Vancouver Olympics Just Need One Thing: Snow

Jan. 26, 2010— -- The organizers of the Vancouver Winter Olympics have prepared for everything, from athlete housing to food preparation to the construction of ski jumps and a new figure skating arena. But with just a few weeks to go until the games, there is one thing they are missing: snow.

The Olympics are scattered through a number of venues. While conditions are pretty good at the Whistler-Blackcomb ski resort, another Olympic site, Cypress Mountain isn't as lucky. The mountain, about a half an hour from downtown, is lacking snow and that is forcing organizers to take some extraordinary measures.

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After several weeks of unseasonably warm and wet weather, the Vancouver Organizing Committee and the management of Cypress Mountain agreed to close the ski area's to the public early -- on Jan. 13 -- in order to preserve what snow was left on the slopes.

Then Olympic organizers began to take over the role of Mother Nature. The committee is preparing a base made of straw and wood forms that will be covered with snow to build the race courses. Currently snow is being stockpiled at the cooler top of Cypress Mountain and will be moved with trucks, snow cats -- and possibly helicopters – to the race courses below just before the competition starts.

Why no man-made snow? It's simply been too warm. To make snow, temperatures must be in the mid-20s or lower. But recently, the thermometer has been spiking in the mid-40s.

Cypress Mountain declined to comment, saying instead on its Web site: "Our snowmaking team[s] are taking advantage of every available window of weather which allows for production of machine made snow, concentrating on the Olympic Courses. Everyone on Cypress Mountain is optimistic about the conditions and we look forward to the arrival of Olympic Athletes from around the world and to the start of the 2010 Olympic Games."