These past few days have been chaos, and there is no sign of things letting up. There is a nasty throat/cough/cold thing going around, and I appear to be the latest victim. Lots of ColdFX and an early night tonight ought to nip that in the bud, and get me geared up for the home stretch.
Yesterday Colorado-Craig and I were stuck at the venue to provide first-aid for the workforce while the remainder of our team (minus docs and nurses) got to go skiing. It was a very slow day, the depressingly lame highlight of which was helping the paramedics test traction aids for their boots. After last night's win against the Germans, things got a little out of hand, and I went partying with a few Weasel Workers and their out of town friends. It was an oddly quiet night in Whistler Village, so we brought the party back to Creekside, and I was left with the prospect of very little sleep.
The nice sunny weather we'd been enjoying as of late was replaced by a damp and cold snowfall at base elevation this morning. The fog and gloom matched my physical state of being, but luckily the VMO allowed me to hide out in one of our medical tents for a few extra z's in front of the heater.
The first run of the Women's GS was fairly exciting, with some serious behind the scenes drama with two of the girls from the US Ski Team. Apparently, Vonn and Mancuso don't get along too well, and if you saw what happened on TV today, I could help you piece it together when I get home.
A heavy fog rolled in, and kept delaying the start of the second run, until eventually it was postponed until tomorrow. This is bad news, considering tomorrow was going to be my last opportunity to ride Whistler this year. Further bad news, is that it is expected to be a short day, and I am thus not excused from my shift at Whistler Medals Plaza. The good news is that despite two 6 hour shifts tomorrow, Medals Plaza is going to be insane with the presentation of the Gold/Silver for the Women's Bobsleigh, followed by a show from the Roots.
Men's and Women's Slalom, round out the week, and then SpecMed is officially done like dinner. Much partying remains to be had, the hockey continues, the closing ceremonies loom, and my Weasel House pass remains valid until the 28th.
Yesterday's race was a women's event, and with fewer competitors, it ended up being a fairly short day. I had more than enough time to head into Whistler, catch a shower, and grab two beers before heading to the two-man bobsleigh with Colorado-Craig, Calgary-Kallum and Edmonton-Cassie (aka Weasel).
The sliding center is a really cool venue, stashed away between Whislter and Blackcomb. It was my first time attending an Olympic event off-duty, so it was really cool to be able to switch off and unwind, and enjoy the crowd, the competition, and the refreshments.
The track itself is about 1500m long, and winds its way up the side of the hill. There is a walking path the length of the track, with grandstands at the start and finish areas, and a huge open area in the middle of Thunderbird Turn (the arcing 180 degree uphill turn just before the end). Tickets are general admission, and you can walk the length of the track, and watch from anywhere you like. In places, you can get close enough to touch the track, and when you're that close, a bobsleigh moving at 150 km/h is but a blur. I tried to take a picture from close distance, but after each sleigh blurred past, my camera only had a picture of an empty track. After 4 consecutive pictures of the ice, Weasel stepped up and managed to snap a shot for me.
Colorado-Craig had a big foam USA cowboy hat, foam #1 finger, and his American flag, and managed to get on TV. His friends from back home were calling him for the remainder of the evening. I just spent the whole evening with a huge shit-eating grin, watching the sleighs rocket past. I am tempted to check out the 4 man if I have the time.
I was right there when Canada 1 rocketed past upside down, and have a video of it that I'm not allowed to post on the internet.
Today was the Men's Super Combined, which is a test of the best all-round skier. The problem with the event, is that you only get one slalom run, which means that if you snag, or miss a gate, you're done. This is what happened to Lindsey Vonn the other day, and what happened to Aksel Svindal (who's arguably a better skier than Bode Miller) today. The good news is, that despite placing 26th, he had the fourth fastest slalom run of the day, and is a medal contender for the men's slalom coming up.
Today was Calgary-Rhianon's last shift (of chugging video fame), and she requested that our medical team have a dance-off in her honour. We had a hoot, but at the end of the day, we lost a good teammate back to the 9-5 lifestyle.
Tomorrow, most of the team has the day off, but I'm stuck at the venue because labour laws require first-aiders present while course workers are doing their thing. I'll probably spend the day relaxing in the clinic, watching the games on our flatscreen. Tough life.
I'm faced with a huge dilema in the upcoming days, namely what to do with the morning of the 25th. I'm working the medal ceremony that evening, but during the day, I'm either going to check out the Nordic Combined, to see some ski jumping that I've never seen before, or rip up some powder at Whistler, as this is my last opportunity to ski Whistler until next year. I'm sure the snowclouds will roll in before then and give me my answer.
1. The IOC has found and tagged my youtube videos of the race action. No problem. You can watch the OBS highlights on your own, as they're way better than my clips anyway.
2. The Men's SuperG was pretty cool. The Norweigan dominated the Americans, and our Guay Canadian didn't do too poorly.
3. I'm going to see the 2-man bobsled tomorrow.
4. Our team had an unofficial debrief at the Weasel House after racing today. We had a good time, and the Olympic Torch made an appearance. Let's hope these pics ain't copyrighted.
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.
Last night, I took a bus into Whistler to check out the nightlife, and tear it up with Ottawa-Matt, Ottawa-James, and Colorado-Craig. We had a good time mixing it up with all sorts of folks, and stayed out until they turned the ugly lights on. An Austrian reporter came over to photograph our nachos, because apparently, they don't have nachos like we do.
Today was an early start, which we kicked off with a birthday cake for our VMO (Venue Medical Officer, or boss). The Men's Downhill was set to kick off at 10:30, and we were in our operational positions for the 7:30 arrival of the fans. The fans were letting their freak flags fly, and were out in full force. The Swiss fans are probably the craziest, but there were a handfull of Norweigan nutbars too (see Goat Lady).
I was stationed on the walking path up to the grandstand. It's about a 1km hike, all uphill, for those brave souls who opted not to take the chairlift. Two cheerleaders were also posted at my station, to encourage people as they made the grueling hike up.
Once the fans were all in, I moved it on up to the lower compound, to watch the excitement. The timing flats (finish line) are positioned such that you watch the racer on the screen for the first 90 seconds, and then watch him huck two huge airs before tucking into the finish. These guys were moving fast and going big.
Most folks left early, once their medal hopes had been dashed, so I had to scramble back to my post until the venue was empty.
Tomorrow is Men's SuperCombined, with a Lady's DH training during the course changeover. I have to catch a bus at 4:20, and probably won't get home until past 7:00.
So two things I should tell you about in a non-narrative sense:
I know that I geek out about the Olympics on TV, because they have a special energy and excitement about them, that I'm sure you're all familiar with. If you take that vibe, and multiply it by about 10,000, you'd have a notion of what it's like out here. This place is absolutely abuzz. There is so much going on all of the time, that even when you're doing or watching something absolutely amazing, you feel like you're missing out on something else. Tonight for example, I had to decide between partying at Swiss House in Whistler, a Sloan Concert at Atlantic House in Vancouver, or watching the games at the bar in Squamish. I think that due to the early start, it'll be watching the games, but it's always minute to minute.
Secondly, the foreign fans are of a completely different breed. The alpine events are huge in Europe, and the fans come decked out head to toe in their colours. Costumes, cowbells, singing, chanting, waving flags, and on and on. The Swiss are absolute maniacs, as I mentioned above. They came out in the largest numbers, started drinking the earliest, had the biggest cowbells, and stayed the latest. The Norweigan fans are crazy about their man too, waving billygoat flags and t-shirts... or dressing up as goats.
Little new to report from an Olympic standpoint. Most of us had the day off today. The women's DH qualifier was a no-go today, but it's looking like the men's DH is going tomorrow come hell or high water.
Last night Ottawa-Matt and I had a little debrief at the Shady Tree, as he had a pretty brutal day at the venue yesterday. The poor guy had to hitch-hike into the venue due to a bussing schmozzle, and then his first-aid team had to care for a heart attack victim. All was well though, as the patient survived, and beer heals all wounds. Afterwards, my hosts joined us, and we headed across the highway to the Grizzly Bar. That is a very interesting mix of folks.
One of the guys that I work with at WCR MedSpec (Whistler Creekside Spectator Medical), Craig, is a patroller at Steamboat Springs in Colorado. Considering the weather man delivered on the 20cm he promised, the tally was 45cm in 48 hours. The two of us met up at the gondola for first lines in the morning, and tore up the mountain. There was zero vis early in the morning, but the sun burnt off the fog, and we skied bluebird in the alpine above the clouds, while the spectators at the sliding center got rained on.
The video wouldn't upload, sorry.
We wrapped up the day with a trip across the Peak-to-Peak gondola, and a heavy cheddar run down Blackcomb to a download on the gondola. Now that the games have started, Whistler Village is a zoo, which is exactly where I'm headed after dinner tonight. I've got a floor to crash on, and I'll be set and ready to go for a long day of working tomorrow.
Things are looking good for me to be able to see the two-man luge and/or the two-man bobsled this week. A few of my friends here were at the men's luge yesterday, and they said it was AMAZING.
So, as was predicted, the weather did not cooperate, and today's race has been postponed. We did a dry run getting dressed and out the door at 4:30, only to receive a text telling us we would not be required until 8:30. All this to say I had to live through the worst part of the day (waking up before dawn) twice.
Our team was fully assembled today, as were the field-of-play guys, so they thought it was an ideal opportunity to run a training scenario. The scenario was a racer down on the training ski-out from the course, with a bilateral pelvic fracture. The FOP (field of play) guys sprang into action and were first on-scene, and called in the medevac promptly. The helo spun up and took off with a HETS (helicopter external transport system) technician dangling below. A few minutes later, the helo was back at the pad with patient in tow, and Guy and I sprang to action to load the patient into the sled behind the snowmobile for transport to the ambulance, and from there, onto the alternate medical facility. Why the alternate facility? In this scenario, the terrorists were listening to our radio frequencies, and had called in a bomb threat to the primary care facility.
We were cut loose early today, as today's events had been postponed until Monday. The schedule has been completely thrown out the window, and we may not be caught up until the 22nd, which is the day before my next scheduled day off. The good news is that due to the 20+ cm predicted overnight tonight, our team was given the day off, so four or five of us are going to tear it up again.
I may be heading up to Whistler tonight to quench my thirst, as I've been offered more than one floor to sleep on, but will sort that out after dinner. For the time being, I've got a spare couple of hours to do some maintenance on my beach muscles. No legs though, because they're getting plenty of punishment out here.
This computer doesn't have the oomph to handle my helmet cam vids, so powder riding clips are on hold until further notice.
A heavy fog rolled in, and kept delaying the start of the second run, until eventually it was postponed until tomorrow. This is bad news, considering tomorrow was going to be my last opportunity to ride Whistler this year. Further bad news, is that it is expected to be a short day, and I am thus not excused from my shift at Whistler Medals Plaza. The good news is that despite two 6 hour shifts tomorrow, Medals Plaza is going to be insane with the presentation of the Gold/Silver for the Women's Bobsleigh, followed by a show from the Roots.
