The view from our house

We love our home base in Whistler, especially  the view.

It's mid-November and we just woke up today to a beautiful sunrise over Wedge Mountain.

The trees in the foreground are in our yard,  a private forest of fir, hemlock, pine, & spruce towering over huckleberry and blueberry bushes with a ground cover of bunch berries and wild orchids.

"Red sky in the morning...sailors take warning!"

We are excited to see this sunrise/weather warning because it's time for a storm to bring us snow!

And a little later.....just thought I would add this....here comes our first snow in the valley! 

Our view is hidden by clouds dumping snow but that's fine with us because we will soon be out there in our view, skiing!

Ski team announcements

Early November is the time when Alpine Canada Alpine (ACA) confirms the team for the coming season.  While we already knew that Toria was on the team,  ACA tends to hold back official recognition of team status until after all summer training and fitness testing has been completed.

Today the announcement was made public.  To read the ACA announcement click here:

http://canski.org/canadian-alpine-ski-team-building-momentum-toward-2010-olympic-winter-games

For the BCAlpine news article click here:

http://bcalpine.com/news/article/?1758

This news was also mentioned in the Pique, one of our local Whistler papers:

Whistler skiers confirmed to ski team

The 2009-2010 Canadian Alpine Ski Team was unveiled in Calgary on Tuesday with a strong group of returning skiers making up the core of the team. There are also nine additions from the development group.

All told there will be 38 Canadians racing World Cup this year, 13 of them with Olympic experience, with the goal of qualifying as many quota spots and athletes for the 2010 Games as possible before the cut-off in the third week of January.

Whistler will be well represented on both the men's and women's teams.
On the men's side Whistler team members include slalom specialist Mike Janyk and speed racer Robbie Dixon, while the town can also lay partial claim to speedster Manuel Osborne-Paradis as a veteran of the Whistler Mountain Ski Club.

Britt Janyk, who is racing downhill, super G and giant slalom this season, will represent Whistler on the senior women's team and will be joined at training camps and events by development team skier Victoria Whitney, who also tends to specialize in speed events and GS.

"There is a veteran core that has achieved World Cup and World Championship success," said chief athletics officer Max Gartner. "They will be pushed by a group of younger skiers who will be looking to 2010 for experience, with their ultimate goals being success in 2014 and even 2018."

More Race Officials education

This week-end we are holding our first Race Organizing Commitee (ROC) meetings at WMSC. We are hosting three Kinder events this year before the Olympics comes to town so it's time to get planning!

Our first club-hosted race series takes place December 19/20.  It's a K1/K2 GS and Slalom series, which is a great way to start the season.  The kids sign up for ski racing because they want to race, after all, so it's great to start the season with some racing.  And, it gives them some ideas about what to work on over the holiday training camps so they can race better and faster at their next races in January.

December racing also gets all the parents our to volunteer, and find out what they like to do within the race team. To help the parents prepare we are also running a Level Two Race Officials course this week-end, then a Level One course on November 28.  Knowledge is power, and knowing what the race roles are all about makes volunteering a lot more enjoyable.

100-day countdown to the Games!

Last night we attended the VANOC 100-day count-down party at the Telus Conference Centre in Whistler.  This was an exciting pep ralley including live entertainment, appies & beverages, plus exposure to some local Olympic hopefuls. 

Our news:  Toria will be here during the Olympics.  At this point her involvement will be as a Forerunner for the Downhill & SuperG races.  The older racers ahead of her will be racing, but all team members have been alerted they must be ready to race in case any spots open up that will allow some of them to race too.  Either way, Toria will be here with the CAST and part of the Games.

A face lift at the ski club?

This past week-end a work party got together at the club cabin to spruce up the member lounge.  We put in a couple of long but fun days, filling, sanding & painting.  To us, the area has been transformed into the much more appealing space requested by members at large and we are very satisfied. 

Not only the main lounge was painted, but also the entrance room and also the stairwell leading up to it.  Of course, seeing these newly painted rooms serves to remind us there are more rooms in the club that also need fresh paint!  Our work party is not done yet! 

Officials Education is on-going

This past week-end we attended the annual Alpine Technical Delegates "up-date" here in Whistler.  It is always a wonderful opportunity to mingle with race officials from all over Canada and the US, to learn more, and generally to discuss all things "official" in terms of alpine ski racing.  This year an added component of the week-end included a 2010 Olympic reception and presentation with time for  mingling with many of the key Games volunteers. 

Irene got together with some of the key Jury members for the ParaAlpine events where she will be Start Referee.  Being Start Ref is Irene's favourite role at alpine races so being nominated for this role at the Olympics is a real priviledge. 

Al got together with his Timing gurus and discussed ever-evolving processes and systems that can ensure greater perfection in gathering and ensuring correct results.  Al is managing the back-up timing crew for the Olympics.  (The Omega team from Switzerland runs System A.)

TD up-dates consist of two days of meetings each Fall, one meeting in the east and one in the west.  Usually we don't attend but this year the western meeting took place in Whistler so it was easy for us to join in.  Prior to the meeting homework is sent out and this homework must be handed in by active TDs or order for them to retain their licences.  We did the homework but didn't hand it in because we are "high level officials", not FIS TDs.

In order to stay "green" during the meetings no papers were circulated.  Instead, wireless internet allowed every participant to be on line and link to the many resources we needed throughout the week-end.  Picture a large meeting room with over 250 people sitting at round tables covered with 6-8 lap tops and surrounded by 6-8 intense people all focussed on the question at hand while two large screens displayed the same or similar information at the front of the room.  Roving mikes allowed for plenty of questions and discussions too.  The TD fraternity is intense and it's exicting to attend meetings where everyone is engaged.

Of course we each had our own small ICR (FIS rule book) along for doing the case studies.  When the case studies were presented these same 6-8 Officials at each table also consulted their well-thumbed rule books, finding specific rules to support decisions.  Most case studies lead to discussions and we all come away with new insights.

The race season will soon be upon us and well be putting some of this learning to the test!

Winter is coming!

Whistler is the winter home base for the Whitney family, our permanent anchorage when we are not off wandering the world on SV Darwin Sound.

Al has been skiing here since Whistler Mountain opened in mid-1960s.  In the mid-1980s we moved to our ski-in ski-out condo above Whistler village, a seasonal home between Pacific Synergies sailing charters around the world through the 1990s.  Then we moved from the condo to a "real house" and began to experience some summer months in here too.

Both Charlotte and Toria spent their early years skiing in Whistler every winter, and both earned spots on the BCAlpine Ski Team. Charlotte has since shifted her focus to academics, recently earning a degree in Conservation through the Department of Forestry at UBC.  She spent a year on the Varsity Rowing Team, then  returned to alpine skiing in her spare time, twice winning the famous Peak to Valley Race here in Whistler. She is currently based in Vancouver - now with her own sail boat - and is pursuing a Masters degree.  Toria followed in her sister's ski tracks five years later, and is still racing.  Last year Toria was the only female picked up by the Canadian Alpine Ski Team (CAST) and she is currently enjoying her full-time carreer as an athlete.


The 2010 Olympic Games are coming!  And the alpine events will be taking place in our own back yard.  Will we be involved?  Yes!  

And so, considering the many requests from family and friends about our involvement in the Games - and life in Whistler in general - we are starting this web log.  

We suggest you bookmark this page so you can easily return for photos and news....

December 25, 2008

What a wonderful family day we are having in Whistler, just the four of us for a change. Christmas day at home always begins with laughter as we search through our personal "stockings" for the funny, little gifts the "elves" have brought. We light the fire, eat Mandarin oranges and then feast on Al's Belgium waffles. Our tradition is to ski a few runs on Blackcomb, then return for a family afternoon at home.

Here we are out our deck. Charlotte, Toria, Irene & Al