Sometimes the best-laid plans of mice and men go awry.
Take Cypress Mountain for example. Snow blanketed the Olympic venue on Tuesday. It was late and unwanted. Another 15 centimetres was expected overnight. That means the runs will have to be cleared in the morning by the Smurfs — that’s what Vancouverites call the blue-clad volunteers.
How ironic.
After an abundance of snow last year Olympic organizers promised a winter wonderland. It didn’t happen. Some flowers even started to bloom in early February 2010.
But that didn’t change their plans. By truck and helicopter snow and hay were brought to the mountain, some of it from as far as three hours away.
They knew how to improvise and used the hay to pad the moguls run. What they didn’t know at the time is that a mischief of mice lived in the bales of hay.
After being dropped by helicopter the rodents scurried away, surprised and scared. That left workers to wonder whether they’d be a problem, one of the Olympic organizers, Stephen Boudreau, told The Canadian Press.
With five days left in the Games … no, the mice haven’t been a problem at all, he said. They likely ended up feeding the owls that live on Cypress.
With the mice likely eaten and their plans to winter in the hay ruined, Olympic organizers are once again adjusting their carefully thought-out strategy after the recent snowfall. It’s a good thing they’re creative men and women because so far, the weather has kept them scurrying about the great mountain trying to move snow around.
