Friday - A Very WET Race Day

Early rise time once again - constant rain was falling at the base level, but shortly turned to snow as we uploaded around 8. Today was the Ladies' Slalom Race. This is a short run, with the start hut less than a quarter of the way up the mountain. The gates are very close together, and require short, quick turns on the part of the skier. They get two runs - one in the morning and one in the afternoon. We got in position by 8am and got off the race course by 3pm - doesn't sound like too long of a day, but standing in ski boots, on a slope, in the rain/snow, no toilets but for the trees, soggy lunch from your backpack - well, it felt like a long one.

The Ladies' run is now shut down, as they are trying to preserve it for the Paralympics which start next week, so the Slalom was held on the Men's run. Now I can say that I've skiied both the Ladies' and the Men's Olympic runs - and believe me, it is in very different condition than if you were to come here, and ski these runs after the Olympics. You see, the whole focus of course maintenance has been on making it harder and faster. That means it has been packed down by workers using both their boots and their skis over the past 3 weeks many, many times. Water has been injected to solidify the surface, i.e. to stop it from softening too much in the mild temps at the lower altitudes, fertilizer is sprinkled over it, and more water is sprayed on, creating a chemical reaction that hardens the surface. One has to be verrry careful if not a truly expert skier - if you don't ski it just right, you might get yelled at by a worker who has been there since 3 in the morning, making it just so. The safe way to make it down the icy, steep pitches is to side slide. That's standing tall, with your skis very close to one another, across the hill, and lean downhill. This would be fine if all was perfectly solid, but when mild, you can easily push up a little mound of snow as you slide, and that's when they yell at you, "No sliding! No sliding!". So, all you can do is point your skis downhill and fly through that section - I had to do that a few times - scary! In between those parts, we descend as we wish, doing our turns, but staying off the track as best we can.

The Slalom race passes quickly, as the racers come one right after the other, only 40 seconds apart, so that was a good thing. But, the snow falling was so wet, that we were all drowned rats by the end. I was still coughing quite a bit, and that only added to my discomfort. Not complaining though - really - I was still very happy to be up close and personal with the best female skiers in the world watching them do their thing.

All the time I've been on duty here, I had not had to disqualify anyone due to any gate-related question, until today. The Bulgarian skier, actually just missed one of my three gates, and kept on going. Now, if she had completed the race, she or her coach may have protested, and I would have had to appear before the Alpine Jury, with my little Gate Card with it's diagram clearly showing her path of travel. However, somewhere below my area, she got into trouble, and didn't end up finishing, so the DQ (disqualification) was never in question. She was then a DNF, (Did Not Finish).

Back at Alpine Ski Club in Collingwood, Ontario, where the run is much shorter, and the skiers aren't quite up to this calibre of ability, it's not unheard of for a skier to miss, straddle, or "cut" a gate with one ski, and suddenly stop, climb back up, to the tune of the Gate Judge shouting out, "Back! Back! Back!...", and once tips of skis are above the gate "line", switching to "Go! Go! Go!". Thus, that skier would avoid disqualification. But here, they're usually travelling at such bullet-speed, that even if they hit the brakes to come back and clear a gate they missed, they're way too far down to consider it. However, today the track was so slow, as I'm sure you all saw on TV, that when the Peruvian skier got her timing off, took a turn too wide, and missed the gate above my first gate, (only a few metres up above), she stopped, quickly hiked back up, but instead of fully traversing around the top pole of the gate she missed, she just tagged it with the back of her hand grip, which was wierd, because the procedure for going back and proceeding is basic knowledge for every racer. We (the two judges in that strip of gates) were still yelling "Back! Back!..." when she just tagged the pole, and pushed off. She did finish the race, so that meant the DQ call could be brought to question with the Jury. It is normal protocol for every Judge to watch one gate above your assigned gates and one below. I told Helen, judge for that gate, that I will back her up if need be.

On our way down the race course, heading for the "ski out", so as to avoid the Finish Area altogether - we were waved over by the Chief of Gates, to proceed to the Finish for possible Jury appearance. Yikes! I got butterflies, but ventured on - it was very cool skiing right down the middle of the course, straight for the Finish Line! Did I cross? Sadly - no. The Finish Crew fences it off as soon as the last racer goes through, but I skied out to the side only metres from it, where I gave my account of the DQ to the Race Chief - there had been some question as to which racer it had been, based on the way Helen had filled out her card. So, with two witnesses to the DQ, and of course, once we described it, they said it would be obvious on video replay, so we were free to go. And the only way out? Down the very path of skiing around the Finish Horseshoe that all the Racers take to the media circle. So, ski out we did, right behind them, and might have lingered just a bit longer than security would have liked, but who cares? We were in the Winners' Circle man, and we were going nowhere fast!

Tonight was a bit sad, as many volunteers are leaving in the morning. There's only one Men's race left, so all the volunteers I've come to know on the Ladies' Crew are not needed any more. We said goodbyes in the Ski Room and at the Weasel House, signed a few Olympic flags, shared our hopes to meet again at another race (Don't worry, Honey, no time soon!), and went our separate ways. Some, from drinking at the Weasel House, move on to drinking at a pub...but, me, I finally made it back to Nita Lake Lodge to update my Blog for all my faithful followers.

It's amazing how writing a simple account of one's day can fill an evening!