Anchorage Daily News

The Subaru Freeskiing World Championships were welcomed to Girdwood on Friday with the same sort of white, wild, winter overkill that greeted the U.S. National Alpine ski championship at the end of March.

Heavy snows delayed and shortened the nationals, and heavy snows and poor visibility cancelled day one of the freeskiing championships.

Alyeska Resort reported it had received "eight to 12 inches of new snow in the last 24 hours, and the flakes are still falling. More snow is in the forecast."

Race officials on Friday waited until noon hoping skiers could get on the mountain, then canceled. They're now hoping the weather will cooperate enough to let the skiers get a run in around noon today.

If that happens, the schedule calls for the championship finals to be skied Sunday. If that doesn't happen, organizers will try to get the first run in on Sunday and ski the finals on Monday.

Mother Nature has not been kind to skiers of any sort flocking to Alaska from the Lower 48 to ski this season.

Prior to the national alpine championships bogging down in an over abundance of snow at Alyeska in Girdwood, the national cross-country skiing championships got frozen out by extreme cold at Kincaid Park here in Anchorage.

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