Only one week to go until the season opening 2013/14
in Kuusamo and the snow on location will not be
a problem. Today, the FIS snow control gave the
green light for the competitions, both on the hill
and on the cross-country track.
Even if it has been quite warm for Finnish standards
with about -1°C in the last couple of days, the
organisers have produced enough artificial snow
to cover the jumping hill. Now the preparations
will go into full swing and the hill should be ready
by the end of the week.
On the cross-country side, just over 3 km oft tracks
are already prepared with artificial snow and the
other 2 km and the ski test areas will also be done
by the end of the week or early next week. And the
weather forecast is promising, predicting a temperature
drop to -10 °C from today onwards, which means the
snow production can continue without any problems
as long as needed. Seems as if we might experience
Finland at its signature conditions on the next
weekend.
In Lillehammer, the venue for the second weekend
of World Cup, the temperatures have also dropped
below zero degrees once more. This means the snow
making efforts could be taken up again, giving the
Nordic Combined teams who are still training in
Norway hope that jumps on snow might be possible
before arriving in Kuusamo for the Nordic Opening.