A Paralympic experience

[imagemaker46]

I thought I would take time over the next 2 weeks and give people an idea what it's really like working an event like this. I had already written and nice long post but as luck would have it the internet here isn't very dependable. I left home at 5:15pm on Monday and arrived in Rosa Khutor at 1:30am on Tuesday morning after three planes and a nine hour time change. Rosa Khutor is the mountain village where alpine, cross country, biathlon, snowboard are taking place, and the sports I'm covering, it is also outside the security bubble that was put in place for the Olympics, and 45minutes from Sochi.

The alpine venues are split in half, and are 30 minutes walking distance apart in opposite directions, this is where you catch the gondolas up 2000feet and then walk to the press centres, before walking higher to the competition sites. I will be making the trip up tomorrow, after catching a bus into Sochi for the photographer briefing and pick up my ticket for opening ceremonies on Friday night. I will be at the main press centre where I hope to get some information about anything, bit of a black hole here.

Weather here is +15C or 59F, a very nice break from the -30 I left at home, on the mountain it is also around +15, so it should be good condition to work in.

I'll be posting some pictures as I go along.

 

[ronlane]

Looking forward to reading about your experience Scott.

 

[sm4him]

^ I second that! I hope it all goes well, and I'll be looking forward to your first-hand account and photos!

 

[imagemaker46]

Here is a shot from my hotel room and one of the downtown section of Rosa Khutor





My most recent problem, my email was all blocked saying there was suspicious activity. It's never happened before.

 

[tirediron]

Good luck Scott; looking forward to seeing your work!

 

[timor]

I am afraid that right now in Russia every foreigner is a "suspicious activity". Especially from NATO circle. Good luck to you.

 

[imagemaker46]

First real day in Rosa Khutor after struggling through a restless jet lagged 3 hours of sleep, to get up in time to catch a train to the Main Press Centre on the coast, only to find out the train I was expecting to catch wasn't leaving for 90 minutes. I met a German photographer in the train station, we spoke about the same lack of information when it came to the events. As it turns out they have closed the mountain press centre, both Canon and Nikon have moved all the loaner gear to the coast. The train arrived and we managed to miss the photographers briefing by 40 minutes, seems the 40 minute train was closer to an hour, and from there no one could tell us how to get to the main press centre. We managed to get a ride that cut our walking in the wrong direction time by another 30 miniutes. Nothing was sign posted until we got to the press centre.

We tracked down the photo chief and picked up our tickets for opening ceremonies tomorrow night, which will require another train ride. Ceremony starts at 8pm, not sure when it ends, but the last two trains home run at 10pm and midnight. There weren't very many photographers picking up tickets, so my guess is that their will be fewer than 200 covering this event, likely a 1000 less than the Olympics. Their was little information to be had there but did find out that an arm band is required as well as the accreditation card to enter the venues, I went through five security checks, where a pat down was done and scanned my accreditation 3 times as well. They are through.

On the upside it is bright sunny and +25C or 77F, not the winter games I was expecting, people in shorts and t-shirts, palm trees and flowers.

 

[SCraig]

It's GOT to be an interesting experience. Good or bad remains to be seen, perhaps, but an experience nonetheless. Looking forward to seeing your shots.

 

[runnah]

I am afraid that right now in Russia every foreigner is a "suspicious activity". Especially from NATO circle. Good luck to you.

Scott is Canadian and they don't know how to act suspicious.

 

[imagemaker46]

This was a quick grab shot as the torch went by, as usual there was no information passed along that it was coming by. I just happen to be out picking up some water.

 

[vintagesnaps]

That's a pretty cool shot of the torch to be able to see it that close. Hope things fall into place for you by tomorrow.

The opening ceremonies are scheduled to be on NBC Sports Network at I think 11 or 11:30 am EST on Friday.

 

[Derrel]

Good to hear something from you. I was wondering how it would be. Certainly odd weather for a "winter" type event. It actually sounds utterly maddening to have such a messed-up chain of information. "Not knowing" when things will be has got to be frustrating, or worse.

 

[vintagesnaps]

Opening ceremonies on live now; showed that Alpine Skiing is on tonight but I think at 1:00 in the morning (I'll probably just wait for Scott's pictures!).

Interesting that the Paralympics got going in Gr. Britain after WWII when there had been soldiers returning and going thru rehab.

 

[pixmedic]

woohoo!
Go Scott!
show them other photogs there how the pros do it!

 

[imagemaker46]

Well hello again, this is the first day I've had a chance to sit down and relax for a few minutes. There have been the usual problems with transportation, trying to find the right bus to get to the right venue, ask 5 people and they all give you a different answer, and usually in a little English, everyone has been really trying. Buying food in the stores is usually by the picture on the label, or guessing, so far I've done ok, no issues with drinking the water in my hotel although bottled water is still the safe bet. I use the hot tap water for making my breakfast.



I travel with oatmeal so I know I will at least have one meal a day.

Internet connections and a computer problem have been driving me crazy, so I haven't been able to get as much work done as I really need to. Sleep is a rare thing, average 3 hours a night. The venues I have been working at are less than ideal due to the weather, today I shot cross country skiing in a t-shirt, it was +27C in the high 80's, a nice way to spend a day.



This is the finish line photo stand for all the Nordic events. Although the best pictures were a hike into the woods. All the events start at 10am, for the nordic events being there at 10 wasn't a real problem, for the alpine events you had to be on the hill an hour before, which meant catching the 7am bus ride to the hill, jumping on a chair lift and heading half way up, from there it was walking up further or walking down several hundred yards to a good spot, that also meant hauling the gear back up the hill, I discovered that yesterday after spending 4 hours freezing at the level I was shooting from and then walking in ankle deep slush was a challenge.