My second volunteer shift at the Whistler Accreditation Centre today, but first time in full uniform! I picked it up towards the end of my shift last Sunday, so did not put it on till today. Another step closer to the day the Games start on February 12. Are we ready?

Volunteer Uniform

Enzo In VANOC Uniform

I’m pretty sure I’m ready, how about you? I’m also pretty sure VANOC is ready, but there still appear to be a number of details left to take care especially with regards to transportation.

Living in Squamish, there have been a number of questions and concerns about transportation. One of those was how we would be able to get directly from Squamish to Whistler Olympic Park for nordic events. According to this article in last week’s Squamish Chief, VANOC has just announced a free bus service for event ticket holders on this route. But, there are still no details of this announcement on VANOC’s Travel Smart 2010 site.

More last-minute good news came last week on the transportation front, this time for volunteers like myself who will need to get from Squamish to Whistler. VANOC will run regular service for workforce and volunteers only, which is in addition to the expanded 24×7 service from BC Transit.

Enzo in all red "uniform"

Enzo Painting the Town Red

Thanks to both VANOC and BC Transit for these service announcements. It is something that is much needed in the Sea To Sky corridor. My commute home from Whistler earlier this evening really reinforced this point to me. My shift ended a little early, as it was a slow day of Accreditation. So, our supervisor let me and my car-pool partner head home at 4:00 pm. Unfortunately, this put us smack dab in the middle of Sunday rush hour as all the day/weekend skiers were also heading out at that time. After an hour in the car, we had traveled only about 4 km – from Upper Whistler Village parking lots to Whistler Creekside. This would normally only take 10 minutes at most. The pace picked up a bit from there, but it was still almost a 2-hour journey till I was home in downtown Squamish. Be warned if you are driving to/from Whistler in the next couple of weeks!

Just for fun, the picture on the right is from a work event we had on Friday when we decided to “Paint the Town Red”. Contrast that to the blue VANOC uniform above :) .