The Callaghan Valley Olympic venue opened to the public today for the first time, hosting a BC Coast Cup competition. The photo is of Jesse Heckrodt (CVTC) en-route to what appeared to be an easy win. It was my second day of skiing up in the valley, and the first at the Olympic Venue. While snow has been plentiful up there, construction is ongoing, and the contractors were still working on the courses until December 1st. One of the last things they did was to plow the snow off much of the trail system in order to put out lights. Then, once the snow had started piling back up, there was a huge rain storm and apparently the contractors decided that nobody would be out grooming or skiing in that, so they drove lots of heavy equipment around on the trails, bringing up all kinds of gravel into the snowpack.

But messy snow doesn’t appear to be a problem for long up there. Amy and I went up Thursday, and again today. It looked as though they had received about 30cm of snow since Thursday, and it was snowing hard both times we went up. The road to the venue turns West off the major Vancouver to Whistler thoroughfare about 10K south of Whistler, and it climbs about 10K and a couple hundred meters up into the valley. If the 600 (or so) meter elevation gain from Squamish (sea level) up to the base of the Callaghan access road gains you much in the way of cold air, it’s nothing compared to the trip up into the venue from rte 99. Today it was about +2 and rain mixed with snow down on the highway, and 0 with (alarmingly) dry snow up at the venue. On Thursday it was a bit colder - around 0 on the highway, and -3 up at the venue. And more than anything else, the snow falls drier than I ever would have expected.

I’ll be seeing a lot of the Callaghan Valley venue in the coming months. Thus far it appears to be living up to its reputation for a somewhat extreme micro-climate, and it’s clear that there is a great deal to be learned. But I’ve got to warn you, since I’ve already started getting questions; I don’t know, and I won’t know what the conditions will be in March at Canadian Nationals until it’s March, and Canadian Nationals are happening.