The Cypress Mountain

The Cypress Mountain Winter Olympics Venue 2010

Cypress Mountain is a leading venue that has continued to suitably provide skiing conditions to skiers, sliders and riders from all around the world. It has been selected as the official freestyle skiing and snowboarding venue for the 21st Winter Olympic Games. The fact that this venue has been chosen as an official venue for the Winter Olympic Games 2010 is because it provides some of the most vertical drops, an adventurous and intricately undulating terrain, some sharp lifts and one of the best snow conditions ever.

In fact the Cypress Mountain region is also the highest skiing point and riding peak in the entire North Shore Mountains in Vancouver. Other than that, the Cypress Mountain venue is also the most popular cross-country skiing area in the whole of Canada. What makes Cypress Mountain all the more appealing is the fact that, it has something exciting to offer to one and all!

The Cypress Mountain ski resort area has its downhill runs constructed on the Mount Strachan (1440m) and the Black Mountain (1200m). The downhill runs on a steep vertical rise of 610m. 

Brief History:

The Cypress Mountain region along with the Grouse Mountain was discovered for the first time by a group of hikers’ way back in 1894, 12th of October to be precise. By chance this small group of hikers kept slogging through the snow of an unknown mountain on the northern shoreline of the Burrard Inlet. Down below from the peak they could see the little Vancouver city on the other side of the inlet. This was the time when just 18,000 people lived in the city of Vancouver and the place didn’t even have the bridge across the inlet. Once nearing the peak the group of hikers, comprising of G.W. Edwards (photographer), Sidney Williams (surveyor), and Ernest Cleveland (who would later become the chief commissioner of the Greater Vancouver water district) flushed some blue Grouse and decided to name the peak as the Grouse Mountain. That is how the place got its name. Since then climbing and hiking the Grouse Mountain region has become a favorite pass time and adventure undertaking for the population in the North Vancouver region.

Location:

The Cypress Mountain is located in the southern part of the Cypress Provincial Park in British Columbia, Canada. To be precise it is located in the West Vancouver region in British Columbia. From downtown Vancouver it takes a mere 30 minutes ride by road to reach there. The Cypress Bowl Ski Area in particular is a ski area in West Vancouver. Some of the near by resorts that are situated close to the Cypress Mountain region are the Grouse Mountain (situated 9kms away), Whistler (situated 84kms away), Mount Seymour (situated 20kms away), Mount Baker (122kms away) and finally the Hemlock Resort that is situated 93 km away.

The Winter Olympic Games to be played at the venue:

The Cypress Mountain Ski Area situated in the Cypress Provincial Park is all set to play the host for all the Snowboarding competitions and the Official Freestyle Skiing for the 2010 Winter Olympics. The event is just about to commence from the 12th of February in Vancouver, British Columbia.  The events would include the following sporting categories,

• Moguls
• Aerials
• ski cross
• half-pipe
• snowboard cross
• parallel giant slalom

All through the entire period when the Cypress Mountain serves a the venue for the 21st Winter Olympic Games, as many as 510 volunteers led by seasoned chiefs of courses and chiefs of competitions will be employed in order to ensure proper maintenance of all the six sporting courses.

The exclusive ski area venue will be under extensive use from the 1st of February till the 8th of March 2010. The Vancouver Organizing Committee or the VANOC will be using it for the various events of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games and the Paralympic Winter Games 2010. The venue will be used in order to create a suitable atmosphere of the ultimate international stature for the hundreds of athletes who come from around the world, including the media and workforce and not to forget the spectators too. During this period, access of the common public to the Cypress Mountain region will be restricted. The same goes for the Nordic area as well.