Clean, Fresh, and White (and Gold!!!)

Day 20 – February 19, 2014

The last of my laundry is by now dry. Thank goodness, because it was my underwear that was taking the longest to dry, and that’s just one of those key pieces of clothing that you can’t do without.

And the sun is shining. The air is cool and crisp, and I had heard that there was 15 cm of new snow at Laura. That means no salting! WAHOO! It seems that sometimes a little rain must fall in one’s life, just so that you can appreciate those times when the sun returns. Darn, there I go being philosophical again. What has this trip done to me?!?

Anyway, off to work for an early morning shift and this is what it looked like near the base of the gondola.

And this is what greeted me at the top.

The moon was still out.

The street sweepers where clearing the roads of dirt and the last remnants of snow.

Our first job today was to put the v-boards out. At the end of each day, the v-boards are picked up and stood on end at the side of the trails, out of the way of the groomers. These pictures give you some idea as to why we stand them on end, lest they be lost forever (or at least until the real spring rolls around).

Here’s one that almost didn’t make it.

And around every corner, as we laid out the v-boards, was another beautiful scene out of some Christmas card.

And the rings, in all their glory, were a little less colourful today.

A perfect day to be doing some maintenance on the groomers.

Our next task was to take out a set of three tracks that the Jury didn’t want on a short downhill section. The first step is to chop up the tracks.

Then we throw some (clean, white) snow on it and pack it all down.

Then, break time. There is a room in the wax cabin complex that has a place where we can sit and perhaps watch some of the competitions on TV. These two gentlemen were getting cozy on the couch.

They’re friends. Really. Just friends.

We were able to get tickets again to watch today’s events, the women’s and men’s team sprints, from the stands. This event has teams of two skiers doing three alternating laps of a sprint course. There is a semifinal qualifier that consists of two heats, with the top two in each heat moving forward plus the next 6 best times from both heats combined. After a break to give the skiers adequate rest, the finals take place to decide the top ten positions, with the remaining positions ordered based on the semi-final times. The ladies went first.

For this event, the teams are allowed to bring in waxing support in assigned locations near the start area.

Then on to the men’s semi-finals.

Waiting for the exchange.

As the other team members come into the stadium.

Unfortunately, neither the Canadian
men or the women moved forward to the finals. Although the men had done well at this in the past, one of them was just coming off a cold and was not in top form.

“Half time” and they brought out the entertainment. The guy on the left, although he looks like he’s just been hit by an audience member, is just in the process of doing a back flip.

I think one of these guys is thinking “Oh $#!%, he’s falling!”

Meanwhile, this guy was hanging around above his friends.

While another is looking for a Kopec he dropped.

Bet you didn’t know cross country skiing has cheerleaders.

Out back, a girl and her mother were helping out a snowman that had dropped its flags.

While you wait, here’s some of the junk food you can buy.

Yup, pancakes. And if you don’t like those, how about some nuts mix, or small rusks out of the vending machine?

Yeah, I don’t know what small rusks are either.

Clouds were starting to roll in.

This lady in yellow was from the small African country of Togo, of all places! Are you surprised she’s all bundled up and looking cold?

Are you surprised Togo has a cross country skier?

It was a day for the Nordic countries, with Norway, Finland and Germany taking the top spots for the ladies and Finland and Sweden taking two of the top spots for the men. The Russian men were the spoilers in taking second place.

The women were so jubilant that they were floating on air!

The flower girl on the left looks like she’s floating above the podium too. The men had to help each other float.

It was a particularly bad day for the Germans. The last skier for the women lost out on a podium position as she was passed in the last 50 metres or so, just beat out by the Swedish skier. And with a few hundred metres to go, the last skier for the German men who was in the lead at the time fell. That resulted in a protest being filed by the German team against another skier they felt caused him to fall, which caused a delay in the men’s flower ceremony, but it was ultimately rejected.

I also received some tickets to watch tonight’s biathlon event, which was the mixed relay. This is one of the few events where both men and women compete together, with two men and two women on each team. The women ski first, doing a 6 kilometre lap, and then the men ski a 7.5 kilometre lap.

I had run into Anna (in the middle here, who had helped me on the bus when I first arrived), Narmeen and a friend of theirs.

We were in the midst of the throngs of thousands of spectators!

There were even some Canadian supporters in the trees behind the stadium.

Skiers have a few extra bullets in case they don’t make all of their shots, although it does take time to load them so you still don’t want to miss.

And if you do still miss, you ski a penalty lap around a short loop for each missed shot.

One of the most famous biathletes was there. Although behind initially, he picked well over a minute on the third leg in helping to lead the Norwegians to a win.

Czechs came second and Italians third. And the Germans? Fourth. And then they were disqualified. It’s just not their day.

These two German supporters were busy trading pins after the race.

The walk down was probably a little more exciting than watching the biathlon race. with thousands of people heading down the path to the gondola, the snow got pretty packed. The crowd heading back suddenly slowed right down. Some guy that was doing his best to push by people, presumably to get to the gondola first, came flying into me. A half a minute or so later I discovered why the backup. I suddenly hit a patch that was literally like an ice rink. Even my with heavy-duty super-grip Sochi Olympic boots, I still started sliding downhill. Those on the sides could grab the fences. Those in the middle just held on to each other for the ride down.

Fortunately that only lasted a few metres.

Tonight’s dinner choice included “lagman”.

Not sure exactly what that is, but it included potatoes, pasta sauce (but no pasta?) and “mutton flesh”. Mmmmmm. Note, they do have a vegetarian option, although they tell you that you must be a vegetarian if you choose that. Okay, today I’m a vegetarian!

Day 21 – February 20, 2014

I got the word yesterday that today would be a day off, even though we were scheduled to work. No competition, so nothing to really do up there. And I guess they got tired of making work for us.

So I decide to go in to Sochi, with no detour to Olympic Park this time, to do some exploring and perhaps look for souvenirs. Sochi, the city proper, is about an hour and a half away by train. We pass through several suburbs, which are actually part of Sochi, including Adler where the airport and Olympic Park are located.

One of the things I noticed in disembarking the train is that people here tend to often push their way in, even though others are trying to get off. Now, to be honest, I have seen this same thing at the Skytrain in Vancouver, but the crowds coming off the train here are massive. In boarding, one guy in particular ticked me off, as he shoved past me while I stopped to take off my backpack as I was sitting down. Gotta get one of those 700 seats before they’re all gone!

The train went a long at a nice pace, reaching a top speed of 140 km/h, the fastest I’ve seen it yet.

The train station in Sochi is an old, historical building.

The first stop I had in mind was the flea market that we were at last week, just up the river a ways.

There was an inside section with mainly clothing and shoes and, further on, an outside area where most of the souvenirs were.

Then off to a large mall nearby.

I noticed a couple of billboards which, oddly enough, made me drool. Just a little.

Just your standard mall. The most interesting thing I found though was in a sports store – Sochi-branded ski equipment!

Then down the river a ways and over a bridge, which bounced as you walked across it.

They did a great job of sprucing up one particular intersection with a beautiful floral display.

Why, yes, it is winter here.

Unfortunately, as in many North American cities, graffiti can be found here as well.

I passed a beautiful soccer field and then could tell that I was getting close to the sea by what I saw in the other direction.

But alas, today was not my day to see the sea. I got a phone call from Vasiliy, who I had been talking to earlier about hockey tickets. He managed to get me tickets to tonight’s women’s gold medal game between Canada and the US with the help of one of the Argentinians that had a spare one. SCORED! All other bets are off – I’m going to a hockey game!

And the seats were pretty good too. They were at one end of the rink, but in the ninth row! So good that, at one point, a cameraman came and sat in an empty seat beside me.

I was definitely close enough to see all the action.

And the cheerleaders and mascots.

Lots of Canadian fans were there.

Notice the poor American in the middle? The US did have their fair share of supporters as well, though.

“USA!” “CANADA!” “USA!” “CANADA!” The chants were going back and forth. It was loud! And there were some strange characters out there, on both sides.

First period, no score. Canada was now down at my end.

And the US scores. Aaaaargh!

This was despite the fact that I was doing my best to support the team, with my Canada cape, my Canada hat and, behind me, my Canada flag.

At the start of the third period, Helene from Montreal showed up and sat beside me. I’m not sure where she was the first two periods. I had met her earlier during my stay during dinner one evening. It’s amazing how many people you run into again that you had just gotten to know.

Helene was quite loud. I think one ear is now a little harder of hearing.

Third period and the US scores again. Okay, I can’t take this anymore! Things are looking hopeless. And then, with three or four minutes to go in the game, Canada scores! It is unbelievable how that turned the Canadian crowd. Now, any time Canada even headed towards the US zone, the cheering was on! And you could barely hear the American fans now.

Just over a minute to go, and the goalie is pulled for a sixth attacker. The puck rolls towards the empty net and amazingly hits the goalpost! Why do these Canadian games always have to be so stressful?!? And then, they did it! CANADA SCORES!

We’re going to overtime!

The battle is back on.

And, if you’re Canadian, you know what happened next.

What an unbelievable feeling, to be there and watch the women get gold! Fans were ecstatic. I give Helene a big hug because, hey, she’s Canadian. And the team is even more ecstatic.

And then the Canadian anthem. You could hear the Canadians singing.

Because of the late game, I didn’t get back until after 2:00 a.m. and I had missed dinner that night. I left my flag behind, which some Russian likely picked up and said “Zabil!” (“Scored!”) But, nothing could ruin this golden moment!

Is it my imagination, or is that flame burning just a little bit brighter tonight?