at last some snow

Today we had our first snow fall since I arrived . Now there is no shortage of snow, unlike Vancouver and Cypress Mountain. It was mild and most of it melted on the roads but still snow is snow.

Many of the volunteer chaperones started today with training and will be put o work over the next few days at the various venues. One friend Kathy arrived yesterday from Ottawa and another friend Courtney , also originally from Ottawa but now living in Australia (she offsets all the Aussies living here) , arrived in Whistler for her volunteer role. The chaperone role is really the fun part of the job as they are out and about in the venues and have the initial contact with the athletes. At times they can spend some time with them until they report to the doping control station.

For the past week I've been out finding cross country skiiers. Today I have a picture of their wax cabins .
When the athletes finish their on course training they come back to a cabin set up for their team to drop off their skis and poles. They then go to another cabin (bigger teams) to change . It's very European the way they approach this - men and women in there changing together. Interesting sights at times. When the athletes are on the course they wear their official bib with a number . That's our main way to identify them along with a list of names and numbers.  Also on the course will be coaches and wax techs in either yellow or purple bibs. We don't worry about them.

 

 Today was also the start of official training at the ski jump venue which is adjacent to the cross country venue.Each jumper is given 3 practice runs and distances are recorded. It's very cool to watch up close . The best jump today was just over 100metres and they reach speeds of about 95 kms/hour. Very interesting to watch them sail. We had to wait until they finished training but they were all very accommodating. The ladies on our team were all swooning over a very handsome German team doctor. Ski jump is the only sport to actually start before the opening ceremonies and the first medals will be awarded Saturday sometime. 

One thing I didn't mention earlier is how we all communicate with one another. A games sponsor Bell Canada has provided each of us with a fancy Samsung cell phone.
Very nice to have and we can easily call wthin our network. Very handy when you're out and about in a big venue. Our station managers and chaperone coordinators also have access to Chevy SUV's provided by GM. Also very handy for getting us back and forth to our distant venue. The station manager also needs his for secure transport of the samples at the end of the day.It was amusing the other day that the Bell Canada trucks made by Ford had to have duct tape to cover the Ford logo. Vanoc and the IOC are very sensitive about sponsors and product branding.   

One more day at Cross Country for me then I return to the Athlete Village for a week or so of shifts.