snowmaking

Olympic notebook: A fresh look at the medal table

VANCOUVER, British Columbia--Although most of the attention on Olympic national medal totals focuses on the top of the aggregate standings, one company is offering a different option.

Radnor, Pa.-based QlikTech has an application that breaks things down along other means, adjusting for things like population and gross domestic product, to offer another measure of performance. While the U.S. tops the aggregate medal chart, for example, Norway is most impressive, when adjusted for GDP or population.

The application, which is available on QlikTech's Web site, also offers a weighted medal count (giving four points for a gold, two … Read more

Olympics notebook: Interview with a Games junkie

VANCOUVER/WHISTLER, British Columbia--There are a lot of hassles to running one's own business, but for Norman Tu of Fremont, Calif., the benefit is that he never has to miss the Olympics.

Tu, who runs DCL, a warehouse logistics company, said he is now at his seventh Olympic games, having previously attended the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games as well as summer installments in Los Angeles, Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney, and Beijing.

"L.A. is where I got hooked," said Tu, whose company helps companies like Symantec and Jawbone store inventory and handle online orders. Sydney was … Read more

Olympic snow still in short supply at Cypress

With the Winter Games in Vancouver only a few days away, a continued topic of conversation among Olympic watchers remains the snow, or lack thereof, at Cypress Mountain.

Although Whistler, home to most of the skiing events, has plenty of the white powder, organizers have been scrambling to get Cypress Mountain ready to host events such as moguls and snowboarding. The enemy has been an unusually warm winter, combined with rain that has further eroded the snow at lower elevations at the venue.

In addition to continuing to shuttle in snow via trucks and helicopters, event planners have now shortened … Read more

At Vancouver Olympics, straw battles sun, rain

With snow at a premium, Olympics organizers at one Vancouver, B.C., venue are using bales of straw to augment the white stuff as they construct runs for snowboarding, freestyle skiing, and other events.

Although there is plenty of powder at Whistler, B.C., where many of the skiing and sledding events take place, a combination of rain and unseasonably warm temperatures have left Cypress Mountain with less snow had been anticipated.

Olympics officials have taken a number of steps to preserve snow on the mountain and ensure that they have enough powder to make it through the games. Earlier … Read more

Sledding in Florida? No problem

You may want to skip this item if you live anywhere near Denver, but those of you in warmer climes who need a frost fix might want to check out the "SG5-LED Snowmaker."

Uncrate says this machine is the "highest-volume snowmaker available" (presumably referring to home use). If it's hooked up to a "6GPM Snowmaking Pump," for example, the system can churn out 180 cubic feet per hour. That's enough to put on a mini-version of some Winter X Games events in your backyard, though the neighbors might not be too thrilled. … Read more