Whistler sucks

You, and pretty much everybody involved with skiing at the WC level. I know USST and CAST folks, and what I heard, when Vancouver was announced was that coastal venues are always a huge risk....for the reasons you just listed. I heard "This could really backfire." Presume this won't be the case in 2014. This has been pretty lousy.
Edited by Muleski - 2/25/10 at 10:15am

One thing that most people who've been to Whistler are well aware of is that the bottom of the skiing is incredibly low, and very often has crummy conditions. No big deal if you're just having fun on vacation: you stay up top, and only ski the bottom to get home, or maybe you even download to get back to the village.

The Olympic events, of course, pretty much have to run to the bottom. Plus, the creekside base (the area's original base, actually) is even lower than the village. I just looked, and it's barely above 2,000 feet - in a coastal climate where heavy overcast is ubiquitous and cities at sea level can go a whole year without any snowfall.

Whistler weather plus NBC have sucked the stoke out of Olympic skiing.

Agreed!!

CTV's coverage has been very good. They cover the entire field.

It was 73 degrees in Sochi the other day. You can presume that there WILL be issues in 2014. As there usually are with winter olympics--the events have a long history of towns having to bring in snow via truck/bus/helipcopter/mule/backpack (seriously, by soldiers in Innsbruck), or of bad weather hampering events. Anyone remember the Chinook winds in Calgary, where it was warmer during the Olympics than it was in Miami?

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That brings back memories, for sure, and brings up the reality that the games seldom go to really winter-friendly locations these days.

A lot of this has to do with rules and regulations regarding maximum elevation for certain events.  As the IOC looks more and more at keeping the spread of venues as compact as possible, this becomes a more dire situation.

I recall Salt Lake City's original bid for the Winter Games, which included the nordic skiing events taking place at Mountain Dell in Parley's Canyon - halfway between SLC and Park City.  New trails were cut and a snowmaking system (branched off of the existing sprinkler system for the Mountain Dell gold course) was installed.  Test events (World Cups and domestic races) went off very well, drawing high praise from the competitors for challenge and high praise from spectators for ease of access.  But the high point on the course exceeded a maximum elevation for a venue (not sure whether it was set by the FIS or the IOC, but I'm guessing the latter to help the low-lying nations have a chance), so the bid had to be altered to use the courses at Wasatch Mountain State Park near Heber, a far longer drive for spectators.

As far as Sochi is concerned, the alpine venues are being built especially for the Games near the town of Krasnaya Polyana, which is 60km east of Sochi with a base elevation around 1900'.  While the summit of the new ski area for the games, Rosa Khutor, is close to 6000' above sea level, it's highly unlikely that any of the courses will utilize the elevation.  The current development can be seen on a satellite view of the area.

I've heard that Salt Lake City may take another crack at hosting, which I wouldn't mind.  I'd even be happy to see Quebec City make another run at the games, or maybe one of the big resorts in South America.  The thing is, it's increasingly difficult to predict long-term snowfall amounts, even in usually stable places like the Rockies and the Alps.  We'll see, though.