WOP opens tomorrow !

Athletes arrive tomorrow at Whistler Olympic Park...the first access to the race trails since last year. Only groomers have been making the rounds of both the red classic, and blue skate loops since October '09 - packing all the early snow, and tilling the wet additions since. Good news is that temperatures are dropping to -3 tonight. Dirk is already in bed (5pm) as his alarm is set for a mid-night awakening. The to-do list is long for the shift of four groomers tomorrow morning: recreational trails up to the Callaghan Backcountry, the race loops and the stadium need special attention... the Torch is coming through at 13:00. How and by whom is still a mystery...but, not to worry, we'll be there with our camera's.

I was able to get an early ski in this morning in downtown Whistler - the Lost Lake trails are part of the non-vehicle commuter system during the Olympics. This was a treat, as I was the first skier out this morning and enjoyed virgin tracks. At one time I was pleased to see another skier had joined me, when I realized I may be lost as I was only skiing backwards over my own tracks - yikes....loads of options out there !

I then headed up to Callaghan to help get the Course Marshal trailer set up for tomorrow's first marshal briefing and course controls. We're a small crew at the onset: 6 of us during these early days before the competitions begin. We're all very excited to be wearing our new uniforms - love the turquoise colour - that must be worn at all times during our shifts.

EASTERNS2010 - what an amazing weekend !

A Quick wrap up to share the excitement out on the snow at Nakkertok this past weekend...635 athletes raced in frigid conditions - so cold, that Saturday's Skate race start time was delayed by two hours to let the air warm up....the manually moved-by-100's-of-volunteers snow helped the groomers produce perfect conditions making for fast conditions. The downhills were slick - so much so that snow plowing on the in-run to Dirk's Dive was not an option...tuck and giv'r was the best approach. The stadium looked stellar with sponsor banners lining the fencing, banners flying in the wind, the PA system pumping out fantastic music, and letting the hundreds of spectators know who was up next or coming down the finish lane.
We also introduced an eco-friendly approach to food and fluids at these Easterns, congruent with the Olympic Green Theme. From the response of over 300 athletes bringing their own bowls, cups and spoons to the Food Tent for their lunch - it was deemed a hit. My favourite were the colourful IKEA cups that were washed and rinsed on the spot for the Finish fluid feeds. And minimal packaging was all recyclable. Yeah !
The amazing part of running a race of this magnitude is the need for volunteers. And this is an area that Nakkertok seems to do well in...not only did we receive compliments on how well the race ran, but my favourite is " that everyone is so happy and friendly". A huge thank you to all volunteers that contributed this weekend, and this is not Nakkertok members alone, we had skiers from across the Ottawa/Gatineau snow-base come out to help make the weekend a big success - thank you !

Here's a great video clip from Dave McMahon from Sunday's Classic Mass starts :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HOPp50rdKg
And you can view race results on Zone4 - for Saturday: http://www.zone4.ca/results.asp?id=2747 and Sunday: http://www.zone4.ca/results.asp?id=2746