Thrills & Spills: Day ??

Lost track of time, but I think I left off somewhere around Tues. Monday was really slow and I caught up with editing, emails, etc. Bought a few things for my daughters. That kind of stuff. Visited the Weasel House tent where local ski course workers, known as "Weasels" get together for beer and food and story telling every afternoon after the racing is done. They got their name from years of working the "Weasel" turn on the downhill course. Now all the course workers known as the "Weasels". See NYT story here:

Pictured here is Weasel exec Cindy Burton, NYT reporter John Branch, and NYT photographer Doug Mills.

Tues morning was crammed full of nordic, team nordic combined and ladies biathlon, or as I call it, chics on skis with guns. On the way up, my host Eric Frappier had built this carving house for the local Squamish Indians to show how they carve totem poles. This was my "assignment" for my most generous host to thank him for all he has helped me with.

First stop was nordic team jumping. I shot the first practice jump from the stairs. This photo of the landing area workers shows how steep the hill is.

Then shot the real jump from a profile angle with a little pan blur. Caught these two USA jumpers in flight.

Headed to the biathlon course next door, a short hike away. The event was under way. Team relay event were each competitor cross country races around the course, the shoots prone from 50 meters at a silver dollar size target, ski the course, then shoot standing at a target the size of a small burger. Most good shooters nail each one in about 20 secs. The crowd cheers each time the shooter hits the target. It was a really cool event and the first time I've seen it.

After the event there was a group of students from Dartmouth in body paint and bikinis. Funny picture. They said that more winter Olympic athletes from from Dartmouth than any other college in the US.

Then off to another course another short hike away for the final cross country race of nordic combined. I had shot here before and just went to the same shooting positions. The USA and Austria exchanged first and second place throughout the race. Each competitor does two laps around the course.

It really looked like the USA was going to gold medal, but the Austrians were just too strong in the cross country.

I had photographed Todd Lodwick in Chicago last year at the USOC media summit and he was a great guy. Had his little girl waiting with mom in the stands. Congrats to the US guys for the historic silver medal!