Winter Olympics

[Janne]

Anybody watches?
I just watch the highlights. Takes to much time.

And many of the sports seem to be for and by teenagers these days.
Anyway, I am proud of Norway and Sweden!

 

[Robson Valley]

I watch a lot of it. Curling, Hockey, Biathlon,all the snow board events, our charming gold figure skating pair.
I'd watch more luge, skeleton and bobsled but the CBC media freaks don't ever want to explain what the athletes are doing.
The Canadian Broadcorping Castration wants no more that the short pungent drift of excitement.

But in the end, the Canadian coverage does enhance the quality of the facilities that we have, particularly in western Canada.
Come and see for yourselves!

 

[crosslandkelly]

Is it just me, or do the winter olympics just consist of many forms of sliding?

 

[Macaroon]

Is it just me, or do the winter olympics just consist of many forms of sliding?

Oh, I don't know,,,,,,,,,,,,,, there seems to be some excellent falling over techniques on display, and the way some of the costumes have been misbehaving I thought they had come up with a new and subtle form of handicap

 

[crosslandkelly]

Hahaha!!

 

[Janne]

The Brits seems to have perfected the Falling styles !

I felt sorry about the girl that injured herself yesterday. I hope she did not do any lasting damage! it looked horrible!

 

[Robson Valley]

Yes, the winter Olympics demonstrates many forms of sliding.
Today, it is -10C with a S wind and snowing like hello.

The Olympics is pretty tame practice for mountain highway winter driving.
There's a moose on the button. You're doing hack weight and the out turn.

 

[Janne]

They lick the salt from the roads?
I Sweden and Norway both moose and reindeer like to do that.
Volvo used to design cars to take on a moose.

 

[Robson Valley]

It's probable that they do. More brine is used now than particle dry salt. More effective.
The main thing is the snow depth off the highway.
Easier for the animals to walk on the highway & edges than 2m deep in the ditch.

If they tip over, they cant' stand up and they founder until they die in the snow.
Some trucker just dug & winched a young moose out, last week.
Lots of them wind up on the train tracks.
There are no runouts and they can't get off with the snow berms maybe 5m beside the track.
Then the wolves, coyotes and the cats get into the road kill so there's even more risk of collisions.
If the plows can punt the road kill into the ditch ( that's a "raise-takeout" in curling-speak),
The scavengers wil. get the snow packed down pretty quick. Even if supper is served at -25C.

I had never seen Mixed Doubles curling. Crazy, crazy game. Trad curling seems to tedious by contrast.

 

[Janne]

I had never seen Mixed Doubles curling. Crazy, crazy game. Trad curling seems to tedious by contrast.

My very filthy minds paints a picture in my head.............
Gosh!

 

[Janne]

Sweden and Norway use large crystal salt (Polish rock salt or Spanish sea salt) mixed with coarse grit on the roads.
Us 'civilians' buy the same salt in 50 kilo bags to desalt or driveways. Where I go and fish in Norway we buy the same salt and use to salt fish, or to salt the water we use to soak the fish fillets in (to firm up the meat) before vacuum packing and deep freezing.

 

[Robson Valley]

The wind turbulence from the big transport trucks blows the grit and salt off into the ditch.
The salt spray from the brine means you need to hang back 1/4 mile with a full washer tank.
But, it doesn't come off and the ice clearing is pretty good.

You need to realize that the center line on HWY 16 is visible every mile or so, under the compact ice and snow.
You need to realize that the existence of the line is a mere " suggestion" of what your driving habits need to be.

Mixed doubles, teams of one man and one woman curlers, have 5 rocks each and 6 (?) ends in the game.
Discuss the shot. Throw your rock. Then run like hello on the ice to catch up to be your own sweeper!

 

[Janne]

In Scandiland the road authority places vivid orange poles about 20 cm from the end of the tarmac.
We know not to drive close to the poles. Tourists do not, so you always see them lining the ditches in their rental cars, after each heavy snowfall, before the clearing trucks have scraped away the snow and salt-gritted.

Last March trip we counted on average 4 rental cars on the 90 km stretch we drive to 'our' village. Every time we drove.