The sponsors have arrived in Vancouver but the snow has not

Organisers have been forced to transport snow to one of the Vancouver Olympic sites because of unseasonally high temperatures.

Snow is being brought to the Cypress Mountain venue - that will host the freestyle and snowboarding events - from the Allison Pass 93 miles away.

"We simply cannot have a start that is affected by weather," said organising committee chief John Furlong.

January temperatures have hit a record average high at 7.2C degrees.

As well as importing snow from other areas, organisers have been pushing down snow stockpiled at higher altitudes and using bales of hay to build a base on the race courses.

Editors' Blog First host city at sea level, the biggest city to host the Games and also the warmest city to do so. Jonathan Bramley

The venues are expected to be ready for athletes to practise on on 4 February ahead of the Games' opening on 12 February.

Although light snow fell on the resort on Monday, more unusually high temperatures and rain are forecast.

But Furlong is confident that contingency plans in place will keep the Cypress Mountain events on track.

"What we have to do is that no matter what happens we have the back-ups in place," he said.

"This has happened at every Olympics and what we're trying to do is demonstrate we are on top of this."

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version