The Whistler Question reports that there could be changes affecting venues for the 2010 Winter Games in the Whistler area. The alpine technical events from Blackcomb to Whistler Mountain could be moved and the ski-jumping venues in the Callaghan Valley may be temporary rather than permanent structures.
Vancouver 2010 spokesman Sam Corea told the newspaper that officials with the Federation International de Ski (FIS) asked that VANOC consider consolidating the alpine technical and speed events in one venue on Whistler Mountain, with parts of the runs for the slalom overlapping the runs for the Super G and downhill. The FIS requested the change because it felt that the planned runs on Blackcomb weren’t challenging enough, said Corea. He said VANOC looked at it and found that they could do it.
Corea said “the possibility is certainly there to have both alpine technical and alpine speed events on Whistler, on parts of the same runs. It provides some advantages in terms of consolidating everything in one area.
According to the Whistler Question a decision may also be coming soon for the ski-jumping facility. The Vancouver 2010 bid book budgeted for $102 million to be spent on new facilities but if officials decide to make the ski jumps temporary rather than permanent, some cost savings will result said Corea. He said the change is being considered because many feel there’s not enough interest in ski jumping in Canada to sustain a permanent ski-jumping legacy after the 2010 Games.
VANOC’s director of Whistler competition venues said a temporary facility would most likely be constructed primarily of wood, while a permanent one would be mostly steel and concrete. If a temporary option is chosen Jansen said officials will look at how to recycle those materials after the Olympics and how the slopes used during the event could be used after the Games.
Meanwhile Frank Baumann, a geotechnical engineer who was hired by Whistler in 2000 to study a section of mountainside known as Fitzsimmons Slump, says he has concerns about this area in Whistler, the site of several events for the 2010 Games. He told The Globe and Mail that in a “nightmare scenario” that haunts him, a torrent of debris thunders down a creek bed and crashes into a parking lot, sweeping away skiers before they have a chance to run.
“It is absolutely the worst thing I’ve ever seen in British Columbia”, said Baumann, who, according to the newspaper, sees the area as an accident waiting to happen.
City officials say there is no imminent danger and that they are keeping a close watch on Fitzsimmons Slump, a one-million-cubic-metre mass of earth that is reportedly threatening to topple into Fitzsimmons Creek. Baumann said chunks of Fitzsimmons Slump broke off in 1991 and 1997 and it is only a matter of time before it happens again.
In a letter to Whistler council in 2003 the newspaper reports Baumann wrote that the present situation is comparable to a large potential slab avalanche on Whistler Mountain containing several million cubic metres of snow, that has cracked and is slowly moving down the hill towards skiers below, but has so far not been dealt with. Baumann wrote, “the timely question is: Could you safely hold an Olympic event underneath such a slope?” The newspaper reports Baumann never got a reply.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge will be in Whistler February 2 as part of a four-day visit to Canada next week to monitor the progress of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
