Yet another early morning. It is tough to get up at 2 something and get ready to go to work in the Callahan Valley (photo above). But that is the way of the life right now. I meet the same folks at the bus in Pemberton in the morning and we travel to Whistler together with some in silence and some in excited chatter. It is my hope that the excited chatter subsides some over time as it could be a good moment or two to get some sle
ep. The day was overcast but there was a threat of sun..... I arrived at the venue at 5:30 am as planned and we did the check-in for a day of X-Country skiing. My assignment was on the “dirty side” of entry as my team would be helping folks get ready to go through the scanning process run by the security team. Apparently to be x-rayed and have your bag scanned made you "clean" as once you had made it past that station you were considered to be on the "clean" side. It turns out that Mary Ellen had been deployed to work on the "clean" side and picked up making the spectators happy from our team. We had a number of stations running down the hill for people to get “security processed” and our team members were to undertake two functions -plus a new deployment after the ingress (getting there). We readied people, in advance , by informing them that they were going to screened in a fashion similar to an airport and to put your bags in tray, empty your pockets, undo your coats etc. The other position called a "pacer" would make sure no-one went through the screening machine before the security person on the other side was ready. Neither of these two jobs were very challenging but the team members I was assigned were very helpful and cooperated easily with the straight forward instructions. The spectators started to arrive at 7 am for a 10 am event and we had a pretty even flow for the next 3 hours. Since people arrived by bus they were pretty evenly spaced out. However we had some rushes to deal with but nothing that was too stressful. My biggest challenge of the day was dealing with making sure that everyone got a fair number of breaks and a lunch break without crippling one of our stations.
The x-Country Ladies event started at 10 am and the tickets wer
e good for the Men’s event in the afternoon. That meant that most people were in the venue from about 10 o’clock on. That left us with little to do so some of the more energetic volunteer took it upon themselves to welcome late comers with a human bridge (as shown in one of the photos from the day).
Once we closed down a number of stations we dealt with lunch and did a scan of the walkways to eliminate large rocks from the path. Yes, an interesting volunteer activity but one that helped some of the spectators who were having troubles with the walking on the rocky paths. We then organized ourselves for the egress as on the Saturday before there had been a huge problems with boarding the spectators on the busses to Whistler. Our team was re-deployed to help the “arrival – departure” team to assist in an orderly departure from the venue. We set up aisles with barriers and manned signs to give people the queues to get to the busses to return to their departure point. Everyone arrives
at this site by bus as there is no spectator parking permitted anywhere near the site. This departure activity at the end of the day provided the most significant challenge as there were lots of people leaving at the same time and greater majority returning to Whistler. In the photo to the left you will see bus the sign holders which indicates some of the challenges of managing people with too much time on their hands. All in all it was a good shift that came to an end at 4 pm.
e good for the Men’s event in the afternoon. That meant that most people were in the venue from about 10 o’clock on. That left us with little to do so some of the more energetic volunteer took it upon themselves to welcome late comers with a human bridge (as shown in one of the photos from the day).Once we closed down a number of stations we dealt with lunch and did a scan of the walkways to eliminate large rocks from the path. Yes, an interesting volunteer activity but one that helped some of the spectators who were having troubles with the walking on the rocky paths. We then organized ourselves for the egress as on the Saturday before there had been a huge problems with boarding the spectators on the busses to Whistler. Our team was re-deployed to help the “arrival – departure” team to assist in an orderly departure from the venue. We set up aisles with barriers and manned signs to give people the queues to get to the busses to return to their departure point. Everyone arrives
at this site by bus as there is no spectator parking permitted anywhere near the site. This departure activity at the end of the day provided the most significant challenge as there were lots of people leaving at the same time and greater majority returning to Whistler. In the photo to the left you will see bus the sign holders which indicates some of the challenges of managing people with too much time on their hands. All in all it was a good shift that came to an end at 4 pm.The event itself was a great success (actually both races) for the Swiss folks who were there. The Europeans showed up in full regalia and somehow managed to sneak in their beverages through the scanning process and consumed most of what they had by the time they left the venue. Some were just happy but some were both happy and wobbly on departure. T
he singing, trumpets, noise makers and flags were very evident on departure. That was the Swiss view..... the Norwegians were more subdued this time. A musician started to sing for the crowds as a diversion to cover the wait for the Whistler buses and some of the volunteers went in to assist him quite spontaneously. The picture shows Tim and a buddy adding visual and sound accompaniment to the songs. In pretty quick order we managed to get the spectators on their way with little delay compared to Saturday and with less grief to the volunteers and organizers from the annoyed spectators.
he singing, trumpets, noise makers and flags were very evident on departure. That was the Swiss view..... the Norwegians were more subdued this time. A musician started to sing for the crowds as a diversion to cover the wait for the Whistler buses and some of the volunteers went in to assist him quite spontaneously. The picture shows Tim and a buddy adding visual and sound accompaniment to the songs. In pretty quick order we managed to get the spectators on their way with little delay compared to Saturday and with less grief to the volunteers and organizers from the annoyed spectators. When I arrived in Whistler, Tara-Lee and Freddi picked me up as they were just leaving the village after their time roaming the streets. We drove home and I think I was in a coma as I was bagged and happy to be off my feet. Throughout the evening and dinner I was coherent for short periods of time and finally gave up and went to bed at 9 ish. Tara-Lee did make us a great schnitzel and salad which I consumed and appreciated in a quiet fashion.
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