2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics

[Eldo]

...And Calgary in '88 puts the nordic events in Canmore- with a kabillion dollar snowmaking system because they get no, or next to no, natural snow...

The original snowmaking system at the Canmore Nordic Centre cost $270,000, and it only covered the stadium area and a few of the 70 km of trails. Snow was moved as needed to cover thin spots. The entire facility cost $14.3 million, slightly less than a kabillion dollars.

Also, it used to snow a lot more back in the '80s at low elevations in the Bow Valley. Ask anyone who has lived in Canmore or Banff for a long time.

Leading up to a 2005 World Cup at the nordic centre, the province and CODA spent $25.6 million to upgrade everything from the trails to the shooting range, lighting, etc. It also including replacing the original snowmaking system with a more modern one and extending coverage to 20 km of trails, in recognition of the change in weather patterns since '88.

Darn, annoying facts. Always getting in the way of opinions.

[khyber.pass]

Hear, hear SRS. My sentiments exactly.

I get the feeling once climate change and further economic instability kicks in, the Olympics (in its current form) will become this relic of the past -- kind of like the World's Fair, the Crystal Palace, or even EXPO. These things have their expiry date. We're in the "big spectacle before the crash" moment, imo.

[Blanton]

Snow moving video from Cypress

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVcHZTnWw3k"]YouTube- Some snow moving at Cypress Mountain[/ame]

[Vansnow]

Hear, hear SRS. My sentiments exactly.

I get the feeling once climate change and further economic instability kicks in, the Olympics (in its current form) will become this relic of the past -- kind of like the World's Fair, the Crystal Palace, or even EXPO. These things have their expiry date. We're in the "big spectacle before the crash" moment, imo.

Don't worry, some new emerging countries still have passion to continue the party. What do you think next winter game be held in China or even India, with downhill start house located at 7000 meters high on top of Himalayas...

[skiingnow]

My observations is that this is a show for the IOC. The athletes know who is the best in the world.

So long as that olympic gold medal has such a high place in the world, you won't see it go away anytime soon.

[grrrr]

Any chance anyone would have parking for one night in whistler around the 17th-18th?

[srsosbso]

The original snowmaking system at the Canmore Nordic Centre cost $270,000... Darn, annoying facts. Always getting in the way of opinions.

I stand corrected- I guess I'd heard the more recent tens of millions of dollars for upgrade costs.

Nonetheless- the '88 olympic cross-country events, and since then (by extension) the national training centre, have been located at a place who's prime virtue is its proximity to calgary rather than its qualities as a sports venue. (Whether it used to snow more there or not, its still a place where they needed snowmaking to ski cross-country, which in this part of the world would be seen as fairly tragic.) Whether it was kabillions of dollars or 270 grand frankly doesn't really change the point I was making, and clearly the same thinking has gone on for this olympics, as we see in the trucking of snow to cyprus. (Base here as we speak is just shy of 2m, btw.)

[LaGrench]

Nice rant, Grampa Simpson.

it should read:

"Nice rant, Hunter Thompson."


Gonzo journalism right there

[legallyillegal]

Oh yeah, Calgary! Quit my job, moved to Calgary in Nov 87. Worked on the ski jumps as a groomer. Ordered a shit ton of olympic tickets as soon as one could and got every event I asked for (about 10 events) except for men's gold hockey. Remember Manley's skate too
Those games were all in all an ass kicking party and it put Calgary on the map.

Managed to hit Albertville in 90, snuck my way up to Les Arc past security in the middle of the night in my rental car to catch speed skiing (was a demo event that year) cause a bunch of my buddies were racing in an olympics - great time!

Fast forward to 2009, I really want to see another olympics. So I order another shit ton of tickets in the "packages" that vanoc suggests are the best way to get tickets. I get the gist of it (I think) - buy a bunch of tickets including events you could give a shit about, so that you can get the ones you really want - like men's downhill, 90m jump, may be some ladies boardercross cause your buddies in it. So I play there silly game and buy 3 packages potentially putting out like 2500 clams for 9 days of olympic wonder for me and my kid. After all you'd want to be there for a bit if you're driving 18 hours to get there. Soooo at the end of the day I get ONE bloody package, containing ONE bloody event I care about (men's short track speed skating final), and one that would have been cool (women's combined), what a joke. I tried to buy single event tickets when they first went on sale but couldn't get the site to work in at least 4 attempts so gave up. The kicker is that I hear that shit tons of tickets are being sold at face value in the last couple of weeks. The only saving grace is that I sold all my tickets at about double what I paid. Nothing against Vancouver, and I hope you guys have an absolute blast. It's a great event and you'll see some very cool stuff, the party alone is worth the price of admission. BUT, vanoc's ticketing system was a piece of shit. Peace

boohoo you didn't get randomly selected in a lottery

[garyfromterrace]

boohoo you didn't get randomly selected in a lottery

Yeah, know what - no big deal, I doubled my money on the one package I got. And I mentioned that I wish the vancouverites well. But..... the zipperheads didn't tell me it was a lottery for the packages. So I wasn't impressed.

[PaulB]

I tried to buy single event tickets when they first went on sale but couldn't get the site to work in at least 4 attempts so gave up. ... vanoc's ticketing system was a piece of shit.

The capabilities of the ticketing website were definitely pushed to the limits. The site for buying bus tickets to the Cypress and Whistler events was even worse, at least when I tried to buy mine.

..... the zipperheads didn't tell me it was a lottery for the packages. So I wasn't impressed.

I think it was pretty clear that whether or not it went to a lottery depended on demand, and it was pretty certain that demand was going to be greater than the supply.

On the other hand, pretty much everyone I know who went for packages got shafted while everyone who went for single tickets got most of what they wanted.

[filthyfrenchbum]

I got up to Cypress Friday night and I must say, the whole scale of the thing is really impressive. The snowboard events bleachers are 12 stories high, freakin' gigantic! The moguls course is really long and looks money. Groomers working day and night to make use of the snow and the 7,000 straw bales (imported from Oregon).

Whoever has tickets, get there super early, it will be airport like security, if not more intense. Metal detectors, xrays, dogs, it's all there. A friend was telling me that at BC place, they even xray all the fire extinguishers during sweep every night.

[garyfromterrace]

The capabilities of the ticketing website were definitely pushed to the limits. The site for buying bus tickets to the Cypress and Whistler events was even worse, at least when I tried to buy mine.


I think it was pretty clear that whether or not it went to a lottery depended on demand, and it was pretty certain that demand was going to be greater than the supply.

On the other hand, pretty much everyone I know who went for packages got shafted while everyone who went for single tickets got most of what they wanted.

Thanks for that, I thought it was just me they hated. It pissed me off that they said the packages were the "best chance" to get tickets.

[filthyfrenchbum]

Just saw the dress rehearsal for the opening ceremony, it was quite the performance! Catch it on tv Friday if you can.

And the vibe downtown is festive! People everywhere, fireworks, light shows in the sky... It's hard not to get stoked.

[LaGrench]

Just saw the dress rehearsal for the opening ceremony, it was quite the performance! Catch it on tv Friday if you can.

And the vibe downtown is festive! People everywhere, fireworks, light shows in the sky... It's hard not to get stoked.

Word, I was down there yesterday and it was pretty busy. Lots of people, lots of closures down by the waterfront area. Pretty good vibes i.m.o.

[srsosbso]

Someone in the ski biz told me that a million bucks a day is being spent moving snow to cyprus. Is that possible? Why wouldn't they just move the mogul and cross events up to whistler? Why weren't they put there in the first place? Any ideas?

[xyz]

Why weren't they put there in the first place? Any ideas?

Politics man, politics.

[f2f]

speaking of canmore, here are a couple of pics of the XC World Cup from last weekend. Seen are the closing ceremony, held on the short-track trails planted right in the middle of town. Again, unknown kajillion dollars probably went into it. now, i don't want to intrude into the conversation of whether money for facilities is justified or not, but the whole town seemed to enjoy the net result of some investment made some years back quite a bit. i'd rather be poor and happy than grumpy and rich; i think vancouverites would feel that way too in a few years.

[LeeLau]

Opening ceremonies are going to be fun. And robo if you're going to be a whiny Interior bitch at least learn how to spell Cypress. Get back to growing pot will you

[filthyfrenchbum]

http://www.citycaucus.com/2010free#5542

All the info on the stuff for free, some of the houses sound like they could be quite the party.

[smalls]

Someone in the ski biz told me that a million bucks a day is being spent moving snow to cyprus. Is that possible? Why wouldn't they just move the mogul and cross events up to whistler? Why weren't they put there in the first place? Any ideas?

i was told ~$10,000/hr. just for the helicopters that are bringing in snow and hay. if you include all the trucks and the fact that they are working around the clock, then a mil could be about right.

they can't be moved now because the games start in 3 days and it would require a significant effort to reorganize transportation and security for every team from every country, not to mention the amount of time it would take to re-coordinate venue ops.

they weren't put there originally because whistler is already hosting biathlon, ski jumping, nordic combined, cross country, bobsled, luge, skeleton, and alpine skiing. and transportation up there is a complete shitshow. if you were to add the events being held at cypress (moguls, aerials, skiercross, boardercross, pipe and boarder GS), it would be impossible to provide transportation for the minimum number of anticipated spectators that the IOC requires that host cities plan for. (thats also why squamish wasn't a possibility, since it is on the way to whistler and would create the same bottleneck)

[legallyillegal]

Someone in the ski biz told me that a million bucks a day is being spent moving snow to cyprus. Is that possible? Why wouldn't they just move the mogul and cross events up to whistler? Why weren't they put there in the first place? Any ideas?

too expensive and logistically impossible to move the event (plus from what has been told to us, the athletes themselves are OK with the below-normal conditions)

part of the reason why it's there in the first place is because vancouver has to have a certain number of events to be the official host city

[mikedski]

Just saw the dress rehearsal for the opening ceremony, it was quite the performance! Catch it on tv Friday if you can.

And the vibe downtown is festive! People everywhere, fireworks, light shows in the sky... It's hard not to get stoked.

I was there too. It was amazing and should be watched by everyone on Friday night. No matter what your opinion of the Olympics, it's hard not to get caught up in the energy and vibe in Whistler and Vancouver right now. Add some nice pow skiing on an empty mountain later this week and I'm thinking this will likely be one of the best experiences of my life. Party on!

[srsosbso]

robo if you're going to be a whiny Interior bitch at least learn how to spell Cypress.

I ski at Red because it's easy to spell.

[LeeLau]

I was there too. It was amazing and should be watched by everyone on Friday night. No matter what your opinion of the Olympics, it's hard not to get caught up in the energy and vibe in Whistler and Vancouver right now. Add some nice pow skiing on an empty mountain later this week and I'm thinking this will likely be one of the best experiences of my life. Party on!

It was tastefully done; had no lumberjacks in Carharts and plaid and some moments that were really emotional (but then i cry at movies)