I Take A Gondola To Work

Today was FINALLY my first day of work, at the Whistler Sliding Center (WSC). I took the 7:00AM Cleanevent shuttle to Function Junction, then hopped the #2 bus up to the top of Whistler Village. From there we had two options to get to the WSC, but bus #77 was certainly not as appealing as taking the gondola (glass-enclosed ski lift) up the mountain. Already, I loved my venue.

From inside my gondola, looking at another

Interns from University of South Carolina have already been here for a month, stationed at each venue, and are responsible for training us. Nikki is the intern at the WSC, and she is basically the assistant to the Cleanevent venue manager, an awesome laid-back American named Scott.

Our main responsibility is manning the Helpdesk at our assigned venue. This is where calls relating to our cleaning / snow removal services are directed; we answer the phones, gather information about the cleaning need, and then radio the employees assigned to that part of our venue and instruct them to take care of the situation. At the WSC, there are five "areas", but our team is generally broken down into three groups. Area 1 is the top of the venue, where the Mens' and Womens' Start are. Areas 2, 3, and 4 are the mid-track, including where the Finish Dock and Olympic Family Viewing Tent are. At the bottom are Lots 7 and 8 - Lot 7 includes our office and the Worker Break Tent (where we eat), and Lot 8 is home to the Media Center and storage shed for the athletes' equipment.  

After dispatching our employees to take out the trash, vacuum the rug, shovel a walkway, or whatever else the caller might need, we enter the details of the "issue" into the Cleanevent database, so much of my training today was how to use the CMS system (I believe it stands for Cleanevent Management System). I was also able to walk around with Nikki to the Finish Dock, and later in the afternoon we took the shuttle up to the top starting area, which is about 1.5 miles up an extremely steep mountain (hence the need for the shuttle).

There will be two other interns working at the WSC besides myself and Nikki, including Holly from JWU Providence. Since that's more staff than is really necessary, on Friday we're going to work out our schedules around what competition events and concerts we'd like to go to. Each site is issued a certain number of 2nd Part Passes to the venue, and when there are extras other CE employees/interns have the opportunity to get into the venues for the events. Also since we will have extra interns on our venue, we'll be able to each take about 30-45 minutes to walk up and check out the action while on shift.

One other thing I enjoyed about the WSC today was the international diversity of the staff. At lunch today there was an Australian guy, a German girl, a Swiss girl, and a couple of French guys. There are a few more Australians, another Frenchman, and a Czech that I know of who are assigned to our venue as well, and I think the employees will be shifting around during the Games a bit according to the need of a particular venue on any given day.

Tomorrow I have a venue tour of WOP - the Whistler Olympic Park (cross-country skiing, biathlon, ski jumping, and nordic combined), followed by class. Thursday I'm back at WSC, but Nikki has class so Holly and I will be "in charge", after one day of training each! Should be an adventure...

Here are a few shots of the venue that I got today. I saw a few athletes around, including some Italians, a German, and a bunch of Czechs, but not in great picture range.

The official emblem in the ice at Mens' Start

One of the turns

Looking down the track

This is down by the finish. The athletes get going so fast that in order to slow down, they have to loop around and go back uphill quite a ways before they lose enough momentum to stop, so they actually come up from the bottom of this picture.