Heavy rain forces closure of Olympic mountain venue

Rain, rain go away, Olympic athletes want to play.

As the North Shore gets walloped with 90 mm of rain today and tonight, the gush of water forced Cypress Mountain, soon-to-be home to the Olympic snowboarding and freestyle events, to close Monday and Tuesday.

A snow salvage project is underway, the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) stated in a press release. On Wednesday, the committee will assess if more intensive snow management is needed.

If that's the case, all alpine runs could be closed to public two and a half weeks earlier than planned their planned Feb. 1 closure for the Games.

"Every day we're making decisions and taking steps to deal with the weather we have or can see coming. We're confident these courses will be in world-class shape when the athletes start to arrive to practice in the first week of February," VANCO's vice president of sport Tim Gayda stated in the release.

At the beginning of the season Cypress was able to make a substantial amount of snow due to cooler temperatures, he added. The mountain went through 21 million gallons of water and blanketed all competition courses and natural snow, accumulated at higher elevations, was pushed into big piles in order to insulate it.

"Recently the warm weather and rain means we're working even harder to protect the snow and we'll make more snow as soon as the temperature drops enough to do so," Gayda said.

That temperature drop may not be too far off. There's a major shift in the weather pattern heading our way, said Jeff Masters, Weather Underground's director of meteorology.

This weekend Vancouver can expect cooler temperatures, with the chance of snow for the mountains. The following week temperatures will more closely mimic historical norms.

February may be warmer and drier than usual, as the weather phenomenon El Nino remains at a strong level, a category it was bumped to in early November, Masters added.

"It might be a little drier than usual," he said.

Mount Seymour and Grouse Mountain are also in the midst of dealing with Mother Nature's wet tantrum. Seymour's alpine skiing, tubing and tobogganing was closed today, as downhill operations at Grouse were put on standby.

raldous@northshoreoutllook.com