No Mo Sno

Corrugated tubes with dry ice. Truck after Truck. Feverishly winding their way through canyons with fluffy 'white stuff'. Trucks bringing in snow. Helicopters dropping snow. Mountains without enough snow? Is this the 'igloo blizzard Eskimo image' you have of Canada or is it a wake-up call to the world that global warming truly is 'real'? After all. These are the winter games. We need snow. The persistent warm spell hitting B.C.'s South Coast is forcing Vancouver Olympic organizers to take even more drastic measures to prepare the Cypress Mountain snowboard and freestyle-skiing venue. High temperatures and rain have melted much of the snow-pack at the North Shore mountain site. Technicians have been replacing that with snow from higher up the mountain and building up the runs with wood and hay. Now a spokeswoman for the Vancouver organizing committee says VANOC is trucking in about three dozen loads of snow a day from as far away as Manning Park, more than two hours drive east of Vancouver.