Snow woes cause concern
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Cypress Mountain passed a major test Monday, as freestyle skiers completed their first pre-Olympic practice sessions and Winter Olympic organizers kept dumping snow on competition courses in unseasonably warm weather.
“It’s absolutely fine,” World Cup champion Hannah Kearney said after her training runs. “It’s as if there was no problem.”
Trucks and helicopters still were dumping snow onto the mountain in an effort to get the Olympic venues ready for the Vancouver Games, which open Friday.
The first event scheduled is women’s moguls qualifying on Saturday, with the finals to be raced later that day. Men’s qualifying and finals follow on Sunday.
Even before practice, the American Kearney didn’t sound worried about anything the mountain could throw at her.
“I’ve skied on rocks, I’ve skied on ice, I’ve skied in the rain. This is nothing,” she said.
Only athletes and their coaches were allowed at Monday’s training, so as not to interrupt preparations, said Dave Cobb, the executive vice president of the Vancouver organizing committee.
“There’s still a lot of snow being trucked and flown in to ensure we have enough contingency snow if the warm weather continues,” Cobb said.
The weather in and around Vancouver has created some problems for Olympic organizers at Cypress Mountain. Farther away in Whistler – where the Alpine and Nordic events will be held – conditions are fine.
“It’s warm up here,” Kearney said in a phone interview from the moguls course. “The snow is soft, grainy, but there’s plenty of it.”
On the course, that is. “It’s brown under the lift,” Kearney said.
IOC president Jacques Rogge said he had “absolutely no concerns whatsoever” about the state of Cypress Mountain.
“There is no concern, and there is no ‘Plan B,’” he said.
World champion Patrick Deneen also was confident events would go ahead on Cypress Mountain.
“If there’s snow we will ski for sure,” he said. “I’ve seen pictures, and it looks like there’s a lot of snow on that course right now. They’ve been trucking it in and really making it happen.”
