Warm winter temperatures are threatening the viability of Cypress Mountain as a venue for this year's Winter Olympic Games.
Melting snow and higher-than-expected temperatures have forced Olympic organisers to take the drastic measure of trucking in snow from nearby mountains, and even from locations hours away from Vancouver, reports the
Canadian Press.
The venue most affected, Cypress Mountain, is part of the North Shore range overlooking Vancouver. The site is scheduled to host snowboarding and free-style skiing events. But over the last few weeks, technicians have been forced to move snow from higher up the mountain, and build up the runs with wood and hay bales. The latest initiative, which involves trucking in about three dozen loads of snow per day, will only add a small fraction of snow to the runs, but is necessary to maintain quality standards. A VANOC spokesperson said the costs of trucking in the snow should be covered by unused money budgeted for snow removal.
"There is no intention of moving from this venue," Tim Gayda, VANOC's vice-president of sport, told the
Vancouver Sun. "We are very, very confident that we have enough snow to be able to weather any kind of inclement weather we have rolling into the Games. From our point of view if we get winter coming back it just makes our lives easier. If it doesn't, we have the resources, people and equipment to get the job done."
The other snow venues located at the ski-resort community of Whistler, a short drive north from Vancouver, are apparently unaffected by the warm temperatures. VANOC reports about ten metres of snow at the alpine venue.
The coastal areas of British Columbia as a rule experience much milder winter temperatures than most of Canada. But a researcher with the David Suzuki foundation said last week that rising global temperatures may play some part in VANOC's snow woes. Ian Bruce, the foundation's lead climate change researcher, told the
CBC that over the last 50 years, BC's snow season during the winter has shortened by four to five weeks, and temperatures have increased.
"These are really important issues that I think should be integrated into hosting the Winter Olympics," Bruce said. "We should be calling for leadership on climate change and putting in solutions."
