The 2017-18 Alpine ski season gets underway at Sölden in Austria this weekend with the first Giant Slalom races of the campaign.
This winter being an Olympic season, with the torch relay towards PyeongChang in South Korea also getting underway in Greece this week, the tension has been ratchetted up an extra notch.
And to add further to the interest for the weekend, Solden is forecast to get around 12cm/5 inches of snow today ahead of tomorrow's FIS Men's Giant Slalom race, with a similar further snowfall expected on Sunday actually during the Ladies' Giant Slalom.
Alex Tilley, who has raced on the World Cup circuit since 2013, will be representing the Delancey British Alpine Team in the Ladies' event.
She will be hoping to build on her best result at the end of last season when she was 20th in the World Cup Slalom in Squaw Valley in March. The reigning Delancey British Alpine Giant Slalom Champion will be eyeing off a strong start to the competition season.
Live coverage of the FIS Ski World Cup from Sölden is available on Eurosport from 8:45am on Saturday and Sunday.
For the GB Park and Pipe team, the Big Air World Cup will now start a week later than expected following this week's cancellation of the Copenhagen event originally scheduled for Saturday 4 November. The event was cancelled yesterday, with the first leg of the World Cup now set to take place the following week in Milan, Italy.
British Ski and Snowboard is backed by Principal Sponsor Delancey, a specialist real estate investment and advisory company.
British athletes are also supported by the British Snowsports Fund (www.bssnf.uk), a scheme which allows ski and snowboard fans to give a small donation to support our elite teams and younger athletes via one of the Fund's industry partners, for example when buying a holiday or purchasing kit.
Image Credit Vanessa Fry Photography