December 15, 2011 (Rogla, Slovenia) – Exceptionally warm weather has been causing problems for organizers of the last World Cup before Christmas in Rogla, Slovenia. Rain, temperatures above zero and warm wind has caused many sleepless nights for organizers of the FIS Cross-Country World Cup in Rogla, Slovenia. A bountiful 40cm of natural snow, which arrived in November, has melted away and humidity and warm temperatures have prevented the organizers from using their snow making system. Canada’s Ivan Babikov recently shared a photo on Twitter (below) that shows the extent of the problem.

“We have to transport snow from our depots. Farmers from the area have been helping us to get the snow on the tracks,” chief of competition Uros Ponikvar explained to fiscrosscountry.com. “We’ve put on the track approximately 6,000m3 of snow and more is being transported as we speak. We have been working extremely hard since Monday,” Ponikvar adds.

Organizers have 5,0000m3 of man-made snow in depots. “Snow transportation makes the whole thing very challenging. Due to warm weather the ground is wet and soft in some parts of the track and we must be very careful. Luckily we can access most of the parts of the competition track on a paved roller skiing track,” Ponikvar added. “We want to be finished with the course preparation by Friday.”

See more FIS Cross Country photos from Rogla on Facebook HERE.