sunshine and carnage

This is the second day of sunshine. Sunglass lines are already forming; I dread the beard-tan should I choose to shave it sometime later on in the spring. I'm going to have to make that call relatively soon. I can't imagine blood, slime, and scales stuck in it when in Bristol Bay.

Ladies' downhill and super-combined are successfully completed. Not without some epic crashes yesterday on the downhill, an upset today for Lindsey Vonn as she threw a shoe on the slalom, and plenty of hardware for the United States. The temperatures continue to drop lower and lower during the nights, and the track hardens more and more because of it. The ladies were doing 125km/hr on some sections according to one official this morning. That's fast.

Our schedules have been roughly the same day by day now - we show up, do a lot of waiting and standing in the morning, and the work doesn't generally come until the afternoon. For instance, this morning, we loaded the gondola at 6:30. We were ordered to grab a bundle of crowd control fence and shut off access to the athletes at Boyd's Bump, as they were doing a Super-G free-ski on the course (no gates, just cruising for a few runs), and the officials didn't want them tearing up the jump. There was no crowd control fencing around (hereinafter referred to as "C"), so we had to hop on the quad and go up to the downhill start to search for a roll. Found one. Sweet. Skied it down from the DH start to Boyd's, just above the finish. Unrolled it. Put it up. Job done. A course chief came down three minutes later and said, "Nevermind, we won't be needing that." We then took the C down, rolled it, and hoofed it back up the gondola and quad to the men's DH start. That was our project this morning.

This afternoon, we switched the finish over to accommodate the men's super-g tomorrow. This involves tearing down double-layer B systems, taking the rolls back up to the green Olympic rings for staging (you can see them on your TV screen), and step and shovel out the berms of snow that build up under the B-net. And without crampons, it's tough. The track is a sheet of ice now, and self-arresting if you slip may not work until you go through the timing beam at the finish.

Had a great crew dinner last night with everyone, including Corey's sister and her friend from the BC Alpine Team. The village has been vibrant with music lately - from Feist to the Barenaked Ladies to Our Lady Peace...the music doesn't stop. We made it into the OLP concert last night, and I crowd surfed. I had to, because last time I checked, there's not much of a choice BUT to crowd surf at a concert like that. It was a very tasty experience. There's a hilarious accompanying picture that Ally took...when I snatch it, I'll share.

The Works are here, along with the Rosens and Lambersons from Spokane. It's good to know they're in town, and I hope to have dinner with the MBRT crew tonight.

My bases are dry as a bone, my edges don't exist on 45-degree boilerplate, and my Lange boots are on their last legs, I think. But when the sun shines, it's all good...damn it's been beautiful.

Paid $9.25 for ONE #$%&#&# beer at the Swiss House the other night. Can you believe that? But what a place...let me tell you. Just like the homeland. Raclette and chocolate and good drinks. It's open to the public, and when there's a Swiss victory, the place bursts open at the seams. But just because they can make a watch and knife and stay out of the European Union while being geographically in the middle of it doesn't mean that they can charge me ten bucks for a damned beer.

Water injection program tonight at 8pm on the men's slalom start to prep for the super-combined Sunday. Opted out of it. Apparently one can get wet doing that sort of thing. As I said before, the track is as hard as the desk your computer sits on. It will be an exciting SG tomorrow...go USA.

Tim, a member on my crew, does an epic job of taking pictures and posting them every night of our activities, people, days, etc. Check his pictures out here.