Cypress: commemorate the chaos

Cypress Mountain is trying to live up to the "when you have lemons, make lemonade" maxim.

Going on sale July 7 is the Cypress 2010 Commemorative Season Pass.

It commemorates the West Vancouver day resort's hosting of 2010 Winter Olympic snowboarding and freestyle skiing. It also commemorates a season of chaos and disruption for regulars.

The lodge lot and lot 1 will be closed all season. Lot 3 joins the list Jan. 4. Expect construction zones in the alpine area from the start of the season, along with "highly impacted or closed" Eagle Express Chair terrain and Rainbow ski run. "Regular services on the mountain will be subject to relocation, change and restrictions."

The alpine and nordic ski areas will be closed Feb. 1-March 8 for the Games. Public skiing and snowboarding resumes March 9 with lot 3 reopening March 15. The Cypress pass offers discounted or free access to other resorts in B.C. and Washington state during the Games.

An adult nordic pass is $174 for B.C. residents. It's $259 for alpine or $299 for the unlimited pass that also includes nordic sports. The first 1,500 to buy online get a pair of tickets to one of the 2010 Games' nightly medals award ceremonies/concerts at B.C. Place Stadium. A grand prize of a pair of tickets to the opening ceremony is also up for grabs.

Oddly, there are no tickets available via the early bird bonus or the contest for any of the actual Olympic events taking place at Cypress. According to Cypress' sales and marketing director Jeffrey Koeman, that's because "this is the offer that VANOC came up with for us to use in conjunction with our season pass offer."

Cypress, like Whistler and Blackcomb owner Intrawest, has a "make-whole" deal with VANOC for compensation if Games' operations cause a drop in business.