Day 1 - Dirk and I drove up to WOP (Whistler Olympic Park) together on Feb. 02nd for our venue tour. It's a 10 km drive up the Callaghan Valley from Hwy 99, or better known as the Sea to Sky Hwy. Mike Edwards, Dirk's boss was very pleased to show him the Olympic layout and pass the course prep duties on to ensure it'll be ready for Friday. Friday is when WOP opens for athletes to arrive for training. This will be the first time this year that anyone will be allowed to ski on the Olympic race trails.
The recreational trails up Madelay Valley have been open to the public all winter, but now closed until after the Olympics.
Day 2 - Dirk's up at 3:30am to start grooming at 5am. The first day in a month that the temperature has dropped below -2. Much rain and zero degrees has stimulated a bit of panic around here... to firm up the race trails. Alpine has the same problem as Cross country. And on Cypress mountain where the freestyle and snowboard events are being held...snow is being helicoptered in, to replenish the rained out natural snow. Today was successful in the cross country stadium, as the finish line was perfectly leveled and it set-up well before the sun began to rise.
I snuck in an alpine day today, as my own work as a course marshal only begins on Friday. The mountain is quite empty - locals are busy preping for the Games, and inbound tourists that are not interested in the Olympics choose other ski destinations to avoid the 'hupla'. This is a normal phenomena around Olympics, I am told. I never-the-less had a blast. The sun came out, visibility was superb, temperature perfect and snow very friendly. Legs are tired, but a cold Whistler Pale Ale at the Longhorn helped remedy this problem.
Some cross country teams have already arrived and are training here in the village at the Lost Lake ski trails. I plan to give these a try tomorrow morning.
