Trucks start moving snow to Cypress Mountain from Manning Park

Trucks start moving snow to Cypress Mountain from Manning Park

February 2, 2010
By Andy Ivens, Canwest News Service

The great Olympic snow job is under way.

The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games on Monday began trucking snow from the Allison Pass area of Manning Provincial Park to Cypress Mountain — site of the snowboard and freestyle skiing events for the 2010 Games.

The warmest January on record in Metro Vancouver has left the Olympic organizers scrambling to bring the Cypress ski hill up to snuff for the Games, which kick off Feb. 12.

"With ongoing unseasonably warm weather conditions, the contingency plan to maintain the Cypress venue includes the stockpiling of snow, and augmenting those stockpiles as required," VANOC spokeswoman Renee Smith-Valarde said.

"Forecasted colder temperatures are not materializing so, to be safe, we're taking measures to ensure that there is enough snow stockpiled at the venue leading up to and during the Games for such things as replenishing the finish areas, enhancing training runs and top dressing to ensure the best TV shots."

That has forced VANOC to bring in snow by helicopter from elsewhere in the Cypress area and truck in snow from Manning Park.

Read the rest of the article at Vancouver Sun.