Skiers keeping eyes on the skies

WHISTLER (Reuters) - Cross country skiers Marit Bjoergen of Norway and Czech Lukas Bauer have bemoaned the soft snow at Whistler Olympic Park although most of their Olympic rivals applauded the conditions.

Unusually warm weather has left some Games venues bereft of snow but the picturesque Callaghan Valley, at an altitude of some 930 meters, would have no problems staging the cross country events, organizers said on Monday.

"The snow here is not so good," women's medal favorite Bjoergen told Reuters after completing her first training runs in sporadic sunshine on the two 5km circuits at Whistler Olympic Park.

"It has been raining recently and we knew that it (skiing conditions) were like this. The track is not so fast and hopefully we will get snow and not rain later this week."

The long-range forecast for the cross country venue indicates up to two centimeters of snow on Thursday with a similar amount on Friday, although rain is also in the mix.

Bauer, widely viewed as the greatest threat to Norway's Petter Northug in the men's events, agreed with Bjoergen.

"At the moment, the snow here is soft," the 32-year-old, the silver medalist in the 15km classical event at the 2006 Turin Games, told Reuters. "I prefer harder tracks but whatever we get it will be the same for everybody."

Germany's Tobias Angerer, who won bronze in the 4x10km at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games and also in the 15km in Turin, disagreed.

"Conditions were really good," he told Reuters after his first training session. "Wet conditions but good gliding and not so slow.

"I think there is a lot of artificial snow plus the natural snow. It's perfect. It's really good for cross country skiing."

The cross country events start on Monday with the women's 10km freestyle and organizers were confident skiing conditions would remain good whatever weather unfolded later this week.

"We have over half a meter of snow base around the entire course and through the stadium so we are not concerned about not having snow," Len Apedaile, cross country sports manager for the Vancouver Organising Committee (VANOC), told Reuters.

(Editing by Miles Evans)