Olympic Blog II: Life at Whistler Olympic Park
Another day is done, and I'm off the 45-minute shuttle from Whistler. I'm so grateful to be staying here in Brackendale (Squamish); it'd be 2-3 hours one way from Vancouver and even longer from my parents' place in Surrey.
Today I manned the internal shuttle that takes staff, athletes, media and any other accredited people (basically everyone but spectators) from the park entrance to the 3 competition grounds. There were 9 buses there today, and 4 of them broke down! There's a "no-idling" rule in place (part of the Olympic eco-push) and apparently it wreaks havoc on the starters of the busses. Glad to have these issues come up before the competition starts this Friday!
As a result, there was a fair amount of down-time and I spent some time chatting with the drivers as they waiting for their busses to fill up. They're contracted by a separate company and are mostly from the US - Utah in particular. Not what I was expecting! A lot of the drivers are Olympic roadies, so to speak, and have done the last few Olympics in Atlanta, Salt Lake City and elsewhere.
I had a training session today about how things will be when we're open to the general public. They are expecting upwards of 12,000 spectators a day, all arriving by bus. At the end of the day spectators will be "herded" to waiting areas where they will be sent to their respective busses, about 400 people at a time. Our goal is to load those 400 people onto their busses within 7 minutes, though 15 minutes is probably much more realistic. Repeat until exausted.
I had a chance to walk up the spectator path today. All spectators have to walk up the mountain to their venue unless they're disabled or unwilling. The path up the mountain is beautiful, though I'm just not sure how the general public feels about a hike of either 800m, 1.1km or 1.3km! There will be places to stop along the way with some live music (I believe), and a carver will be carving a totem pole at one of the break spots during the Olympics. At one point, the path runs right along the cross country course, which I thought was an amazing way to feel "close to the action".
There's still some construction being done on the path, and while I can see how very far they've come, I'm a little worried! I should say though, even overnight there was a marked difference in the appearance of certain spots at the venue.
I worked the later shift today and got to see how the venue winds down after a day. There are less and less people on the busses and the evening security presence becomes felt. It's so quiet in the evenings and it really feels like a sleepy mountain spot, a far cry from the packed noise-a-thon I know it's about to become. I only have one more late shift and I'm sure I'll miss the tranquility. All well though, all well.
I have a day off tomorrow and I'll be with my parents and cousin at the dress rehearsal for the opening ceremonies. I'm bummed we can't bring cameras in but still totally excited to be there. Should be interesting to see the changes and catch the Olympic buzz in Vancouver.
Until then!
Jim
Today I manned the internal shuttle that takes staff, athletes, media and any other accredited people (basically everyone but spectators) from the park entrance to the 3 competition grounds. There were 9 buses there today, and 4 of them broke down! There's a "no-idling" rule in place (part of the Olympic eco-push) and apparently it wreaks havoc on the starters of the busses. Glad to have these issues come up before the competition starts this Friday!
As a result, there was a fair amount of down-time and I spent some time chatting with the drivers as they waiting for their busses to fill up. They're contracted by a separate company and are mostly from the US - Utah in particular. Not what I was expecting! A lot of the drivers are Olympic roadies, so to speak, and have done the last few Olympics in Atlanta, Salt Lake City and elsewhere.
I had a training session today about how things will be when we're open to the general public. They are expecting upwards of 12,000 spectators a day, all arriving by bus. At the end of the day spectators will be "herded" to waiting areas where they will be sent to their respective busses, about 400 people at a time. Our goal is to load those 400 people onto their busses within 7 minutes, though 15 minutes is probably much more realistic. Repeat until exausted.
I had a chance to walk up the spectator path today. All spectators have to walk up the mountain to their venue unless they're disabled or unwilling. The path up the mountain is beautiful, though I'm just not sure how the general public feels about a hike of either 800m, 1.1km or 1.3km! There will be places to stop along the way with some live music (I believe), and a carver will be carving a totem pole at one of the break spots during the Olympics. At one point, the path runs right along the cross country course, which I thought was an amazing way to feel "close to the action".
There's still some construction being done on the path, and while I can see how very far they've come, I'm a little worried! I should say though, even overnight there was a marked difference in the appearance of certain spots at the venue.
I worked the later shift today and got to see how the venue winds down after a day. There are less and less people on the busses and the evening security presence becomes felt. It's so quiet in the evenings and it really feels like a sleepy mountain spot, a far cry from the packed noise-a-thon I know it's about to become. I only have one more late shift and I'm sure I'll miss the tranquility. All well though, all well.
I have a day off tomorrow and I'll be with my parents and cousin at the dress rehearsal for the opening ceremonies. I'm bummed we can't bring cameras in but still totally excited to be there. Should be interesting to see the changes and catch the Olympic buzz in Vancouver.
Until then!
Jim
posted by Jim Wilson at 9:18 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home