Back in Calgary..

Monday was supposed to be an easy ride home...leaving Vancouver early in the morning and enjoying the beautiful weather and sights while crossing the mountains. This plan worked for about 100km....Then the left rear tire expired!
Then I tried to find the spare tire and the car jack...then I had to phone Crowfoot Toyota to get the phone number for road side assistance...then I tried to explain to the nice lady from roadside assistance where I was and what I needed...then I had enough:I read the manual, put on the stupid spare/half tire and drove into Hope.Unfortunately nobody there had a tire the size I needed. They recommended to drive back to Chilliwack or Vancouver....But you know me: going backwards is not an option!! So forward to Kamloops it was! At 80km/h..that is all the spare tire would allow. The 4th store in Kamloops had my tire, but no time to put it on the rim right away....Patience is a virtue which I don't possess, so I grabbed my tire and drove off. In tiny little Chase a young native guy did exactly what I wanted and after a 10 minute pit stop at his tire shop, I could finally make up some time and sped into Calgary where a delicious "adventure" dinner (the cook had never done a curry dish before..) was waiting for me.
All good now! Today I even had the chance to take the bike out for a bit and I met my skeletonians at the track here at COP.

Bears....

Bears in Whistler are like pigeons in the city...everywhere! They must have built this track right in prime bear habitat.

I have seen so many bears in the past 10 days that I am starting to recognize them and see their differences: there was a little cub climbing a tree, a teenage bear sitting in a tree and looking down on the people below, big black bears, small black bears and an especially fat and cuddly brownish black bear.And they are all eating grass and flowers...like cows.

It took me a while to take a decent foto, because...as all my German friends who have visited Canada know:...whenever you bring a camera and want to see a bear, they are hiding.

But this one spent all morning with me beside the track on Friday....safe distance, of course!

Yeeeehaaaaaaw....I did it!

Bobsledding is soooooooooooo cool!
The coach took me down in a 4-man bobsled from Damenstart. It is around curve 3 and starts slower than the regular start...that means we were only driving at a speed of 120 km/h instead of 130km/h or faster.
I was second in the sled and didn't take my head down, so I could watch the track. It was so much fun and I cannot wait to go again: this time from the "real' start.
Next week I will see, if they'll let me try skeleton.

video cameras & cables...

Ok, my mornings are spent with the skeleton team, videotaping certain positions of their training runs...Sounds easy, right?
Maybe for some people....But there are issues, if you (like me!)
1. have never used a video camera ever before..
2.don't get the hang of sensitively using the zoom..
3. have to do a quick swing to follow the sled, while balancing on a slippery little wall..
4. don't have the right shoes or didn't bring your icers, so everything is REALLY slippery...

But all in all: videotaping is easy! Compared to:
Taking care of the 100m video cable... Getting it all out and setting it all up I can do fast.
But: rolling up this frigging thing in an orderly manner after training?! Not so fast.. Actually I have been so pathetic with it that the skeleton coach decided to take it upon himself to look after the cable. He just couldn't watch it any more! Now he wants me to "admire" him for doing such a great job!
Oh well, whatever.....I am sure I am good at other things!

Soccer versus Bob&Skeleton

Watching these athletes for over a week now, I am actually quite amazed by the lack of support staff...Everything that needs to be done (and there is a lot that needs to be done!!) is done by the athletes: preparing the sleds, loading and storing the sleds, repair and on and on... Bobsledders spent about two hours before a run and one hour after a run on looking after the sleds! That time is on top of working on their personal fitness levels! But then again: maybe guys just enjoy hanging out together and pretending to work with some screws and bolts?!
In this regards soccer players are sissies...they just have to show up for the game and (maybe) bring their cleats. Everything else is taken care of! The advantage of soccer is that it is a team sport....and there are always substitute players that are called substitutes! In Bobsleigh never call the second brake person spare or substitute!!! Big faux pas!
I am not sure what they are officially called, but maybe "team mate, who only starts sometimes"?!

PS: I am very proud of this picture!! Do you know how hard it is to catch a bobsled going at 130km/h with a normal camera???

first day..

About 30 minutes after arriving in Whistler after a long trip from overseas, I was at the brand new bob track.
And I was put to work right away: videotaping the skeleton training runs at curve 11!
Perfect job for me with my "advanced technical knowledge'...and these Skeletonians are really fast! The first driver escaped my lense, but then I caught on and I didn't do too bad. Actually I have been back every day for videotaping since.....

PS: this is actually a foto from a later date at curve 16...

Long time gone...

Seems like a while since I left Calgary:
First a delightful trip to Vancouver, then a successful trip to Germany:
We had great weather (as usual..), excellent training and delicious food (all these Schnitzel weigh heavily around my waist..).
The day trip to Berlin was a "cultural learning experience": but the kids all knew: the faster we get over with that stuff, the more time they will have for the shopping mall..