The Olympic experience

RICK MACDONNELL, SnowSeekers Inc.

This Olympic journey has been three weeks in the making for the SnowSeekers crew, but in a sense it's also been six months (since the season started), 2.5 years (since the company started), and a decade and a half (since the bids for Vancouver began).
For some, these past few weeks have been the culmination of five year's work, others, their entire lives. But when that calendar page flipped over to March 1, the journey was all over.
This morning came with a weird mixture of accomplishment and melancholy.
On the one hand, we did it. We came into Whistler as the little company that could, and stood shoulder to shoulder with the big boys.
The content that's been produced in the last three weeks has made us all proud. It's validated all the work we've done and showed us where we're capable of going.
On the other hand, we did it, and now it's over. This entire season has been one big prelude to the Games, and now that they're over, that build-up is gone.
It's time to find a new goal, whatever that might be.
Sochi, 2014?

Who knows. Four years is still a ways away, and there's no telling where SnowSeekers Inc. will be then. All I know is that this Olympic experience will only serve as a launching pad to bigger and better things for all of us.
A psychic even told me so.
I've seen some amazing things in my time in Whistler. Unlikely triumphs, tragic defeats, career-defining performances, and life-changing events. But I've also experienced kinship with complete strangers, people who literally live continents away and can barely speak my language.
It's taught me a lot about compassion and community, how similar we all are when borders aren't involved.
But I've also seen human faeries frolicking through the Village and killer rock shows almost every day. A giant sasquatch punched my friend in the face. Needless to say, I've laughed a lot since I've been in Whistler.
As Whistler's psychic told me just a few days ago, my future will be defined by my present. My experience at the Olympic Games will affect me in ways that I can't even imagine.
All that I can do is wait for it to happen, and blog about it along the way.


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Sunny Nails The Slopes

NAIT's board room POW-WOW

Sunny isn't just hitting the slopes - she is nailing them, three lessons in and she is attacking the slopes with a serious appitite.  And everyone involved in the production of this documentary is loving it.  Today they took a chance to go through footage and see how things are shaping up.

Progression on the documentary being produced between SnowSeekers and NAIT showcasing the Canadian Ski Instructors Alliance is coming along better then anyone could have expected.  Just this week SnowSeekers announced the addition of Jaro Malanowski to it's team, recognized as one of Canada's preeminent directors/film producers. Malanowski's job in working with SnowSeekers Director of Photography, Brandon Boucher is to take the film from an idea to reality.

The reality is securing the film's goal of increasing diversity on the slopes, attracting a wider demographic to take up skiing and with Sunny and her family being from Mongolia, things are looking bright.  "One thing we notice is the diversity on the slopes of Snow Valley, let's capture this with more b-roll," says Malanowski.

Things really picked up this past weekend when mom took to the slopes with Sunny- taking a lesson program on site at Snow Valley right along side her daughter.  Word is that the dad is not far behind, stay tuned as the whole family gets ready to tackle the Canadian Rockies, Dec 10-12th weekend down at Castle Mountain Ski Resort just outside of Pincher Creek.