It may have been a travel day, searching for what is becoming ever more illusive snow, but there was no shortage of action on this fourth day of The Swatch O'Neill Big Mountain Pro. With the announcement that event would be heading to Sestriere in Italy, the local bar in St. Bernhard quick filled up with riders and the rest of the crew, keen to make the most of a bit of a lie in. It was unsurprising then that the 10am departure of the bus saw a few dark circles under the eyes, and a several heavy heads. Two buses travelling from Switzerland to Italy should have been without too much action - not on The Big Mountain Pro of course. Just a few hundred meters down the road was where it all started when French rider Thomas Diet was stopped at the border for not having his passport with him. As everyone on the buses waved him goodbye (with Thomas soon to be reunited with the crew in Sestriere), they headed into the Italian Alps with a promise of snow ahead. The snow had been forecasted, but as the day drew on, the sun pushed its way through the fog to reveal grassy fields and snowless fields. But the guides on The Big Mountain Pro had spent the day working hard to ensure that there will be a face with enough lines and decent snow on which to hold a competition on day five. Lamiche Anthony, is one of the guides who spent the day scoping the local area. He said: "We started by getting a helicopter and looking around the area of Sestriere. We checked a 1000m face, skiing down it. Although it was perfect for us, the snow was not good enough for a competition." "After that the bad weather came in, but we had something to check in Maurienne, in France. It was a dangerous flight there, trying to find a hole through the clouds with the heli, but we got up and managed to see a bit of the face. We have been looking at the pictures since then and have decided to go there tomorrow morning. The snow is best there. It is a little more compact than everywhere else we looked. We will do an early morning run down the face and hope that the snow is good enough. If not, we will not hold the competition. It will also be up to the riders. But hopefully the enthusiasm is high tomorrow."
