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Finally, relief in the form of snow for the Vancouver Olympics.

 

But before the snow fell on Cypress Mountain- the snow woes plagued Olympic athletes, officials and spectator-hopefuls alike.

 
We’re looking at perspectives from NBC, ESPN, San Francisco Chronicle, Metro News, and the Chicago Tribune.
 
NBC’s Natalie Morales is the first journalist to visit Cypress Mountain. She describes the challenge organizers have faced.
 
“To give you an idea of the effort that has gone into this…they had about a 2 ½ inch natural snow base here to begin with.  As you can see by the rocks off to the left of the course that is what they were dealing with here, so Mother Nature has not been cooperating, but what you see now is a result of all that hard work.”
 
ESPN suggests the conditions are not ideal for the athletes, but some people will benefit from them.
 
“The warmest January on record is great, if you’re the summer Olympics.  Winter Olympics begin Friday and that warm January has left Vancouver a little short on snow.  They’ve been trucking it in, helicoptering it in.  One of the guys in charge said the conditions are going to be great - for
 
The San Francisco Chronicle reports athletes are hopeful, but a little pessimistic about the conditions.
 
“’I hope so,’ [a Slovenian skier] said when asked if the course will be race ready Saturday for the women’s moguls…An Australian competitor who did not give her name said the snow was a little sticky, which is ‘bad if you don’t have wax.’”

A Canadian Metro News columnist says the Vancouver Olympics are already billions over budget and bringing in snow will make it even more expensive.
 
“Why hold the winter Olympics where there’s no winter?  Vancouver is the warmest venue ever for the winter games...So they’re trucking in snow from the interior and dumping it on the daffodils of Cypress Bowl.  What’s wrong with this picture?"

But the Chicago Tribune says ‘not so fast’ when criticizing Vancouver. This has happened before.

“An almost superhuman effort was required for the 1964 Olympics at Innsbruck, Austria, to pull off the alpine events.  Snow was imported and military personnel cut out ice blocks higher up the mountain and brought them down to pack the course, by hand.”

So should Olympic officials bring in snow from other places?  Or is it unnecessary spending for an already expensive event?

 

Writer: Alyssa Caverley
Producer: Newsy Staff