Thursday - Day 4 - Fog and Rain :(

Woke up in the dark, walked the mountain road in the dark, rode the bus in the dark, and arrived at the village in the dark, but by the time I finished breakfast, the sun was up - somewhere far, far away, behind the thick overhang of fog that shrouded the mountain all through the night and througout today.

Our crew meeting was at 7:30am, and we were all on the hill by 8:30am. We were pumped! Our team was finally going to spring into action - the reason we were all here - to work as Gate Judges. So many hundreds of other volunteers have been working so hard, and we've actually started to feel a bit restless, if not somewhat guilty, that we've been pleasure skiing, while our Maintenance Crew workers have been slugging it on the hill in all conditions from 4am - 2 or 3pm every day. They are the guys and gals who shovel, rake, and spray the stripes on the course. It's incredibly heavy labour, as they are constantly hiking it up in their sections to complete some arduous task, which often involves carrying much equipment at the same time - just brutal work!

So, to answer a burning question that I was often asked before I came here, and one which I often asked myself: do I have to ski the race course to get into my Gate Judge position, as we do back in Collingwood? The answer, is actually, yes - almost. When you look at the race hill, you'll see trees, a metre or so of snow, three layers of fencing, some wide open space, the border of the race course, spray painted in blue (another hard job constantly done by awesome Race Crew members, as it gets washed away with rain, wet snow, and skiers' tracks). We ski INside the fencing, but in the open area of snow not marked by the stripes. So, same hill, just a looooot more slowly! It's important that we slide the hill slowly, because we are doing so as a group, and being placed in position, one by one by our Crew Chief. As we're doing that, there are athletes doing their scheduled "inspections" of the course with their coaches, maintenance workers, shovelling, raking, spraying, Jury members observing (they police EVERYone), photographers getting set up, lots of people either busy, or standing still, and we've got to be careful not to take anyone "out" with carelessly fast skiing.

So, we get down to the first section where one of our senior citizen team members was supposed to be stationed, only one problem, we had overshot it. When the crew chief directed him to side step UPhill (this is a verrry steep portion of the course) about 30metres, and then hike it down a thin edge of the hill outside the fence the same distance, crawl under and through the scaffolding for a TV camera tower, and take up the spot directly opposite the gate. He gasped! The Chief acknowledged his discomfort, and turned to the group, asking for a volunteer...silence. As for me, I had been told I would be watching one of the last gates before the finish line. I had chosen that one because there would be the challenge of keeping many coaches and media people back the right distance, and out of line of the judge's view of the Gate. I told her I used to be a Teacher, and had no problem bossing people politely out of the way. BUT, I suddenly realized that I was probably the youngest in our group, and this climbing, crawling, balancing assignment just might be too much for the others - so I took it. ONE HALF HOUR LATER, I arrived 30metres up from where we had stood, only possible by taking thousands of tiny side steps with my skis, while pushing up off the hill with my poles, while carrying all my wordly goods for the day on my back - I was sweating so much that it was dripping off my face and on to the snow, but could not stop on such a steep pitch to adjust any clothing.

After the ascent, I slid down the outside of the fencing part way, clicked off my skis, and stepped the rest of the way in deep, crusty snow, until I arrived at my assigned spot. The second I did, I observed that a) I could not see clearly at all, with three layer of netted fencing in front of me, and b) I was right in the fall line! That is a major no-no. Basically, the gate was right up close to this fence, and if a skier went out of control, she would fly into the fencing, and then into me on the other side, sending me flying over the edge of a forty foot drop off into a the thick forest - not good. I was getting out of there as fast as I could, as the practice race was to start any minute. So, uuuuup I climbed, more sweating, back onto the course, skied across it to the other side, slid down, and set myself up safe and sound.

I was situated right beside several Maintenence Crew workers, so could hear all the radio talk - "Foreunner is on course" Yayyy!! We're finally getting started! Shortly, a skier came flying by. I was so happy we were up and running. A couple more, and then...the fog rolled in...we were on hold for about a half hour...then, the fog lifted. A couple more forerunners...then fog rolled in again, and we held again for another half hour or so. Then, it happened: "Racer #1 is on-course" Yes! The practice race was ON! Perfect passage. Excellent. Racer #2 leaves the gate, and in a few seconds we hear "Racer down. Hold Course." "Stop Start" Well, we never did see that racer ski out of the course, we never did see her be pulled down by Ski Patrol. Why, you ask? Because, what we did see, was a helicopter medi-vac. Yes, the helicopter with the rescue doctor hanging on a harness way below flew up from the village, was lowered to the racer, who the Medical Crew (another team of volunteers) had packaged up in a stretcher, attached the stretcher, and they were both lifted up, up, and away, into the fog, and onto to the state of the art Poly-Clinic they have here for the athletes. It contains surgeries, CAT Scan machines, MRI machines - everything! So, that took quite a while actually, then there was more fog, then it lifted, one more forerunner to test the course again, because wet snow had been falling all this time, and then boom - total fog soup - just like yesterday, but with super heavy, wet snow - falling fast. After an hour or more of standing around, they called it. No more runs for the ladies - ugh!!

The rest of my day was totally uneventful...lunch, a village stroll, watched some news in our meal tent. I suited up, thinking I might try skiing the higher elevations, but everyone was coming down saying it was like skiing in wet cement and the fog is really heavy, so my ski day was done, and here I am.