Day 12 - Bodie Miller stikes again

Dave Willis is a very understanding man. I could not have a better crew chief. I knew I couldn't make the 4:45am breakfast, 5:45am load time for todays shift and after course inspection starts (7:30am), the course is closed. I would not be able to get to my locaton back at Slalom start, but I really wanted to get there before race start (9:30am). I rode the Creekside gondola just as the race started and passed right over Wom, Michelle, Ferd and Randy in the stands. If you zoom in on the original photo taken from the gondola, you can actually see them.

I met Fernando at midstation and since we could not get to our site, we decided today would be a good opportunity to catch the downhill portion of the race from various other 'public' locations. We headed straight to the tunnel were you can view the Weasel and Fallaway sections of the course. This is one of the steaper sections up top. Great viewing. From there we headed to the start and Toilet Bowl sections of the course. I've now been able to catch the downhill from basically every possible section since we have been stationed at the same location 9 out of 10 days.

This was Fernando's last day. He his driving home to Williams Lake tomorrow. The crews are slowly getting smaller as people weren't as fortunate as myself to be able to stay to the bitter end. Now that all the downhill and super G runs are done, the work load in terms of volume or distance is significantly reduced anyway, but I'm miss his humor on the job site. Two races left: GS and slalom (Tues/Fri)

This afternoon's slalom portion of the race was nothing less than spectacular. I was able to get to my location immedialy following the end of the downhill, but when I arrived, I found that all crews had made their way down the hill and were working the course already. There were way way too many people to do the jobs required so I ended up watching the race from the start down to Boyd's Chin. Got some amazing photos from this due to the fact that I was less than 20 feet from the track, standing on the run. It was nice to be that close.

After the race, I had a quick drink with Walter up top. His last day may be tomorrow. From there I hurried my way to the village to meet the boys for the CAN vs USA hockey game. Watching was fun, but the outcome was quite dissapointing. Pull up your socks boys, or your out of the tourny.

Heading back on the hill tomorrow with Ferd, Wom and Buff. The weather should be great again. Ski day 2 coming up.

A note about videos: due to the time consuming process it takes to get these uploaded etc, I've decided to hold off untill I'm home. Also, viewing a bunch of little clips might not be the best way to present the material. My plan is to edit them altogether into a longer piece and save it as one. I have approximatly 30minutes so far.

Go Canada Go