CBC News: "'We are planning that we will not have snow,' said Cathy Priestner Allinger, executive vice-president of sport and Games operations for VANOC.
Contingency plans are now being rolled out. They include using straw and wood in place of snow to build up the courses. Snow will then be brought in to layer over the straw and wood to build the course."
10 comments:
And this is why you always have a contingency plan- Mother Nature (or someone) will not cooperate. The amount of planning that went into the Olympics is thwarted by Mother Nature- only to be replaced by an equally developed plan. The logistics of moving snow from elsewhere to the mountain must be massive! I love the Olympics, and will be watching to see how they deal with this and the numerous other things that are bound to come up in the next few weeks.
Of course, as soon as they finish putting the fake snow on the mountain, it'll snow. just watch.
This is why you always have a backup plan. In an events venue such as this that depends on snow. I know what happened at Salt Lake where they created artifical snow and did sort of the same thing that Vancouver is planning. This isnt an event that can wait like other events, games or sports. This is the mecca of sports events for winter olympics.
Hopefully their plan works out and the games can continue as planned. This is why such plans are as important as the original plan itself.
One could argue how the Olympics are about sports and winning the gold for your country, but really, its entertainment. Its bills are paid by advertisers, it draws hundreds of spectators, and unlike so many other industries, it has a set date and time that will not be changing, so stuff can't happen late. That being said, the show must go on. If mother nature is not cooperating, other plans must be put into action. I am glad the Olympics is prepared enough to have contingency plans like this in place, and take the necessary precautions to make sure there is enough snow.
This is crazy, but at least they have a back-up plan. Who would have thought Mother Nature didn't approve of the Olympics? It's nice that they have a back-up plan especially for an event of this magnitude. Having to create a course and then dump snow should be a lovely task for some management person to take care of. I wish I could witness the creation of this and watch the trucking and helicoptering in of snow.
I know its more of a hassle not to have mother nature cooperate, but personally i would have a ton of fun engineering this and creating it. I'm glad they had a back up plan cause that would be embarrassing. I think this is a good example of not only having a "plan b" like everyone has said, but also of having good problems solving skills. It's a valuable skill to be able to see a problem in advance so it can be corrected before it becomes a problem as well as coming up with the solution quickly.
Beyond confirming my belief that the Winter Olympics should only occur in places that really can guarantee snow, I an curious to see how this somewhat bizarre twist of fate will effect the Olympic games. Beyond the possibility of their being a mix of snow and non-snow based covering on the mountain, man made snow and the free falling kinda are completely different when it comes to sports like snowboarding and skiing. The fake stuff is really just tinny ice pellets, which those Olympians that are lucky enough to come from places that actually get real snow on a yearly basis may not be familiar enough with to prevent some possibly major impact on their performance. There seems to always be a controversy that arises from the Olympics, I wonder how many countries will attack the games for having this issue.
Sounds like it's going to take some effort to clean up since Mother Nature isn't going to provide some snow for the Olympic Games. It's good to see that they had some kind of contingency plan especially considering the size and financial backing of a venture such as the Olympic Games. Good to know that somebody was thinking ahead and had planned for an issue such as this. It would have been a much more difficult if someone hadn't come up with some kind of "Plan B" to get everything, and probably more costly too.
First of all, thank you global warming. That aside.
When managing, it is important to not make any assumptions, such as the fact that there will be snow for the Winter Olympics. My first question is, how do you stockpile real snow, and home much must that cost! Besides that, I wonder if besides the concern that the courses might be less difficult, is there also a concern that they will be less safe. If there are other, mobile, elements underneath a small layer of snow (in an environment where snow is not falling) is there not the potential for unforeseen movement of the snow layer. While I am sure that these sort of things have been considered, it is daunting to thing of what cost and logistical implications a non-cooperative mother nature can be.
The scale of this operation will be pretty impressive; I hope that we get more information and maybe some video of the effort to artificially create the courses. I remember on a tour of whistler, the explanation that a small lake had been created on the side of the mountain simply as a resivour to supply water for artificial snow machines they use extensively. Because of the economic cost of closing a mountain with that much tourist traffic, it's worth it for them to spend enormous amounts of money artificially creating snow. It does seem like a shame that the games are being held in a place where the snow is not natural (it's not as unusual as it sounds for the pacific northwest to be low on snow,) there are certainly financial and environmental costs to all of the measures that the organizers are proposing. But, from a production perspective, an undertaking so massive will be fascination to hear about.
That's REALLY unfortunate. What's everyone going to do? Will they buy snow from the USA? There's so much planning to do for the Olympics, I almost feel truly sorry for the planners having to deal with making snow.
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