re: #3 teleskiguy

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Yeah, but Almaty has two hotels, only one of which has running water.

;-)

After Oslo and Stockholm bailed, it was either a Communist rock or a Communist dump.

The rock won. I’ll go ahead and predict a shitstorm of problems with logistics. The skiing venues are *way* the fuck away from Beijing, and like you say, snow is sketchy. Oh, and there is that whole global warming thing, which the Chinese are happily contributing to by burning every lump of coal they happen to find, adding to the problem.