Mt. Washington, Vancouver Island

Today concludes the first week of my final preparations for the Games. We've spent the week at Mt. Washington Resort on Vancouver Island, just a short flight away from Vancouver. It is a unique place, but offered a good range and training venue to prepare for Whistler. Perhaps it has been most valuable because it has been a week of training in adverse conditions: snow, wind, fog, icy snow, slow snow, soft snow, light wind, gusty winds, hints of rain....I could go on. All such conditions we can be sure to encounter at the Whistler venue.

I took a short run yesterday afternoon through the neighboring village. It snows so much here that it has become custom to just groom the "streets" instead of plow, which only adds to the winter wonderland allure of this place.

There is tons of snow here!

And there are kids everywhere taking advantage of the massive snow banks for sledding, climbing and snowcave building.

Cabins are packed in right next to the alpine trails.

China, Canada, Sweden, Germany and the US: the teams training here this week.

The snow finally ceased snowing yesterday afternoon to get a glimpse of the water below, reminding me that we are on an island.

Ha, funny sign to have in your neighborhood, huh? The curving downhills only asked to be ridden down.

The tall cedars and hemlocks are quite enchanting in the winter too. And here, they even seem small compared to the mainland and skiing around Whistler.

One of the stylish ski cabins.

Good wishes from one of the nearby ski cabins.

On my way back to our apartments.