Snow Looking Good for Sochi
Snow Looking Good for Sochi
Published : 15-Dec-2013 08:42
Early snow reports from Sochi have indicated that, with just over 50 days to go until the Games, pre-season snowfall has been good and there's currently 50cm of snow lying on the slopes of Olympic venues.
Snow cover had been (and probably still remains) a concern as Sochi's snow records has been hit-and-miss over the years.
Along with potential problems including its proximity to 'terrorist areas' and its location in an earthquake belt, Sochi is also in Russia's only sub-tropical region and tends to get either large falls of snow or none-at-all. Several 'test events' staged in previous seasons on the same February dates as their equivalent Olympic events have had to be been cancelled.
As part of the guesstimated €50 billion cost of the games a very sophisticated snowmaking system has been installed, although this is not thought to include the IDE All weather system used on glaciers at Pitztal and Zermatt to top up snow cover in positive temperatures.
Ski venues have also been closed to the public for periods at the end of last season and start of this and half a million cubic metres of snow is reported to have been 'stockpiled' from last season if required for the Games.
At the 2010 Games British Columbia was rather short on snow at the start of the Olympics and a gargantuan and ultimately successful effort was required to complete the pipe at Cypress Mountain in particular.
The last major event that had to be cancelled for lack of snow was the Alpine Skiing World Championships in Sierra Nevada, Spain, Europe's most southerly resort and also a leading snowmaker. The championships were due to be staged in 1985 but were rescheduled and staged successfully in 1986, the only time they've been staged in an evenly number year.
Sierra Nevada is due to host the next Winter Universiade in 2015.
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