Aerials training called off amid warm weather
Last Updated: Friday, February 19, 2010 | 3:17 PM ET
The Canadian Press
A helicopter transports snow from the top of Cypress Mountain to the freestyle skiing aerials course on Wednesday. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press)An Olympic men's aerials training session at Cypress Mountain has been cancelled as crews scramble to preserve the deteriorating course.
Organizers opted to cancel the men's portion of training Friday to allow more time for maintenance and to prevent further wear and tear on the course.
Warm temperatures and a lack of new snow have left the jumps and landing areas in rough shape.
Women's qualifying is scheduled for Saturday so their training session was expected to go ahead as scheduled Friday.
Toronto's Veronika Bauer, the lone Canadian in the field, is not expected to take in the training session.
The weather in Cypress has been a major concern for more than a month as a lack of snow has been made worse by rain.
Organizers spent weeks hauling snow from as far away as Yak Peak, two hours to the east, and constructed the courses on Cypress by covering bales of hay with the imported snow.
