Mission Central for Volunteer Alpine Ski Race Workers 

The Events in 2008 

In February 2008, the Pontiac GMC Canadian Championships were held in Whistler, followed by two World Junior Qualification races and the four Whistler World Cup events.    Click here for info on the 2008 events.

The 2008 and 2009 events provide an important opportunity for prospective alpine ski race volunteers to join our team and to gain experience for events in 2010 and beyond.  

The Events in 2009

In late November a Weasel contingent will again visit Lake Louise to help prepare for the annual Winterstart FIS Alpine World Cup Men's and Ladies downhill races.  The Whistler Weasel Workers have been supporting the Lake Louise World Cup races since 1989.

Whistler ski racing effort will occur in late February and early March 2009, when the Pontiac GMC Cup Junior National Championships will be held on the Dave Murray Men's Olympic Downhill Course and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Disabled Alpine Skiing World Cup  will be held on the Franz's Ladies Olympic Downhill Course.

In addition, a contingent of experienced course workers are expected to travel to Val d'Isere, France to work on the 2009 FIS World Championships.

As to the Whistler races, the Pontiac GMC Cup Junior National Championships will be hosted and run by the Whistler Mountain Ski Club, while the IPC World Cup is a VANOC event.

John Benbow and his "men's" crew will be building and maintaining the course for the Junior races while Rick Hume and his "ladies" crew will be building and maintaining the course for the IPC races.  Congratulations to John and Rick who have been named as Men's and Ladies Chiefs of Course, respectively, for both the 2009 races and the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

The Schedule  and Registration

Lake Louise Winterstart World Cup

Please register on the Winterstart Web site at   www.winterstartworldcup.com   Note: we're not sure when this Web site will become active.

FIS Alpine World Championships – Val d’Isere France  (Experience required)

Course setup Jan 31 to Feb 2  2009        Race Days  Feb 3 through 15 2009

To participate, experienced volunteers should contact Don Appelle 

Pontiac GMC Cup Junior National Championships   (Dave Murray Men's Olympic Downhill Course)

Course setup Feb 26, 27      Race Days Feb 28th through March 4th

Please register on our Weasel Worker Web site Registration page.

IPC World Cup Finals   (Franz’s Ladies Olympic Downhill Course)

Course setup March 3 through 8th         Race Day March 9th through 14th

To participate, please either register as a  Pre-Games Volunteer (for volunteer opportunities leading up to 2010)    OR  as a  Vancouver 2010 - Games-Time Volunteers  and indicate your interest in helping with the IPC World Cup races in 2009.  

The Opportunity

The 2008 races presented a number of new 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 2009 and future years.

Our Support Crews needed  drivers  as well as crew to work in the Beer Tent, in food preparation, doping control and in 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.

In 2009 we will continue to train our course crews and to refine our procedures. It will be very important to us to have as many experienced people as possible as we had into the "big party" in 2010.   Huge numbers of volunteers will be needed for the alpine ski racing events and the more trained people we have who can help lead this effort, the smoother it will run.    For 2009, we are unclear as to what follow through there will be in regard to the many support functions we have been building up over recent years in regard to food services,  volunteer accommodation and transportation, etc. However, we can say that there will be no accommodation program for the  Pontiac GMC Cup Junior National Championships.  We do not know what VANOC will be providing for the IPC World Cup.  Stay tuned.

The Future

For the past few years, the Whistler Weasel Workers have been busy planning for 2010.  We have been particularly concerned with expanding our experience base to include more volunteers able to assume leadership roles as crew chiefs, section chiefs, assistant crew chiefs and others to lead the way.  VANOC will attract many volunteers for 2010 and well-experienced on-hill management will be key to orchestrating a well-run event.   We will continue this training of our volunteers through 2009, which will serve as our last opportunity, before the Winter Olympic Games, to introduce new alpine volunteers to ourselves, our procedures, and to our Whistler terrain and conditions.   Newcomers are a most welcome.

All Weasel Workers intending to work on the Winter Olympic Games in 2010 must register on the VANOC Web site. Do it NOW.  Telephone interviews have already started (in August 2008).   Initial telephone interviews will be followed up by face-to-face interviews and a mandatory VANOC volunteer training session.   Note that alpine course workers may be unique among VANOC Olympic volunteers in the level of technical expertise involved in their work.  Do not expect the VANOC training to cover any aspects of course work.