Whistler Patrol in Full Effect!

As things are going bananas out here, I haven't been able to touch a computer in almost three days. It was tearing me apart, as I know how keen everyone is to hear what flavour of granola bar I had with my lunch yesterday...

So we're going to do this update in three parts:

Part 1 - The Story So Far

Due to ANOTHER 18cm of snow overnight Monday, the course was not suitable for the Women's DH on Tuesday, which meant that despite being ready to rock at 6:00 am, we were sent home. After a much needed nap, I headed back up to Whistler for an afternoon of skiing with Guy and his wife Gail.

From the top of Whistler Gondola, we rolled into the Harmony Bowl and headed for Symphony Bowl, with our eyes set on deep snow for Guy and I, and cruisin' blue runs for Guy's less experienced wife. Near zero visibility meant that Gail lost sight of both Guy and I, and ended up perched precariously atop a cliff band some 200 feet above us. With little other option, we instructed her not to move an inch, and we would be back to execute a rescue.

Guy missed the cat-track back to the correct lift to access that point, so it was now a solo rescue mission. Luckily for all parties involved, the sun burnt off the cloud cover, and I had perfect visibility to find Gail, and pack in some foot-holds for her to climb to safety.

That evening I had Indian food with Ottawa-Matt and two members of his WOP MedSpec (Whistler Olympic Park - Spectator Medical) team. All's well, except Matt and I are getting to be the Squamish equivalent of Cliff Claven and Norm at the Shady Tree.

Wednesday was an awesome day of sunshine and Women's Downhill. The weather was great for the spectators, but not so for the course, as the sun made for some serious chattery sections that lead to some epic wipeouts. Again, I'm not supposed to talk about behind the scenes stuff, so I will just say that if I were and Olympic athlete, I would be afraid to run that course. I tried to film a few racers, but my camera was the curse, and they all wiped out. Here's the best one:



After shift, we all went down to the Weasel House and became official members. Weasel Workers are the course crew at Whistler Creekside, and have extended the invite to their clubhouse to all field of play personnel (patrollers, slippers, officials). Did I mention that they drummed up enough sponsorship for as much FREE beer and potato chips you can handle? Just wanted to make sure, because there's a lot to soak in. FREE. BOTTOMLESS. I'm going back tomorrow after shift.

Last night we had our team dinner, as one of our nurses finished her commitment today. After much sushi, beer, and chin-wagging someone uncovered the fact that LA-Bruce is friends with Michael Dorn aka Lt. Worf. After my calling bullshit, LA-Bruce proceeded to dial Michael, and pass me the phone. It was a short conversation, but I can confirm that a) it was in fact him, and b) the bridge of the Enterprise is secure.

Today saw more of the same fantastic weather, and more outstanding performances by the American women. SuperCombined is a combined-time event with a Downhill in the morning, and a Slalom in the afternoon. The course had been repaired, resulting in an incident free day of VERY exciting racing. I'm really looking forward to the Men's SuperCombined.

I think the outstanding weather is supposed to continue, so my day off on the 23rd is looking more and more like it will remain a day off. I couldn't even tell you what event is coming up tomorrow, I just know that for a treat, we get a late start of 8:00 am.

Part 2 - A Day in the Life

Granted there are deviations from day to day, but this seems to be the way things normally go... (actually, this is the worst-case scenario, sometimes we start a little later)

3:50 - Alarm goes off. Dress, and out the door, to walk to the Eagle's Nest.

4:20 - Catch the Workforce Shuttle to the Creekside venue. 55 km commute, which varies from 40-60 minutes of napping depending on the driver.

5:20 - Workforce sign-in, radio pick-up, breakfast, and lunch pick-up.

6:00 - Team briefing, and deployment to positions.

6:30 - In position, spectator gates open 3 hours before racing starts.

6:30-9:30 - Spectators arrive, and make their way from the bus drop-off, up the mountain to the base of the Timing Flats. We walk around our duty areas, and chat with spectators, Event Staff, police, and cheerleaders; take pictures of and for people; dance to the sweet music they play at the venue, but we do NOT eat in public sight or trade pins.

9:30 - Event begins, and all posts make their way to the main spectator area known as the Lower Compound to patrol the crowd, and take in a little bit of the action. In case you ever needed to chat up a girl at such a venue, a good opening line might be "Hey baby, can I patrol your lower compound?"

11:30 - Depending on the event, when a country has been knocked out of medal hopes, their fans start to funnel out. When this is the case, we have to resume our original posts for the egress. In combined events, where the suspense comes down to the very last racer, we get to watch the whole event, and then sprint to our duty stations.

12:30-2:30 - The spectator gates remain open for two hours after competition ceases, for spectators to watch the flower presentation (medals are presented later, off-site), and get photos and autographs. The fans file out, and the smurfs come out of the woodwork. (everyone calls us smurfs, and sings/whistles the smurf song)

2:30 - Team debrief, and lock-up. Next day's duty assignments distributed, radios returned.

3:00 - Attempt to bus back to Squamish, which is becoming increasingly difficult due to the high number of visitors to the Whistler Sliding Center (bobsled/luge/skeleton venue). It's a lot like Lord of the Flies, only more buses, and fewer conchs.

4:30 - Arrive in Squamish. Shower, dinner, social, etc.

12:00 - Pack kit, and lay out clothes for next morning. That way, you wake up, don all of the clothing in front of you, pick up your kit, and head to the volunteer shuttle.

Part 3 - A Tour of the Venue














The visible portion of the course.















WCR MedSpec Team















Our medical trailers (athlete left, spectator right)














The people we're tasked with providing care for.
(Yes, those are Snuggies.)















The fans and media.




















One of my duty stations. Everybody out of the pool!



After this post goes through, I'm off to bed for a much needed deposit in the sleep bank.

Spec3 out.