By Alan Baldwin
WHISTLER (Reuters) - While a lack of snow has Olympic organisers working around the clock at some venues, a fresh coating of the white stuff could give Alpine skiing piste preparers a sleepless night ahead of Saturday's men's downhill.
The extended forecast for the Whistler Creekside venue indicates between five to 10 centimetres of snow falling on Friday.
That would add to the workload of those grooming the piste, which needs to be consistently hard and icy for the downhill daredevils, with the prospect of labouring through the night to shift the fresh layer of soft snow.
"The forecast is for some snow," Dick Vollet, the local organisers' vice-president for mountain venues, told Reuters on Monday.
"But we have 1,200 volunteers ready to do what we have to do. The course is race ready right now and any new snow will be removed.
"They will work through the night if they have to."
Organisers were busy running through flower ceremony rehearsals in the finish area, where the snow felt alarmingly soft underfoot, on Monday while snowcat vehicles prepared the slope above them.
Medical staff carried out a practice emergency on a volunteer lying on the snow while others looked on light-heartedly.
The two FIS race directors, Norwegian Atle Skaardal for the women and German Guenther Hujara for the men, were both supervising the preparations with competitors barred from the piste until Wednesday's first practice.
Helicopters hovered over the mountain, as much to bring equipment up the hill without damaging the snow as for security.
"Usually the only time we hear a helicopter in Whistler is for a medivac (medical emergency)," commented one volunteer against the thud of rotors.
Vollet was confident Saturday's race, a showcase of the Games and the opening medal event of the Alpine programme, would proceed without a hitch.
"Weather permitting, we're going to have a fantastic event on Saturday," he said. "Everyone is very hopeful."
(Editing by Miles Evans)
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