A racer is directed off the course as workers try to gather up the finish banner due to high winds and extremely cold temperatures at Lake LouiseFrank Gunn
Everybody loves to talk about the weather and the world's top downhill skiers are no exception, especially this week and especially at this venue, where the World Cup speed season kicks off on Saturday with a men's downhill on the famed Lake Louise course.
How cold was it?
On Monday night, at the top of the downhill, the chief of race for this weekend's Lake Louise Winterstart World Cup, Darrell McLauclan, reported an impossibly low temperature of -51 Celsius.
It stayed bitterly cold through Wednesday's first training runs and then on Thursday, with temperatures hovering around -24C, a new problem arose - wind gusts that forced the cancellation of training runs.
It was one more weather-related setback for the event in bone-chilled Alberta but the good news is that temperatures were expected to rise into the -10C range for Friday's final training run, and the forecast for race day is roughly the same.
"I don't know what kind of mercury they used to measure -51, but it's got to be pretty good," said Jan Hudec, the last Canadian to win a downhill at Lake Louise (he did it back in 2007).
Hudec endorsed the decision to cancel Thursday's session for safety reasons, something that is becoming an increasing preoccupation for World Cup organizers, given how many injuries have occurred on the circuit in recent years.
"Wind gusts are dangerous all the time anyways, but where it plays the biggest factor is when there's a lot of terrain, or you go in the air," said Hudec. "It's extremely icy on the top section - and if a gust grabs you, it'll literally slide you off the course from a sideways direction. So I think it was a good call to cancel it, although it's too bad because the actual weather's not bad. I mean, it's cold (-24C), but the visibility's OK. A lot of times, it's visibility or fog that we struggle with. This is a little more frustrating because it's just wind, but at the same time, when you do have gusts at 80 or 90 miles per hour, it's better to call it and make it safe for everybody."