A spate of unseasonably warm, wet weather has prompted Winter Olympics organisers to close recreational ski areas in Vancouver to preserve snow.
Resort management at Cypress Mountain, which will host freestyle skiing and snowboard events, has agreed to the closure two-and-a-half weeks earlier than planned.
Crews are scrambling to salvage conditions at the Cypress Mountain facility after the Vancouver area was hit this week by rain and snow-melting temperatures that rolled in off the Pacific Ocean.
Cypress is a ski hill in the mountains overlooking Vancouver that will be used for freestyle skiing and snowboard events during the Winter Games, which begin on February 12th.
Public access to Cypress's Alpine runs was scheduled to remain open for another two weeks, but the Vancouver Organizing Committee and the mountain's managers decided to close it off now.
Alpine and Nordic skiing events for the 2010 Games will be held near the mountain resort community of Whistler, which is about 125 km (80 miles) north of Vancouver and at a higher elevation.
Vancouver winters are often among the mildest in Canada.
