With just 23 days left before the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, it seems that visitors may get a surprise when they come to Vancouver.  With unusually warm temperatures in recent weeks, the downtown looks more like spring than ever, yet the mountains still bear a cap of snow.

Cypress Mountain have closed alpine skiing to the public a little early in preparation for the Olympics Freestyle Skiing and Snowboard competition.   The warm weather has melted a good chunk of snow from the local hills, but base snow still remains in pretty good condition and Cypress has been storing snow at higher elevations in order to stockpile for the events.  I’m sure there are some over-worked staff trying to prepare for the task of moving snow around a mountain…

On the one-hand, 23 days is a long time in Vancouver weather terms. It could be snowing and we could all be walking to the Olympics (if you’ve ever seen Vancouver try to manage roads during a snowfall) or the warm weather could remain and visitors could be enjoying ’shirt-sleeve’ weather in town and snow covered mountains for the events. My advice; bring plenty of layers (and be prepared to buy an umbrella) when you visit. If I can paraphrase the old saying: “If you don’t like the weather in Vancouver now, just wait 5 minutes or move down the street 5 blocks.”

The latest running gag on the local news channels is that Vancouver is hosting the “Spring Olympics”.  Let’s hope the laugh is not all on us.

(For all of you visitors not used to the metric system: try here for conversion information.