Canskier » 2010 Olympics

Cypress Mountain will close 2.5 weeks early for Olympics

admin — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:32:21 +0000

Further to our post from yesterday, CYPRESS WILL CLOSE early (i.e. today) and not reopen until March 9, 2010.

To preserve and protect the integrity of the Snowboarding and Freestyle Skiing courses at Cypress Mountain for the 2010 Winter Games, the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games (VANOC) and Cypress Mountain have agreed this morning to close the Alpine Ski Area to the public.

This difficult decision to close the Alpine Area to the public two and a half weeks earlier than planned follows days of unseasonably warm and wet weather in the Vancouver area. The course building crews are now actively working to preserve snow on ski trails which could be needed to supplement the snow on the courses.

We appreciate the support and understanding of all our regular skiers/riders in making this decision in support of VANOC’s commitment to the successful staging of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

We will be providing additional information over the coming days to Season Passholders and others affected by the closure. We plan to re-open as scheduled on March 9th with as much terrain as possible for the Spring session and we hope to then be basking in the sun and the glow of home team Gold Medals.

Judging from the sounds of this, they may plan to pull snow off other runs on the mountain… I can’t think of any other reason why they’d be forced to close the mountain to the public if this weren’t the case.

Oh well, here’s hoping for tons of snow in February to make up for it because if they do end up farming the snow off the rest of the mountain, we’re not going to have much of a season left come March 9th.

Cypress may close 3 weeks early for Olympics

admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:42:35 +0000

In interviewing Tim Gayda, 2010′s vice-president of sport, the Vancouver Sun is reporting that VANOC may close public access to Cypress Mountain THREE WEEKS EARLY if weather patterns don’t improve…

VANCOUVER — While recent winter rains have washed North Vancouver skiing business downhill, 2010 Olympics officials insist they’ve got enough snow stockpiled to run Olympic events at Cypress Mountain.

Cypress is home to aerial and mogul skiing and to snowboarding, snow-cross and ski-cross events.

Tim Gayda, 2010′s vice-president of sport, said a decision won’t be made until Wednesday whether to take over the mountain three weeks earlier than planned.

“They’re going to look at it on Wednesday,” said Gayda Monday. “It will largely depend on what the future weather will bring. It’s a pretty big decision.”

Plans called for VANOC to take control of the mountain and close it for skiing on Feb. 1.

He said the recent warm, wet weather wasn’t unexpected.

“We’ve looked at this and many other scenarios in terms of having too much snow or very cold temperatures,” said Gayda.

He said Olympic planners took steps last year, during colder weather, to blow “a massive amount of artificial snow” onto the venue courses.

“When we saw this warming trend, we worked with the mountain to look at all the places where there was natural snow and we started to stockpile it,” he said. “When you push it into these big piles, it insulates it a lot better. There’s thousands of cubic metres of snow in each pile.”

Seeing as there’s less than three weeks remaining until they’re scheduled to shut down for the Olympics anyways, I guess that’d mean that should they decide to close public access early it would be effective immediately.

I’d expect passholders would receive some sort of a bonus to make up for the additional closure period, but only time will tell.

Click here for the complete story at VancouverSun.com.

Grouse Mountain to be open 24 hours a day for the Olympics

admin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:09:55 +0000

In the “kinda cool news” department, Grouse Mountain will be open 24 hours a day during the 2010 Winter Olympic stretch. I’ve called to confirm, and assuming conditions are up to snuff obviously, this will include ski operations.

Probably won’t make a habit of it, but the novelty factor of skiing at 4:00 in the morning would be pretty cool once or twice, especially if it’s dumpin!

Cypress Mountain 2010 Impact Report

admin — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:34:13 +0000

Curious to see how Cypress Mountain’s going to be impacted by the 2010 Olympic Games?

In a nutshell:

Limited parking all season long, with Lodge Lot and Lot 1 closed all year
Eagle Chair will be completely closed or highly impacted all season long
Rainbow run off Lions’ Express will be closed or highly impacted all season long
Ski area completely closed to skiing from February 1 through March 8

Not really complaining as it’s hard to go wrong with a $269 season’s pass, but the big question remains is where does that leave Raven Ridge? If we can’t access via Panorama from the top of Eagle Express and Lot 1 is also closed, does that mean Raven Ridge will also be closed or will we still be able to walk around Lot 1?

Plus, not sure why Rainbow on the Lions’ Express side of the mountain will be highly impacted or closed all year long. Perhaps they’re using that run for snow farming in the event they don’t have enough snow? Can’t really see any other reason why they’d have that closed but maybe we’ll get some answers soon. I’ve emailed Guest Services for clarification on these points and will post back with my findings.

Hopefully they have a plan in place to maintain access to some of the best new terrain on the mountain!

Click here for the complete report.

IOC: Female ski jumping will not be recognized in 2010

admin — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:43:55 +0000

Getting a bit tired of all this bad news surrounding the 2010 Olympics, another one of the LAME folder…

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - Even if an event were held for female ski jumpers in 2010, the International Olympic Committee says it would not hand out medals or recognize the results.

The IOC’s Dick Pound says a decision from the BC Court of Appeal that would force VANOC to stage an event for the women, would likely eliminate Canada’s chances of ever hosting another Olympic Games. Pound tells the Vancouver Sun, he also doubts the International Ski Federation would provide any officials to monitor the event.

Source

2010 Olympic Weather website by Environment Canada

admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:23:16 +0000

Environment Canada has just released a website providing specific weather statistics, conditions and descriptions for all the 2010 Olympic Venues.

Check it out at www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/2010/