Monday - Day 8 - RACE DAY!

Up before dawn once again, and on the road to meet at 7am...only thing is our particular bus route is somewhat unreliable, so I gratefully accepted a lift from Russell, a local who operates a Snow Cat (basically, a big tractor-like vehicle, that grooms or "rakes" the snow on the ski hills).

We were so happy to be actually called in for duty, but the cool thing today, is while we ran the Ladies' Practice Runs, the Men's Downhill Race was running on the run right beside us, so we had a great view of all the men, as they went screaming around the bend at about the 30th gate. We were low enough on the hill that we could hear the roar of the crowd, but it was painful, when a Canadian was on course, and we heard the sudden and collective "ohhhhhhhh...!", when he fell - very disappointing.

Our practice runs went off smoothly. I was stationed in an area with the team of doctors and their first aid toboggans, along with a group of Course Crew Workers, so it was pretty social in the down times, and when not so social, I pulled out my book. They all thought I was so well prepared - funny, we all started talking books, and said that we were going to dub our group the "Book Club" of the Crew. You see, there is a lot of waiting around time: we arrived at 7am for a 100:00 start time. We eat, we meet, we go over our paperwork, we suit up, we meet at the gondola, we gather at the top, we ski down the race course (it was pretty hard and fast today!), we climb into position, we prep our Race Cards, and then we wait...for an hour and a half, we wait.

The Weasal House (race crew beer tent) is really livening up now - people are getting to know each other, and are bonding both on the hill, and in watching and cheering for the games on tv in the tent together.

Someone came in and randomly distributed a limited amount of Medals Ceremony tickets, so a few of us snagged some, and off we went to the Village. We saw the men receive their downhill medals, and then watched a bit of a totally ho-hum concert. The Village is completely alive at night, with a spontaneous parade from the Swiss, all decked out in Viking hats, with those cowbells the size of a medicine balls, athletes mingling with the public, musical performances, heated bar and cafe patios, and a Fire and Ice Show with Boarders jumping through firelit rings!
I had a great time with my new friends, Diane and Garth.

Oh yea, then there was the little part about getting a ride home in an RCMP cruiser - those of you who I speak with in person can ask me about that! Then, once he dropped me at the gate, as I was walking up the mountain road to my chalet (many in there are rented out to cops), two completely drunk-out-of-their-minds cops, who were out for a walk, with open beers, and no coats in the rain, insisted on walking me home, then didn't believe me when I pointed them in the right direction to go back to whence they came when we arrived at my Homestay chalet, kept asking me how old I was, and didn't believe that either - he was the East Coaster of the two, the other was from Brantford - he kept exclaiming that I was "a lyin' bastard!" - just hilarious!