Today I managed to make it out of the Communications trailer at the Lake Louise Winterstart World Cup and onto the race course. I rode a couple of lifts to the start of the Women's Downhill course and took some pictures.


The Start Tent serves as the staging area for racers. Preparing for each training run and race requires a great deal of coordination and effort from many groups and individuals.

The view from inside from inside the tent is very impressive, although I'm sure that is the last thing on the minds of atheletes as they prepare to hurtle down the mountain at speeds in excess of 100 kph.

Nonetheless, looking out across the Bow Valley provides some spectacular views.

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More from Lake Louise. Today it was colder (-21 celsius @ 0700 hrs) but warmed up nicely with brilliant sunshine.

During today's training run, an Italian skier had a fall and the Medical response skills practiced yesterday were put into action.

Prompt response by Medical staff ensured that the injured racer was treated on-site and transported to the bottom of the hill in a matter of twenty minutes.

Like all types of "first response" it is preferable that it not become necessary; however, I can say that the international field of racers gathered for Lake Louise Winterstart World Cup are fortunate to have a truly world-class medical team to respond as required.

A post of Sam himself after a hard day on the Lake.

Another post from Lake Louise.

Today was the first training run for the Women's Winterstart Worldcup Downhill at Lake Louise. It was an overcast and snowy day at the hill and it took some time to complete the training run which consisted of over 60 racers.

Following the training run, the Medical staff practiced the evacuation procedure they'll use to transport racers injured during the race.

Wardens from Parks Canada are slung beneath a rescue helicopter and arrive at incident scenes to provide assistance to "traditional" Ski Patrol personnel, and transport injured racers to further medical attention.

Today's pictures show:

• the Pilot, Warden and Patrollers preparing for the exercise,
  
  
  
• the helicopter heading to the "scene," and
  
  
  
• as well as the helicopter flying overhead while returning with the "injured racer" (in this case a Patroller) and Warden slung beneath the helicopter.
  

Another post from the World Cup at Lake Louise. Today's picture was taken early this morning -- around 0800 hrs -- long after course workers had boarded lifts to prepare the race course for Tuesday's training run.

A post from Lake Louise. I'm here for a week to volunteer at the Women's World Cup ski races. Today the men's Super G was held.

I learned today that it is very difficult to photograph subjects (in this case skiers) moving at speeds in excess of 100 kph.

This is one shot that actually had the skier in frame :-)