download.

Jonah at sliding centre for 2-man bobsleigh heats.

How is this for speed? A mere 145 km/hr. On video (unfortunately blogger.com has stopped making video upload possible), we have Jonah in foreground as an overturned sled goes by!

Volly Day 16 Feb 19 - What a Super SuperG

The track set up really well, in fact at the top, the first 4 gates were like a skating rink, at least for lowly skiers like me, but it was just what the racers like. Our water program had worked well, at least until it got warm and the snow softened. The race was scheduled for 11:30 AM local time, by wuch sun was out and snbow getting slower. I suspect late start had more to do with prime time television in Europe and other scheduling issues, and not primarily based on best ski conditions.

I was again at top of Weasel, great view of great high speed turns, air, amwzing recoveries, and awesome performance again by Axel Svindal and Bode. And as great as Eric Guay did (0.03 seconds from bronze, 0.06 seconds from Silver), I suspect he is not as thrilled as we think he might be (four years ago he came almost as close). But still a great performance. It is somewhat interesting that amongst course workers, there is always talk about Manny, Ronnie, at times Jan, but less of Eric. But most of people I am working with are B.C. natives, so hardly unexpected. I actually met Jan Hudec's mom early this AM waiting to load gondola, she too was working on course crew for the race.

We were quite busy during the race. Weasel was extremely concrete-like and no area to stand that is out of racer spill zones. Also, racers often hitting gates and knocking flags off. So we had rotation of workers who would take off down the pitch right after a racer, to repair/replace gate or panel, time ticking in our heads as there was 2 minute interval between racers, and then only 1:15 for racers 31 on. At the bottom of the pitch, a snowmobile waited to bring us back around up to the top of Weasel.

For those less knowledgeable about ski racing, the top rated skiers start in the first 30. The interval between racers is 2 minutes to make sure that if one racer falls, another racer is not on the course, in which case they would have to be stopped and sent back to the top for a rerun.

After the race we had to reconvert track to be ready for a repeat Downhill training run tomorrow. The Super Combined (one run of DH, one run of slalom) is Feb 21, but since it has been so long since last training run, there needs to be another downhill training tomorrow. Women do Super G also, nit sure yet how they will arrange this, as finish line is the same.

Inspection of Super G. View from near start, looking down Toilet Bowl. I had trouble

 even standing still on pitch, never mind trying to ski it.

Coaches gather at top of Weasel before start of race. The fellow in the middle (blue, white, and red uniform with hat and goggles, looking towards the right) is a Swede who was just appointed as director of alpine ski events for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. He gave me the web site to go to to sign up as a volunteer!

View down Weasel. Note about twice as many gates as in Downhill, but racers still > 100 km per hr, I guess, by the time they get to end of the pitch. Note red gate to left on the pitch. You can't see slope beyond it as it drops off precipitously, racers are going against the fall line, lots of off balance air flights here. The blue gate panel after that came off repeatedly, keeping us busy. By race time, the few people behind the quadruple B-Net had grown to many hundreds, if not more.

The epitome of "outdoor bathrooms". Some course workers obvioulsy were not as busy as others, so had time to build a true outdoor toilet and sink in case we did not have time to go inside!