Cypress will host freestyle, snowboard events despite lack of snow

VANCOUVER — Peter Judge wants the world to know that snow-starved Cypress Mountain is still the host venue for freestyle and snowboard at the Winter Olympics.

No white stuff (at least not by natural means)? No problem.

“Our contingency plan is that we’re over at Cypress,” said Judge, the chief executive officer for the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association. “And the next one after that is that we’re at Cypress.

“Come hell or rain water, we’ll be at Cypress.”

The Vancouver organizing committee banned reporters from the first day of moguls training Monday — thus creating an information vacuum happily filled by the virtual rumour mill.

Especially given the glorious weather in downtown Vancouver where Olympic visitors discarded their winter parkas for light spring jackets. With temperatures hovering around 9 C, the mere thought of wearing those red Olympic mittens seemed ridiculous.

“People are worrying about training and where the Olympics will be,” said moguls coach Dominick Gauthier. “I’ve heard stupid stuff like we’ll be at Apex for the Olympics.”

Apex Mountain is a resort nestled in the B.C. interior near Penticton.

Reporters will be allowed to the practice session on Tuesday.

“It just went crazy,” Gauthier said, of the raging gossip. “People love the drama. People love the stories.

“Sorry, but it’s non-story.”

Maybe so, but the non-story dominated the official news conferences for both moguls and snowboard and even came up in a news briefing held by Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee.

Vancouver is basking in the afterglow of the warmest January on record, leaving Cypress barren, dry and devoid of anything white except on the courses themselves.

“Even though there is not a lot of snow in these places, I think we don’t have to dramatize the situation,” Rogge told reporters. “There is no danger posed for the competitions themselves.

“On the one hand, we were always urging for green games. Maybe we have to plead for something else.”

Mother Nature seems unlikely to co-operate in the near future. The long-term forecast for the mountain calls for above-freezing temperatures all week.

“There are always,” said Canadian moguls skier Pierre-Alexandre Rousseau, “stronger forces than us.”

As a result, organizers are busy trucking snow up to Cypress. Helicopters are picking up any loose snow on the mountain and moving it onto the course.

“There’s been a fairly heroic effort up there by the men and women working on the site — many who have been up there far more hours then they’ve been off the mountain,” said John Furlong, president of the Vancouver organizing committee.

Due to the ongoing “heroic effort” Vanoc has reduced the five-day scheduled training period on the Olympic snowboard halfpipe to three days, starting on Feb. 14 instead of Feb. 12.

“That’s more than we normally get on the World Cup,” said Christian Hrab, high performance director for Snowboard Canada. “We know they cancelled the training, because the walls are a little soft. It’s not about anything else other than just making sure to preserve the field of play.”

Preserving the field of play is one thing. Creating it is another. Corrugated pipes filled with dry ice are buried under both the aerials and moguls courses. The dry ice hardens the snow from the inside out.

In the end, chemicals may be needed to harden the snow for the halfpipe, said Dave Cobb, depute CEO of the Vancouver organizing committee.

“The other venues are fine,” Cobb said. “We will get a sense of how the courses will hold up over the next couple of days.

“Our first option to preserve the course is to reduce training time, which we’ve done already, although it is still beyond what the international federations require.”

At their first official Olympic event, snowboarding officials tried rampant speculation over the possible cancellation or postponement of their events.

“There’s a rumour that says it may be cancelled,” Hrab said. “It’s a false rumour. The snow conditions up there are suitable.”

Reporters wanted to know whether the boarders could have competed on Monday, given the state of the course.

“We could,” Hrab said. “It would be great. Nice sunny day. Beautiful Vancouver day.

“I think this is a testament to marvellous human ingenuity, what Vanoc has done up there.”

The athletes, however, are ready for the elements to dominate the headlines throughout the Games.

At Cypress, the name of the game could be, “hurry up and wait.”

“Cypress is consistently inconsistent,” Canadian moguls skier Kristi Richards said before arriving in Vancouver. “It’s a very challenging place for weather. You never know what you’re going to get, and it can change hour to hour, minute to minute.

“It’s ridiculous. You have to be prepared for anything. One minute, it can snow two feet of really heavy snow, which is really difficult in moguls. And then the next moment, it can rain. And then the next minute, it will freeze.

“In that regard, you have to be prepared for everything.”

Including no snow.