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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Celebrating together

RICK MACDONNELL, SnowSeekers Inc.

Even though they were a few hours away from the Closing Ceremonies in Vancouver, the people of Whistler were as awash in the glow of victory as any of their provincial neighbours last night.
Every screen in the Village – both big and small – was tuned in to see Canada's best deliver a send-off to the world. Whistler's Village Square was jam packed with hundreds of excited onlookers as they watched the Closing Ceremonies on the big screen behind the Whistler Live! stage.
"We're not there (Vancouver), but we are at the same time," said Mark Roberts of Oshawa, Ontario. "With the crowd here, the big screen, it's almost better in some ways because you get the feeling of the crowd, but the intimacy of watching the performers on this massive screen. It's quite the party."
A party is the best I could describe it.
Along with the crowd standing in Village Square, every patio around was armed to the teeth with revelers. The Amersterdam, Citta's, and La Bocca all provided a great place to catch the action while enjoying some dinner and drinks.
There was a considerable amount of nostalgia on display last night. People were already looking back on the Games as if they happened two years ago, and a couple of hours.

"It was an amazing, amazing experience," said Patrice Henry of Gatineua, Quebec. "My life is now divided into two parts, before and after the 2010 Olympics. I'm not sure if I'll ever see anything like this for the rest of my life."
And while most were already longing to have the last two weeks back, there were some who were only looking toward the future. Slava Mischenko of Kiev, Ukraine, decked out in a 2014 Sochi jacket, has already started counting down the days until the next Winter Olympics.
"I'm not from Sochi, but I'm excited for them," Mischenko said. "I can't wait to be there in 2014 when Russia does what Canada did in these games."
After stopping to ponder for a few seconds, he continued. "Well, maybe not exactly what Canada did, but hopefully close. Fourteen medals is a lot!"
The crowd was full of Canadians from coast to coast, along with visitors from dozens of countries around the world.
For two weeks we laughed together and cheered together, sang and even cried together. For two weeks this was Whistler, one big happy international family.
Driving away from Whistler this morning, we were all sad to see it go. But, when you think about it, 2014's only four years away.
Think Sochi!

Stay tuned to www.snowseekers.ca/olympicnews for daily blogs, videos and more throughout the Olympics.

For full stories on Western Canada's winter destinations, visit snowseekers.ca and friend us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

Hockey game the perfect ending

RICK MACDONNELL, SnowSeekers Inc.

Without a doubt, one of the top three moments of my life.
I can't recall a time where I've felt such euphoria, such uninhibited  joy. I hugged more strangers in the last hour than I have in my entire life. My hands are red from the high fives I've given. My throat is run raw from the screaming I've done.
GO CANADA GO!

I've never been so glad to be 25, else I would have taken a heart attack. Those first few moments of overtime were taxing, to say the least.
The entire SnowSeekers crew was holed up in Merlin's since 10 a.m. this morning. The doors didn't open 'til 11a.m. By the time we were allowed inside, the lineup was at least 200 strong (it stretched back to Monk's Grill).
Luckily, we had the foresight to get there early enough to reserve some prime real estate
"I'd hate to be one of the poor souls who thought they'd get in here at Noon," said Jon Vaughn of Margaree, Nova Scotia. " It's the men's hockey gold medal game, for Christ's sake. If you're not prepared to wait five hours to see this, then you don't deserve to."
For weeks, the pundits have said that if the men's hockey team didn't win gold, the Games would be a failure. As if that pressure wasn't enough, Canada went into their game against the United States one gold shy of the Olympic record for most gold medals in one Olympic Games.
In one fell swoop Team Canada satisfied the hopes and dreams of an entire nation, and set an Olympic record in the process.
I can't even imagine what it was like to be inside B.C. Place as the crowd of 18,000 strong belted out GO CANADA GO. When Cole Harbour's own Sidney Crosby scored the game winning goal, the crowd at Merlin's went off.

Cheers and chest-bumps went on for the next 10 minutes, all throughout the medal presentation ceremony.
It couldn't have been a more fitting end to an amazing Olympic Games. Canada's golden boy, Sidney Crosby scored to win it in overtime against the best goalie in the world – Ryan Miller.
 It's hard to imagine that a little more than two weeks ago, the public was crying for the first gold medal on Canadian soil. Now, we've set the record for not only the most golds on home soil (eclipsing the U.S.A.'s record of 10), but we've set the record for most golds ever at the winter Olympic games (14).
Whistler, along with Vancouver, has played host to one of the greatest Games in Olympic history (winter or summer). Without a doubt, we've raised the bar for future Games.
Sochi's got some work to do.

Stay tuned to www.snowseekers.ca/olympicnews for daily blogs, videos and more throughout the Olympics.

For full stories on Western Canada's winter destinations, visit snowseekers.ca and friend us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.