Wet conditions

The higher altitude of Callaghan Valley isn't high enough for snow - at 850 metres ( Whistler Village sits at 650m, Vancouver at 117m, Cypress mountain's Freestyle venue at 906m) the third highest precipitation location in Canada is seeing an abundance of rain.

This makes for slushy snow. Last night the grooming team tested 'race base' - basically a form of salt, trade name Urea, that gets sprinkled on the surface of the snow after it has been groomed. Within half an hour the snow firms up. The test was successful, and the plan tonight is to 'salt' the full Blue 2.5km race loop as well as the warm-up loop. This will be done by snow mobile, last night driven by Dirk which pulled a roller to cover the sled tracks. A second hand (in this case Dave Woodfine of Kawartha Nordic - and former MKC head instructor) operating the salt spreader.
Tomorrow is the first competition for WOP's cross country venue, with Nordic Combined event. Competitors begin with one ski jump on the normal hill, followed by a 10-kilometre cross-country ski race which consists of four, 2.5 kilometre laps of the freestyle blue trail. The first skier across the finish line is the winner.

A sport dominated by Europeans, Bill Demong of the USA is a solid performer. Jason Myslicki is Canada's only entry.