Wednesday Morning Quarter Pipe

Ok. Not bad.

Looks like she's shaped, iced up and ready to go. And that all the shuttle runs and air drops have been successful so far, so Shaun White and his shred-thren should be relatively happy. For now.

However, the moguls aren't looking too shit hot as Canadian freestyle skiier, Alexandre Bilodeau, ripped the course on Monday. And not in the way he would've liked.

Seems from the story though, that much manicuring and grooming gave Tuesday's run a better review from Bilodeau (probably after a visit from the VANOC Thought Police). So the official line is that the moguls course is at best semi-rideable now and crews are putting in quadruple shifts to get'r done.

While there will be enough snow, in the end the Olympic Gods Of Mount Cypress will have the final say, as they ultimately dictate the weather the day of. VANOC and Rogge can appear as confident as they want and trumpet the course's readiness, but the fact remains;

If it rains it's going to be a fucking disaster.

Plain and simple. You don't need a pro pipe groomer to tell you that either. Just ask any local skiier or rider. These runs absolutely suck when its raining. I've attempted many a rainy run on Grouse, and every single one of them have been a complete waste of Sunday morning hangover on the couch with coffee and laptop.

I've even on occasion, wound my way all the way up to Cypress, with a full car of cats jacked up for a day's ride, only to turn around and limp back to town after being met with the dreaded, wretched, rain. I can't even fathom the thought of Olympic events being run in that swill. What's been a mild pain in the past for me and many others would be absolutely insult leading to inevitable injury to the athletes that have trained hard for years for this jam.

Makes a guy wonder though why the events weren't run at Blackcomb to begin with. All of this snow shuttling, stress and extra cost, could've been easily avoided, as Blackcomb has a great pipe and snow cross course already, as well as a moguls course. Might be a bit of a mission to get all the media and spectators up to Seventh Heaven, but not as much as air lifting in snow from Manning Park. Tell me this last week couldn't provide a full season's worth of material for Ice Road Truckers.

So Saturday. We'll see what happens...