VANCOUVER — As soon as Steve Petrie arrived at Cypress Mountain, high above the city, a hint of panic set in.
It was early January, and Petrie needed a whole lot of snow to build a halfpipe for the Vancouver Olympics snowboard competition.
All he got was rain.
“It rained and rained and rained,” he recalled. “We were watching all the snow melt away.”
Which makes the last two nights semi-miraculous. After weeks of fretting — not to mention complaints from riders — Petrie’s creation produced stirring performances in both the men’s and women’s finals.
Full story: Olympic halfpipe: Meet the man who saved the Cypress venue