This is our final day in the mountains: Conveniently the two-man bobsleigh is delayed from lunchtime to late afternoon meaning we get a lie-in and a chance to enjoy Whistler Village by day and night. Watching the bobs hurtling down the ice run is bit like watching a Grand Prix, only no one is doing laps. It’s a high speed sport hitting 150km/hr. Just as with motor racing you can’t see the entire track and have to rely on big screen TV’s for most of the action. You pick a bend at which to watch the action and for the possibility of a high speed crash. There’s a rumble as each sleigh approaches and a whoosh as in a flash of colour a tin can on ice passes before your eyes.
Fans adopt one of three strategies: sit at the start for the grunting and pushing, hang-out on any one of the sixteen bends or watch on the final bend when the speed is greatest into the finish line. The secret to really appreciating the course is take the path that follows every one of the sixteen twists and turns, along the 1450m course dropping 152m (that’s an average of about 1:10, hitting 1:5 at its steepest). The walk-up is hard work, though nicely warming on a cool winter evening, thankfully there’s seating on the start line so we can catch our breaths before cheering on the racers. It’s very macho: lots of back-slapping, handshaking, psyching-up for the big push. The message gets through to the spectators too and each start is urged on by cacophony of shouts and cowbells.
Having seen the Australian bob close-out round 3 we stroll down to the finish line to watch the fourth and final round. Standing barely a metre from the track it’s like standing on a station platform as a high speed train roars past. On the final bend, a tight 180 degrees, the bobs ride high on the curved track, almost at right-angles to the banked hill of standing spectators. It’s hard to tell who’s fastest just by watching and with TV screens only at the start and finish, during the walk down the action comes in fleeting moments. It’s exciting without being fully engaging.
We first visited Whistler in 2004. Our impression then was of a pretty ski resort in a faux alpine style with a pleasant atmosphere and good range of stores and eateries (at surprisingly keen prices, none of your European ski resort hefty mark-ups). It is pleasing to report that the essentials are intact even in the midst of Olympic fever. Ingrid’s Café had the best coffee and home cooking,\ at great prices 6-years ago and still does today. At the other end of the dining scale Araxi appears to be thriving with a mouth-watering offer of local haute cuisine - shame we don’t have time to indulge ourselves.
During the afternoon the village is busy with a joyful atmosphere: tourists and people dangling Olympic accreditation from their necks throng back and forth. By the evening the action has moved to anywhere with a TV showing the big ice hockey game, Canada v USA. Unexpectedly Canada go down 2-5 and the atmosphere in the village drops-off quite a few notches; time to get the coach back to Vancouver.
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