Crew Info
The Weasel Soup Tent
A new
idea for the
Whistler Weasels, the Soup
Tent sprang into action for the 2007 "Canadians" and
has quickly become a fixture. How did we survive for
40years without it? The concept originated in Beaver Creek and was
brought to Whister in 2006, by a group of Weasels who had helped
with the Birds of Prey Downhill.
True to form, our Weasel Crew Chief, Joyce Miller, has taken the Soup Tent to new heights by rejecting processed soup base in favour of home-made soup stock. No additives, salt or unknowns, just fresh veggies, real chicken and Alberta beef. All fresh, all natural. Nothing too good for Weasels ski race workers!
Along
with the concept of
the Soup Tent has come Beaver Creek`s original "Soup Lady",
Lauren Williams, who has been a great help to Joyce and her crew.
Joyce and her crew start work in the autumn, using the Food Safe kitchen of Ladner BC's Sacred Heart Church. Night after night, they create caldrons of chicken and beef stock, from which they make soup that they freeze in air-tight Cryovac bags. Just prior to the races, the Soup Crew, (for the 2008 Canadians) transported about fifty vacumn-packed 10 gallon bags of frozen soup stock to freezers in Whistler.
During setup and
on race
days, the Soup Crew is at work daily in the Soup Tent, which is usually
located at mid-station, at the top of the Creekside gondola.
From about 10AM through mid-afternoon, the crew dishes out
hot soup to cold and weary course workers. The Soup Tent and its thick
home-made soup is a great treat, well appreciated by everyone.
At the end of the day, there`s never any soup left over!
We don`t know what will happen in 2010, but we expect that, post 2010, the Soup Crew will be back in all its glory. Joyce says she has a marvellous crew and that they have a great time. For the 2007 and 2008 Soup Tents we all thank Joyce, JoAnne Milford, ex-chef Ian Milford, Lisa Ferguson, Karine Goldsmid and Sue Rivers. We also thank the Sacred Heart School for its generosity in opening its facilities to our hard-working crew, and the many friends of the Weasel Workers who helped keep about five hundred gallons of soup safely frozen. Thanks too to Lauren for all her help with the Whisler operations.
