field trip!

friday, i took a FIELD TRIP!!! i went with 3 VANOC employees up to check out how things are coming along at my venue: cypress mountain!!! for those of you who haven't heard, vancouver is dealing with unseasonably warm temperatures...and that is extending up the mountain in west vancouver to cypress mountain...where olympians will be snowboarding, moguling and aerialing. it was fun to get up to my actual venue to see the work that is going on just 2 weeks before the games open!


this is looking at 2 of the runs up at cypress that aren't being used...and you can see there is a lot of brown in spaces i'm sure the games organizers were hoping for lots of white.


this is looking up at the back of the grandstand at the snowboarding venue. and this grandstand is the BIGGEST GRANDSTAND ever...it is ridiculously big. and awesome.



this is one of the many 'snow movers' that are working around the clock to get what snow there is (and what snow they can truck in) to the proper runs at both stadiums up at cypress.


our trek through the gritty, gray snow up to the grandstand....


we're getting closer...and then are faced with miles and miles (or so it seemed) of stairs. so. many. blasted. stairs.


looking from the grandstand up to the snowboard half-pipe (on the left) and the snowboard cross & parallel giant slalom course (on the right.)


and then...the helicopters started flying in bales of straw.


and they just kept coming. notice the straw at the base of the grandstand seating. they are filling the area with straw, and then they will start dumping the snow they are trucking in OVER the straw. and that, folks, is called the "NO SNOW" contingency plan.


the top of the run...with the rings on the right...and the snow machine cutting out the half-pipe on the left. making of the olympics...in action. so cool.


look back up over the grandstand.


me posing with the straw. OH! and you can see the snow-making machine back up to the left. it's the gray box with the pipe out the top. sadly, it's not cold enough to USE that machine - but it sits there...hoping....



LOOK! another helicopter.


everyone surveying the runs. complete with cool safety hats and vests.


THEY JUST KEPT COMING!


heading back down the stairs of the grandstand.


looking through the middle of the grandstand. artsy. kind of.


looking over to the other runs....again...


so i haven't told you all, but i figured it was time to introduce to you my friends, christy and anais, who came to the games with me. they will be seeing everything that you will be seeing...and we will be documenting it with them posing for pictures around the games! welcome, christy and anais!!!


me, christy and anais with the grandstand in the back.


the freestyle stadium runs. L: the aerials run. R: the moguls run.


looking at the side of the freestyle stadium. i liked the rings.