TORINO: Alpine: Squaw course slipper is one cog in a well-oiled machine

TORINO: Alpine: Squaw course slipper is one cog in a well-oiled machine{mosimage}There are not many people who would want Jeff Rouse’s Olympic job, yet he has come all the way from Squaw Valley to do it and he isn’t about to give it up.

Rouse is a side-slipper, a mover of snow, a human snowplow — which has proven an absolute necessity in these snow-plagued Games, even though it rates just below sled dog in status.

The slopes were prepared with manmade snow months before the competitions, and any gifts from Mother Nature unfortunately have to be returned…into the woods. Racers want water-injected ice to ensure a fair competition, so the snow holds up for the duration of each race.

To say the task of moving snow off the icy surface is labor intensive is an understatement. Competition manager for the alpine events, Gianni Poncet, estimates he has assembled an army of 3,000 course workers, with about 600 working the men’s giant slalom hill at Sestriere and 700 on the women’s super G course at San Sicario. The snow removers work in shifts, so there are crews at both sites 24 hours a day. That work force includes ski instructors, Italian soldiers, fathers, mothers and children — as well as Rouse.

Rouse, a former coach at Squaw Valley who has worked with Julia Mancuso, Marco Sullivan and Daron Rahlves, wanted to give something back to the sport and see his former charges compete on the big stage. ‘I got involved with the course crew at the 2002 Olympics at Snowbasin’ said Rouse. ‘And I fell in love with it.’

Poncet happened to be at Snowbasin and saw the crew at work and he invited Rouse to work the Torino Games. He didn’t have to ask twice, even though Rouse was well aware of what he was in for.

‘On most days, we’re on the hill by 7:30 and off by 5’ said Rouse. ‘But yesterday when it snowed, we were out there from 4 in the morning to 5 that night.’

Most of the heavy lifting is done with the snow blowers, although there still is endless side-slipping and shoveling to move all the snow outside the fences.

The evening before the giant slalom race, the GS hill looks like an ant hill, buzzing with activity as the crews are moving about six inches of snow that fell during the day off the track and over the fences. Barring any more snow, racers will show for inspection Monday morning and find a smooth, icy track ready for the 9:30 a.m. start.

Rouse’s wife doesn’t quite understand the attraction, but she puts up with it. ‘My wife thinks I’m nuts’ said Rouse. ‘Particularly when I showed her the injected ice, and she asked, ‘Why would anyone want to ski on that?’ ”