This is serious skiing

In an Associated Press story today, a Washington Post writer describes the giant slalom course awaiting Olympic skiers this weekend. The course, that writer Barry Svrluga had noticed shining in the lights the night before, is ice. Not icy, he explains, but ice. It seems the courses have been injected with water that pools and freezes below the surface to create an icy base. There won't be any powder days here - Svrluga reports that if powder accumulates on the surface, organizers will remove it.
- Deb