Generally, the men's downhill and super-G courses follow the long-popular Dave Murray Downhill run, while the bulk of the women's downhill and super-G tracks follow the run known as Franz's.

These both start near the top of the Garbanzo Chair on Whistler Mountain, with the finishes both on what is known as the Timing Flats just up the hill from Whistler Creekside, the big ski resort's original base area.

The Olympic runs have been tweaked after feedback from two World Cup events last year, and they are well marked on the mountain and on the resort's trail maps. As soon as snow fills them in, you will be able to point your tips downhill and ride them out top to bottom

''It's a great ski experience on the west side of Whistler Mountain,'' says Doug Forseth, Whistler Blackcomb vice president of operations. ``You can start at the top of the downhill or GS locations and enjoy what our Olympians from around the world will be competing on. Both the men's and women's courses are thrilling. They are world-class courses.''

THE SLIDING CENTER

The bobsled, luge and skeleton events in 2010 will be contested at the Whistler Sliding Center on Blackcomb Mountain, above the mountain's upper parking areas. But you will not be able to climb into a skeleton and rattle your bones down the course. The public will not be allowed to use these tracks.

''The sliding center is open already and people can do walking tours,'' says Amber Sessions, a Whistler Blackcomb spokeswoman. ``Athletes will be training there sporadically this winter, so people on occasion will be able to watch.''

The public will have access to many of the Olympic venues at Cypress Mountain, all on one of the area's two peaks, Black Mountain. Freestyle skiing events include aerials, moguls and, for the first time ever in 2010, ski cross. Snowboard events include halfpipe, parallel giant slalom and snowboard cross. The public will not be able to use the jumps for aerials and may have limited access to the moguls course, both of which will be used frequently this winter for training.

But the superpipe will be open to the public most of the time, and the parallel GS and cross courses are on some of Black Mountain's regular runs and will be open except during times of competition, which include six World Cup events in February.

''Those are really test events,'' says Joffrey Koeman, Cypress spokesman. ``Based on that, if there is any tweaking that needs to be done, we'll do that.''

The men's and women's parallel GS events will be on the appropriately named blue run PGS, which begins near the top of the Eagle Express quad and crosses under the lift. The cross courses are on the Upper and Lower Fork runs, also accessed by the Eagle Express, but keeping to skier's left of the lift all the way down.

''We're definitely getting excited,'' Koeman says. ``The World Cups are going to be great to see. We've only had two before.''

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