Epiphany Dinner

The most amazing Epiphany Dinner chez Brooks/Devine took place again this year. 

As usual, we spent the evening tasting an incredible variety of reserve wines! 

This photo just shows some of them.


As the evening progresses we feast on course after course after course delicious, creative and unique gourmet items, all lovingly created in the home kitchen.

To the right is my first course.  Did I select the correct wine to accompany it?

Sous-chef Charlotte generally arrives around noon to help prepare this feast, but the meal has already been in production for days. 

Here is sous-chef Charlotte with chef Don.  I think they are already plotting about how to impress us next year!

New Year starts with Slalom for Toria

Toria started 2010 at Val St Come in Quebec where she raced in NorAm slalom events. 

If you take West Jet during the month of January you will see this photo on the seat back! 

Welcome 2010!

Happy New Year! 

 

Here is our mountain view through frosted glass, an exiting way to start the new year. 

It's only month until the Olympic Games and we are enjoying great skiing on uncrowded runs.  Our holiday house guests have departed and we have a few weeks of quieter times before the Games get underway here in early February.  Now we are seeing more obvious preparations around the village, with temporary structures popping up in parking lots, more signage, and more traffic diversions.  There is also a heightened excitement in the air! 

Merry Christmas

We are having a great family Christmas in Whistler.  Here are the four of us out on the deck in the afternoon.  

This year nine Whitneys and Charlotte's friend Tiffany all gathered here for about four days of fun.   Our days are filled with lots of great cooking, feasting, playing games, skiing, reading, talking, more cooking, more eating, and plenty of noisy talking and laughing.  Tiffany survived the Whitney craziness, always smiling and laughing, and a good time was had by all.

Our tree from under the power lines is possibly our best ever, a fir with three trunks.  Why?  We think we must have cut this same tree many years ago and since then the branches we left behind have been competing to become the new main trunk!   Re-harvesting the same tree seemed like a good environmental decision to us.  Maybe in ten years we can harvest the same tree again!

Christmas eve we sat down to a multi-course sea food feast and we started Christmas day with Al's famous Belgium waffles as we opened gifts hidden in our stockings.  We must have been good because not one of us got a lump of coal this year.  After skiing on Christmas day we feasted again, with Al's turkey and wild rice stuffing plus a variety of delicious veggie dishes by Charlotte and Tiffany.  A game of Cranium kept us laughing through the evening.

Now we have a week of festive house parties to keep us laughing into 2010.

More ski racing news....

There sure are a lot of ski races in December.  The racers must be ready for a break, and some powder skiing.  And, just in time, we got a LOT of fresh powder for the holiday break.

Look at our house, almost buried!  Yes, that is our friend's car in the driveway.

This past week-end our local Whistler ski club hosted the first "kinder" Coast Zone GS and Slalom racers of the season.   On Saturday - with a firm track and clear skies - we provided 2 one-run GS races per gender.   On Sunday we had heavy snow but still - thanks to grooming - we were still able to offer 1 one-run slalom per gender.   This week-end gave the racers (aged 11-14) an early-season opportunity to compete and earn results, and gave both racers and coaches some ideas on what to work on during the holiday training camps.   Thanks to the 100 volunteers who came out to make this week-end a safe, fair and fun event for all.

Racing at the higher levels continues. If you have been following the  news you will know that four of our Canadian Olympic hopefuls have been injured this past month (John, JP, Kelly, and Larisa) which is very sad.  However, other Canadians have also had some great results.  To follow CAST news click on the links in the side bar.

Lake Louise NorAms

We just completed our volunteer stint at the 5-day NorAm series at Lake Louise.   It is always great to be part of the team, and to re-connect with the volunteers who - like us - return year after year to make this event happen.

My days are long because as the Start Referee I have to be in the Start area before the racers and their coaches arrive for course inspection, I don't leave until the last racer has crossed the Finish some time in the afternoon. 

Just after 7am I ride up two lifts, then - before first light - ski carefully across the "top of the world" to the Start hut.  It is definitely exciting to be up there before first light, and to see the first hint of daylight as the mountain peaks begin to emerge from the night.   Depending on the schedule, the racers and their coaches begin to arrive before 8am and wait for me to open the course for inspection.  They drop their race skis for their technicians, who also arrive early to stake out an area to prepare skis with special race wax.

After inspection I work with the Timing people who arrive around 9am, about an hour before the race. We set up the Start wand, clock and all sorts of connecting wires.  Then I clean set up the Start area a little more while course crew come by to prepare the track.  One team dyes the course, which involves carrying heavy packs with nozzles so they can paint lines across the course.  This helps the racers see the terrain in flat light. 

Soon medical personnel arrive, the racers and coaches return, and we get underway.    During the races I make sure everything happens the way it should at the Start, which - like sailing - is easy so long as everything goes well.   I am always alert for potential issues, and always ready to stop the race when another Jury member calls about something happening further down the course.  It may be a broken gate, some damage to the track, or a fallen racer.  

Start Referee is my favourite role at the races and I am excited to have this role during the Paralympics in March.

Toria was racing in this series.  One day she earned a 3rd place overall, 1st place among Juniors, and was the top Canadian.  One other day she went out on a tricky section and on another race day she did something acrobatic that cost her a few seconds, and her anticipated podium result. 

In this article you can read a couple of quotes from her:
http://bcalpine.com/news/article/?1784

Lake Louise race up-date

It's cold here in Lake Louise, and the sky is deep blue. 

World Cup racing has gone well, despite some stormy weather and fresh snow that passed over this area a couple of days ago.   Canadian women racers have been doing well, especially Emily Brydon who was on the podium both Downhill race days.  Toria skied well too, but WC race day quota spots were limited and went to the senior racers. Here is Toria racing on the World Cup track.

This is our first time as accredited CAST family members rather than as volunteers. It has been most enjoyable to mingle in the VIP area at the Finish, join other families at the parent-athlete reception, free ski, skate ski, attend the WC gala, and even sleep in! 

Here we are with Toria in the Finish area.

Tonight we shift our focus to the NorAm race series, and our volunteer roles.   Irene returns for her 9th season as Start Referee while Al takes on the role of Chief of Environment.  For Al, this involves monitoring animal activity on the race hill, making sure the animal fences are closed prior to each race then opened up for the animals asap when racing is over.   We will both be up by 6am, on the hill before daylight and fully occupied until well after the racers are over each day.

Charlotte becomes a ski coach

For several years since she retired from the BC Alpine Ski Team and took her coaching certification,  Charlotte has been invited to coach skiing at our local clubs.  But she was too busy with her under grad studies at UBC until this winter.  This month she accepted a part time coaching position at Grouse Mt in Vancouver.  Her Nancy Green Ski League team think she is the best, and Charlotte is having a lot of fun too!

Check back later for a photo of Charlotte and her team.