Spectacular views and Chief Wahoo, too

WHISTLER, B.C.

There’s one thing about going to work every day on a chairlift, which is how you do it if you cover skiing or sliding sports around here.

You either don’t do it or you get over your fear of heights.

In less than two weeks, I have gone from a nervous passenger, gripping the safety bar with both hands and never looking down, to talking on the phone, pointing and waving, that kind of thing. If I saw a bear I might throw gum at it.

But Monday I tried the ultimate fear-of-heights test, this sensational engineering marvel known as the Peak2Peak, the world’s longest gondola ride, stretching mountain to mountain, from Whistler to Blackcomb or, if you’re coming from the other direction, from Blackcomb to Whistler.

Well. What a ride. Views more breathtaking that you can imagine. Thousands of skiers and snowboarders baking in the sun on one side and, 2.73 miles away across the valley, thousands of skiers and snowboarders baking in the sun on the other side.

It takes 11 or 12 minutes to get across in big, comfortable mostly glass-sided gondolas that seat 22 (so the sign says) and accommodate six more standees. That’s a lot of people, plus ski poles and skis and helmets – and one guy was apparently skiing in a Cleveland Indians batting helmet and who ever figured you could meet Chief Wahoo up here?

At the middle of the ride, even with the steel cables sagging what look like a couple of hundred feet, because the two support towers are 1.88 miles apart, the distance above the little creek in the bottom of the valley is 1,427 feet, according to the signs.

You can look straight down from some of the cars – two of the 28 have glass floors, for which you can line up separately – and that’s the acid test if you have the height heebie-jeebies.

But no. Not one short breath. And no bears to throw things at.

If you ever get out here, take the ride. It’s unforgettable.

Going 90 metres up to find new heroes

WHISTLER, B.C. -- One day ago, I asked a bunch of lugers who the craziest winter-sport athletes are and without hesitation they nominated the downhill skiers. And maybe they’re right.

But try going up to the top of the ski jump, that concrete birdsnest way way up in the sky, and then tell me the ski jumpers aren’t the most completely nutty of the bunch.

My hero used to be the guy who ate the first oyster, but maybe now it’s ski jumpers in general.

I took the chairlift up to the 90-metre starting point today at Whistler Olympic Park. Walked out across the steel mesh walkway suspended above the mountain, never letting go of the handrails, until reaching the start house, which is about the size of a two-car garage, with a little balcony/walkway kind of thing all the way around.

This, mind you, was not even the big guy, the 120-metre hill. This was “only’ the little jump and let’s just say if anyone wanted to make big dough, he could open a life insurance stand right there at the starting point and sell to tourists.

It’s scarier than Elin Nordegren’s divorce lawyer, and particularly frightening if you don’t like heights, which is another issue entirely. It gets even worse if you throw in some hard-blowing mountain wind and big, thick snowflakes that slicken up the walkways and trim visibility. The downward ramp itself seems so incredibly and stupidly steep, even though the actual ski jumping, in which the athletes seem to be no more than about 15 feet off the ground almost the entire way, apparently isn’t that dangerous.

Just don’t try telling that to someone at the top of the jump for the first time.

Everyone always remembers that Wide World Of Sports opening scene from decades ago, where that ski jumper crashed and rag-dolled, although they always said he wasn’t hurt. A guy making a visit to the top of the jump thinks to himself, “Well, he was surely crazy even to be up there in the first place.’’

Omega, the timepiece company, was giving tours of its time-keeping facilities, including the start and judges’ stand at the ski jumping. That was the admission ticket to  the scariest sports location in town. It’s one of those things you’re happy to do. Once.

  

   

Of security, salmon and rats with good P.R.

WHISTLER, B.C.

Olympic security is what it is these days. In less than two decades it has gone from a smiling volunteer nodding at the gate in the chain-link fence to squinty-eyed rent-a-cops (or real cops) scrutinizing everyone from head to toe and double- and triple-checking Ids. Plus pat-downs and bag searches.

Such is modern life and quiet co-operation is the only way to go.

But what about the bears? Did anyone realize that the erection of security perimeters around each and every Olympic facility, a must for every Olympics now, also keeps out the large wildlife?

Take the Whistler Sliding Centre, where bears used to be regular visitors. Alex Gough said she remembers pulling up from a training run a few months ago, whereupon a bear ran across the track behind her, thanks very much, and Canadian veteran Jeff Christie had his own bear story.

“I was at the start line and looked down and right there in Turn One was this big, black thing. It stood up and put its paws on the edge of the track. It was my time to go and I said to the starter, ‘I’m not going. I’m dressed all in red. I’ll look like a giant salmon.’ So I waited a while.’’

The bears have been fenced out, but some of the smaller visitors abound and Canadian singles racer Meaghan Simister said she had noticed “some of the Europeans trying to pet raccoons.’’

This does not exactly sound like a growth industry, either. Some of those damned raccoons will rip your hand in half if you give them a chance. At least the ones who hang out in my carport are like that and they’re all related. They’re just rats with better P.R. and Davey Crockett had the right idea: Make hats out of them.

Chicago not their kind of town

In a word, wow.

It’s not much of a surprise that Rio de Janeiro will play host to the 2016 Olympic Games. South America, sooner or later, was going to get its chance and today in Copenhagen, Rio nosed out Madrid for the honour after building momentum toward the vote in the past few weeks and, more importantly, the past few days.

What was a shock was that Chicago was the first town out the door, eliminated on the first ballot (Tokyo went down on the second) and what a shocker that decision is – not to to mention the size of the rebuke to U.S. President Barack Obama. He made the trip to Denmark, knowing full well Rio had been coming on strong lately and his absence woould have been viewed as a huge negative to the bid. The princes and bluebloods who run the International Olympic Committee expect to be addressed by heads of state and by nothing less.

Still, even Obama couldn’t help provide enough votes to last even the first round. Embarrassing to Chicago and to the U.S.

Madrid, with his Excellency, Juan Antonio Samaranch, the 89-year-old (but still powerful) past head of the IOC working hard for his native Spain, outperformed most expectations by reaching the final ballot. Samaranch made an emotional speech about making an old man happy one more time. But with the 2012 Games in London, not even the Eurocentric IOC would award back-to-back Games to that part of the world with other continents stepping up to the plate, demanding to be included.

Whether Rio’s coronation helps out Toronto’s 2015 Pan American Games bid, however indirectly, remains to be seen. The pro-Toronto spin would be that with the 2014 World Cup of soccer already in Brazil and now the 2016 Games, there won’t be any taste at all for heading to South America (either Bogota or Lima) in 2015. Plus, where would all the sponsorship dollars come from? Those multi-nationals not involved in the big show in ’14 will be trying to land a place in the ’16 circus now. The 2015 prize is extremely small potatos by comparison.

Undoubtedly, there’s a boost for Toronto’s Pan Am bid in one way: Rio held the 2007 Pan American Games successfully and obviously that was a stepping stone to today’s success in Copenhagen. The Toronto bid people can certainly lean on that fact if this city ever again tries to throw its hat into the Olympic ring.