After course inspections for World Cup races planned for Courchevel and Val d'Isère over the weekend of 13/14 December the FIS has decided to cancel both races.
They will be staged in Are, Sweden instead, another coup for the Scandinavian resort which earlier this year beat Cortina to win the candidacy to host the 2019 Alpine Skiing World Championships.
Are is not reported to have much snow cover either but is clearly seen as the safer bet by the FIS, although the French resorts do not seem happy, saying the decision is premature.
"We could manage to run one of the two races. Optimism was based on two main criteria: Firstly, announced snowfall should deliver about 40 cm. of fresh snow; moreover, a 96 hours cold wave would have allowed the resort to use the snow guns and put down the additional snow for the stadium to be ready on time," said Bruno Tuaire, Courchevel's Sports Club director, "The FIS has chosen not to take any risk."
Val d'Isère were a little more fatalistic about the decision, and whilst it will not be staging the men's races next week, hopes to still be able to organise the ladies competition in a fortnight.
"It's a terrible deception. We all did everything we could, but nature is still more powerful than the will of men. It's one of the attractions and risks of organising top level alpine races. Now we are concentrating all our efforts on organising the World Cup ladies events on December 20th and 21st.'' said Vincent Jay, Director of the Val d'Isère Club des Sports.
"Despite the efforts of all the resort services over the past few weeks to produce enough snow to cover the Face de Bellevarde, the current unseasonable weather conditions in the Northern Alps have prevented the production of the quantity of snow necessary for the organisation of this high level competition, run according to FIS standards. In order to organise a fair race, 25 000m3 of snow would have to be produced at temperatures of -4 to -6°C. The challenge is technically impossible," said a statement from the resort.
Val d'Isère opened in late November, Courchevel resort will open at the latest on the 13th December the resort says.