Follow up - a little late

Once the actual racing starts, the days get long and the last thing you feel like doing is writing a book (or blog for that matter).

Have a look at the attached picture and the sea of humanity.

Race day on Saturday for the Downhill was amazing. The weather was perfect as was the course. It wasn't without controversy thou. The final jump into the finish was totally removed this year in the interest of racer safety. This pissed off most of the Austrian fans as that jump has been in the race for over 70 years.

Once the race was over (no accidents, at least non serious), I made a trip around the course to pick up the radar equipment. While I was pulling out the units at the Mousefalle and one of the American's on the viewing stand started to ask me questions on how what it was and how it works. Turns out it was Scott McCartney from the US Ski Team. Two years ago, Scott crashed and passed me on the finish line. (Click here for the video) It was great to talk to Scott and tell him how good it was to see him skiing again. Pretty cool.

Kitzbuhel is very very big party. After dinner on Saturday, I went for a stroll downtown and I have never seen so many drunk and stupid people in one place at the same time. No need for washrooms, etc. They 'just do it' were they are standing. Then again, it was about midnight.

Sunday was the Slalom race on a different hill (just to the west of the Downhill race course). A 2 run race with about 40000 fans standing there. Again, the weather was pretty good and very loud. Hence the reasons for the David Clark headsets. Remind me to send them a Christmas card as they saved my ears. After the end of the race, comes the 6 hours that we spend packing up all the equipment that took us 5 days to install.

Just when you think it is safe to go to bed, your dreams are dashed and you have to present yourself at a dinner that has the major players of the entire event join you. A 4 course dinner that takes hours (how civilized) even if it is Lamb. At least we didn't have to get up at 4am to catch a train, as the Ski club was kind enough to send a van to drive us to the airport. Perfect.

Once at the airport on Monday morning all we have to do is drop the bags and head to the lounge. No such luck. Seems that Air Canada has had to divert a plane from Frankfurt to Munich. Instead of a plane with 50 people on it, it is now full. So much for using my last upgrade coupon.

Fortunately, the Air Canada gods must have been watching out for me. Just as the doors closed, the 'In Charge' attendant finds me and asks me if I have a coupon for an upgrade. Do I?? You bet I do. 30 seconds later, I'm sitting up in 3K and testing out the recliner. I would just hate to see that last coupon go to waste.

I'm now back in Canada where it actually gets cold (in Austria, -10C is pretty cold). Going to be a frosty one skiing this weekend at Craigleith. It is great to be back.

Don't forget to review The Might Skunk's Blog in your spare time.

Starting to get crazy

With the first actual race tomorrow, the town is starting to fill up. The villa is 100% full and it seems the rest of the patrons are with the media.

In the middle of dinner, we had a power failure that took out the entire value. It didn't last long, but it was a concern if we lost any equipment. The quick dinner conversation that followed came to the conclusion that we had everything on UPS's.

Except for the large video wall. Hmmm... Just then the phone rings and it is the president of the Kitzbuhler Ski Club asking if might have lost anything in the power failure or do we need anything from him. Wow, what a wonderful partnership we have here.

James, Ted and I took a quick trip over to check the video wall (which needed a quick reset of some parameters). However, James set a blistering after dinner pace. Most have been the mouth wash he used before dinner (see previous post).

I also grabbed a shot of the race course from across the village with the lights and the clouds/fog. Yes that is a cemetery in the foreground. Click on the picture attached to expand it.

Earlier, I mentioned that we had had lunch several times in the start hut. I learned that only a select few are allowed lunch there: The King of Austria, Members of the Board of the Ski Club, and Winners of the Downhill Race. Wow, a pretty select list. I guess that there must be an amendment somewhere if you are on the timing team! :)

The value of Gargling

What a damp day today. It just plain grey and dull. The end result was that the start today for the training got lowered down to the next foul weather start. I was hoping for a nice sunrise when I got to the start at 7am, but it was just dull, dark and grey (almost foggy).

Training run started on time at 10am. Coop and the rest of the team had about 30 minutes to move the start (a very non-trivial exercise) down the hill out of the wind.

The good news was that by noon, I was done for the day. A quick trip through town with Skunk (he needed to find something for his throat). I also got hold of C and she was able to view us on the www.kitz.net web cam (about 7:30am for her).

Both Skunk and Ted are starting to feel just a little under the weather. Being in the timing building is worse than being on a plane for a trans-Atlantic flight. No room to move (timing, data, sound, and TV) in a small area. Yesterday the temperature in the room got to +40C (recorded). No wonder they are getting sick.

Oh, the gargling part. Skunks says his throat was much better after gargling -- with Yagermiester.

One in the books

Today's training run was just about perfect. Amazing weather and a few challenges that make it interesting.

The first one was that the forerunner (not a racer, but someone that goes down the course to make sure everything is just right -- like a crash test dummy) decided to JUMP right over the finish beam. That means no race time for him, however, since we have about 3 others ways of figuring out his time, we got to use it.

The 2nd one was that a member of the public walked right into my highly secure area at the finish line. Not sure how she got there, but there is LOTS of security. I'm sure someone got a laugh out of me yelling at her in English why she was yelling back at me in German. I actually had to push her out of my area (she was standing in front of the finish eyes totally blocking them). (If you time races, you'll really understand how serious a problem this is).

Number 3 was my own heart attack when some of the racers speeds from the radar was not appearing on the video wall (a very big display board). Turns out that the 'tail end charlies' were so slow, the software that controls the what gets displayed on the video wall just didn't send the data to the screen. That is what it is supposed to do and it did it well.

It was really cool that all 4 of my radar installations worked as well as can be asked the first time. That means no going back and fine tuning where it points (a fine black art).

I've start to post pictures here.

Tomorrow's training run is at 10am, so that means on the hill about 7am (1am Eastern Time).

Don't come here to loose weight

Meet Ted and James (aka - the Skunk). These gents are the ones that keep moving the bar higher.

For the last 3 days, we have been setting up timing equipment and making sure that it works. More importantly, that it works tomorrow and the next day and the next day. Hence the reason we get out here many days early.

Case in point. One of our display boards worked just fine fine on Friday when it was configured. Then it was installed on Saturday. Come Monday, it wasn't work at all. Just weird. It was on the snag list to check and I finally got to it today. Found the problem and there it was, working again....almost. Now the Tag Heuer board is not display the last few characters on both lines. To make matters worse, it is mounted about 10M up on 2 poles. Not easy to get down.

I hate to nag on the meals, but the meals are amazing (I guess that isn't nagging). Yesterday we had lunch in the start building (not fair to call it a hut). We had soup, salad, main course, and dessert. I felt like I had just finished Christmas dinner.

Then, comes dinner. Same story all over again. We also had guests which included the President of the Ski Club and the National Marketing manager of Rolex (I'm guessing at his title but I'm sure I am close). Really nice guy. Dinner started just after 7pm and went on until 10:30 or 11.

Today normally would have been a training day, but it was cancelled to give the racers a break (They didn't want to hurt anyone else before the Olympics apparently). Which was great as it allowed us an extra day to do more testing.

Tomorrow is the first Downhill training day. Always interesting.

The superbowl of Ski Races

After a somewhat quiet break from the end of Lake Louise, I find myself here in Kitzbuhel, Austria for the Super Bowl of Ski races (ok, it was only quiet if you don't count starting an entire kitchen renovation including replacing over 700 square feet of tile---no, I'm not doing it, but I am writing cheques). My trip was much better than the Skunk's, who arrived in Europe during the height of a snow storm. You can read his blog, but just a reminder, it is R rated, but every entertaining.

After leaving Toronto on Thursday night I found myself arriving at the Vella Mellon in Kitzbuhel about 14 hours later. 1 plane (bumped to Executive class) and 5 trains later I finally got to unpack. Cooper and I were met at the door by Herta who runs this wonderful villa.

Dinner was a fine affair as I met up with the rest of the timing crew (except for Jimmy who should arrive on Sunday). Ted, Skunk and Andy got here a few days earlier and got a LOT of things done on the hill, which takes a lot of pressure off for the next few days. Dinner (amazing as it was) dragged on and I finally got to bed about 9pm and the alarm woke me up at 7am. Thanks Penny (melatonin is the secret)!

This morning, as we walked outside, we were met with an absolutely tremendous view of the village of Kitzbuhel. Not a cloud in the ski, and, as there was no wind, the smoke was rising straight up. Just a beautiful view to say the last.

Tomorrow, it is supposed to rain and I am hearing rumors that we might not actually have a training run on Tuesday. That would leave only Wednesday and Thursday for training runs with the SG on Friday, Downhill on Saturday and the Slalom on Sunday.

Todays disappointing part was after I left the hill. I had a chocolate croissant on my brain. After the 10 minute walk to the bakery (got there are 5:30) only to find out it closes at 12:30 on Saturdays. What is up with that?

Some pretty cool software

Been a little quiet around here. With the morning temperature here today being -22C, we are starting to get ready for an entire kitchen renovation. Over 700 sq feet of tile being ripped out as well.

I went looking for some time lapse software, can came across Flix, which should work just fine. Nice, small, efficient package. You can find Flix at http://www.nimisis.com/projects/flix.php.