Day 1
Up early to get on the road to the shuttle point at Capilano University. Traffic is quiet at 6AM so I was able to get there within 25 minutes from New West. Upon arrival they kept directing me further away from where the buses were and eventually I was parked about a KM away. Packed up the skis, boots, poles, and pack and rushed to the shuttle point to find out the 6:45 bus had left. However another bus was ready to go and left a little after 7:00. 30 minutes or so later we arrived at the mountain. For this event, no buses are allowed to go right up to the gate so everyone has to make a 15-20 minute trek up the road to the screening point. Lots of security and there is a massive temporary garage that all vehicles must go through and be checked over by the RCMP. There is a big police presence at the hill, quite a change from the World Cup last year.

I arrived an hour early as instructed for my orientation; this never happened. I ended up sitting around drinking coffee and chatting for the entire time as the rest of the crew was scheduled for 9:15. Met up with the 25 or so volunteers for Aerials and recognized quite a few faces from the World Cup in 2009. Headed over the the aerials site and the biggest change from last time was the massive grandstand at the bottom that looks like it could hold a few thousand people. Headed up to where the jumps are and met our supervisors, one of whom was from last year. The course is laid out the same as last year, just way more TV platforms and way less snow. There is enough snow in place to work with and the jumps have tubes in them that can be filled with dry ice in case it gets too warm.

Not much course work was done, there was mostly cleanup of scaffolding and forms, and removal of all unnecessary equipment. It actually started sleeting/snowing at the jumps and was almost a cold wind blowing. Since there were so many people and not a lot of work we wrapped up around noon instead of the scheduled 3:00. Got my lunch in the lodge and hung out until just before 1:00 PM before heading back to the buses. On the way out I walked past 1000 or more spectators lined up to for the afternoon's moguls event. Everyone has to go through the security checkpoint so they were in for a long wait. With the slight change in elevation the snow was more like rain and lots of the public coming in were not prepared for the wet afternoon in the bleachers. Grabbed a seat on a very full bus of wet volunteers and headed back to town and eventually to my temporary home in New Westminster.