This was one of the few days when I rode the lift after the sun came up. Here is our Greenpia hotel/condo. The bottom four floors are all parkade.
This is the view from my room...
...and a close up of some of the more important elements of the base area...
There were officials from several sport federations staying in our hotel as well a number of NBC and CBC staff. I ran into CBC's Don Peppin & Scott Russell a number of times.
On the ride up, I left a Lake Louise souvenir in gondola car 12.
The on-hill porta potties are called Nextto Clean. They were situated near all the course start areas. They were heated.
There were 3 of them positioned at the top of the mountain at the GS start. After the overnight wind, they weren't even 'Nextto' each other : )
The gondola ride is a 20 minute trip up the mountain. The race courses (GS, SL & Team) are essentially in the next valley. So once you go up the gondola, you stay over at the race area. Buses would take the fans up and around to the finish area on race days.
When I slid down to the team event start, crews were busy preparing the start area.
The team event start area is not like any other start. It has the look of take out restaurant made of Lego pieces.
We nicknamed it, Markus' Restaurant.
Because there will be cameramen wandering behind the scenes, this whole back area will look quite different at race time.
As it was my first Team Event, I watched with interest as there were many tape measures and range finders in use to ensure that EVERYTHING was exactly as it was supposed to be.
As race day unfolded, I quickly understood why. More on that later.
As race day unfolded, I quickly understood why. More on that later.
This is looking up at the Team Event slope. There is not much to see...yet. It is a well prepared race surface, one 'pro' jump and one roll...the course worker is standing at what will be the finish line.
...and now the heavy lifting begins.
...and now the heavy lifting begins.
There was a bit of snow overnight, maybe 2 cm but with the wind, it drifted into some areas including the finish area with some accumulation.
The Team Event slope and the GS/SL slope share a common finish area. The Finish area prep included digging in a snow bench to hold the podium for the on-snow Venue Ceremony.
Finish line banners had to be moved from the slalom course over to the team event finish line,
The setting of the parallel courses was an entire event unto itself. Because the blue course and the red course are expected to be exactly the same, the course set took 5 hours - with multiple cycles on the course to get it right.
I haven't been to many events where a crew picked up leaves but anything that wasn't white you picked up off the snow. NBC paid enough money that crews can remove leaves.
It was another bluebird prep day and as it was the final Alpine event for the Olympics, everyone was prepared to help.
Mike, the FIS Operations Manager, is never afraid to try something new but I think the Kubota operator has nothing to worry about regarding job security.
On the left is the venue ceremony snow bench and on the right will be the platform that the athletes will stand on while they wait to see if they move on or are eliminated.
The platform was built by a team of 3 master carpenters. What I mean by 'master' is that they were excellent at what they did and they were at least 75 years old.....I was impressed.
They had the right attitude....they even brought their own kettle to make tea while they worked.
The workforce helped test the stability of the platform. All good.
The course set continued with matching the blue course set with the red course set
The finish area is coming together.
Luca, my Omega timing buddy, was busy setting up his timing gear.
Because the team event course is relatively short (only 26 gates) and the lift turnaround time needs to be short to avoid any race delays, they built a temporary lift offloading ramp near the start. It wasn't much to look at as you got close to it and honestly, it was a bit sporty to get off - especially for the shorter athletes (or techs carrying skis).
When looking back towards the ramp, blue dye didn't make it much safer. Let's just say, you didnt want to use it unless you absolutely had to. They did assign two liftees to help pick you up if you fell off. It was not a lift you wanted to get hung up on because there was no emergency shutdown.
Back to the course set, I scoffed when I saw this guy using a jig to drill the hole for the outside pole of the turning gate. I figured after 3 weeks of racing, surely the crew knew how to install a gate.
When I first saw the jig, I thought it was a 'special' rake. I am a World Cup parallel event rookie.....but I have helped out at a few kid's parallel events at Panorama. The positioning of both the turning and outside pole of the gate will prove critical to a successful team event.
At the end of each day to leave the race venues to return to the village, you had to take the lift up to the top gondola/lift station of the mountain. Tough to call it a mountain when the top is below the treeline and it might crest out at only 1300 m above sea level. Still, this was where the athletes lounge was and where we picked up our radios each morning.
Regardless, to get back to the base area/village, there was this awesome 5 km ski out that was a relaxing ski down every day. It was pretty much corduroy the whole way.
Regardless, to get back to the base area/village, there was this awesome 5 km ski out that was a relaxing ski down every day. It was pretty much corduroy the whole way.
You could ski right to the door of Greenpia where you could use compressed air to blow any snow off your gear before you brought it back to your room.
I noticed many of the public were using parts of the resort that weren't dedicated to the Olympics....and were a bit oblivious to our Olympic goings on.
There were a number of hearty folk who hiked up and down that 5 km ski out just for exercise - sheesh!
B.
