Yesterday, we were pleased to be able to make the positive snow control decision but were saddened by the news of David Poisson’s death in a training accident.
So it was a somber start to the day today – the light was flat and the snow was falling lightly.
The loss of Poisson was quietly in the back of everyone’s mind as we took a moment before the loading the lift to reconfirm our commitment to safety – for everyone involved in our event.
Our morning inspection/ski down with Hannes took a bit longer as we are starting to dial in on the specific snowmaking and cat requirements in each section of the course.
We received ~ 8 cm of snow yesterday/overnight in the alpine. The snowguns didn’t produce much because of the warmer temperatures……but the Build Week crew has been most productive. They have had to struggle with T-steel to get our spec fencing in place.
The willy bag program started today. We have had to adapt to some operational changes at the mountain and we are now filling willy bags at Control (LLSR’s mid-mountain ops building). Bob Falls again is leading that effort. The last update I received was that the crew filled 98 willy bags today. Wow! After sweep, Hillco (Rob & Herb) had started a test run of hauling the willy bags from Control up onto the course. I am pretty confident, they will figure it out.
The dapper looking Net Monkeys continue to buckle in & tension A nets and Joanski’s crew slides right in behind them to install the slipskirt.
Cat work has started in the alpine after the crews closed off the course (to ensure that the resort guests are on one side of the fence and we are working on the other).
You can tell Dan Gallagher is back on the mountain. He was orchestrating 2 cats and worked all the snow from the bottom of Sunset Gully to the top of Tickety. The race line is really taking shape.
DX3 staff (our TV production company partners) started their work on the mountain today and the big VIP tent layout kicked into gear as the major pieces were moved onto place. You will also see broadcaster booths and video wall platforms going up.
Rick Spooner’s Finish crew was very busy but will be making time to be in Camp Canada to autograph 8 x10’s – suitable for framing – just $9.95 a piece.
I didn’t take many photos today of you Sled Dogs – I spent most of my afternoon with the head of the local RCMP detachment discussing your driving habits.
Still lots to do but we are connecting all of our dots and it is starting to look like our race course and even better, the sun came out for most of the day and….. it is beautiful here.
Nama-ski,
Brian
brian.lynam@winterstartevents.com