Organizers of the Sochi Winter Olympics "have been forced to dip into reserves" of tens of thousands of tons of snow as warm temperatures creep up to the mountainside event venues, according to Kevin Eason of the LONDON TIMES. Snow -- or lack of it -- "has been issue almost since the start of these Games in Sochi, a Black Sea coastal resort with a climate more Mediterannean than Arctic." The Russian organizers "always knew that their attempt to hold winter sports in such a balmy location," where palm trees line the city streets, "could pose problems and they have been forced to counteract rising temperatures." The weather was largely overcast in Sochi at the start of Tuesday’s events, "but temperatures were at 6C in the lower mountain ranges at the Rosa Khutor Alpine Centre and Extreme Park where ski slopestyle and the women’s ski jump were all scheduled or underway, as well as the cross-country sprint." Down at sea level, "ski coats were ditched and shirt sleeves became the order of the day" around the Olympic Village on another "pleasantly warm day." Sochi 2014 spokesperson Aleksandra Kosterina confirmed that organizers "had been forced to start using snow that has been stored for months under huge high-tech tarpaulins." Kosterina said, "I cannot tell you how much" (LONDON TIMES, 2/11). The IRISH TIMES reported IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said, "Clearly, it is an FIS [International Ski Federation] issue but here is always a problem when it is a little bit warmer. There is no problem at all with the halfpipe, it is just that these are dynamic, living fields of play. All of the snow venues are such, so they need to make normal adjustments to those. ... I don't think there is any major news to report" (IRISH TIMES, 2/11). REDIFF reported training for the women's Alpine skiing downhill "was scrapped on Tuesday to protect the piste while mild conditions meant a mushy track for the Nordic Combined event." Soft snow "also caused plenty of fallers in freestyle skiing's slopestyle at the Extreme Park" with organizers shoveling in snow stored from last year. U.S. skier Bill Demong, who won the Gold Medal in the Nordic Combined large hill event in '10, said, "It's not even slushy, it's just mushy. There is no structure to the snow at all. It's very hard to ski on, it's almost impossible to ski easy" (REDIFF, 2/11).
