Under-pressure Vancouver Winter Olympic organisers have been forced to cancel and refund 20,000 tickets today for events on Cypress Mountain due to safety reasons.
Recent warm weather and heavy rain has washed away almost 30 centimetres of snow at the venue and made the general admission standing room spectator area unsafe.
Events affected include the men's and women's halfpipe, men's and women's ski cross and men's and women's parallel giant slalom.
Cypress, to the north of Vancouver, has been badly affected by the warm temperatures which prompted a round-the-clock operation to bring in snow from higher elevations to make the venue ready for the Games.
