Postponed

That was the word of the day. The mens downhill was postponed to a different day as the course was terrible. The upper mountain has gotten about 20cm of fresh snow over the last 2 days and there is another system coming through tonight. This makes for wonderful high altitude skiing but very bad course conditions. In fact it has been so warm that Whistler and the base of the mountains have been getting rain for the last few days. Of course the race course is mostly in the rain zone. With no freezing temperatures the course would have been far too soft to run races and the course would have deteriorated very quickly.

This also lead to the womens combined race being postponed as well. FIS rules state that racers MUST have a training run the day before the race so they have good knowledge of the course. Since the training run was supposed to be today that race won't happen tomorrow.

We did a scenario today involving the helicopter. It was super cool and much nicer than working with the chopper at Louise. The snow is so heavy here it doesn't blow around in your face from the rotor wash like at Louise. Greg Cooke was the poor skier patient that we got to handle and treat. My crew is responsible for the traffic control of the run near the helipad and assisting with the lift of the patient from the heli-sling into the sled. I also got to help with moving Greg from the sled into the athlete med room (which is very well stocked) and from there to the ALS (Advanced Life Support) ambulance. A quick run down of the scenario: He took a spill and had a bi-lateral pelvic fracture. His condition worsened and by the time we had him into the med room he had no carotid pulse, Oh CRAP! They treated with drugs and CPR to no effect and it was decided that he would need surgical help to get his heart back to a normal rate and rhythm. Good thing this was all a a scenario! Its good to be prepared but I hope we don't have to treat anyone with problems that severe. Doc Ryan (awesome guy) was running the show in the med room for the scenario. Great picture I think! That's Cookie on the table, haha poor guy.

So far I have been alone on my room. I had someone drop off stuff for my room mate but upon coming back after supper his things are gone and I am again alone in my own room. Cool! Also the hot tub here both indoor and outdoor are amazing! I am so spoiled staying at the Westin...in Whistler...during the Olympics!

Had a great dinner with all the docs tonight. I know a few from working the Louise world cup and many recognize me as well. Its nice to have so many familiar faces around. The docs really are some of the most amazing people I have met out here. All extremely good at what they do but also know how to have a good time. Reminds me of some engineers I know =) We watched the womens moguls tonight at the pub. We were so excited with Jennifer Heil's run! It was a shame that she only got silver, but honestly the american girls run was incredible. Our gold is out there somewhere! Did you see the rain pouring down during that competition? Par for the course out here for now =(

As a final note for tonight, the tai chicken soup they make for us is out of this world!
I think all the pictures turned out great too!

The MedSpec team. We rock!

 Annie our crew leader has the red sleeve on. Left to right: Tisha, Guy, Annie (doc), Kallum (duh), Ruth (doc), Bruce, Rhiannon. Eydie (nurse) is taking the picture. The rest of the crew was trained the day before this pic was taken. This is almost at the top of the climb to the spectator stands, thus the reason for the sign in the background! Tomorrow I'll try and show the packs they have supplied us with. Very well stocked and easy to use. They spared no expense out here. Canada will be paying off these games for a long while me thinks. Importing snow is expensive! Yes we are unofficially called the smurfs!