By Gennady Fyodorov
The organizers of the Winter Olympics in SOCHI, Russia (Reuters)-while Moscow you dig out a huge snow storm that hit the Russian capital in recent days, are worried about a lack of white powder could become a problem next February.
Unusually warm temperatures this winter in Sochi have forced local organizers to store some 450,000 cubic meters of snow in the nearby Caucasus Mountains that surround this sub-tropical Black Sea resort.
"We have prepared seven separate areas for storage of snow high in the mountains," Sergei Bachin, CEO of Roza Khutor, a ski resort at Krasnaya Polyana which will host Alpine skiing, snowboard and freestyle Olympic competition, told Reuters.
"I want to assure all participants that they will not be any shortage of snow next February even though warmer temperatures we also meet next year," he said.
"We are storing such massive amounts of snow just in case."
The snow will be covered with a "special Thermo seal", in order to protect it from melting during the summer, Bachin said.
"We expect that dissolves approximately 140,000 (cubic meters), but we are still more than 300,000 cubic meters of snow available for next year," he predicted, saying that the storage will cost her company an extra $ 11 million.
However, Sochi 2014 Chief Dmitry Chernyshenko said on several occasions that the time has become a bigger problem for the organizers, who are frantically trying to finish all construction projects on time, security or infrastructure.
Bachin, however, assured that Krasnaya Polyana, once a sleepy mountain village, about 70 kilometers from Sochi, would be ready to accommodate all outdoor Olympic events February next rain or shine.
"The Olympic tests 76 to Krasnaya Polyana this winter by a large majority had been completed and only a handful of events have been called due to bad weather," he said.
"I think we have passed the tests, as the last major event of the season was held this weekend in the nearby Laura complex."
Usually, Krasnaya Polyana has the opposite problem-too much snow and the risk of avalanches, Bachin said.
"This was a very strange winter. Even locals can not remember when was the last time we had these hot days in the mountains. "It is highly unlikely that we will see the same kind of time next year, he added.
(Edited by Alison Wildey)
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