Standing looking onto the icy face of Maurienne in France after a 5am start from Sestriere, there was a tough decision to be made. Armed with binoculars, the riders were dissecting the couloirs and snow conditions, to determine their levels of enthusiasm to compete on the face. "Snow should be white," according to American skier, Drew Tabke. "That is blue and brown - blue from the ice patches and brown from the dirt blown onto it from the cliffs," he said. "That face is the kind of thing that you could fall on and tumble for a while.". Fellow American, Cody Townsend was also pondering the potential of the face: "It looks hard," he said. "Landing airs on hard snow on a steep face with rocks around, is potentially not good." If there was some wavering, it wasn't helped when the guides skied down to test the quality of the snow. Relaying their descent through walkie talkies, the riders standing opposite watching their lines were treated to the sounds of skis grinding against the hard snow. Whilst the previous decision making process was in the format of a well established democracy, this one was the call of The Swatch O'Neill Big Mountain Pro event organizer, Nicolas Hale-Woods. Consulting all the riders and guides, he took the agonizing decision to call off the event for the day. "The decision is not to hold the contest," he told the riders. "The snow is too hard and at the top half of the face there are safety issues." There was little in the way of sulking over the lack of competition. Within minutes the guys were hiking towards a friendlier looking face for a morning of fun. O'Neill rider Mitch Toelderer was with Jeremy Jones and Xavier de le Rue as they hiked two hours to a more appealing northeast facing face for a bit of fun. "When I saw the competition face I knew it wasn't going to happen," Mitch said. "I wasn't disappointed though. You just take it. I just said lets go ride something else. We got some pretty nice snow in the end." With a rest day ahead and an afternoon of activities, it looks like tonight will also be a pretty nice night.
