VANCOUVER — Falling drizzle engulfed down town Vancouver in a gray, wet blanket Thursday. It’s a fitting backdrop on the eve of a Winter Olympics that has become more about snow and fog than about gold, silver and bronze.
Taking refuge from the rain in Lions Pub was Bjarte Moe, a member of the Norwegian national ski team in the 1970s and who until recently had a home and business in Whistler, site of the troubled alpine ski events.
He has skied Whistler more than 200 times, and if Saturday’s men’s downhill is postponed by fog, he won’t be surprised. Nor will anyone else who’s familiar with this area.
“In February, yes, fog is always a problem,” Moe said. “Come March? No. But the Olympics are not in March.”
Even by British Columbia standards, this winter’s weather has been more puzzling than figure-skating scoring, which adds to the frustration level of Olympic planners, trucking in snow for Cypress Mountain and frazzled by delays at Whistler.
Vancouver just had its warmest January since records have been kept in 1937. Cypress, 30 minutes from downtown and site of the freestyle-skiing and snowboarding events, still hasn’t received any snow. Its events begin Saturday.
And Whistler Mountain, two hours up the Sea to Sky Highway and site of the alpine events, has been fogged in the past two days, reducing practice time.
The opening ceremony is tonight, but the jokes have already begun. “When they tell the Canadian snowboarders that they’re going to be competing on home soil, it may not be a figure of speech,” wrote Vancouver Sun columnist Cam Cole.
The hand-wringing by Vancouverites and fans around the world might be misplaced. The show will go on. Erickson Air-Crane helicopters brought 5,000 cubic meters of snow onto Cypress for the fifth consecutive day Thursday. Saturday’s mogul skiers will not be bumping off flower beds.
And while there may be interminable delays at Whistler, the alpine events will be held, even if no one is quite sure when. The Vancouver events, meanwhile, are all indoors, and athletes here are oblivious to weather. The two U.S. pairs teams train in south Florida, for heaven’s sake.
In Whistler, though, they’re expecting the worst — and getting it. Fog delayed Thursday’s practice runs for 45 minutes, then heavy snow wiped out the rest of the day. Barely 40 downhill skiers completed training runs Wednesday before fog postponed the rest.
Skiers must complete at least one training session to compete in an event, making the Saturday start time of the men’s downhill increasingly unlikely.
And wait until they get a load of the weather forecast.
“Definitely the next couple of days will be problematic for Whistler,” said Jesse Mason, Vancouver-based meteorologist for CTV and a Vancouver native. “Yes, fog is going to be an issue on the hill the next couple of days. Officials must make hard decisions the first few days of the games. I’m not confident myself.”
Added David Jones, meteorologist for Environment Canada: “Absolutely right. It’s more like three or four weather systems sweeping through the area that’s keeping precipitation and clouds and reduced visibility through the weekend.”
While the warm January surprised Vancouverites, fog is fairly normal for Whistler. The World Cup dropped the site from its circuit in the 1990s due to weather concerns. Whistler has been pelted with snow all winter, but poor visibility because of fog prevents any chance of racing.
“I used to race downhill,” Moe said. “I know the impact of poor visibility, and (it’s) dangerous. You won’t see the bumps coming, and it can throw you off totally.”
Whistler is subject to savage North Pacific storms with “arctic outbreaks” coming down from Alaska. Jones recalls skiing in Val D’Isere, Italy, when he was in his 20s and going to a local hotel to see a Warren Miller ski movie about Whistler.
“At one point, he described the fabulous snow and how consistent it was and how much they got and when the sun comes out, it’s stunning,” Jones said. “Then there was a pause. Then he said, ‘Last year, that happened once.’ “
This is all good news for one skier. U.S. star Lindsey Vonn is battling a shin injury, and the more time to heal, the better. There’s a chance her first event, Sunday’s super giant slalom, could be delayed a couple of days.
“I know it’s not the proper thing to say, but I’ve heard a lot about the ‘Whistler weather,’ and we’d love that right now,” said Thomas Vonn, Lindsey’s husband and a former U.S. Ski Team member. “Not to rain on the parade, but a couple days could be very big for Lindsey, for sure.”
At least no one around here is worried about tonight’s opening ceremony. It’s in B.C. Place, a domed stadium.
Staff writer John Meyer contributed to this report.
John Henderson: 303-954-1299 or jhenderson@denverpost.com
