Ski jumping is wilder than ziplining

Maybe you thought my zip lining adventure was crazy enough but today I tried a jump off the Long Hill at Whistler Olympic Park. No helmet or fancy suit or training but I survived it. My jump distance was OK for a beginner . You can see from the picture and it was awesome. Luckily I didn't tell Deen about it beforehand or she would have worried endlessly.

  

We were moderately busy there today with a Cross Country women's 4 by 5km relay in the morning. There are teams of 4 skiers and they each do a 5km lap. Two of the skiers can do freestyle while the two others do the classic style. Very intense and I got some good photos. The first one is the finish area and the second one shows skiers coming into the finish area .

 

I also wandered the site a bit and saw this aboriginal display - a guy carving a totem pole.
 

In the morning there was the Long Hill ski jump portion of Nordic Combined followed by the cross country ski race in the afternoon. The jumps are measured for both distance ( a good one is over 125 metres) and style - the two in combination give the athlete a score . This score is then translated into so many seconds lead to start the cross country race. I forget the formula but it's several seconds head start per point from the ski jump. I met the winner from the USA and he started the race something like 26 seconds behind the first place finisher from the ski jump. A very pleasant young man and I certainly congratulated him on his victory.This next picture shows a long hill ski jumper (not me) but you have to look carefully above the Olympic rings to see him.
 

While I am toughing it out in this winter paradise Deen left a snowy Ottawa early this morning for  hot and sunny Barbados and all our friends there. Some delay for her getting out of Ottawa from the snow and again another snow delay out of Toronto. But she was very happily met by our English friends John and Dorothy at the airport in the afternoon. She had previously arranged for a whole group of them to go to Bert's Bar in the eveningto watch the Women's Ice Hockey Final with Canada prevailing 2-0. I haven't received a real report from her yet on the flight or the game at Bert's as she called this afternoon via the magic of Skype while I was busy with an athlete.

Tomorrow and Saturday I'm at the Whistler Sliding Centre for 4 men's bobsled competition. Two qualifying rounds Friday and then the two final runs on Saturday. Should be exciting.My roomie Chris has been working as the chaperone coordinator at the sliding centre and reported to me last night it was chaos with the two Canadian medal teams.