Mission Central for Volunteer Alpine Ski Race Workers 

The Events 

In February 2008, the Pontiac GMC Canadian Championships were held in Whistler, followed by four World Cup events.  Also, two World Junior Qualification races (for ACA athletes) were held, immediately following the "Canadians".

The Pontiac GMC Canadian Championships were run entirely on the new “Ladies Olympic Downhill” located on Whistler Mountain’s well known “Franz’s Run”.  The “Canadians" were the first races run on the new track, created expressly for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

Following the Canadians and the World Junior Qualifiers, the women's track was maintained and upgraded for two Women's World Cup Races that followed, in the last week of February.  At the same time, two Men's World Cup races were held on the Dave Murray Dowhill track.  

The Canadian Championship events included Men’s and Women’s Downhill, Super Giant Slalom and Super Combined.  There were no "technical" events. The World Junior Qualification races comprised Giant Slalom and Slalom races. The World Cup races  included a Super Giant Slalom (SG) and a Giant Slalom (GS) for the Men and a Downhill and a Super Combined (SC) for the Women.  These will be the first World Cup races held in Whistler for about 10 years.

The Schedule

Course work in preparation for the Canadians started on the new women's track on January 30.  After seven days of setup, there were eight days of training and racing, from February 6 through February 13.  The last race of the Canadians were on Feb 11, and the World Junior Qualification races were run on Feb 12th and 13th.

Prior to the end of the Canadians, course setup started on the Dave Murray Downhill track for the two Men's World Cup races.  Only the lower part of the men’s track was developed, extending from the traditional women’s start, (now the Super G start - top of the Toilet Bowl) to the bottom.

Following the completion of the Canadian Championships and the Junior Qualifiers,  the women’s track on Franz'z Runs was maintained and upgraded  for the two Women's  World Cup races.    Click on the image to the right to view the 27-day  setup and racing schedule.    For more details including race times, venue and team movements, view this detailed schedule (.pdf)

The "World Junior Qualifiers" shown in the schedule were intended for ACA athletes to qualify as Canadian representatives.

The Opportunity

The 2008 races presented a number of challenges. First was building the inaugural course on what may be one of the best women’s tracks in the World.  Second, was setting up and running concurrent World Cup races on two separate tracks.

In 2008 we continued to build and train our team of volunteer race workers, a process we started in earnest for the Canadian Championships in March 2007. Our needs included many additional Gate Judges, a greatly expanded Slip Crew as well as new course, security, support and timing crew members. We needed a significant number of experienced course workers to train to become Section Chiefs and Crew Chiefs in future years.

Our Support Crews needed  drivers  as well as crew to work in the Beer Tent, in food preparation, doping control andin the race office.  Non-skiing crew worked in the various support functions and on the course, in the Finish Area.  See the Crews Section for a run-down of crew types and staffing needs.

With two tracks to set up and concurrent races to run, we significantly increased our crew, relative to 2007.  We welcomed many new Weasel Workers from across Canada and the USA, from Australia and New Zealand and from Europe.  Prior experience was not a pre-requisite, although always helpful.  New members learned the jobs, acquired the skills and received the training to become experienced alpine ski race workers.  They helped to prepare themselves to participate in future events.   Along the way, they made many new friends, had lots of fun, got some great exercise and watched, first hand, the best alpine ski racers in the world.

The Future

In 2009 we hope to continue to build and train our team of volunteer race workers.  Plans are not yet anounced, but we hope to again set up and run the Canadian Championships, most likely on the Ladies Olympic Downhill track (Franz'z Run).  This will give us another opportunity to welcome and train new members and to hone our crew and to work out kinks, prior to 2010.   

Most important, a 2009 edition of the Pontiac GMC Canadian Alpine  Ski Championships run in Whistler will give our Canadian women racers, including our Development Team,  another opportunity to train and race  on the new Ladies Olympic course, just one year before the 2010 Olympics.   Development of this type of "home hill advantage" is a mainstay of the Federally- and Provincially-funded "Own the Podium" program designed to help Canadian athletes succeed in 2010.   Without races in Whislterl in 2009, the Canadian womens team will have had no more experience on the Ladies Olympic downhill course than their European counterparts.

 Also in 2009, the  International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Disabled Alpine Skiing World Cup  will be held in Whistler.  The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) is asking for volunteers.  However, we don't know yet if the Weasel Organization will be asked to participate.